When you feel like you want to answer a question for yourself or want to head into a certain direction but can’t seem to find the focus to get there, following a meditation course in an Asian Monastery is definitely the way. Meditation has many benefits, such as that it reduces stress, regulates your emotions, and improves focus. Next, by removing yourself from your regular environment and placing yourself in a monastic environment, you remove all temptations and are able to learn about how to meditate without any distractions. 

In other words, there are enough reasons to start practicing meditation in a Buddhist monastery. But it might be that you don’t have the time or don’t feel the need to visit a Monastery to live a monastic life for a while. If that’s the case, but you are still curious about how to meditate, this is the article for you. In this article, I talk about the different kinds of meditation and how to do focus meditation. 

The three types of meditation

There are three types of meditation:

– Analytical meditation

Through analytical meditation, you aim to answer questions around certain themes. During meditation, you take time to find out how you feel about certain topics and find out the logic behind complex concerns.

I know this type of meditation as a guided meditation, meaning that your teacher or guide has prepared a few questions that he asks during the practice. Every few minutes he asks a new question. You can also practice analytical meditation without a teacher but by thinking about a specific topic yourself. It’s quite similar to focus meditation, which I will talk about later, but the difference is that you focus here on a specific question or subject, and when your mind wanders to circle back to the question at hand. 

– Mantra meditation

During mantra meditation, you focus on repeating a mantra. A mantra is a word or a combination of words with a particular sound. It is more about the vibrations than the meaning of those words, although they often form a meaningful sentence. In that sense, it could be compared to saying a prayer. 

The most famous mantra is ‘Ohm’. Across the internet, the word Ohm is given many definitions, but as I understand from the Dalai Lama in Buddhism “the sound represents our body, mind and speech”. As body, mind, and speech are the main sources of suffering according to the Buddhist philosophy, meditating on the word Ohm could be considered as meditating on suffering as a theme with the purpose of liberating ourselves from it. The mantra I learned in the Monastery was ‘Mahata a moene moene, maha munaje soha.’ (phonetic spelling). We chanted this mantra for a few minutes a day.

Mantras contain certain vibrations that you will feel within your body as you say them out loud. These vibrations have a calming effect as they change the energy that you feel within and that you send out to your environment. I personally also believe that repeating a mantra that has meaning to you, gives you strength.

– Focus meditation

Focus meditation revolves around the premise that by focusing on one constant thing at a time, you can find peace and quietness within. This peace and quietness make it easier to get in touch with your suppressed emotions and help you to make better decisions for yourself. Don’t be surprised if – during a focus meditation session – you might shed a tear or a waterfall now and then.

The effects of focus meditation

According to the Buddhist Wheel of Life, the main challenge of humans is desire. I agree with that. Our desires mainly come from what distracts us, which by the way is why monks choose to live in a monastery where they have much less desires. Because when you think about it, even when we relax, we occupy our minds with distractions such as social media, Netflix, music, or daydreaming and often we are exposed to multiple distractions at the same time. 

As a result, we often experience an overstimulated, unfocused, and agitated mind. It keeps us from focusing on the task at hand and makes us impatient, uninterested, and sometimes even feel disconnected. 

A wide range of studies show that meditation has a positive effect on the human mind. For example, research from Basso, McHale, Ende, et al. (2019) proves that a short 13-minute focus meditation session performed on a daily basis improves our moods, reduces stress, helps us regulate our emotional response, and improves our working memory. Regarding the latter, working memory in short is the type of memory that stores information you are gaining at the current moment and can mix it with long-term memory. It gives you the ability to make decisions, apply reasoning and build opinions, based on this outcome. As our working memory capacity is limited, we need to sometimes clear it and meditation helps as it kind of empties our mind. 

Why focus meditation works to regain focus

Through a focus meditation practice, you learn to relax your body and mind. This is because, during the practice, you are only observing what happens in your body and mind. You are witnessing your thoughts and feelings without judging them and know that many of them can disappear when you let them go. 

Outside of the actual meditation practice, you may notice that you respond in a less reactive way than you previously did. This is because, with inner peace and a relaxed mind, it is easier to put thoughts and feelings into perspective. You know how to let your thoughts and feelings go and this gives you the choice to decide whether you act upon your thoughts and feelings or let them go. 

