At Mettitation, we often talk about different meditation tools to help our clients develop a meditation and mindfulness practice that works well for them. Meditation can be viewed as a tool in its own right, one which can help you navigate your life with more ease and less resistance. In this blog we take a look at the best tools for meditation and go into detail on 8 meditation tools you can use as part of your meditation practice.

What are Meditation Tools?

Meditation tools can be described as anything that assists you in your meditation practice; either helping you sink into a meditative state or helping you uncover another layer of your practice. A meditation tool may be very personal to you and anything that is of service to you is a tool worth using. In this blog we look at 8 of the best meditation tools that are commonly associated with meditation.

8 Tools for Meditation

Keeping a Meditation Journal

A meditation journal is a powerful tool to help keep you on track, assist you with your mindful focus and to provide you with a record of how meditation and particular meditations have served you.

TIP: Keep a meditation journal next to you when you meditate - this is a great way to let the intellectual and conscious mind know that anything important can be recorded after the practice, so for now it can relax and settle into quietness.

“By combining journaling with meditation, you have the ability to derive perspective and wisdom from your inner being.” Keeping a Meditation Journal by Terry Hurley

How to keep a meditation journal:

What you write in your meditation journal is entirely up to you but you may wish to keep a note of:

Meditation Time & Length

Meditation Place

Type of Meditation

Any Tools Used (keep reading this blog for ideas)

Experience (what you felt, saw or otherwise intuited)

You may prefer to sketch in your meditation journal or simply right key words or sentences. Your meditation journal is just for you and the largest benefit will come from allowing yourself to flow with how you wish to journal.

2. Meditation Drawing - How drawing can be your meditation practice

One of the tools for meditation that is sometimes overlooked is meditation drawing. Drawing has been shown to reduce anxiety and the same is true for any creative task. With meditation drawing you consciously bring an element of mindfulness into your process to simultaneously train your mindful ability. This subtle shift of purpose allows the temporary benefit felt during an activity like drawing, to flow into your entire life. This is one of the reasons meditation in general creates so much benefit, because once the mindful muscle is trained, you can more easily use it all of the time.

Examples of meditation drawing exercises:

Drawing your breath - draw a line up for the inhale, and down for the exhale, until you have a wave-like pattern across your page.

Drawing circles - focus your attention on the beginning of the circle and then no matter how imperfect the shape, close your circle end to end, bringing your attention to the completion. You can match this exercise to your breath.

Drawing your emotions - some emotions feel overwhelming and can create disruption in your life and relationships. A ‘negative’ emotion is usually the absence of a ‘positive’ feeling. In this exercise begin by drawing your difficult emotion, allowing the pen to flow without removing it from the page. Once you feel you are drawing your challenging emotion, allow yourself to know what its opposite might be. For example, frustration may change to comfort, anger into kindness, sadness into joy. Next, allow your drawing to become the lighter opposite emotion, again without removing your pen from the page. As you draw, feel the shift within your body.

Drawing mandalas - mandalas are traditionally drawn by monks as a form of prayer. You can make mandala drawing very technical, or you can simply begin in the middle with a circle and allow your patterns to flow from the inside outward. Your attention is on the part of the mandala you are drawing, your awareness is on the whole mandala as it appears from your pen.

This section was inspired by a wonderful article, Meditative Drawing 101 - Relax Your Mind, Focus Better, and Easily Create Mindful Art by Silvia Bastos. We recommend reading it in full if meditation drawing appeals to you.

3. Meditation Apps help with accountability

There are a huge amount of meditation apps available now to download to your device. We recommend downloading a meditation app if you find accountability helps you stick to your practice, or if you’re not sure how to begin. A meditation app can help you stay on track and complete goals, whilst providing you with an array of meditation exercises, guided meditations, affirmations, quotes and more.

Some types of meditation apps include:

Complete wellness meditation apps - a holistic approach to meditation which takes a wider view of wellness goals. Try Headspace

Guided meditation apps - apps with guided meditations to choose from. Try Insight Timer

Chakra meditation apps - apps that revolve around the health and balance of your chakra systems. Try Chakra Meditation Balancing

Beginner meditation apps - short meditations and tips to start your practice. Try Calm

Spiritual or religious meditation apps - meditations with a particular tradition. Try Soulvana or search for your preferred tradition.

