Choosing a Meditation That Works for You

Over the past few months, I’ve been hearing more and more accounts of people using meditation to successfully manage their worries or distress. There’s also plenty of research support for the effectiveness of meditation in relieving a wide range of other symptoms. Given both the research and the anecdotal evidence, I’ve been wondering why still more people aren’t meditating routinely.

In a recent blog, I considered the common misunderstandings about meditation that might be holding some of us back from practicing it. To sum up, meditation doesn’t need to be formal or perfect, and many options take 10 minutes or less of your time. Most forms of meditation are not tied to any religion. They focus on mindfulness as a method, but the results go beyond mindfulness of the present moment toward a deeper sense of calm.

Many readers may already be aware that various forms of meditation exist and are designed to help with different types of distress. So, how do you choose the meditation that has the best chance of working for you?

Meditation for Sleep

Sleep disturbances can include trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, or waking up hours earlier than intended. Meditation has been shown to make it easier to fall asleep and to improve the quality of sleep, including more restorative sleep. (Cleveland Clinic, 2023; NIH, 2019)

These are usually guided meditations that are narrated by psychotherapists or life coaches. They help you quiet distracting thoughts and ease into a relaxation response.

Meditation for Relief of Stress or Anxiety

Meditation has been demonstrated to be as effective as antidepressant medications for the relief of anxiety. (Hoge, et al., 2022) This is significant because certain medications that are technically antidepressants are commonly prescribed to treat anxiety.

Two common subjects or themes of guided meditations for anxiety relief are “nature” and “body scans.” Both begin with some focus on breath and then guide the listener to attend to specific sensations, either related to scenes in nature or parts of the body.

Nature-themed guided meditations direct the attention to visualize a pleasing natural location such as a forest, lake, or beach. They suggest that the listener imagine sensations such as birds singing, a gentle wind blowing, the sound of waves crashing, or the scent of salt water.

Body scan guided meditations direct the listener’s attention to various parts of the body that might be feeling tense, with the goal of allowing those areas to relax. For example, focusing on the shoulders while also taking deep breaths can facilitate relaxation of the shoulders.

The briefest guided meditations simply direct the listener to focus on taking a few deep breaths. These usually encourage and explain diaphragmatic breathing, also called belly breathing. With some practice, this form of meditation may take only a few minutes to achieve relaxation.

Meditation for Compassion Toward Yourself and Others

This form of meditation can be very helpful for anyone caught up in self-critical thoughts, feelings of irrational guilt, or concerns for loved ones (NIH, 2020; Shapero, 20128; Neff, 2011). Some of these meditations are focused on self-compassion, encouraging self-forgiveness and self-care. Meditation can allow time for self-compassionate thoughts, such as thoughts of being healed, content, and/or healthy.

Guided meditations might also focus on compassion toward others, usually loved ones for whom the listener is concerned. These can be extremely comforting to those who are distressed by the circumstances of someone they care for, but who accept the limits of what they can do for the other person directly. For example, a caregiver of an ill family member, a parent of an adult child with an eating disorder, or the adult child of a parent with dementia all have limits to how much direct support they can provide.

Gratitude Meditation for Resilience After Loss

Grateful thoughts have the amazing potential to lessen the pain of loss and to increase our resilience. Gratitude interventions, such as meditation practice, have been shown to be effective for the relief of depressive symptoms. (NIH, 2023) There is always something to be grateful for, however small and simple it might be.

Meditation Essential Reads

Can Meditation Make Microbes Mellow?

The Ever-Elusive Present: Attending to It via Breathwork

Guided meditations with a focus on grateful thoughts encourage the listener to direct their attention to someone or something for which they can feel grateful in the present moment. It could be as simple as being grateful for being alive, for having that morning coffee, or for having time to be with your pets.

Meditation for Spirituality

Spiritual meditation is usually not limited to a specific religion or set of beliefs, but more to the general awareness of the spirit or essence within each of us. These work best for listeners craving a meditative experience that is focused upon awareness of the spiritual self, apart from our thoughts or emotions.

One type of guided meditation for spiritual awareness is that offered by Eckhart Tolle, author of The Power of Now and a contemporary spiritual teacher who is not aligned with any particular religion or tradition. Tolle’s words encourage a deeper level of awareness of the state of “beingness behind thoughts.” He guides the listener to let go of life’s fleeting thoughts and concerns and to appreciate their own existence and their spiritual “oneness with others.”

To sum up

Both research data and anecdotal evidence indicate that meditation can be very effective in relieving anxiety, lessening symptoms of depression, aiding sleep, increasing self- or other-directed compassion, or creating peace of mind through spiritual awareness. There are many different forms of meditation available online without any subscription required. Given that some of these options take as little as four minutes of time, I suggest that there’s nothing to lose and so much to gain by beginning the practice of meditating.

Note: At times, symptoms of anxiety, sadness, or sleep disruption are severe and don't respond to meditation alone. In those circumstances, meditation can be a useful tool to aide therapy but shouldn't replace therapy.