Meditation Toolbox

I have found different types of meditation provide different benefits, just as different tools in a toolbox serve different needs.  The breathing meditation I've been writing about helps me when I'm doing too much, too many goals, not letting things just be as they are.  Focusing on my breath while letting it do "its own thing" helps me balance my goal oriented, busy life with a time in which I let things be.  This is key for me most of the time because I have issues with working too hard and not relaxing enough.

But there are times when I need to grab a different tool from the toolbox.  Today, something happened that made me very sad.  I was laying in the recliner again, breathing, but my meditation today was to feel my sadness in all of its intensity.  I can use meditation as a tool to face my emotions.

There are also meditations for defusing anger toward another person.  There are Tibetan Buddhist meditations in which I think about someone I'm upset with and practice wishing for good things to happen to them.  It's a way to practice what Jesus called "turning the other cheek", but to turn that cheek in my imagination.

Sometimes, I just need meditation that is enjoyable.  I just need pleasure.  At times like this, I might listen to jazz or classical.

I don't want to jump from one technique to another so often that I fail to develop mastery in anything.  But it's important to remember that there is a whole toolbox of meditation techniques.  Some days, I need one tool a lot more than the rest.