4. Create a Meditation Vision Board

A meditation vision board is created by making a collage of images and/or words which represent the life you wish to manifest into your three dimensional world. Vision boards are often made by hand and there is a belief that this holds extra power, just as writing an affirmation in your own handwriting is sometimes acknowledged as more powerful. Alternatively, you can make a vision board electronically. Whilst we acknowledge the power of a handmade vision board, we also acknowledge the power of having an electronic board on your phone or other device, as the current reality for most of us is that we are constantly looking at and interacting with our smartphones. Having a meditation vision board as your screensaver or lock screen can mean that you are regularly registering the images both consciously and unconsciously - we believe this can be a powerful way to work with a meditation vision board, alongside more traditional methods.

Let’s take a look at a traditional way of working with a meditation vision board:

Step 1 - spend some time, perhaps in quiet meditation, allowing yourself to know what your dream life may look like and include. The images and words on your vision board will be most powerful when they are aligned with positivity and kindness. The energy of an open, loving heart is a powerful manifestation tool. Ask yourself, and be honest - why do you want the things you believe you want? For example, if the answer is to make someone jealous who has been cruel to you, it may be best to leave that off your board for now. You could spend some time working towards the honest answer being, ‘because I am deserving of wonderful things.’

Step 2 - find representations to create your meditation visualisation board collage, take your time to find images and words that really move and inspire you. Your meditation vision board will be most powerful when each image or word holds a powerful vibration of inspirational energy.

Step 3 - work with your board often, at least every day, or when you wake up and before you go to sleep. You can even place your meditation vision board under your pillow whilst you sleep if it’s not too bulky! As well as admiring your board, make some time to sit in quiet contemplation with it. Here’s how:

Take a comfortable seat, settle your body and settle your breath. Take some moments to be calm. A smile can bring positive energy into your being, a powerful tool for manifestation. If you’ve closed your eyes, open them now and in this serene, calm energy, enjoy every part of your meditation vision board. Smile, be happy, be grateful. Allow yourself to feel how you will feel when your life looks just like your meditation vision board. Take your time with this and then close your eyes again, perhaps resting your hands on your meditation vision board, and enjoy some quiet, grateful moments of connection to your visionary life.

5. Experience a Meditation Sound Bath

A meditation sound bath is an incredible way to allow the powerful vibrations of sound to assist you in reaching, and remaining, in a meditative state. Sound baths commonly utilise the vibrational frequencies of quartz crystal bowls, metal singing bowls and gongs, as well as other instruments such as chimes, prisms, bells, flutes and drums.

Anything that makes sound can be used by the practitioner to help clients journey into meditation and often some form of guided spoken meditation is also used. Experiencing a meditation sound bath in person is the most powerful way to try this meditation tool, as the vibrations of sound interact with your cells and energy on a very physical level. Listening to a recording can still be an effective method of experiencing a meditation sound bath and you may wish to try this, as well as the many recordings of instruments tuned to particular frequencies, as a first step into the amazing world of meditative sound. The human voice has a long tradition of being used for meditation, in the form of mantras, chanting, toning and of course, singing. Sound is a powerful meditation tool to assist in submerging the mind into calm meditative states, but also for receiving the healing power of vibrational frequency. Check out this amazing talk on healing through sound.

Meditation sound bath in collaboration with Bajan Buddha

You can book meditation sound baths with Mettitation; group sessions are held regularly and private sessions can be booked at a time to suit you. Contact us and follow our social media for updates.

6. Immerse Yourself with a Meditation Music Player

We love the ease of access most of us can have to a meditation music player, through platforms like Spotify, YouTube and Apple Music. A quick search will provide almost infinite options for meditation music and playlists to assist with your meditation practice. Most meditation apps also have a section for meditation music, combining two useful meditation tools into one!

How does music help with meditation?

