How The Brain Works During The Two Main Types of Meditation

A new study on what happens in the brain when you meditate finds that more thoughts and emotions may be processed in ‘non-directive’ forms of meditation. All the different types of meditation can be split into two main types: In non-directive types of meditation, people focus on their breathing or a sound, but also allow their mind to wander where it will. In concentrative types of meditation, people try to focus closely on their breath, or something else, in order to suppress other thoughts and feelings they experience. To examine the differences, a Norwegian study had some meditators practising concentrative meditation and others non-directive meditation, while their brains were scanned (Xu et al., 2014).