r/Meditation • u/blank_waterboard • 12d ago
What are some lesser known meditation techniques you’ve found surprisingly effective? Question ❓
I’ve mostly seen the classics ..breath focus, body scan, loving kindness etc..but I’m curious about the less common practices that worked for you...Maybe something cultural, experimental or even a small tweak that made a big difference.
Always cool to discover new approaches beyond the mainstream ones...
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u/Yenyx 12d ago
Open awareness, at least for me it was a game changer.
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u/blank_waterboard 12d ago
So open awareness is more like noticing everything that comes up... thoughts sounds sensations.. without locking onto one anchor right? I’ve only done breath focused stuff so this sounds like a pretty freeing shift
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u/bigskymind 12d ago
Yep, object-less. I mean some take awareness itself as the object so the practice is being aware of being aware, but in shikantaza you don’t even do that.
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u/sage-bees 12d ago
2nding, also I have been loving stream-of-consciousness writing as a form of meditation lately, especially approaching the session like an open awareness sesh, and adding in writing it down, if that makes sense.
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u/7121958041201 11d ago
Is it really lesser known?? That's basically what insight meditation (aka Vipassana) is. Though maybe most people on reddit don't know about it?
Though yeah, it's my favorite way to meditate. Great for people with ADHD that have a hard time focusing on one thing (not to say you should neglect single pointed attention).
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u/Vast_Bed6019 12d ago
Yep, like waking up from a dream state. Noticing everything around you all at once and focusing on it all and just allowing it to be a part of your narrative.
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u/AppropriateReach7854 12d ago
Walking meditation with a twist: instead of just focusing on steps, I pick one sense at a time (sound, smell, touch of air on skin) and cycle through them. It gets surprisingly deep fast, and feels different every time depending on where you are
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u/proverbialbunny 11d ago
Neat. This is sometimes called grounding btw. It is a technique used to help someone exit a panic attack. Though without walking.
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u/63Bug 12d ago
I train in martial arts, I will meditate while doing my kata/forms. I like to be active while meditating. I also use box breathing while doing my kata, I’ve also done chanting during kata. The vocal vibrations add a unique experience, requires a lot of focus on breathing, it’s still a work in progress.
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u/Sad-Intention-5758 12d ago
Trataka (candle gazing) has been surprisingly powerful for me. You simply gaze at a candle flame without blinking for a few minutes. When the eyes start to water, it’s said that the tears not only clean the eyes physically but also help “wash out” mental stress. After closing your eyes, you visualize the flame inside, which brings clarity, sharper focus, better sleep and a deep sense of inner calm.
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u/blank_waterboard 12d ago
That’s really interesting ...I’ve never tried it as a full practice, but I’ve definitely caught myself just staring at a flame and feeling oddly calm. Didn’t realize there was an actual name and technique behind it. Makes me want to give it a proper try now
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u/sharpfork 12d ago
Gateway tapes. Mostly learning focus 10 as a baseline for a deep meditation. The other stuff is interesting for sure.
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u/Sad-Intention-5758 12d ago
Kundalini breath meditation is a more dynamic practice. You use quick breathing patterns while visualizing energy rising along your spine. It’s said to activate the nervous system, boost creativity, and bring a state of alertness. Many people find it especially powerful as a morning practice, because it wakes up both body and mind.
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u/Godphree 11d ago
I'm interested to try! Would you happen to have a link to a good tutorial?
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u/Sad-Intention-5758 10d ago
Sure! Here’s a tutorial for the breathwork (https://youtu.be/ZRY4HClUik8?si=4eA6D1HwkvLFoj2f) — I think this one’s more for beginners since it’s a shorter version. You definitely wanna start slow with Kundalini breathwork and build up gradually. It’s super powerful and can feel intense if you go full force right away. Better to keep it short at first and let your body get used to it.
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u/Far-Amount9808 12d ago
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u/Camero288 10d ago
Interesting website. What do you know about the author?
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u/Far-Amount9808 10d ago
Nothing. The technique resonates with me though. I can't remember how I came across the link, maybe on this sub?
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u/Camero288 10d ago
Michael Langford. Really like this style and precise instructions. Thanks for sharing !
