3 Easy Meditation Techniques To Reduce Stress

Learn three easy meditation techniques to reduce stress in less than five minutes. According to the Mayo Clinic, Meditation: A simple, fast way to reduce stress; Meditation can give you a sense of calm, peace and balance that can benefit both your emotional well-being and your overall health. And these benefits don't end when your meditation session ends. Meditation can help carry you more calmly through your day and may help you manage symptoms of certain medical conditions.

What is the definition of meditation in Psychology?

According to an article published by, Live & Dare, "What is meditation?", meditation is defined as “a family of mental training practices that are designed to familiarize the practitioner with specific types of mental processes” (source).

Meditation is practiced in one of three modes:

• Concentration: focusing attention on a single object, internal or external (focused attention meditation)

• Observation: paying attention to whatever is predominant in your experience in the present moment, without allowing the attention to get stuck on any particular thing (open monitoring meditation)

• Awareness: allowing awareness to remain present, undistracted and not engaged with either focusing or observing

Other characteristics of meditation include:

• Meditation is an individual practice, even if done in groups (such as in a meditation retreat).

• Meditation is often done with eyes closed, but not always (Zazen and Trataka, for example, are open-eye styles of meditation)

• Meditation usually involves bodily stillness. But there are also ways to do walking meditation, and to integrate mindfulness in other activities.

There are nine popular types of meditation practice:

• mindfulness meditation

• spiritual meditation

• focused meditation

• movement meditation

• mantra meditation

• transcendental meditation

• progressive relaxation

• loving-kindness meditation

• visualization meditation

Not all meditation styles are right for everyone. These practices require different skills and mindsets.

We will focus on three techniques in this course.

• Mindfulness

• Alternative Breathing

• Visualization

Once you have mastered these techniques, it is time for you to practice clearing your mind and meditate.