Meditation

Meditation is both a skill and an experience — a formal exercise to cultivate awareness and compassion. By sitting with the mind, we’re training it to be more open and at ease, and we consequently discover greater calm, clarity, contentment, and compassion. In doing so, we increasingly learn to have a direct experience of the present moment.

Some of this may seem abstract; it can also be helpful to describe what meditation is not:

• Meditation is not about “emptying the mind,” “clearing the mind,” or “stopping thoughts.” The mind’s nature is to think. We meditate to see those thoughts more clearly.
• Meditation is not about becoming a different person, a new person, or a better person.
• Meditation is not the same as concentration. It is not the active engagement of the mind on a specific topic.
• Meditation does not guarantee relaxation, serenity, or bliss. Relaxation can certainly be a side effect of it, but meditation involves a range of feelings, not simply the nicer ones.
• Meditation is not “checking out” or escaping our problems or duties.
• Meditation is not necessarily spiritual or religious. It shares a very long history with religion and offers an important spiritual component for many practitioners. But anyone can meditate, regardless of creed.

If meditation is the training ground where we familiarize ourselves with the here and now for a limited period of time, mindfulness is the quality of being present that we carry throughout the day, available to us — when we remember to be aware — as life unfolds, fully engaged with whatever we’re doing at the moment, free from distraction or judgment.

Here at Headspace, our co-founder (and former Buddhist monk) Andy Puddicombe, suggests viewing mindfulness as meditation-in-action applied to everyday life. Mindfulness is not a contrived or temporary state of mind that has to be created or maintained; it is a way of living — a way of stepping back in the moment and resting the mind in its natural state, free from the surrounding chaos or whatever circumstances might be proving stressful, upsetting, or overwhelming.

Try thinking of the difference between mindfulness and meditation this way: imagine you’re learning to drive a car. At first, you’d likely head out to a quiet country road rather than a busy motorway. Of course you can drive on either, but one is much easier than the other when you’re learning. The same is true of mindfulness. You can use it in any situation and for any purpose, but the easiest place to learn the skill of mindfulness is during meditation.

As with any new activity, beginners will often benefit from guided meditation in which a teacher — in person or via a recording — provides clear instruction and guidance. Unguided meditation can be done solo without any assistance and usually features longer stretches of silence. To revisit the driving metaphor: guided meditation is like learning to drive with an experienced instructor beside you, offering encouragement and support. Some of us will need this guidance for a long time and prefer it that way; others will decide to go it alone after just a few lessons, preferring the silence.

There are several great guided meditation options for those new to the practice, but you don’t have to be a seasoned meditator to give unguided meditation a try.

Preparation

So you’re ready to give meditation a try. The first steps include making time to practice and finding a suitable location, ideally one that feels comfortable and has minimal interruptions. You may not have access to a perfectly quiet place, and that’s OK. Take a moment to quiet your own distractions — turn off your television, silence your phone, send the cat out to the garden.

Time

The amount of time you choose to spend meditating may change based on experience and circumstances. It often takes several minutes (or more) just to settle in and sit with the mind, so beginners may want to start by planning for 10 minutes three times a week.

Instead of one longer session, you might try two shorter sessions per day, which can help boost daytime mindfulness and improve nighttime relaxation and sleep. Even a 3-minute session during lunchtime can be beneficial.

Most people find it easier to develop a habit when they make their practice part of their regular schedule, with the idea of “same time, same place” making it more straightforward. One tip is to tie your practice to a daily routine (like brushing your teeth or taking out your contacts) to help ensure you get in the habit, especially when you’re just getting started. That said, it’s important to be flexible, so it’s no problem if you prefer to meditate at different times of the day.

Whichever way you choose to set up a practice, posture is important for focus. Here’s how to get started:

• Keep your back straight, without slouching or leaning on anything. Imagine an invisible string pulling and supporting you from above.
• Rest your feet flat on the floor (if sitting in a chair), or find a comfortable way to cross your legs (if on the floor or a cushion). Your hands should be resting on your lap or on your knees, feeling relaxed and comfortable.
• Your neck and shoulders should be relaxed, with your chin slightly tucked in.
• Defocus your eyes, gazing softly into the middle distance or a spot on the floor in front of you.

How to sit

There are several ways to sit; we encourage you to experiment with a few positions and figure out which you feel the most comfortable in. Different days, times of day, locations, and the duration of the meditation itself may call for a different seating position, or it might even be done lying on your back. Here are some suggestions:

Standing meditation may be an alternative for those who find sitting or kneeling painful (or for those who might doze off while sitting). Standing meditation is substantively the same as sitting — focusing on posture, breathing, and clearing the mind. As when seated, find a comfortable position for your legs and arms, and try to support your spine and avoid locking your knees.

