Meditation Position and Styles

Just as fitness is an approach to training the body, meditation is an approach to training the mind. And as with fitness, there are many meditation techniques to choose from to have health for me, besides yoga, taichi.
From what you focus on to how you sit, learn which meditation styles and positions are best for you.
Concentration meditation involves focusing on a single point — e.g., watching your breath, repeating a single word or mantra, staring at a candle flame, listening to a repetitive gong or counting beads on a rosary. In this form of meditation, you simply refocus your awareness on the chosen object of attention each time you notice your mind wandering. You just step away from the random thoughts, and proceed directly to serenity. Through this process, your ability to concentrate improves.

Mindfulness meditation asks you to observe wandering thoughts as they drift through your mind. The intention is not to get involved with the thoughts or to judge them, but simply to be aware of each mental note as it rears its head.

Meditation in the park to have heathy lifestyle

Daily meditation practice among Buddhist monks focuses on cultivating compassion by envisioning negative events and putting a positive spin on them via a compassionate perspective.

There are also moving meditations techniques, such as tai chi, qigong, yoga and walking meditation to have heathy lifestyle

How should you sit when you meditate?

If you've tried to get into lotus pose (or any semblance of a cross-legged seated position) and found that your legs just don’t bend that way, you’re not alone, says yoga and meditation expert Rodney Yee. So we asked Yee to dive into the hows and whys of other positions that can be more comfortable or practical for meditation.

"Full lotus pose is considered by many to be the uber-pose for meditation, but it’s not accessible to everyone," says Yee. "It requires open hips and a lot of practice. But complete ease in your position is very important to achieve when just starting out with meditation, because it will encourage you to meditate more frequently.

"Hero pose and crossed-legs pose both facilitate the movement of energy in the body," he adds. "You get a lot of grounding just by doing them — there’s already a connection to the earth that you don’t get in a chair. You can also prop up these poses to many, many levels using tools like a yoga block, blanket, or meditation cushion."

See our detailed photo how-to on meditation positions including variations on hero pose and crossed-legs pose; meditating in a chair; or using a wall, yoga blocks or blankets to position you for meditating more comfortably for longer periods of time.