Guide to Meditation: 9 Products You Need to Practice in Comfort

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While nothing is required to meditate, it can be beneficial to have tools and guidance at your disposal to guide you through meditation. There are plenty of guided meditation apps that can steer you in the right direction, including Calm, Headspace, Liberate, and Waking Up, to name just a few. Bonus: All of these offer free trials and access to complimentary meditations so you can try them before you buy.

Other people prefer pillows and aromatherapy to help them get in a meditative mood. Whatever your practice, here are a few things to do about starting a meditation routine.

What Is Meditation?

The earliest documentation of meditation stems as far back as 5,000 BC India, where it was born as a spiritual technique and religious teaching in Hinduism. The tradition was passed on primarily through word of mouth, and forms of the practice were eventually developed in Taoism and Buddhism in approximately the 6th to 5th centuries BCE, to name a few.

The technique comes in many forms depending on your lifestyle and needs. The most common types of meditation include:

Focused meditation: If you’re looking to cultivate more focus in your daily life, this approach can help guide your attention and keep your mind from wandering. It involves using your senses to concentrate — think focusing on a specific sound or counting prayer beads.

Mantra meditation: This type of meditation centers on repeating a sound, phrase, or word (such as “om”) to help clear the mind. By chanting quietly or loudly over and over, you’ll be more in tune with your surroundings and thus experience awareness on a deeper level. One of the most popular forms of this approach is Transcendental Meditation (TM)

Mindfulness meditation: The easiest way to practice solo, this approach focuses on paying attention to your passing thoughts without engaging with or judging them. The goal is to observe your thought patterns, feelings, and physical sensations, so you can expect to build your awareness and concentration as you progress.

Movement meditation: Yoga isn’t the only way to move while meditating. Other motion-guided meditation activities can include dancing, walking, qigong, and tai chi.

Spiritual meditation: Much like the act of praying, this type of mediation involves seeking a deeper connection to the universe or the higher beings that one worships by reflecting in silence. Many people prefer to enhance their experience with essential oils.

What Are the Benefits of Meditation?

Relaxation and learning to live in the present aren’t the only upsides to meditating. Devoted practitioners can expect a range of mental, emotional, and physical benefits on their path to zen. Here are just a handful of ways that regular meditation can help your life:

Reduce stress and anxiety: Studies show that mindfulness meditation can help decrease the stress hormone cortisol, and thus reduce symptoms of stress-related issues such as fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, and post-traumatic stress disorder, according to studies. As a result, this can also lead to less anxiety.

Reduce blood pressure: Lower cortisol levels can also lead lower blood pressure. As Harvard points out, the relaxation brought on by meditation can reduce inflammation and blood vessel constriction.

Improve sleep: Another related benefit to all of the above? Better sleep: Since high stress disrupts sleep, meditation can help you get more restful shut-eye by training you to have more control of your pre-snoozing thoughts.

Alleviate symptoms of depression: Cytokines, which are inflammatory chemicals that our bodies release as a response to stress, can also lead to depression. Several studies have found that long-term effects of meditation can decrease the release of cytokines and therefore reduce depression symptoms.

Increase self-awareness: Meditation helps you focus on your thoughts, which in turn can give you a better understanding of yourself. Research shows that the practice can help people develop more constructive thought patterns.

Boost creativity: One study also found that meditation can help inspire more divergent thinking, which leads to more creativity and creative problem-solving.

While it’s worth pointing out that even the best meditation products aren’t guaranteed to give you total calm and inner peace, having good gear can help you get into the right mindset. On that note, we’ve rounded up some helpful items to set the scene — from high-tech headsets to comfy cushions and more, check out our top picks below.