How to Take Your Meditation to the Next Level
A massive “choose your own adventure” list on how to get more out of your meditation.
Introduction
This is supposed to be an interactive list. I’ve linked to a ton of resources so you can start your own journey. I will continuously update this list so you can come back to it from time to time if you feel like your practice is stagnate.
Even though there are some overlaps between the exercises, I tried to separate them into three different categories. This overview can help you find what you are looking for quicker:
I tried to make the resources as accessible as possible. All of these techniques can be practiced for free and should be available for all. There will always be at least one free example. Some of the recommended books or apps come with a price, as do two different courses, but I purposely tried to stay away from expensive gadgets and overprized online-classes in this list.
Each topic will be divided into three parts. First, there will be a short overview and some scientific insights. Second are resources for further learning like videos, articles, books, etc. Last but not least will be some of the key takeaways and best practices.
If you feel like anything valuable is missing, please leave a comment. I will check out the resources and add them to the list.
1. Get in the State
- Make it a habit
- Cold exposure
- Breathwork 1.0
- Binaural beats
2. Deepen the State
- Fasting
- Visit a Retreat
- Breathwork 2.0
3. Maintain the State
- Integrate a new technique/switch it up
- Work with your dreams and sleep
- Integrate mindfulness into your life
A Few words before:
The point of meditation is awareness. Chasing desired states will not give you the results that you are looking for. So keep in mind that meditation is a non-linear progress.
However, meditation is also an ancient technique originally taught in monasteries with a lot less distraction and clutter.
Let’s face it: We live in a place of chaos. Everything has to happen fast. The entire world has to know about it. Noise is omnipresent. When you start observing your mind, you will see that you carry on that noise. That is why I believe these ancient (still awesome) techniques can profit from some modernized influences.
Let’s get to it
1. Get in the State
Make it a habit
Duh, Yes, I know. I am sorry to be that guy. Meditation is an exercise and requires practice. If you’ve trained your brain to be distracted for decades, you can assume that you’ve gotten proficient with that. As with any exercise, consistency beats intensity. When you only train once a year, the only thing you can expect is to be sore.
Resources: Atomic habits (Book), The Art of Learning (Book) The Power of Habit (Book), There are also tons of high-quality courses and apps about this topic. Guided meditations are also a powerful tool when getting started. Sam Harris has a great app that combines both worlds.
Takeaways:
- Make it obvious (set a cue e.g. get a meditation pillow; Do it after an already established habit e.g. brushing your teeth, taking a walk, taking a shower).
- Make it attractive (e.g. find a group or some friends who value meditation; Do something you enjoy before you meditate).
- Make it easy (decrease the number of actions between you and your habit; Downscale e.g. if 30 minutes of meditation is too long for you, scale it down to a few minutes; use guided meditations, try to stick to one technique when you are just starting).
- Make it satisfying (track your habits e.g. app, journal; reinforce your behavior with something rewarding once completed).
- Remind yourself why you are doing what you do (e.g. journal, tell others about your commitment, learn to stay consistent).
Cold exposure
Now it is getting uncomfortable. Since you are reading an article about meditation, you are probably aware that cold exposure can improve your health in a variety of ways. But how can it help your meditation?
Well, it turns out that cold exposure has a significant impact on your brain’s physiology. It also increases the awareness of somatic experiences by sending an overwhelming amount of electrical impulses from peripheral nerves to the brain. That is useful for most meditation techniques.
Even though there is no human data on the effects of acute cold exposure on your brain waves, I found cold showers to be a quick and easy way to quiet the mind. My hypothesis would be that cold forces your brain out of the incoherent beta state mind-chatter into a more coherent alpha state. This effect might be traced back to an overall increase in power output as well.
Ressources: Your shower; if you want to take this a step further you can build your own ice bath; for some motivation and further resources check out Wim Hof / his book. If you are lucky enough to live near a lake or the sea, that works even better!
