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Studies from the Harvard Medical School suggest that with regular meditation, it has the potential to manage emotions, help create better focus and concentration, decrease stress and reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression. According to Healthline, there are a few types of meditation to practice, this article will be covering mindful meditation, focused meditation and loving-kindness meditation.
Mindful meditation originates from Buddhist teachings and is one of the most famous types of meditation where you can focus and control your thoughts when they pass through your mind. This method combines concentration with awareness, where you're able to observe and take note of what your thoughts are; be it positive or negative. By focusing on your thoughts, you're aware of your emotions in the present and can gain clarity from identifying how you feel. Besides that, this practice can help in managing your emotions and reduce symptoms of anxiety, depression and stress.
Focused meditations are pretty straightforward because it uses breathing as a way to anchor ourselves and focus our attention on how we breathe. This method involves concentrating without the use of your five senses, which can be useful to improve your concentration and focus, be it for your classes or while you study. This type of meditation is easy to practice, and you can try it at home without any guidance. When doing this, you have to focus on one thing, whether it's looking at a candle or concentrate on your own breath. According to Mindful, the first step is to get yourself relaxed and sit in a comfortable position before you start. Then, focus on your own breathing and try to maintain focus on it while inhaling and exhaling. The third step is to take a few deep breaths and exhale slowly. Focus on your breaths and repeat this for 5 minutes. After you've done these steps, you would feel both your body and mind relax and negative thoughts subside.
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Lastly, loving-kindness meditation is all about strengthening your feelings, kindness and acceptance of others. It involves opening our mind and receiving love from others and sending love back to them. This type of meditation is suitable for youths who bottle up their own feelings or have anger issues. The steps of loving-kindness meditation are similar to mindful meditation but focus more on positive affirmations. The outcome of this meditation is you being more caring towards others, especially with people who care about you.
It is never too late to start meditation in order to feel good about yourself. It may be a challenge in the beginning, but with a little practice, you'll be an expert in no time. And remember to not be afraid to step out of your comfort zone. I believe you would see the difference in your transformation.
By Chew Jin Jieh