by Meditation seems to be getting more popular every year, popping up in the mainstream in a variety of ways, from Netflix shows to apps – you can now learn to meditate in a variety of different ways.
But…that is the thing…there are not just different tools to teach you how to meditate but also different methods of meditation itself. Not all meditation is the same and not all meditation is created equally (but all are beneficial).
What the different types of meditative practices do, however, is work with the mind. Meditation can strengthen different areas of the mind and do so in a variety of ways. And you know I find this interesting because all this meditation work also helps to increase your intuition and let you connect and understand your natural psychic abilities. Cool right!
***If you want to learn more techniques and exercises to develop and strengthen your psychic abilities, check out my book Psychic Development: A Practical Guide to Developing Your Psychic Abilities***
So, let’s take a little time and discuss the different types of meditation practices out there with the view that each is different and one may be easier or more effective for what you want to achieve than another.
I am going to discuss these without the formal and traditional names, instead, we are just going to use simple terms to get you used to the idea of these different types of meditation practices. If you find yourself interested or wanting to know more about one of these techniques and where it originated, research it and explore. But, for now, let’s just make this easy to understand and let you in on a few ways that these can help different areas and nuances of your mind.
Counting Breaths
This is one of the first meditation practices many people encounter and a highly popular one. This is the act of paying close attention to your breaths and counting them up to a certain number, usually ten, then starting again.
This method seems simple but it will surprise you how often your mind wonders during this process. If you loose focus on the count you start back at one and try again. Doing this exercise for the first time will reveal to you just how much your mind does like to go its own way and how difficult it is to keep focused on your breath and the counting to ten.
This type of meditative practice helps to train your mind to focus and notice details. This is important in psychic work because often times insights are subtle and very brief. Learning to focus in on one seemingly fleeting item, like your breath, will help you to focus your attention on the fleeting nature of psychic insight as well.
You will also find that breath work in general can be used for a variety of different psychic techniques from grounding your energy to raising your vibration to healing work. Learning to pay attention to that breath can help later on when you want to use your breath to do a specific task.
Watching Thoughts
Usually after you master the counting of your breaths, you can release the count and just focus on watching your thoughts as an independent observer. In this method of meditation, you let your thoughts come into your mind as they will but you don’t hold them or focus on them, instead you let them drift by.
This type of meditation helps to work on not getting bogged down on any one thing, learning to just observe without getting involved. It also helps to be aware of what type of thoughts you do have in your mind and this is where the psychic work comes in.
Everyone is naturally psychic, they just do not realize it. Usually this lack of realization is due to the fact that you are not aware of your thoughts that you have. Psychic insights are typically subtle and to recognize them you first need to pay attention to your thoughts and know that you are having them. You may receive insight in the form of a visual image of a different route to work, but ignore that image by not paying attention to it and then get stuck in a traffic jam during your morning drive.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is one of those fancy code words for meditation that people like to throw around a lot now. People define it different ways and it sometimes includes all these different forms of meditation that we are discussing here, but, for our purposes, we are going to use the term to describe the act of just paying attention to all your senses.
The idea of mindfulness is to be aware of every little aspect of what you are experiencing with your physical body. This means the feel of the keys on this computer as I type this sentence, the sensation of the air around me and the bitter taste of the coffee in my mouth. Mindfulness is like being fully aware of all your senses.
One of my favorite mindfulness activities that used to be popular is to take an Oreo cookie and eat it very slowly being aware of every sensation – the texture of the cookie, how it feels on your tongue, the different tastes, how it feels swallowing the bites. This activity helps you to be aware of different sensations you take for granted…and for me, it made me hate Oreo cookies…
In terms of psychic work, being mindful is super helpful in learning when you are receiving information. Sometimes spirit guides come forward as bodily sensations of heat or a tingling feeling, but if you aren’t paying attention to your physical body you can miss these sensations. Practicing mindfulness helps to train your brain to pay attention to those little often subtle sensations all around you which could have some importance in your psychic work.
Visualization
Many traditional meditation practices have an aspect of guided imagery to them. This is the type of meditation you listen to where someone walks you through a scene, usually to help relax and calm your physical body.
Visualization meditation practices do not have to be done just with someone guiding you, although that is helpful, as you can direct your own visualization as well if you decide what you want to experience beforehand. Try recreating your favorite walking trail and taking a stroll down that during your meditative practice. Use all your senses to feel the sensation of your feet on the ground, the breeze on your face, the smells in the air.
Of all the types of meditation we are discussing today, if I had to pick one that was my favorite for increasing psychic abilities, it would be visualization. The more you work on creating images in your mind, and focusing on the details of those images, the stronger your clairvoyant ability becomes. This way, when you receive a clairvoyant image, let’s say of a clock timer, instead of just noticing that it is a timer, you can focus in on the image and see what time it is set for giving you more information.
I also find that this type of meditative practice is sometimes easier for the busy mind as it give a specific task or something for the mind to do. It has an objective – create a scene – and this helps with a myriad of different activities from focusing to being mindful and paying attention to the minutia of the scene to the strength of controlling thoughts in the mind.
Mantra Work
Another common meditative practice is to repeat a mantra or a saying over and over again, letting the mind become absorbed in the feeling and vibration of the words. I actually think this type of meditative practice is why some of the most prominent mediums today were raised in the Catholic Church – praying those rosary beads is a great meditative practice.
This type of meditative practice also helps to establish a vibratory frequency which can be beneficial to your work. Picking a specific tone or phrase with a high level of vibration can help raise your own frequency the more you practice it. This can also help “pull” you out of a low vibrational state and refocus your energy in a positive direction.
I like to practice mantra work when in “stressful” situations where I need to focus on what is going on around me. I find that picking a phrase and repeating it in your mind can help ground you back to yourself so that you can pay attention to what is in front of you. I have had several different mantras that I have used for different practices throughout the years (this used to be a technique I relied heavily on during college and law school exams) but recently I have stuck with the simple phrase “loving kindness” to ground and focus my energies.
Walking Meditation
An often over looked form of meditation, but one that can be helpful for those who are very physical or who have a lot of red in their auras, is meditation while the body is in motion. I am labeling these walking meditations but they can also be running or swimming or whatever activity you do to get your body moving.
Some individuals have a difficult time calming down their physical body or are more in tune with the ways of the body which makes it difficult to just sit for 30 minutes on a cushion and focus on their breath. There is nothing “wrong” or “bad” about taking that process and doing it while the body is in motion. You may find this helps you to “get out of your head” easier if your body is otherwise engaged.
I’ve actually had a fair number of guides come forward and suggest that individuals go out into nature or move their body as a method to better connect with them. Just the process of being in a natural environment or changing up your typical routine will sometimes allow the mind to go into a meditative state easier.
If you find sitting still too difficult or uncomfortable, try walking around while focusing on your breath or doing mantra work and see if that produces better results.
What is your favorite type of meditative practice? Do you find one more helpful than another or do you practice all the above?
Mary Shannon 
🖤
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