Takeaways: I found cold showers to work best before a meditation session. If you are very sensitive to cold, contrast showers can help (cold-hot-cold). As soon as you breathe through the initial shock it becomes quite enjoyable. With practice, even that initial moment of wanting-to-jump-out-of-the-shower fades away. What works with cold also applies to heat exposure like saunas
Breathwork 1.0
Breath is fundamental to most meditation techniques. It is a bridge between the autonomic nervous system and your conscious control. Whenever you get your attention focused on one thing, you will realize how your breath begins to slow and become quiet. This works in both directions. Here are some breathing techniques that help you quiet the mind:
Ressources: Breath (Book, absolute recommandation); Box breathing (Website), Alternate Nostril Breathing (Video), Deep Breathing (Video), Conscious Breathing Anchor/Conscious Breathing Carbon Dioxide Training (Video-there are guided versions in the audio version of “Breath”, I cannot find a better free version. The basic idea is to exhale a lot longer than you inhale e.g. 3 seconds in, 6 seconds out); 4–7–8 Breathing (Video)
Takeaways: It does not matter which one of the techniques you do. Try them out and see what resonates with you. They should help you to bring your attention to the breath and that in itself is valuable. The Conscious Breathing Anchor is the technique that helps me most to slow down my breathing. I find it works even better if I keep the inhale extremely short and exhale for a long period e.g. 1 second in, 10 seconds out. If you are not fond of any technique, just try to breathe as silently as you possibly can for a few minutes, then continues with whatever meditation you are practicing.
Binaural Beats
Binaural Beats are a fascinating topic and have gotten a lot of attention from the scientific community in the last decade. There are several methods to produce a “binaural” beat. The idea remains the same: entraining the brain to the presented frequency. This does work. However, there is still a lot of confusion about variables like frequency, carrier tone, duration, and participants. Experienced meditators also show different responses compared to a control group. I have experimented with this a lot over the last few years and attained mixed results. I even got nauseant and dizzy with some frequencies. There are a ton of resources out there and I’d be very cautious with the sources. Here are some tried and trusted resources:
Ressources: magnetic minds (Videos); IAwake (App). Brain.fm (App, emphasis more on focus, work, and sleeping); List of frequencies (Website).
Takeaways: I believe this to be a very individual approach. You literally have to see what “resonates” with you. I found alpha entrainment to be most helpful when I am doing a short meditation or just trying to calm my racing mind. Whenever I want to go deeper I will use Theta frequencies as those resonate the most at the moment.
In general, you can go two ways with meditation, either you slow ways down and eventually become conscious during coherent low delta waves (this is absolute expert meditator territory) or you go way up into the high Gamma Frequencies. Both states can be experienced without ever listening to a binaural beat. I generally use binaural beats only whenever I meditate in a noisy environment like a train.
Note: The described frequencies are referring to brain activity which to my understanding is “mind.” I believe Awareness/Consciousness to be something separate from “mind.” It took me a while to understand this but when I asked John Dupuy the founder of IAwake in an interview about the importance of different frequencies in different situations he replied: “It does not matter, your job during meditation is to sit and observe whatever it is that arises”.
Binaural beats will not change your Consciousness but they will change your state of mind which might help you change perspectives.
2. Deepen the State
Fasting
Fasting practices exist in every major spiritual tradition and are being utilized for a variety of reasons. It has historically been used to help with spiritual breakthroughs and is associated with increased awareness and purification of the body.
Modern science validates these claims through a variety of mechanisms. Here are two related to increased awareness and purification of the body:
- Ketosis: refers to a state when the body primarily relies on ketone bodies as an alternative energy source to glucose. Ketones can be utilized by most cells and help produce energy more efficiently with fewer side-products (deep dive). Ketosis is NOT the same as “burning” fat. Ketones themselves are produced as a side-product when fatty acids are metabolized. If your body is not adapted to using fat as a fuel source, it may take you a couple of days of fasting to get into a state of ketosis.
