Advanced Meditations You Need To Try At Least Once

There is a lot more to meditation than just breathing, being present, and acknowledging your thoughts.

If you are new to meditation, check out this post on the basics and benefits of meditation.

I’ve been meditating for a couple of years and have experimented with many different types of meditation. The following five have been the most impactful on my life. They are sill ones I experiment with and practice to this day.

If you want to expand your meditation knowledge and experiences, I suggest checking these out. I wrote a short description of what each meditation is. I have also included a video with each. The videos are a great guide to start this type of meditation. I have tried each guided meditation myself and enjoyed them.

Each different meditation practice has helped me out at different times in my life. If one of these catches your eye, I suggest giving it a try.

Breathwork Meditation

 

The basics of meditation is to focusing on your breathing and being present, not letting your mind wander. This one is a tad bit different. It is called Breathwork Meditation because it has a deeper focus on breathing, This particular one is two breaths in, one breath out.

Lots of breathing leads to feeling tingles all over your body and puts you in a relaxed state. Because you are ultra-focused on your breathing it is harder for your mind to wander. I find this meditation really fun because you are really active during it. Not only are you trying to keep the pace of the breathing steady, but you are also guided on what to think and feel. At one point the guide even suggests you let out a loud scream.

I remember listening to this after going through a big breakup. I shed a tear when the guide said “say out loud, I am worthy of love.” This meditation is a good emotional healing exercise. Great for feeling calm and at peace for whatever craziness is going on in the world right now or in your personal life.

Gratitude Meditation

This is exactly what it sounds like, meditation to be grateful. 

This meditation works best in the morning. You take a couple of deep breaths and then focus on being present. Typical meditation stuff, but then you focus on being thankful for the things around you. First, with simple things, like the wind on your face or the roof over your head. Being grateful, you have a beating heart, and you can experience life. Thankful and happy for the people in your life who love you. Wishing the best for them as well. It is that simple, but it goes a long way. 

Some people ask me why I am always so happy, so optimistic all the time. Well, this meditation is why. I’ve done it so much that is has become a natural habit to me. I get out of bed with a smile on my face being grateful for just being alive and able to experience that day. Sometimes that’s all it takes. This is a great meditation to do when you are feeling down or depressed. 

Tony Robbins Priming Meditation is an excellent example of this. I have linked it below for you to give it a try. Note, he starts this one off with a little exercise breathing routine. Definitely do it to feel the full experience.

Feeling Pain Meditation

The last meditation focused on being grateful and happy. This one is the opposite. This meditation is all about feeling pain. Not for treating pain, but making you feel pain. Why would anyone want to do this? Well, sometimes this is necessary. Sometimes we need the pain to push us to the next level, to break a bad habit we have, or make us take an action that we have been putting off for a very long time.

I have used this type of meditation when I am feeling stuck, unmotivated, or when I have a terrible addiction that I need to break. If you truly let yourself go and feel pain during meditation, it will make you want to change something in your life. 

So how does this work exactly? The following meditation is called the Dickens Process, a highlight event in Tony Robbin’s Unleash the Power Within seminar. It makes you focus on what your bad habits and limiting beliefs are. Then focusing on what your life would be like if you never changed them. This is not a pleasant meditation, but if you fully commit to it, then it works like a charm.

Law of Attraction Meditation

You might have heard of the Law of Attraction before. It was popularised by the book The Secret. If you haven’t heard of it, simply put, the Law of Attraction is, “if you focus on something enough, it will become reality.” So if you focus on being rich, you will be rich. If you focus on having a loving relationship, you will have a loving relationship. But the Law of Attraction swings both ways. If you focus on the things you don’t have in life, you’ll continue not to have them. Rather than focusing on what you don’t want to happen, you should focus on what you want to happen.

The book Psycho-Cybernetics recommends you meditate for at least 30 minutes a day, focusing on what success looks like to you. Imagining yourself doing the actions, completing them, and feeling what it would feel like when you succeed in your actions. If you do this enough and really envision yourself in that success, you will become that success.

This all sounds like some strange voodoo, right? Think, and it shall become.

Well, it has some actual practical value. You can go around focusing on all the bad stuff happening in life, then your outlook on life will be awful. If you go around searching for problems and reasons why you can’t do something, you will find them.

Or you can go around focusing on all the great things, being optimistic about life and your potential. Excited for that raise at work you’ll get one day or the future in your current relationship. When you focus on what you want, those things will come more naturally and easier for you.

Why? Well, if you think about something all the time, then subconsciously, you will work towards it. It will motivate you to take actions that bring you closer to that goal. Sometimes you’ll be moving in that direction, and you won’t even know it. That is why people claim the Law of Attraction actually works.

Here is a video of a guided Law of Attraction meditation session. If it sounds interesting to you, give it a try.

Ego Meditation

This is one of the deepest forms of meditation you could ever practice. If meditation is about being present, then this is the holy grail of it. Letting go of your Ego or Ego Death is what I would consider the early stages of spiritual enlightenment. This is where you completely let go of who you thought you are. It is tough to explain, but I will do my best.

In deeper meditations of this, you ask yourself questions about what makes you, you? Are you your name? Would you still be you without it? What about without your arms? Would you still be you? What about without your brain? Are you your brain? The exercise is to ask these questions about different parts of your body and such. Then focus on feeling them to try and get a sense of what part of your body is actually and specifically you.

If you want to learn more about an example of spiritual enlightenment and ego death, there is an excellent book on this called Spiritual Enlightenment, the Damnedest Thing by Jed McKenna. 

This video is a small glimpse and exercise of what Ego Meditation is. Don’t expect to have any breakthroughs on your first few attempts. It takes a while before you can really grasp the meaning and beauty of Ego Death. 

Moving Forward

I hope you enjoyed this list of five advanced meditations. These were the ones that had the most impact on my life, but I am sure there are plenty of other ones out there. In fact, why don’t you be courageous and try some that interest you. Type into YouTube “(current goal or problem you are dealing with) meditation” You’ll be surprised what you’ll find.

I am currently practicing some new meditations, so if any of them have a significant impact on my life, I will be sharing them with you in the future.

Take care!