How to find your most beneficial personal meditation style

There is not a right or wrong way when seeking a meditation style. Do remember that influences have an impact on you that will affect your approach to meditation.

There are many different meditation styles to suit your personal approach to meditation. Beginners usually choose to start with guided meditation and then experiment with other different approaches.

The length of meditation will impact on how successful it will be.

• One study reported 5 hours' worth of meditation over a two-week period was enough for smokers to reduce their intake.
• Another study noted that regular 30 minutes meditation sessions can increase the density of brain matter in areas associated with memory, stress and empathy.

10 minutes a day can be enough when it is part of a daily routine. Longer periods might be required if it is done less frequently.

It is not possible to always be successful with your meditation sessions. 

Acceptance of the outcome of a meditation session is a factor when considering if it has been successful or not.

Try multiple settings to find which place suits your personal meditation style. 

It could be a dedicated spot or a useful place that also serves other purposes.

• A valuable tool to understand your own style is to keep a journal. It can help you to work out the similarities and qualitative considerations for multiple types of meditations.
• Neurofeedback devices can provide actual quantitative measurements of brain activity during meditation.
• Feedback sessions with your mentor can also be beneficial.

Developing a meditation style should not be a self-optimization goal. 

You may find more success if you develop your own style along the way to a wider set of meditative purposes.