There is some evidence suggesting that ketosis creates favorable conditions in the brain that support “mental relaxation” during Transcendental Meditation. There are also a ton of studies about enhanced memory, decreased inflammation, and enhanced energy metabolism not to mention all the epigenetic changes. There are A LOT of unknown variables and individual differences still! If you have ever experimented with ketosis yourself chances are you either loved it or you hated it. - Autophagy: refers to an intracellular recycling process where specialized organelles “autophages” can disassemble misfolded proteins or even regulate apoptosis (cell death). This “decluttering” process can be active in different parts of the cell and to different degrees. Common denominators for upregulation of autophagy are lack of amino acids and other growth factors (mTor regulators-deep-dive). Both can easily be achieved with fasting
There are no studies that I am aware of that link the modern science of autophagy with meditation. However, it has to be said that fasting seems to be a common side effect in long term meditators. Also, that tons of relatable traditions would stimulate described pathways to purify the body and Mind e.g. Ayurveda.
Ressources: The complete guide to fasting (Book), Fasting & Longevity (Video), Ketofast (Book).
Takeaways: If you are new to this, START SLOW! Try intermittent fasting first. Leave the carbohydrates out of your breakfast for a week. Just do a 24 hour fast at first or try a ketogenic diet before you go on a one week fast. Fasting is an exercise just like everything else. You would not want to run a marathon without practice right?
It is important to stay hydrated so get a good mineral salt to keep your electrolytes balanced. Dry-fasting is a thing and might be valuable if you are looking for more of the autophagy benefits but should not be tried without proper experience.
Even though intermittent fasting is awesome, peak mental clarity as well as increased sensory perception seem to occur only with longer fasts (about 3 days in).
I always found longer fasts to go hand in hand with a meditation retreat. Sometimes it is even recommended. I prefer to do my meditation on an empty stomach whenever possible. I found a full stomach to significantly decrease focus and awareness (even outside of meditation). Interviews with experienced mediators seem to agree with that.
Visit a Retreat
This step certainly requires the greatest amount of commitment to any of the previously mentioned tools. It might be one of the most powerful though. Even though the term “retreat” is very loosely defined and can vary in duration, intensity, technique, and other variables, it generally refers to a strong determination of learning one specific technique without distraction.
In comparison to Mindfulness interventions (e.g. MBSR, MBCT…), intensive meditation retreats are a lot less studied. Results are among reduced stress and anxiety, increased quality of life and well-being, functional changes during resting brain states, structural changes in long-term meditators as well as improved attention span up to seven years after the initial retreat (with continued practice).
Even less studied but even more interesting are the subjective experiences of the meditators. Participants report increased frequencies of mindful moments during the day, reduced need for sleep, “ecstatic clarity of bare attention” and increased sensory perception. During my thesis, I interviewed a bunch of experienced meditators who also reported on reduced reactivity, less negativity, and more clarity in life.
Ressources: The only free and internationally available retreats I can recommend are Vipassana retreats. Depending on where you live, there might be tons of other retreats in the area. Sometimes they can be very prices though.
Takeaways: Meditating for up to 10 hours a day in silence can be an absolute life-changing event! It certainly was for me. I do have to mention that retreats are very hard work. There is a lot of discomfort and pain involved. There are a lot of good articles written by people who have tried longer retreats for the first time. These can be helpful but there is nothing to it than to do it. I know all these scientific validations sound nice but some experiences just have to be made. Intensive practice during a retreat can show you what is possible with meditation.
Breathwork 2.0
You can do a lot more with your breath than just calming your nervous system or a racing mind. Breathwork can be a very powerful tool to experience higher states of consciousness. It has to be said that some of these techniques require a lot more effort and might not be suited for everyone. Please make sure you inform yourself. I do not want anyone to pass out in front of their computer screens because they read this article. That out of the way: “lets breath motherf*****”:
Ressources: Wim Hof (Video), So Hum (Video), Holotropic breathwork (Book), holotropic workshops (Website).
Takeaways: There are a lot more names to the breathing techniques I mentioned here. Every tradition has its spin on it. However, what all of these breathing exercises have in common is controlled hyperventilation. With a heavy emphasis on the inhale, our body begins to hold on to oxygen as the concentration of carbon dioxide in the blood decreases. This goes along with a ton of different physiological changes which would require an entire article by itself. To make things short: Your body gets flooded with different neurotransmitters, hormones, and energy (Prana, Chi) and may even cause you to hallucinate (e.g. holotropic breathing; I would have liked to talk about a personal experience here but the current circumstances have made it pretty difficult to visit a workshop where you do nothing but breath heavily for an entire day with others. coming soon).
