How To Choose The Best Meditation Technique For Your Specific Needs
You’ve heard of meditation and how great it is for your brain, focus, and mood, but have you ever questioned why it’s helpful? To get the most out of your meditation practice there are a few questions to ask yourself to get the most out of your meditation.
Questions like, what’s going on in my brain while meditating? Am I more interoceptive or exteroceptive? How does breathwork play into meditation? And What am I looking for out of meditation? I dove deep into efficiently developing your own personal meditation practice based on science and different parameters of you as an individual. All the answers to these questions are right in front of you! :)
Understanding What’s Going On In Your Brain During Meditation
On the Huberman Lab podcast by Dr. Andrew Huberman, he breaks down the neuroscience of your brain activity in meditation. I included the episode link in the resources section, if you want a more in-depth description of this understanding. On a regular basis, there are 3 parts of your brain I want to highlight that will tie into meditation :)
The Left Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (DLPFC)
The Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC)
The Insula
What are their individual purposes?
The Left Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex: This little part has the job of controlling bodily senses. Making sure to see what’s going on in terms of emotions and sensations in the body. This part allows you to make decisions on your comfort based on how your body sensations are feeling.
The Anterior Cingulate Cortex: Directly connected to the DLPFC, the ACC is responsible for interpreting things about the signals of the body. Things such as the speed of your heart or the pace of your breathing, the ACC definitely retrieves information from various parts of the brain, but it also gets info from different areas of your body too. The DLPFC has control over and can interpret what’s happening in the ACC.
Insula: The insula is also interpreting what’s going on in the brain and body. The insula and ACC are collectively working together to interpret what’s happening on the inside and the insula is also determining what’s going on outside of you. It sees if the outside circumstances match the internal responses.
For example: you step outside in August in Texas, your body temperature rises which is a natural response. As opposed to, sitting comfortably in your living room and your body temperature rapidly increases. It notifies the difference between a warranted response and an unwarranted one.
These 3 parts of the brain are having a conversation to determine how i’m feeling, what sensations do I feel, what am I thinking about, and am I doing the right thing for my circumstances?
What does this have to do with meditation?
When you are practicing traditional meditation-closing your eyes and sitting still-when you close your eyes it causes a shift in these 3 brain functions and how they work together. This specifically cuts off the outside sensations causing the ACC and Insula to ramp up by shifting from a state of exteroception to interoception.
Along with this, during meditation, if you happen to be focusing on your third eye center or forehead area, you would also be focusing on the location of your prefrontal cortex. Focusing on this area allows you to abandon sensation, focusing only on thoughts, no sensations. Since a degree of perception is cut off, this sensation of only focusing on thinking allows you to practice refocusing to return to the present moment.
Interoception Vs. Exteroception
Interoception and exteroception are two new concepts, to me, that I found interesting when deciding how to meditate for my own needs. Having knowledge of these two ideas can help you decide which kind of meditation is more tailored toward your natural state of mind.
Interoception is the perception of what’s going on internally (internal world) and exteroception is everything outside of the skin level (outside world).
How to determine if you’re more interoceptive or exteroceptive?
If you tend to be more internally aware of your body, maybe have higher levels of anxiety, or are an overthinker you’re likely more prone to interception. Whereas, if you have a harder time determining how you’re feeling internally or are more aware of external factors you may be more exteroceptive.
Dr. Huberman suggests, “A good measure to determine if you have high levels of interoception is if you can count your heartbeats without placing your fingers on your skin. You simply try to feel your heartbeat internally without any outside influences. If you can do this you’re more likely to be more interoceptive” (Huberman, Ep 96, 35:36).
Neither side is good or bad, each awareness state just is and has the ability to change or adjust.
Why does this matter?
Something helpful you can do for yourself and your practice is to use whichever side you naturally resonate with more to strengthen the opposing side. Meaning, that if you’re more interoceptive you can use more exteroceptive meditations to reduce anxiety or heightened interoception. You’re teaching yourself how to look outside of the natural state of your internal world. Adversely, if you’re more exteroceptive you can practice interoceptive meditation to help with emotion regulation or cognitive insight.
An example of exteroceptive meditation could be a walking meditation, where your focus is on the outside of your body vs. the inside. Closing your eyes increases interoception, and opening your eyes increases exteroception. An interoceptive meditation could be to close your eyes and focus on bodily sensations.
Ask yourself, am I more aware of my internal world and bodily sensations or am I someone who is less in touch with my bodily sensations (breathing, heart rate, stomach). From there, utilize one to strengthen the other without judgment.
How Long Should I Meditate?
Dr. Huberman makes a great point that deciding how long to meditate depends primarily on how often you’re able to keep up with a practice. There’s no wrong answer, however, if you can only do it one day a week a longer session (30 min-1 hr) would be more beneficial. But if you have the time to practice each day there has been a study done by Wendy Suzuki that 13 minutes has numerous benefits.