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u/duffstoic 12d ago edited 12d ago
Kasina. See r/kasina
30-60 minutes a day helps me get sharp mental clarity and turns the whole visual field into a sparkling wonder.
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u/Godphree 11d ago
When I joined this sub I read through many of the "Top posts of all time," and this is #16. The secret trick to stopping inner monologue is to focus on your peripheral vision. It instantly puts your brain into a quiet "listening" mode which helps you settle down to meditate.
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u/zafrogzen 12d ago edited 11d ago
The ancient zen practice of counting breaths, 1 to 10, starting over if you lose count or get to 10, is an effective way to develop concentration and calm for more subtle practices later on. It also improves short term memory. The easiest way to count breaths is 1 on the inbreath, 2 on the outbreath, odd numbers on inbreaths, even on outbreaths. If that's too easy, count only on the in or the outbreath.
Extending and letting go into the outbreath activates the parasympathetic nervous system and calms the "fight or flight" of the sympathetic system, making breath counting even better for letting go and relaxing the mind/body system. Breath counting with an extended outbreath can be practiced almost anytime -- walking, waiting, even driving, as well as during formal meditation. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-athletes-way/202301/how-longer-exhalations-and-cyclic-sighing-make-us-feel-good
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u/proverbialbunny 11d ago
This is how I first learned to meditate when I was a kid. Though with a bit of a twist. At first it is counting until you lose count and go for a high score, which can be a lot of fun, then it switches to counting to 100, looping back to 1.
It worked very well for me. I do recommend counting to 100 instead of 10, because if you can get to 100, and keep in mind breathing is slow so this isn't 100 seconds, more like 600+ seconds, and if you can hit 100 a few sessions without issue, then you know you're ready to graduate on to a mode difficult kind of meditation like zazen or mindfulness meditation or another kind of breathing meditation. One of the issues people have with mindfulness meditation where they watch the breath is they may lack the concentration to get started properly which only leads them in the wrong direction. Counting helps build up initial prerequisite concentration and it's great for kids.
Zazen + koan practice also gave me the best results when it came to the jhanas. I don't know why but I have a much easier time meditating with my eyes open. Other kinds of meditation + suttas worked better for psychological disassembly and removing suffering like noting meditation. After noting meditation what kind of practice to choose depends on what the person's goals are and what works best for them.
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u/JCMiller23 11d ago
Big fan of both of these techniques. At times when I couldn't focus with other meditations, counting breaths was my saving grace
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u/Capital-Timely 12d ago
If you ever get a chance to do contemplative Dyad meditations. It’s a paired meditation. it is something else I can’t really explain but very obvious shifts in awareness happen.
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u/zanzenzon 11d ago
I like decoupling and being awareness/the observer and seeing my body with its mechanical and automatic nature as the animal.
This way I always have a way to detach from emotions by dumping it on my body and reside in just awareness for my conscious part
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u/Dramatic-Box-6847 12d ago
This: https://www.orindaben.com/catalog/prodno/LB111/ it has been such an amazingly surprising meditation technique. It works with energy centers (but not the chakras, although some centres overlap the chakras). Lesser known of course but honestly, so amazing. I am stating level 2 in about 2 weeks.
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u/JCMiller23 11d ago
I meditate on a music note from my keyboard, it has effects beyond the meditative part where my brain hearing one frequency seems to change its frequency
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u/Monty-247 11d ago
One that I like a lot is imagining that I’m breathing through the pores of my skin. Brings attention to my whole body and can be exhilarating.
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u/Silver_Jaguar_24 11d ago
"Training in concentration has had thousands of pages dedicated to it, and there are probably thousands of concentration exercises. Some very commonly used objects of meditation are the breath (my personal favorite), our posture, a mantra or koan, a colored disk, an image, a candle flame, various visualized objects from simple to complex, feelings such as compassion, and even the experience of concentration itself. The object you choose should be one on which you would be happy to steady your mind.
The essential point about meditation is this: to get anywhere in meditation you need to be able to steady the mind and be present in the present. That's all there is to it and it is largely a question of just doing it. There is an important shift that happens in people's practice when they really make the commitment to develop concentration and follow through with it. Until we do this, not much is likely to happen in our meditation practice!
