What science says about meditation styles

Mindfulness meditation, zen, transcendental, loving-kindness, vipassana… what they have in common and how they differ

I meditate, you meditate, he/she meditates…

First, I started with Mindfulness Meditation. Then, Transcendental Meditation (without even realising it). Next, Buddhist meditation. Finally, I decided to give Vipassana a try.

There are countless ways to meditate, based on different traditions — some ancient, others more modern adaptations or variations; some religious, spiritual or mystical, others secular.

Meditation techniques and denominations vary widely indeed, some even overlapping with one another.

The more I got familiar with the different meditation techniques I explored, the more I realised that not only they had many things in common in between them but also that most of the time they actually complemented each other — and, therefore, made my own practice more complete and fulfilling.

You see, there were days that I just could not focus on my breath, and only a mantra would magically do the trick. Or, if I tried to jump right into body scanning, I couldn’t relax — I had to focus and calm down my mind first. I realised that 10 or 20 minutes of loving-kindness meditation every now and then after a long practice was helping me deal with some emotional issues.

So I thought: what happens when we take different meditation styles and consider not the many differences between them but instead focus on what they have in common, through scientific research?

Fortunately, there are plenty of scientific studies about meditation out there. I only had to do some research (and much reading) myself — this article is a brief review of what I found out.