Wendy Suzuki, a neuroscientist and professor at NYU, conducted a study looking into the benefits of 13 minutes of meditation. What they found during this study showed that “In 8 weeks of daily meditation decreased negative mood state and enhanced attention, working memory, and recognition memory, and decreased state anxiety scores” (Suzuki, W. 2018). They also discovered changes in emotional regulation and improved cognition. This information shows how little time spent on meditation has direct effects on important factors of our bodies, which is great news for busy people!
Andrew Huberman mentioned that studies done in his labs have shown benefits after 3-5 minutes as well.
Breath Work In Meditation
Breath work can be a tie to your meditation practice at times and has even been known to be a meditation practice of its own.
There are many benefits to breath work alone such as:
-Reduced Stress
-More energy
-Boosts immune system
-Better sleep
Similarly to meditation, deciding which breathing method will be most beneficial to you depends on your desired outcome. For example, if you want to be more relaxed it’s recommended to have shorter inhales and longer exhales. Adversely, if you want to be more alert after a breathing session it is recommended to have longer inhales and shorter exhales.
An example I personally use for scientifically studied breath work for alertness is the Wim Hoff method. Also known as voluntary hyperventilation, consists of the following:
Lay down or sit down
30 deep breaths (deep inhale and full exhale)
On the final exhale, hold your breath for as long as possible
When you feel the need to breathe, take one giant breath and hold for 15 seconds
Repeat 2-3 times
For a guided breathing session, you can visit Wim Hoff’s website and find guided meditations, further information, and testimonials.
For breathwork that is more grounded in relaxation, I recommend the physiological sign breathing method.
Practice the following:
In a sitting position, close your eyes, and keep your head straightforward
Breathe in through your nose, pause, and let the breath out of your mouth while making an audible sigh (Ahhhhh sound)
Continue this process for 1-2 minutes or until you feel more relaxed
Types Of Meditation
As I’ve mentioned, when you begin to meditate it can be helpful to decide what you want out of your meditation. There are several meditations for mood, sleep, and focus. A tool I use weekly to find meditations for specific outcomes is Insight Timer. Insight Timer is a free app with thousands of guided meditations for various circumstances and different durations of time.
For sleep, two practices you can begin are guided Yoga Nidra or NSDR. The main difference between the two of these practices is Yoga Nidra is an ancient yoga practice that is referred to as “yogic sleep” and is more spiritual based. NSDR (developed by Dr. Andrew Huberman), also known as non-sleep deep rest, is more science-based and directs your attention to breathing and body awareness.
This type of meditation is a way to naturally relax the body. Typically, you settle into the mind and body, undergo body scans, indulge in relaxing breath work, focus on feelings and sensations, and practice visualization. It is understood that 20 minutes of Yoga Nidra specifically is equivalent to 2-4 hours of sleep. There are several guided practices on YouTube and Insight Timer to begin this practice.
A particular meditation, developed by Dr. Andrew Huberman is space-time bridging. It’s a type of meditation that allows mood, rest, and focus to be encompassed into one meditation.
This meditation allows for changes in perception. Perception is something that you’re giving your attention to, which is a focus point of this practice. This type of meditation allows you to shift your focus internally and externally throughout the session, while simultaneously focusing on your breathing. Here’s how to practice:
1.Breathe in, close your eyes, and focus internally. Focus on your body, heart, or third eye, while taking 3 inhales and exhales.
2. Breathe in, open your eyes, and focus externally. You’ll start by placing your hand out in front of you and focusing on your hand as you breathe in and out 3 times.
3. Breathe in, eyes open, and focus on something a few feet away from you, placing your focus a little further. For example, if you’re in your room look at something on the opposite side of the room. Inhale and exhale 3 times.
4. Breathe in, eyes open, and focus on something on the horizon. Based on your location, do the best you can to look out a window or focus on something much further from you. Breathe in and out 3 times.
5. Breathe in and close your eyes. This time focus on your location on earth and zoom out to the whole universe, focus on how tiny you are in regard to the whole universe. Breathe in and out 3 times.
6. Repeat 2-3 times.
This is a guided time-space-bridging exercise I’ve used to get the motion of this meditation:
Now that you’ve moved through some helpful concepts to build your own meditation practice, it gives you a chance to reflect on your mindset and natural state of mind.
Talk with yourself to see:
-Am I more interoceptive or exteroceptive?
-Should I be practicing interoceptive or exteroceptive meditations based on what I know?
-How much time a week can I commit to my meditation practice?
-Will I do daily or weekly meditations?
-Do I want to incorporate breathwork into my practice?
-Would I prefer my breathwork to bring me relaxation or alertness?
-What type of meditation do I want to practice currently?
Running through these few questions can help guide you to a meditation that may serve you best. There’s no right or wrong way to meditate, but having a desired outcome for how you want to feel after can definitely help to point you in a direction that can help you!
References: Basso JC;McHale A;Ende V;Oberlin DJ;Suzuki WA; (2018, August). Brief, daily meditation enhances attention, memory, mood, and emotional regulation in non-experienced meditators. Behavioural brain research. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30153464/ https://www.wimhofmethod.com/breathing-exerciseshttps://hubermanlab.com/how-meditation-works-and-science-based-effective-meditations/