A meditation music player can help to create a calming environment for your meditation practice. Humans are sensory creatures and we often find that creating a ‘scene’ for a particular activity helps us to have more success; for example many people find they have a better workout at a gym or studio than they do in their living room, a pedicure in a spa is more relaxing than a home pedi on the couch and sunbathing on the beach hits a different note to lying in your yard. The same can be true for meditation. Whilst one of the benefits of meditation is that it can be performed anywhere to the same degree, many people find that creating a calming, comfortable space assists them with their meditation, perhaps especially for beginners. A meditation music player is one way you can begin to set this calming scene, which may help with:

Achieving a deeper meditation

Enjoying the extra benefits of healing through sound

Deepening relaxation

Deepening concentration

Achieving a more pronounced sense of peace

Let’s take a look at two more meditation tools which help to create a calming meditation environment.

7. Light Up Your Meditation Candles

Meditation candles can be used to help create that relaxing environment we talked about in the last section, but there is more to meditation candles than setting the scene.

It is thought that the earliest form of meditation occurred when our ancestors first stared into the flames of their fires and became mesmerised by the dancing shapes and changing colours. This style of flame gazing meditation, called trataka in the yogic tradition, is said to have benefits for cognitive health and function, eye health, focus and concentration, mental wellness, sleep and memory. In many traditions, flame gazing meditations are believed to train and attune the third eye.

Meditation candles, complemented with a singing bowl and incense

It’s easy to use meditation candles, simply light a candle a comfortable distance in front of your meditation seat and with gently lowered eyes, gaze into the flame; you may find you are able to go long periods without blinking and your eyes may water. Allow your gazing to be soft and natural. If you are feeling the need to blink or close your eyes, you may do so consciously, before resuming your gaze. Some users of meditation candles find that the candle gazing is a first step into a closed eye meditation, with the third eye open. Practitioners often begin to see colours and shapes as well as experiencing a deep sense of relaxation. Allow your experience with meditation candles to be just as it is, without expectation. A meditation journal is a useful accompaniment to practices with meditation candles.

8. Take a Seat on Meditation Cushions

The last feature in our 8 meditation tools blog are meditation floor cushions. We recommend reading our previous post on Meditation Postures, for a full explanation of how you can sit for meditation. Meditation cushions are incredibly useful meditation tools which help to create the aligned postures for meditation, which not only improves your comfort, but also the flow of energy and breath through your system.

There are many styles of meditation cushions, which one is right for you will depend on your natural flexibility and needs. Simple meditation floor cushions are enough for many people to raise the sit bones and to allow their knees to drop towards the ground. Other meditators require more knee or back support from their meditation cushions for a truly comfortable meditation pose. Take a look at this link for help choosing your meditation cushions.

Once you have chosen your meditation cushions, you may wish to set up an area in your home that becomes your meditation space, adding other meditation tools to assist with your practice, such as meditation candles, access to a meditation music player, incense, blankets, plants, wind chimes and other instruments for a meditation sound bath, as well as your meditation journal and meditation drawing equipment.

As we have mentioned, there is no need to create such a space but many of us find our meditation practice becomes more consistent and enjoyable once a comfortable and calming meditation space has been created. Ask us for more tips!

What are the best meditation tools?

The best meditation tools are anythings that helps you create a consistent meditation practice. It is a myth that good meditators always reach blissful transcendent moments, though some do, the most important thing to receive the benefits of meditation into your life is consistency. Choose meditation tools that help you want to come to your meditation cushions every day and take some quiet moments with your breath and with your awareness. The best meditation tools are different for each of us and will likely change over time and on different days. Meditation tools are best when they remove pressure from your life, rather than create it. So don’t get weighed down in research, over purchasing and procrastinating. We recommend working with what you have available to begin, and anything that intuitively appeals to you that you can easily access. A piece of paper and a pencil works for a meditation journal just as well as anything created for that purpose. We love a beautiful meditation journal and have found that some propel our practice in a significant way, but we have also bought many that ended up not feeling right and have been put to one side. Take your time and feel your way. Reach out to us for more advice on meditation tools here.

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