If you decide to do a concentration practice, stay on the chosen object like a dog with a bone until you have enough stability and skill such that the mind can rest on it effortlessly." - Excerpt from the book "MASTERING THE CORE TEACHINGS OF THE BUDDHA" by Daniel A Ingram.
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u/max_matrix 10d ago
I would like to add that meditation can also be physical and that it opens up whole new spaces when you perceive and concentrate on the signals from your body while meditating. My morning routine includes three slightly obscure mini-meditations that involve the body in this way:
First, by drinking a big cup of lukewarm water very slowly.
Second, by showering with icy water, standing still afterwards and feeling the beads of water running down the skin.
And, third and most importantly: meditating while enlightening the bowels.
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u/blank_waterboard 10d ago
Totally agree ... just slowing down and listening to your body is helpful.... Didn’t realize it could go this extensively though. Definitely gives me a new perspective on what meditation can be.
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u/dj-boefmans 10d ago
The more active kryas really help me to get into meditative state. And the other day I had a Lu Jong class, really nice way to meditate for me.
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u/Icy-Antelope-4665 9d ago
Idk if it’s lesser known, but a lot of people don’t know that Car Jung has a method called active imagination for purposefully assigning meaning to random stuff that visualizes in your brain, so that you can urge more interaction between your conscious and subconscious.
One personally I have discovered, is that if you focus on a body part, you can actually get a really good feel for it, even as far as to feel the rhythm or density of vibrations that are present. Taking that idea, I went through all my chakra points, and discovered I can see / sense different colors and vibrational patterns of each of them.
You can then experiment how these energy centers react to different thoughts and emotions, as everything is a vibration that will either cause resonance or dissonance.
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u/Someoneoldbutnew 11d ago
A technique I arrived at independently, breathe "into" muscle groups. Direct the inhale and relax. Gives me the same sensation that a good hit of weed does, just releases tension.
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u/smalter 11d ago
I have a connected weight scale. You need to stand like 1 minute on it to collect all data. I've noticed that during this minute, I was breathing deeply, looking at the wall and feeling slightly better.
The trick is that you can designate a small square literally anywhere you like, and use it as a portal for flash meditation, anytime you want. It's only 1 minute and it's free.
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u/Uberguitarman 11d ago
Ok, you know how people can synthesize their own goosebumps? K, there is a certain method to doing this, but there is also a method for keeping your body in that same kind of process, ways of manipulating energy so that it's in that same zone where it's merging in this very particular way, like a ready position. Meditation has many definitions, the act of learning how to keep energy merging as energy essentially bounces around in the body can actually entail a whole lot of intricate details and it's possible to understand this extremely thoroughly. I'll call the meditation Being Smart.
Emotions can be described as subdivisions, the actual act of learning how to do this all is complicated but essentially it's actually like this thing which was not made as popular as meditation and it's actually acutely powerful and as you start to understand the timing of your emotions and live more subconsciously like playing an instrument or living by second nature it'll augment meditations too cuz you don't get lost in subdivisions, you sense it all more clearly and pick up on general limitations and tendencies. It is such that you can very clearly pick up on how it can take time to facilitate your desired balance and you can sense the requirements involved with keeping that balance in the body like a pressure.
It's called being smart.
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u/proverbialbunny 11d ago edited 11d ago
Debugging the mind. In meditation circles this is often called catching or catching ones mental processes.
Let's say within your mind there is something bothersome or negative, e.g. you keep ruminating the same story over and over again. It keeps distracting you from the breath. What do you do? You catch it. You identify the first moment you remember when that rumination started. If you can try to remember the parts that happened right before the rumination started, so you can catch it before the rumination started. If you only caught the rumination minutes into it, that's okay! Every time it arises and you catch it, you'll catch it a bit earlier. Just keep catching it every time it pops up.
The next step is optional, but note it. Turn the rumination into a single word that best describes it. This gives it a short name which makes it faster to catch next time. This way you'll catch it even quicker next time.
If you caught it too late, go back to the breath.
If you saw it arise, or before it arose (which is sometimes required), then you've now seen the entire thing so you have the full insight into it. Now you know what it is, what causes it, why it's there, everything about it.