The real magic happens on the exhale though. That is how I always end my breathwork sessions and transition into meditation. I exhale everything I have, hold and observe that space I’ve just created. This was a gamechanger when I began trying it. The exhale-hold almost instantly deepens the state. Here what works best for me:
1. Meditate as usual (whatever practice you are currently doing)
2. Do at least one round of breathwork (Wim Hof is easiest to begin)
3. Exhale-hold and keep meditating (keep that breath-hold as long as possible without becoming uncomfortable then try to breathe in as calm as you can. You should be back to baseline after 2–3 normal breaths.)
4. Repeat that cycle 2–3 times. (or more if you like and have the time to do so)
3. Maintain the State
Integrate another Technique/Switch it up
There are a lot of different techniques in meditation. Most traditions recommend sticking with one until you master it. I believe there is value in switching it up from time to time. I was doing body scans for years. However, at a certain point, I was not making any progress unless I meditate more (at least that is what I told myself). That is until I realized how that process became mostly automated. Just like I built the habit of sitting down every morning to meditate, the technique itself became habitual. The entire point of meditation is to become aware. I began to engrain the technique into an unconscious pattern. So I switched it up. The familiar feeling of learning occurred again.
Ressources: Integral Meditation (Video), Embodied Awareness (Video), Vipassana Meditation (Video).
Takeaways: Switching up your technique requires you to already have one that you are adequately experienced with. Jumping from one meditation to the next will not bring you any value. However, if you have found one (or two) that work for you and you can get into the state and deepen it, then you probably have enough space to move in different directions. Here are some examples:
If your Main practice is a single-point attention meditation, try something more continuous e.g. a body scan.
If your Main practice is a continuous, mindfulness meditation, try to practice an open awareness meditation.
If your main practice is open awareness, try to include more senses. Meditate with your eyes open, become mindful of your hearing, etc.
These are just examples, please do not take them literally, there are hundreds of valuable meditations. You also do not have to toss your technique out of the window, integrate it. The link to the embodied awareness meditation is a great example of how you can expand and integrate different techniques.
I myself got a great amount of value from the integral meditation lately. Equally redistributing awareness throughout all sensory/mental channels made a huge difference in my daily experiences.
Experiment, be open-minded, don’t be dogmatic about the technique that has brought you value years ago. If you are stuck, switch it up, see what resonates.
Work with your dreams and sleep
We spend about a third of our lifetime sleeping. A state mostly forgotten, hidden behind a veil of unconsciousness. What if this never had to be that way? Becoming consciously aware- lucid- during dreaming is a surprisingly well-studied phenomenon and has been described in Buddhist literature by advanced yogis. Becoming more aware during mostly unconscious states can be a good indicator of spiritual progress.
Just like any skill, lucid dreaming can be learned. It shows promise in the clinical treatment of nightmares and is regularly used by “Oneironauts” to live out fantasies, refine skills, or overcome stress.
Resources: Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming (Book), The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep (Book); An Oneironaut’s Guide to lucid Dreams (Article); dream circles (Website).
Takeaways: Again, there are a ton of different techniques. Some of them I found to be highly impractical (like waking up in the middle of the night). Some significantly increased the chances of me becoming lucid. Here are some of the most impactful tools I have found to work:
First: Remembering your dreams. The most success I had with this was the simple habit of keeping a dream journal next to my bed. I found most of my dreams to burst like a bubble as soon as I get up. Writing them down immediately reminds my brain that this is something important to me.
Second: Increasing the likelihood of dreaming. Since most dreaming seems to occur during later REM- sleep cycles. Not interrupting your sleep too early is probably the easiest thing to do. Not sleeping with an alarm at all (if that is an option) works even better for me.
