Meditation Project: Three Types of Meditation
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| The Human Condition by Rene Magritte |
This week I made some progress in understanding the different types of meditation. One thing that really helped was that Jivana Heyman sent me an article from Forbes Magazine Different Types Of Meditation Change Different Areas Of The Brain, Study Finds that discussed a study that taught the participants and had them practice three types of meditation for three months each. The brains of the participants, who ranged in age from 20 to 55 years, were examined after each three-month practice period to see if there were differences in their brains after regular meditation of each type.
The study Structural plasticity of the social brain: Differential change after socio-affective and cognitive mental training identified these three types of meditation:
Presence: This is the focused awareness type of meditation. As in traditional yogic mediation the study participants learned to focus their attention and when their attention wandered, brought it back to the object of meditation. They focused their breath and their internal body sensations.
Affect: This is the type of meditation that you practice to enhance empathy and compassion for others. The study participants practiced the metta (loving-kindness) meditation. They also worked with partners to improve empathy and compassion. They did not include a gratitude practice in this category, but this seems like the one where it would fit.
Perspective: This is the practice of mindfulness or "open-monitoring meditation." The study participants practiced non-judgmentally observing their own thoughts and improving their understanding of the perspectives of others.
I like this scheme of three types better than the one with two that I discussed in my post Meditation Project: Types Matter. That's because I was wondering where a gratitude-type practice fit in to that first scheme, which only included focused awareness and open monitoring (and I definitely noticed in practicing this week that for me there was an experiential difference between practicing focused meditation and a gratitude meditation).
And it was fascinating—though perhaps not surprising—to learn that the study found different changes in brain morphology resulting from the three different types of meditation. This means that the different types of meditation fostered different cognitive and social skills.
- Presence caused thickening in the anterior prefrontal cortex and the anterior cingulate cortex. These areas of the brain are associated with attention.
- Affect caused thickening in regions that are associated with "socially driven emotions," such as empathy.
- Perspective caused changes in areas associated with understanding the mental states of others.
So it may be the type of meditation you choose to practice shouldn't just be one that's easiest for you or the one your local teacher just happens to teach; it may be that you want to consider what results you want from your practice as well. That's why I've decided to look into this topic for my own practice.
The question I still have is whether traditional yoga included all three types of meditation or is the first type, focused awareness, the only traditional yogic form of meditation. After all, the Yoga Sutras not only recommends focused meditation by describing in detail how to practice it, but it literally defines as "yoga" as the state when all thoughts cease:
Sutra 1.2 Yoga is the stilling of the changing states of mind. —translation by Edwin Bryant
Now here's my meditation diary for the week. I still was able to meditate six days this week.
Monday, January 28, 2019
Today I did a simple gratitude practice, affirming that I was grateful for my life. Gratitude felt right for me today, as there was a lot going on in my life and in the house that day. And I felt comfortable without any claustrophobia, though afterward I still felt somewhat excitable.
Tuesday, January 29, 2019
Today I chose a quieting practice, which means focusing on my breath and instructing myself to "just surrender." When I noticed myself feeling a bit claustrophobic, I told myself you don't need to go there because this is meditation, not the middle of the night. And the time passed more amiably. Here's the thing: I realized that giving myself specific instructions (repeatedly) seems to be surprisingly effective. The words you say to yourself really make a difference.
Wednesday, January 30, 2019
I worked with a mantra I came up with of "Just Surrender, It's Okay." This made the experience easier for me. I'm really starting to wonder about this whole mantra concept, as it seems to me the mantra you choose makes a big difference (unless maybe you chose a sound that has no specific meaning to you?).
I lost track of the intervals, so afterward I reset the interval bells to be different sounds than the final bell (duh).
Thursday, January 31, 2019
I felt sleepy so I went with a gratitude practice, just being grateful for a beautiful day. I noticed images of trees in bloom, such as quince, ornamental plum, and magnolia, would flit through my mind (I'd gone out walking earlier).
I'm starting to feel like I've "survived" 15 minutes of meditating enough times now that I should be getting over my weird little fears about it, but I'm still not over it completely.
Friday, February 1, 2019
I was feeling really tired and lazy so I went back to the So Ham meditation. Some days are easy and some days are hard and some days you get an intense hot flash after 5 minutes of sitting. I just had to take off my sweater! I hope this isn't a pattern.
by Nina Zolotow
Monday, January 28, 2019
Today I did a simple gratitude practice, affirming that I was grateful for my life. Gratitude felt right for me today, as there was a lot going on in my life and in the house that day. And I felt comfortable without any claustrophobia, though afterward I still felt somewhat excitable.
Tuesday, January 29, 2019
Today I chose a quieting practice, which means focusing on my breath and instructing myself to "just surrender." When I noticed myself feeling a bit claustrophobic, I told myself you don't need to go there because this is meditation, not the middle of the night. And the time passed more amiably. Here's the thing: I realized that giving myself specific instructions (repeatedly) seems to be surprisingly effective. The words you say to yourself really make a difference.
Wednesday, January 30, 2019
I worked with a mantra I came up with of "Just Surrender, It's Okay." This made the experience easier for me. I'm really starting to wonder about this whole mantra concept, as it seems to me the mantra you choose makes a big difference (unless maybe you chose a sound that has no specific meaning to you?).
I lost track of the intervals, so afterward I reset the interval bells to be different sounds than the final bell (duh).
Thursday, January 31, 2019
I felt sleepy so I went with a gratitude practice, just being grateful for a beautiful day. I noticed images of trees in bloom, such as quince, ornamental plum, and magnolia, would flit through my mind (I'd gone out walking earlier).
I'm starting to feel like I've "survived" 15 minutes of meditating enough times now that I should be getting over my weird little fears about it, but I'm still not over it completely.
Friday, February 1, 2019
I was feeling really tired and lazy so I went back to the So Ham meditation. Some days are easy and some days are hard and some days you get an intense hot flash after 5 minutes of sitting. I just had to take off my sweater! I hope this isn't a pattern.
by Nina Zolotow
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