The Most Simple Ways To Meditate 2024

What are the most simple ways to meditate? Now more than ever we have easy access to so many ways to meditate. Instant access to lots of different styles of meditation and meditation schools of thought. 

But still, I meet so many students who are confused about what meditation is. Some think meditation is about guided meditations or associate meditation just with Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction teachings. Others wrongly think meditation is about stopping your thoughts or controlling your breath.

Meditation is…

Meditation is the art of present awareness, the art of being so fully in the moment, that you naturally move beyond your thoughts. Meditation is about being not doing. Meditation is about letting go and loosening our attachment to our thoughts and too many things we try to hold on to. Meditation is the door to the self and the stillness within you.

So Many Different Types Of Meditation

Even though many different types of meditation can help you be more in the moment.  As a meditation teacher for many years, I can tell you the most simple forms of meditation are usually the most effective way. It is not the actual technique that makes it difficult but how you approach it.

Yes, the right meditation skills can make it a lot easier to reach present state awareness. The right meditation practice will help access that peace, that stillness whenever you want. But the confusion around meditation is actually how we perceive it.

As someone who has meditated for over 30 years and has studied quite a few types of meditation. I have witnessed a huge shift in awareness around meditation over the last 15 years or so. But with that are a lot of distorted perceptions, misunderstandings, and misinformation.

It is extremely positive and refreshing that so many people are seeking such a powerful life skill and way of being. But for the beginner who wants to learn meditation, it can also be very confusing. Meditation and mindfulness are very much buzzwords in the online world and with that come a lot of myths and distortions about what the art of meditation really means.

How To Choose The Right Meditation Class For You

Meditation - Simple Ways To Meditate Daily

With so many different styles of meditation classes and teachers to choose from it can be difficult to choose the right teacher.

The reality is some types of meditation take more practice than others feel any benefits and to master. While some modern meditations are generally quicker, and easier to fit in and learn.

Many traditional forms of meditation can help us to make meditation a way of being.

The reality is every student’s original reason for learning to meditate may be different. Many students like the idea of meditating like a little Buddha.

The Reality Of Meditating Like A Little Buddha

But in reality, many meditation students find the sort of discipline that takes to meditate 20 minutes twice a day too challenging. Something I started to notice very quickly when I first began to teach meditation many years ago.

So after being asked to teach meditation to some challenging teenagers with serious behavioural issues. I knew I needed to find some easier or alternative ways to meditate, a style of meditation technique more appropriate for teachers and those with very busy lifestyles.

A meditation tool perfect for beginners and those with a very low attention span. It was then I came across a Qi Gong-style meditation that adapted into a less than 5-minute meditation. Not realizing at the time, this would become my most popular meditation technique, anxiety, and stress-busting technique I taught for over 20 years.

Mindfulness-based stress reduction courses are an example of a style of meditation and stress management approach that has become increasingly popular in the Western world over the last 10 or more years. MBSR was created by Jon Kabat-Zinn who took some of the original Buddhist Mindfulness teachings and adapted them into a more modern stress reduction program.

As a meditation teacher, I have studied and taught a variety of styles of meditation traditional and modern. Here are seven of those meditation styles and techniques.

7 Ways To Meditate In 2024

Here is a sample of some of the simplest meditation techniques I have used and trained in.

Traditional Breath Meditation– is one of the oldest versions of meditation, which involves being an observer of your breath. It involves making sure you let go of any need to try and control or change your breath. Get FREE access to my Traditional Breath Meditation today. Although simple, very stressed-out beginners can get very easily distracted and find no 2 more effective at the start.

5 Minute Meditation My most popular meditation technique by clients and students over 18 years. This very simple and easy meditation takes just over 4 minutes, I adapted it from a style of Qi Gong. I originally used this meditation tool when working with easily distracted teenagers. But it soon became popular with busy professionals, exhausted carers, and even young kids.

Free 5 Minute Meditation Technique

QE is a technique that induces deep stillness instantly. A very useful tool to aid the client or student who struggles with taking time out, switching off, or relaxing. And for chronic pain sufferers.

Mantra Meditation is often used in yoga, specific mantras like OM all have different meanings and different healing benefits. Modern styles of meditation use useful mantras that are also affirmations that can be stress-reducing anchors such as relaxation, and peace. I teach some of these mantras in my Meditation, Mindfulness, and Affirmation Program

Mindfulness – helps you be more present, more in the moment, be more consciously aware of your thoughts, actions, and behaviors.

Transcendental Meditation- is a simple mantra-based technique practiced 20 minutes twice a day while sitting comfortably found by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

Guided Meditation– technically in many ways not the same sort of meditation technique as above as guided visualizations are in many ways guided journeys. Guided visualizations are extremely therapeutic at moving the mind away from negative thoughts to more pleasant healing thoughts, relaxation or sleep. But technically they do not loosen or attach to our thoughts.

There Are Easy Ways To Meditate

The above meditation techniques are just a few of the most simple ways to meditate effectively.

But for many beginners, who are so used to being busy or distracted, the traditional 20 meditation can be too much too soon.

That is why I always suggest to students they build up their practice to 20 minutes slowly.

But even better is introducing students to my less than 5 Minute Meditation. A very simple and easy meditation that can be used at work, on public transport, in waiting rooms…It is so simple kids can use it.

Check out my simple and easy 5-minute free meditation technique for 2024, a great mental hack tool for anxiety and stress.

Free 5 Minute Meditation Technique

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[This blog was originally written in May 2017 and has been updated on 13 March 2024]

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