For a walking meditation, try to find a space with minimal distractions and room to move. Slowly and steadily — almost as if walking in slow motion — take 10-15 steps in one direction, focusing on the rise and fall of each deliberate step and paying attention to how your foot rolls and lifts from heel to toe. Pause, breathe, and let the thoughts come and go as with a seated meditation, and then turn and retrace your steps.

OK, now you’re ready to start your meditation practice. If you’re doing a guided meditation from a podcast or app, this is where you’d hit "play" and follow the audio instructions. If you’re doing unguided meditation, follow the instructions below.

Much of meditation’s beauty (and success) lies in its simplicity — it doesn’t require any material items to be successful.

In fact, the Headspace app itself was designed to be used by anyone anywhere. That said, there are some people who find certain tools or accessories useful in creating an environment optimal for meditating. For example:

While there are countless techniques, each rooted in a different tradition and with a unique emphasis, the intention to remain focused — to hone a natural quality of awareness — is at the heart of most of them. Most meditation tends to rely on at least two essential components: concentration (to calm) and clarity (for insight).

Here’s a breakdown of some of the more popular techniques, allowing you to make an informed choice about what will work best for you. It’s worth emphasizing that all techniques take time. Some you’ll feel naturally inclined toward; others might feel a little more challenging.

Yoga Meditation, Shavasana, Savasana or "Corpse Pose"

Shavasana is not, strictly speaking, a meditation; it’s a form of relaxation intended to rest the body post-yoga, not calm the mind (though this might well be a byproduct). It is more about being in a state of surrender than a state of awareness. For many people, shavasana is their first introduction to simply being with the mind and body, and it’s perfectly fine to meditate in this way. The object of adopting this specific pose — often called “corpse pose” — is to relax. It is also useful for anyone feeling particularly tired and in need of rejuvenation. Lie on your back, eyes closed, with heels spread and arms flat on the floor for several minutes, and allow your whole body to feel soft and heavy, all the time inhaling and exhaling deeply.

Transcendental meditation® (aka "TM®")

The meditation techniques and exercises in the Headspace app are not the Transcendental Meditation® (TM®) program, nor is the Headspace app endorsed by Maharishi Foundation USA, Inc., which teaches the Transcendental Meditation program. If you are interested in the Transcendental Meditation® (TM®) program you can visit the Maharishi Foundation’s website. The Transcendental Meditation® program is taught one-on-one by instructors trained and licensed by Maharishi Foundation in a personalized and individual manner. The practice involves sitting comfortably with one’s eyes closed for 20 minutes twice per day and engaging in the effortless practice as instructed. Students are encouraged to practice twice a day, which often includes morning meditation, and the a second session is in the mid-afternoon or early evening.

Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR)

MBSR is a formalized program of mindfulness meditation that is designed specifically for stress reduction. It lasts eight weeks, with weekly meetings and one six-hour silent retreat. Some of the scientific studies we’ll mention below involved participants in MBSR programs, many of whom showed significant reductions in stress-related problems.

Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT)

MBCT courses can be very helpful for people to learn meditation, though they do require a little more commitment, often asking participants to meditate every day for 40 minutes or so. Designed to help people who experience depression or chronic unhappiness, MBCR combines the ideas of cognitive therapy with meditative practices and seeks to cultivate mindfulness. The idea is that participants become so familiarized with the patterns of their thinking that they are better equipped to develop a new relationship with their moods.

With technology like functional MRIs, we can actually observe meditation physically changing the brain. For example, brain scans of participants who meditated (using a variety of meditation practices and with ranges of years of experience) showed increased gray-matter density in the hippocampus (the area of the brain that is important for learning, memory, self-awareness, compassion, and introspection) and decreased density in the amygdala (which processes fear, anxiety, and stress).

Scientists also now know more about how the brain processes information after practicing meditation. Generally, the brain interprets the world through the medial prefrontal cortex, or “me center.” This part of the brain plays a big role in regulating feelings of anxiety and safety. Several changes happen in a brain that practices mindfulness meditation, one of which is decreased neural connections to the “me center.” Because your brain is less focused on yourself, negative sensations can better mitigate fears or anxieties.

Basically, mindfulness meditation can build new positive pathways and decrease negative pathways in the brain associated with different functions. This means that meditation can result in rewiring the brain — also known as neuroplasticity — for the better.

Reducing stress is a common motivation for people considering meditation. Traffic, politics, your to-do list — your blood pressure might already be rising. That’s why meditation is a perfect antidote to the stress of modern life.

Stress is more than merely unpleasant. Chronic stress can be a key factor in myriad mental and physical health issues, so it’s important to deal with it in a healthy way.

