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Meditation for Emotional Balance: 2 Best Techniques

Avatar für Eddie DoruByEddie Doru Updated on

One of the reasons I started to meditate was to find emotional balance. When you’ve spent a lifetime pushing down or ignoring your uncomfortable emotions you soon realize that your life has become just that, a life of pushing and ignoring emotions.

And emotions are tricky, what you might have thought at first was anger was really sadness. Or maybe what you thought was love, but was actually a want to be needed.

Meditation for emotional balance isn’t just about feeling good. It’s about harnessing your ability to regulate your emotions, respond rather than react to life’s challenges, and maintain a positive outlook.

In this article, I’ll explain what emotional balance is and how meditation can help you better manage it.

What Is Emotional Balance?

Emotional balance is the ability to manage your emotions in a way that allows you to express how you feel, understand others’ emotions, and respond appropriately to various situations.

It doesn’t mean suppressing our feelings but understanding them and healthily dealing with them.

meditation for emotional balance - zen garden with stacked stones

The Benefits of Being Emotionally Balanced

Being better at understanding your emotions is key to a healthy and happy life. When you’re emotionally balanced, you’re better equipped to handle stress, form healthy relationships, and navigate the ups and downs of life.

Living with a long life of emotional imbalance can lead to anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues.

It can get pretty ugly, affecting all areas of your life. It can strain our relationships, mess things up at work, and even impact our physical health.

The good news is, it’s not a life sentence. With tools like meditation, you can work towards achieving and maintaining a better relationship with your emotions.

The Science Behind Meditation and Emotional Balance

Most people use meditation as a relaxation technique. It’s a powerful tool that can fundamentally change the way your brain functions.

When we meditate, we engage the prefrontal cortex—the part of our brain responsible for concentration, decision-making, and emotional regulation.

Regular meditation has been shown to strengthen this area, improving your ability to manage your emotions effectively.

Different Types of Meditation for Emotional Balance

There are lots of types of meditation, each with its unique benefits for emotional balance.

From my studies, all types of meditation will have a positive effect on handling emotions. For the best results practice daily. Here are a couple of types of meditation that are attributed as being the best for working with emotions.

Kundalini Yoga

meditation for emotional balance - woman self hugging

Kundalini Yoga, often known as the “Yoga of Awareness,” is a blend of physical postures, breathing techniques, meditation, and chanting.

If changing, or talking about spirituality makes you feel weird, that’s okay, you can replace the words with affirmations like ‘May I find peace”.

  • Set the Space: Find a quiet, comfortable space where you won’t be disturbed. Ensure you have drinking water nearby to maintain your body’s water balance during the practice.
  • Tuning In: Begin by chanting the Adi Mantra “Ong Namo Guru Dev Namo” three times. This mantra tunes us into the divine consciousness and sets the intention for the practice. But like I said earlier, if you don’t feel comfortable with the words, stick with something you’re comfortable with.
  • Warm-Up: Start with simple stretching exercises to prepare your body. Keep your arms straight and rotate them in circles, warming up the entire upper area.
  • Kriya: A kriya is a series of postures, breath, and sound that work toward a specific outcome. For balancing emotions, start by sitting in an easy pose or any pose that feels comfortable. What’s important is that you keep your spine straight.
  • Then cross your hands and put them under your armpits, imagine that it’s a cold day and you’re trying to stay warm.
  • Then raise your shoulders towards your ears, if you feel more comfortable close your eyes and notice you breathe rhythmically slowing.
  • Breath Control: Kundalini Yoga often involves breath control exercises. One such exercise involves tightly locking your navel point and gradually increasing your breathing rate. This can help in calming racing thoughts and emotions.
  • Relaxation: After the kriya, take two or three minutes to relax in the corpse pose (lying flat on your back). This allows your body to integrate the energy you’ve just released.
  • Final Meditation: Kundalini Yoga sessions typically end with a meditation. An emotional balance meditation can involve focusing on a mantra, a specific form of breathing, or even a mental image. This practice helps in indirectly controlling your emotional responses and achieving a balanced state.
  • Closing: To close the session, sit in a comfortable position and chant the mantra “Sat Nam” (meaning “truth is my identity”) three times.

Remember, Kundalini Yoga is a powerful practice. Always listen to your body and go at your own pace. If you’re new to Kundalini Yoga, consider attending a class or following an online tutorial to ensure you’re doing the postures correctly.

Mindfulness Meditation

Mindfulness meditations are now very common, you can find them in most meditation apps and online videos. The purpose is to just be aware of the present, without any judgments, and when you notice your mind wander, you gently bring it back to the present moment.

The exercise works by teaching your brain not to jump and get carried away by thoughts, and as I said earlier, it can actually change your brain when done regularly.

The Takeaway

Maintaining emotional balance can be a challenge. Meditation offers a powerful tool to help us navigate our emotions and cultivate a sense of inner peace.

Whether it’s mindfulness meditation, Kundalini Yoga, breathing exercises, guided meditation, or walking meditation, each practice offers unique benefits for emotional balance.

With patience and consistency, meditation can transform our emotional landscape, enhancing our ability to manage stress, improve self-awareness, and increase overall well-being. So why not embark on your meditation journey today? The path to emotional balance is just a breath away.

Disclaimer: The information provided in this article is intended for educational and informational purposes only. It should not be construed as professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment. If you are experiencing symptoms of any mental health condition, we strongly advise consulting with a qualified healthcare professional.

FAQs

Yes, meditation can help balance emotions. By promoting mindfulness and self-awareness, meditation allows us to observe our emotions without judgment, helping us to respond rather than react to emotional triggers. This can lead to a more balanced and less reactive approach to life’s challenges.

Absolutely! Meditation enhances awareness of your emotional state, enabling you to recognize and understand your feelings. This understanding facilitates better emotional control as you can consciously choose not to react negatively to challenging emotions.

Emotional healing meditation is a type of meditation focused on healing emotional wounds and traumas. It often involves visualizations and affirmations designed to release negative emotions and replace them with positive ones. This type of meditation can be particularly beneficial for those dealing with emotional pain or trauma.

Yes, meditation can sometimes bring up repressed emotions. As we quiet our minds and turn our attention inward, we may become aware of emotions that we’ve been ignoring or suppressing. While this can be uncomfortable, it’s also an opportunity for healing. By acknowledging and processing these emotions, we can release them and move towards greater emotional balance. However, it’s important to approach this process with kindness and patience towards oneself. If you find this process overwhelming, it may be helpful to seek support from a mental health professional.

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Avatar für Eddie Doru

Eddie Doru is a Certified Meditation Teacher and founder of ZenGuided.com. He is a devoted meditation and mindfulness practitioner and teacher dedicated to helping individuals achieve inner peace and well-being in today's fast-paced world.
With over six years of daily meditation experience, Eddie's teachings are rooted in personal practice and ongoing learning, including workshops, retreats, and engagement with meditation communities.
Residing in North London with his wife, Eddie continually deepens his understanding of meditation, mindfulness, and well-being, sharing these invaluable insights with the global audience through ZenGuided.com.

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