Concentration and Mindfulness Meditations: Unique forms of consciousness?

Consciousness is an individual or being’s awareness of their internal and external existence. This includes the emotional, physical, and mental awareness of your physicality, sensations, feelings, and thoughts.

Researchers define consciousness in different stages and levels, with each stage having its unique characteristics. The four different stages of consciousness include awake, dream-filled, deep sleep, and beyond deep sleep. The five levels of consciousness are conscious, preconscious, unconscious, non-conscious, and subconscious. These different stages and levels of consciousness define how our minds and bodies behave and the degree of awareness we experience.

Doctors, therapists, and other professionals typically recommend individuals who suffer from chronic pain, mental health illnesses, stress, and anxiety practice meditation as a way to cope and reduce the symptoms of their conditions.

Meditation techniques help patients focus on present moments and their consciousness to respond to their symptoms in a productive and less-critical way. Not only can individuals feel more relaxed during a meditation session, but it also allows them to reflect more closely on their thoughts and feelings to understand the sensations they have.

Consciousness and meditation are closely tied together. When individuals practice meditation, they are often more attuned and focused on their consciousness in a calmer way. On the contrary, a lack of meditation techniques might make an individual’s consciousness feel more stressed and anxious.

When it comes to meditation, there are different types that can help an individual regain their active consciousness and become more present at the moment. This is especially helpful when you’re feeling overwhelmed or stressed about your current situation or a future scenario. For example, concentration and mindfulness meditation are two common types of meditations that individuals practice to mitigate the symptoms of stress. These two types of meditation are unique forms of consciousness that help you focus on the present in different ways to ground you when you’re feeling stressed and anxious. The definition of mindfulness meditation is the practice of self-awareness. When your mind and body are mindful of the thoughts and emotions you feel in the moment. This could be feelings of sadness, fear, happiness, anger, or stress. People that practice mindful meditation also become aware of the things they see, hear, taste, and smell. For example, the food in the kitchen or the cars on the street.

When you’re mindful of your body and what’s happening to it, you learn to become calmer and more relaxed. This helps you mitigate some of the stress and anxious thoughts you have. You’re also able to identify the root causes of your thoughts and feelings more accurately without judging yourself.

During a concentration meditation session, your mind and body focus all your attention on one thing. This usually involves focusing on your deep breathing as it enters and leaves your body. Some people also like to focus on a saying or mantra to help them concentrate on their meditation. A mantra is a phrase that you silently repeat to yourself. For example, a mantra could be “I am not afraid” or “ Everything is okay.”

When you repeat the mantra to yourself or focus on your deep breathing, you tend to focus less on other thoughts or feelings that could distract you. These practices help increase the level of calmness and relaxation you feel.

The main difference between mindfulness meditation and concentration is what your body and mind focuses on during the session. When you practice mindfulness meditation, you’re supposed to recognize and acknowledge the feelings, thoughts, and sensations you have instead of suppressing them. The goal is to accept the feelings you have without judging or analyzing them.

Concentration meditation focuses on a specific activity that you concentrate on during the meditation session, which helps you get rid of other thoughts. You’re able to remove the distractions in your environment and become more attuned to the present.

What is meant by concentration meditation?

Concentration meditation is a type of meditation that focuses on your attention. Most people think about meditation as concentrating on specific elements that help ground you and keep your mind in the present. For example, you might be encouraged to focus on your breathing, the pain you feel, the butterflies in your stomach, or a feeling of joy. These feelings remind you of what is happening in the present, which helps you calm your mind and thoughts instead of feeling stressed or worried about the future.

In a concentration meditation session, you’re only focused and actively thinking about one thing. This one thing could be your deep breathing, a sound, or a mantra that you constantly repeat to yourself. Focusing on these single activities help you eliminate all other thoughts or feelings that could distract you during your meditation. Now that your mind is focused on a repetitive action, it’s easier to tune out any stress or anxiety that could be causing you negative emotions or pain.

Individuals that practice concentration meditation experience many benefits that help them cope with stress and alleviate the symptoms they feel.

Improved stress management

Concentration meditation emphasizes attention and focuses on a single object. When your mind concentrates on one thing for a long period, you tend to get rid of any other thoughts or feelings. This helps you focus less on any negative thoughts or emotions you might feel, such as stress, anxiety, and pain. Instead, your body focuses on an easy and calming activity to help your mind feel less worried.