Third: increase the likelihood of becoming aware during your dreaming. This is one of the most underreported parts of becoming lucid and requires the most amount of awareness. Making “reality checks” habitual is very helpful. It increases the chances of doing these during dreaming can instantly make you lucid.
I also found the amount of stimulation and distraction I have during the day to directly influence my chances of becoming lucid. The more I stimulate myself with social media, food, or whatever drug of choice I prefer on that day, the less likely I am to remember, no even mention becoming lucid, during my sleep.
Doing Meditation before going to sleep is also helpful. Especially getting into a state of total non-reactivity seems to have the greatest impact on dreaming in my experience. This Meditation can also be done in bed. The effect seems to be reinforced by high-quality Theta frequencies.
Some people seem to be a lot better at this than others. There are probably a lot of factors at play but even if you are not great at dreaming (like me), there are some clear steps you can take to become more skillful at it. The experiences made during a lucid dream easily outweigh the efforts.
Integrate mindfulness into your life
The ultimate goal of meditation should be to carry your awareness throughout the day. This is what makes meditation so powerful and why Tim Ferris described meditation as a “Meta-Skill,” an ability to improve all other areas in your life. Becoming more “mindful” in life will make every action more enjoyable. The principles can be applied to anything.
Ressources: Full Spectrum Mindfulness (Course), mindful working (Article), mindful eating (Video), mindful walking (Video), Integral Meditation (Video).
Takeaways: I know how easy this sounds in theory but I am no stranger to distractions and mindless living. It is so much more comfortable to watch mindlessly watch a video while eating or to always listen to some audiobook while walking with a chocolate bar in one hand. I got you.
Even though I included guided versions of mindful walking/eating, I am not convinced of their efficacy. Sure it is nice whenever I force myself to just eat. But it is even nicer when I truly WANT to just eat without having to force myself to do it. I found the easiest way to get there is to become more aware.
Again the most impact recently was the inclusion of Integral Meditation. Meditating with my eyes open automatically transferred to so many situations in my life. It made it kind of easy to get into a meditative state during work, walking, eating, or whatever else. Becoming more aware of my peripheral vision changed all my habitual fixations or avoidances in subtle ways in just weeks. This helped me get my work done even when I was feeling tired, which usually would have led to procrastination. I did not have to push myself through any more discomfort though. I simply became more aware of my reactions to my increased restlessness during sleep deprivation.
Even though I wanted to stay away from anything costly in this article, I have to mention the Full Spectrum Mindfulness Course from Ken Wilber (currently 156$). I just started taking this course recently but I am amazed by its depth. If you are familiar with anything from Ken Wilber this should not be a surprise.
Most Mindfulness techniques emphasize surface features on a moment-to-moment experience. Full Spectrum Mindfulness flips this scheme around and focuses on the “deep features”, aspects of the psyche that cannot easily be seen through introspection alone. With Mindfulness as a tool to observe these features, attention can be brought even to feelings like Power, Love, Achievement, or Unity.
As a Psychologist, I am very excited about this as it can take the dependencies out of therapy and offer new ways of growing up and waking up.
Conclusion
Of course, all of the tools mentioned above can be combined for even greater effect. I would encourage you to only change one variable at a time. Hyperventilating in a lake with binaural beats, after one week of fasting (in a dream) might be an extraordinary experience but how will you ever know what produced it?
Most of the effects will come with time. Using a binaural beat once might not even have any effect. Using it over and over again significantly increases your brain’s response. This principle is probably true for most of the topics I mentioned here. Don’t let that discourage you!
I might have to add that most of the books are affiliate links. If you would rather buy them in your local bookstore, I happily encourage you to do so. Linking books on Amazon is simply the easiest way to do it and might allow me to end my fasting earlier this year ;)
If you have somehow made it this far, I can only hope you have gotten at least some value out of this. Putting all of this together was a lot more work than I would have anticipated. Technically it included years of experimentation. Yet I do not want this to be done.
So If you have any valuable additions that helped you to work on your meditation, I invite you to send me a message. I will check them out and try to integrate them for future visits.
Keep meditating!
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