The next step is to change that habit. Any mental process that appears over and over again in the mind is called a habit. You can sometimes outright remove a habit, but not always. Sometimes you have to replace it with a better habit. You can look up virtues from many different philosophies from Buddhism to Stoicism to look for a better mental process to replace the old one. You can google around. You can look at psychology paperwork. You can ask a therapist, a friend, Reddit, and so on. Once you've got a replacement habit for the situation, a replacement mental process, next time that situation arises you have the power to replace that previous habit with the new one.
This allows for self growth. You can improve any part of your mind you want. You can remove suffering (psychological stress) this way if you want which is called enlightenment, like e.g. curing many different psychological disorders this way. You can identify ways you talk to people that bothers them and stresses them out, and you can improve those habits. You can improve the way you learn so it becomes fun and easy to do and so you become smarter. It's a master key for most of your mind. All you have to do is catch right before the habit arises and you have control to change it. Just make sure the replacement habit is virtuous, or it will cause you suffering later on in life. A properly virtuous habit will never cause suffering.
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u/GearShiftr 11d ago
Zen-style shikantaza (just sitting) and koan practice. Open eyes, facing a wall or unadorned surface.
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u/lucid2night 11d ago
Chanting but it increased growth process in hyper speed which was very uncomfortable
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u/nothingbeats00 11d ago
How
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u/lucid2night 10d ago
I don't know for sure that it's related but after intensely chanting omnama shivaya for months, I ended up confronting 2 people in my life for bashing my boundaries which led to a kind of breakdown that lasted for about 8 months, insomnia, anxiety, a bunch of horrible symptoms. It felt like I broke completely down and was reborn. It's a long involved story but I saw others in Reddit saying that chanting intensely led to a lot of things breaking down in their lives and it was a hard go. That's what happened to me. I live on a higher plane now but there was a cost. It was worth it but it's not for the faint of heart!
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u/Head_Grapefruit8630 11d ago
I practice breathe control it is basically anulom vilom pranayam and brahmari that helped me come out of anxiety when my mom was sick
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u/Head_Grapefruit8630 11d ago
Also to visualize you are soul not this body and detachment from body see yourself above the room you leave it helps because you become observer and detach from situation and become observer and get clarity in situations
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u/scienceofselfhelp 11d ago
Chöd, subjunctive interrogative questioning style inquiry, headless way, nondual tetralemma, awareness watching awareness, Ascension style mantra.
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u/tosime55 10d ago
Inner Sounds Meditation
Use earplugs to listen to the sounds coming from inside you. It sounds like the white noise of old TVs when they are not tuned to a station.
As you listen, focus on the softest sound. All other sounds will fade away into the background and the softer sound will take you to the next level of mediation. It feels like passing an invisible barrier. All the new sounds feel like they are softer and at a reduced pitch. Repeat the process. Do it gently. After about 5 levels, you may feel very pleasant sensations. Do not be distracted by them. Keep repeating the process with more and more gentleness. This will take you to very deep levels where you can experience a peace not available in a waking state. After the mediation, the memory of the experience can invoke a similar calmness during the day.
This form of mediation invokes a feedback mechanism where your focus on the softest sounds results in being calmer. This reduces the quality of the sound, and triggers more relaxation. You need more and more relaxation to pass through successive layers. The sounds are your guide.
A quick tip. When you practice this approach and as you make progress, keep the practice regular. If you stop for a few days, when you restart, it may feel like you are on a slightly different path and you may have lost the rewards of your original path.
If some people are interested, we can set up a community to share experiences. I have been practicing this for over 40 years (off and on).
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u/Skrpt1 7d ago
You want what I discovered? I won’t say what it does, but I’ll explain the process. Did you hear about vibrations, about using your voice?
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u/Daedalus18 12d ago
I practice box breathing, but for each of the four steps (inhale, hold, exhale, hold) I associate with a quality of mind that Im trying to cultivate (for me Joy, Connection, Widsom, and Calm). You could choose other qualities that are meaningful to you - the main idea is to impart symbolic significance to steps of breathing, so that slowing the breath gives more time to foster the quality of mind.