Concentration meditation also helps slow down your breathing. When you feel stressed or anxious, you might feel your heart rate and breathing rate increase. This is one of your body’s natural responses to fear. When your breathing and heart rate slows down, your body naturally starts to feel calmer and more relaxed. This helps you with stress management

Calmer detachment from worries

Worries are a common cause of stress and anxiety for many people. It can lead to overthinking and fears as the mind thinks ab out different scenarios and possibilities of things going wrong. When you’re concentrating on your breathing, a sound, or a mantra, your mind naturally starts to focus on the new task. This makes it harder for your mind to focus on the thoughts that make you feel more worried.

Reducing obsessive thoughts

Our minds tend to wander whenever we’re not actively thinking about something. Our minds also wander when we’re faced with fears of the unknown or a situation that we’re not comfortable with. Concentration meditation helps our mind stay focused on one thing, bringing our attention to what’s happening in the present.

This could be the sound of a clock, your breathing, a bell, or a saying or word that you repeat. When you hear that sound or feel that motion repetitively, you have something to guide your attention. Gently bringing your attention and concentration back to the object or sound whenever you feel your mind start to wander can help you stay focused on the present and reduce the distracting thoughts you have.

Does mindfulness meditation improve concentration?

Stress, pain, depression, anxiety, and other symptoms or conditions can easily keep your mind occupied or distracted throughout the day. If you aren’t feeling well, it’s easy to not feel productive or motivated to concentrate on your responsibilities

Meditation in general is great for improving your concentration, patience, and focus on an activity. Research has found that mindfulness meditation can change the way your brain reacts by increasing feelings of relaxation. It can help you reduce stress, pain, depression, and anxiety. It can also help you focus and concentrate, allowing you to be more productive and feel more accomplished throughout your day.

Mindfulness meditation also helps train your mind to regain focus every time it gets distracted by something. For example, if you’re distracted by the sound of a car or a bird during a meditation session, the techniques you learn in mindfulness meditation can help strengthen your brain’s ability to stay focused for longer periods of time.

This helps improve your ability to concentrate throughout the day, such as at work, during school classes, when you’re running errands, or simply at home. When you’re focused on the present sensations that your mind and body feels, you’ll be able to concentrate on the present more often.

If you consistently practice mindfulness meditation, your mind and body will become used to bouncing back after certain stressful situations and distractions. You’ll likely be able to recover quicker without feeling as overwhelmed by negative thoughts and symptoms.

Difference between mindfulness meditation and concentration meditation

Mindfulness meditation emphasizes your awareness. It involves paying attention to specific thoughts and feelings you currently have without judging those sensations. The goal is to be as aware as possible of everything your body experiences in that specific moment and identify how those experiences make you feel.

Present moment awareness is the key in mindfulness meditation for transforming anxiety and stressful moments. It gives you the tools to turn the anxiety you feel into calmness by acknowledging all your emotions and focusing on the present to process the thoughts and feelings you have. You recognize these thoughts and feelings as a normal part of being human and to redirect your energy into calmness and relaxation instead of fear.

When you’re able to live in the present moment more often, you typically have less room to think about anything that gives you stress or anxiety, such as worries and fears about the future or the unknown.

Concentration meditation emphasizes the focus of attention. Instead of simply being aware of your thoughts, feelings, and anything that you’re currently experiencing right now, concentration meditation makes you focus on one single activity.

This activity could be the inhale and exhale of your breath, the ticking of a clock, a specific phrase, or a small repetitive motion. Since it’s easy for the mind to start to wander and get distracted, having a physical sound or motion that you can focus on helps a lot with regaining concentration.

It also makes it harder for your mind and body to feel or think about other things, since your mind is concentrated on a specific action or sound. If your mind does wander and you get distracted during a concentration meditation session, simply return your attention to the specific sound or motion of your choice and you can regain concentration.

Another difference between mindfulness meditation and concentration meditation is that mindfulness picks an object for you to focus on and simply notices when your attention has changed. In concentration meditation, your mind is focused on the actual work of keeping your attention steady for the entire duration of the session. You’re only focused on one object throughout the entire session, which makes it easier to regain focus if it’s lost.

During concentration meditation, you don’t have to think about what your body or mind is going through. You also don’t have to think about the reasons why you have these thoughts and feelings. You simply let your mind concentrate on a simple task to help it relax and to bring you to a clamer state.

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Respectfully,
Heidi & Ross

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G Ross Clark C.C.P.,
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada,
Email- TheMindfulCoach@gmail.com,
Training- MBSR Training

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