People who experience stress can discover significant benefits from meditation. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University conducted a rigorous study on the effects of meditation on mental and physical health. They reviewed nearly 19,000 meditation studies and chose the 47 highest-quality ones to analyze. Those studies found evidence that general mindfulness meditation programs have helped ease psychological symptoms of depression, anxiety, and pain related to stress.

Another study found significant hormonal and immunological evidence that mindfulness-based stress reduction techniques (MBSR) can enhance resilience to stress in individuals with generalized anxiety disorder. And still another showed that people who meditate have lower levels of cortisol, a hormone produced by the adrenal gland that is associated with physical and emotional stress.

According to the World Health Organization, more than 300 million people worldwide experience depression, which often manifests as other ailments, including trouble with sleep or focus. The symptoms of depression are complex and unique to the individual, and third-party studies of people diagnosed with depression have shown significant improvements after they used mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) programs (although meditation is not a substitute for medical care).

One analysis of multiple studies looked at the effectiveness of general internet-based mindfulness programs and found they significantly lowered stress, anxiety, and depression. (Guided mindfulness recordings showed more benefits than unguided.)

Since anger and frustration can cause physiological responses) to stress, a meditation practice can help calm feelings of aggression, irritability, and temper. Meditation helps you be more aware of your thoughts and feelings, allowing you to intervene when negative experiences do arise, dial down the intensity of your emotions, and act with more intention. Emotions like anger can increase blood pressure, breathing, and heart rates. But when your mind experiences calm as a result of meditation, your body is more inclined to follow.

The changes to the brain’s “me center” that can occur through meditation can also increase empathy. A regular meditation practice can help) us use the part of the brain that allows us to see things from another person’s perspective and lowers distrust of people we may perceive as dissimilar from us.

One study conducted using the Headspace app even showed that people undergoing a meditation training course were quicker to show compassion to a person in pain.

If you struggle with distraction or motivation, meditation might help keep you on track. It has shown a lot of promise in improving mental skills like concentration and memory. For example, meditation is linked to a decrease in the mind wandering, leading to better focus.

A study involving soldiers showed improved “working memory,” which you use to store and recall information in the short term — like when you’re focused on a complex task at work. Another study conducted at a meditation retreat revealed significant increases in attention and competency on a mundane computer task.

Exercise is a form of stress on the body and mind. We’ve all fought to overcome flagging willpower during a workout — that’s our brains telling us to stop stressing our bodies. Surprise! Meditation can help with that, too. For example, football players who frequently practiced meditation during preseason training showed considerably higher mental resilience, better attention, and improved mood over other players.

Meditation has been shown to provide Marines preparing for deployment with a kind of “mental armor.” Despite intense stresses, meditation exercises improved their mood, their ability to control emotion, and their focus on complex tasks.

General mindfulness research has shown that mindfulness can reduce stress and increase attention and focus, and these are some of the psychological skills required to achieve enhanced athletic performance. Additionally, research on mindfulness and optimal performance, “flow state” for athletes, shows a powerful alignment. Mindfulness practice, through awareness and acceptance, has been found to be significantly correlated with increased flow in athletes.

A study involving sport shooters showed mindfulness-based interventions decreased pre-competition stress measured by reduced cortisol, and another study involving young golfers showed that mindfulness and acceptance was associated with performance improvement in competition.

The benefits of meditation for sport are no secret to some of the best athletes in the world: Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, Carli Lloyd, Trey Burke, Sam Darnold, LeBron James, Derrick Morgan, and many others reportedly have used meditation to boost focus and performance.

Because meditation teaches present-focused awareness, which boosts patience, and stimulates the part of the brain associated with empathy, meditators have reported improvements in their relationships that have helped them become more caring friends and partners.

One study showed that mindfulness meditation can even help women get more satisfaction out of sex. Because it’s so easy (and common) during sex to get distracted or lost in your own head, practicing the skill of living in the current moment and listening to your body’s responses (or interoceptive awareness) might help boost sexual satisfaction.

Meditation is a wonderful skill to learn, with a life-changing potential. How you choose to use that skill is entirely up to you. But, with hundreds of themed meditations on everything from stress to compassion, from self-esteem to relationships, from sleep to productivity, Headspace is a comprehensive, personal meditation guide that takes you through all the necessary meditation steps, right on your phone. Because the exercises are underpinned by authentic teachings rooted in the Tibetan approach — brought direct to the app from the monasteries by co-founder Andy Puddicombe — it’s like having 24/7 access to a meditation expert ... in your pocket.

If you’re looking for a meditation beginner's guide, Headspace offers its most straightforward exercises initially for free. You can learn to meditate with our aptly named Basics pack, a 10-day beginner's course involving easy-to-follow meditation techniques that take you through the essentials of meditation and mindfulness. It provides a solid and thorough foundation to build your practice.