In order to chase our dreams and focus on the things that are important to us, we need to have a focused mind. Meditating is an incredible tool that can help you to achieve that. Because when you meditate, your mind feels calmer and clarity appears. And it is that clear mind that you need to focus and get things done.  

How to do focus meditation

Comfort

Focus meditation starts with creating an environment of comfort. Not too comfortable, though. If you lay in bed, for example, you will probably fall asleep, especially when you just started meditating. I remember I fell asleep over and over again during the sessions at Kopan, and I was sitting up straight back then. You can create comfort by, for example, sitting cross-legged on the couch. You can decide for yourself whether you prefer to have back support or not. Comfort is most important here. We don’t all have to sit like the Buddha statues.

Silence

Also, silence is important. It’s best to put your phone on silent and let the people at home know that you are going to meditate.

Focus on your breathing

The next step is to close your eyes and focus on your breathing. Breathing meditation is seen as a good form of meditation because it is a bodily repetitive movement and only requires you to be alive. 

Now, it is probably only a matter of time until your mind turns to a thought you are having. Very important here, is that you know that we do not want to reject our thoughts. The goal is not to push thoughts away. The practice of focus meditation actually revolves around acknowledging you are having a thought and then to let it go by refocusing on your breathing again. 

So, when a thought pops up in your mind, be aware of what is happening and then let that thought go. What you could also do to make it easier to focus on your breathing is counting. Breathing in and out is 1. Now, only count until ten and then start over, so you won’t lose track. 

Variation tip: There are also other types of focus meditation. Instead of focusing on your breath, you could also focus on your third eye location, which is the point between your eyebrows but then a bit higher. Another variation is to focus on the feeling of your breath on your upper lip, which is often a focus point during a Vipassana practice. I personally also often do a body scan. In that case, I start at my feet and focus on the sensations there. Next, I move my focus to the aligning body part. After a full body scan, I focus on feeling all sensations across my body at once for the rest of my practice. 

Be aware of your thoughts

What is interesting about being aware of your thoughts, is that at the moment you become aware of the fact that you are having a thought, you no longer identify with it. In that sense, meditation practice helps you to recognize and no longer identify with your ego. You only perceive your thoughts from a distance. When you perceive your thoughts, it is easier to let them go.

You could compare thoughts with passing boats. Imagine sitting beside a river. You are watching the water, and boats are passing. These boats are your thoughts. You can choose to either follow the boats with your eyes or look back at the water. In our daily lives, we are used to following our thoughts. With meditation, you learn that you are not your thoughts and how to let them go. Once again, don’t fight them. Also don’t judge. Only be aware when your mind is having them and let them do. Identify and refocus. In that way, you learn to master your mind. 

The length of focus meditation

When you just started, a meditation session of 5 to 10 minutes is perfect. More than that is not necessary. Gradually, after a few weeks or months, you can increase it by five minutes. 

When to meditate

Also, don’t wait for the perfect moment to meditate, but create that moment, if possible. Most people who meditate, do this around the same time, at least once a day. They meditate after waking up and before going to bed. However, you should decide for yourself when the best time is for you. Consistency is key here. I recommend you to meditate every day for at least two months, even during times when you are very busy and chaotic in your mind. You may think it is not the best time because you don’t feel like it and wouldn’t be able to focus. But actually, these are the best moments to meditate. After all, that is when you need it the most. It’s best to try out meditation for at least 2 months before you draw any conclusions on whether meditation is something for you.

When you are doing it right

I decided not to share how you are supposed to feel during meditation. If I would do that, you might judge yourself and be distracted by thoughts such as ‘Now I am doing it right, or ‘Now I am doing it wrong, or ‘It doesn’t work.’ Remember, try not to judge yourself. The very exercise during a breathing meditation practice is to realize it when you are having a thought and to refocus. 

The beautiful thing about meditation is that the meditation itself feels good. It is not only another means to an end. Still, in time, this practice leads to wonderful results. 

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Please allow me to give credit to Basso, McHale, and Ende et al. for their illuminating research on the effects of daily meditation and for creating an overview of the effects found by their fellow researchers. 

Basso, J. C., McHale, A., Ende, V., Oberlin, D. J., & Suzuki, W. A. (2019). Brief, daily meditation enhances attention, memory, mood, and emotional regulation in non-experienced meditators. Behavioural brain research, 356, 208-220.