Improve your meditation practice by understanding your learning style
When we hear the word meditation, we often picture someone sitting cross-legged in a quiet, zen-like state, but what if I told you, that moving, listening, watching and visualizing can be meditative? What if I went further and told you that you could even access states of meditation while dancing, exercising or even sky diving? It might sound out of reach, but it can be done – and the first step to active meditation is understanding your learning style.
Meditation is a continuous mental state of awareness, focus and calm. It’s a practice that can be approached in more than one way. In fact, your learning style can give you the tools to meditate better, reduce anxiety, have impeccable focus and discover a sense of peace throughout the day. How? It starts with understanding how you learn, retain and process new information – in other words, your learning style.
Explore the gift of learning on how to make the state of calm work for you.
Out of the three learning styles: kinesthetic, visual and auditory, you may have a predominant one, a combination of two or a little bit of all three.
So, which one sounds like you?
1. When I use my body, I understand: If you are like me, learning through doing is the best way to experience and understand the powerful effects of meditation. What does this look like? You learn through actively engaging in physical activities in mindful ways. Movement requires your brain to deeply focus on the task at hand, participating in an upbeat 'flowy Yoga practice will most likely help you reveal the inner peace within you and navigate breath work with much more ease.
2. When I see it I get it: If you learn best with things you see with your eyes, then you’re a visual learner. Try meditating with your eyes open by focusing on imagery or real people engaged in doing the actions you hope to achieve. Overtime, you will cultivate stillness and joy from meditating in this way.
3. When I hear it, I know it: Auditory learners have a skill for storing information that they hear. With your eyes closed, your brain will absorb and process more of your surrounding sounds. Try playing music in the background, or listening to a guided meditation when you practice and if you are ever feeling anxious in a stressful situation, tune in to the sounds and words around you. Your focus on the sonic world will support the peace you are trying to maintain.
There is not a single approach to discovering ‘the right’ meditation for you. Everyone is unique in how they mentally process and interact with the world, therefore the way we meditate is unique as well. There are multiple ways we can achieve the same goal and it starts by understanding what works and what doesn’t work for us. When I go to a Yoga class and the teacher insists on the class sitting still for any length of time, my anxiety levels increase! That’s not how my mind or body connects. I need movement. Growth is about understanding that there are multiple ways we can achieve the same goal and it starts by understanding what works and doesn’t work for you.
Growth is about understanding that there are multiple ways we can achieve the same goal.
Lastly, always remember to be kind to yourself and honor that tiny voice deep inside of you while you practice, help that voice become a little more vocal each time you find your unique channeling. When you are flexible with your approach, you’ll reap all the benefits of meditation. And if you find yourself going down the negative self-talk rabbit hole, don't be afraid to switch up your routine.
Just because one way works for thousands of other people, doesn't mean it must work for you! So I leave you with this, do something that cultivates meaningful, insightful, intentional focus and voila, you are meditating baby!
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