The Guide to Meditation: How to Meditate for Anxiety & Promote Inner Peace

The earliest documentation of meditation was written over 3500 years ago (1500 BC).

These were the Hindu scriptures of the Vedas – in ancient India.

Although this is the earliest recorded record of meditation – many scholars believe meditation could have been around thousands of years before the Vedas.

Different forms of meditation developed in China (Taoism) and India (Buddhism) around the 6th to 5th century BC - while the roots of Buddhist meditation go back as far as the 1st century BC.

Meditation spread to Japan in the 8th century AD.

The first "sitting" meditation instructions (Zazen) were written several hundred years later in Japan (1200 AD) – as well as the first community of monks.

Although meditation (in the way we generally describe it) began in the East – the history of meditation is not limited to Eastern traditions.

Different forms of meditation have roots in most religious traditions as well.

We can find Christian meditation – or contemplative prayer – as far back as the 10th century AD in the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Christian contemplative prayer typically involves the repetition of a mantra such as the Jesus Prayer, the repetition of the name "Jesus," or words such as "God" or "Love."

You can find meditative exercises and contemplative prayer throughout the Christian tradition.

Forms of meditation or contemplation are exceptionally prominent with the Christian mystics, such as Saint Teresa of Avila, and in Christian writings, such as "The Cloud of Unknowing."

In the early 11th century, the Jewish esoteric tradition of Kabbalah developed its forms of meditation which practitioners still practice today.

Other religions had early meditative practices as well.

Islamic Sufism has Dhikr, or remembrance of God, through the repetition of words.

Dhikr was systematized in Sufism in the 11th and 12th centuries.

In the West, writers and other intellectuals developed an increased interest in Buddhism, Hinduism, and meditation in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

It wasn't until the late 1950s and early 1960s that meditation began to take off in the West, specifically here in America.

This period brought many charismatic writers and teachers to the forefront of an American culture ready to learn.

Many famous writers of the 1950s and 1960s helped increase interest in Buddhism early on.

Numerous teachers from the East taught Americans meditation practices and Buddhism and Hinduism.

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi introduced transcendental meditation (TM) in the 1950s.

The popularity of TM flourished partly due to the famous meeting between The Beatles and Maharishi in 1967 and Maharishi's meetings with other well-known celebrities.

Meditation retreats and centers amassed a large following throughout the 1960s and 1970s.

There were many popular books published on the topic.

Many Americans even traveled to countries like India to learn meditation directly from yogis, monks, and other established teachers.

In 1979 Jon-Kabat Zinn created Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

Zinn created MBSR as a science-based approach to meditation for reducing stress and anxiety and creating greater self-awareness.

Through the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, the popularity of meditation and mindfulness continued – as did research into the possible benefits of meditation.

Other forms of meditation became popular in the Western world, including Vipassana, various Yoga meditations, and Qigong.

The popularity of meditation and mindfulness has also grown significantly in the past two decades as it was presented to the mainstream public by famous television personalities like Oprah Winfrey – charismatic teachers like Deepak Chopra – immensely popular books such as "The Power of Now" – and many, many others.

Support for meditation from the mainstream public, combined with its effectiveness in our over-stressed modern world, has made "mindfulness" and "meditation" common household words.

We can find classes on meditation and mindfulness in almost any city or town.

Meditators include those from all walks of life and all ages.

Even corporations and businesses are hiring meditation teachers to teach their employees mindfulness and meditation to reduce stress and improve concentration and performance.

The rise of the internet has also had a significant impact on meditation's popularity.

Today you can learn meditation directly from knowledgeable teachers without leaving home through online meditation courses and training.

Meditation apps and technology-based programs such as brainwave entrainment and meditation groups across the internet exist.