Insight meditation can be done sitting or lying and focuses on the breath, as all the other stillness meditation practices. To practice this style of meditation, breathe slowly and naturally and just watch what comes up.
If thoughts come up, and they will, just notice them without judgment and allow them to pass by while you gently return to following your breath.
Insight meditation is a practice of curiosity in connecting with the part of you that “watches” your thoughts and your senses. In essence, you are watching the watcher without thinking about it, just experiencing it in the moment.
It can be helpful with this meditation if you visualize your mind as a clear blue sky. Thoughts are the clouds that cross through the mind. Some clouds are the fluffy white kind. They float through easily and may be happy thoughts.
Other thoughts are heavier and darker clouds. Those can be worry thoughts and are typically harder to shake. Stay in the clear blue sky and just watch the clouds without becoming a part of them.
There are a variety of guided meditations that address many topics that can be listened to and/or watched. YouTube for instance has a huge variety for you to try on for size. These types of meditation are helpful in reaching deeper states of meditation or attaining a specific meditative goal. Some of them are definitely better than others.
While guided meditations can be very effective, they should only be used as an occasional enhancement with other forms of meditation. Your mind will grow much stronger, and your meditation will become deeper if you can rely on yourself instead of being guided.
Being silent in meditation, without the mantra’s, centering or using guided meditation is an advanced skill. I suggest giving it a try regularly throughout the week, alongside other forms of meditation. This is because it may take some practice until this method seems more comfortable or natural.
You can begin silence meditation by starting with Mantra or centering prayer, then go into silence meditation after the mind calms down a bit. Sitting down after doing Yoga can also help your mind/body system warm up to sitting in silence.
You will want to make sure to turn off all noise, or at least as much as possible before you begin to sit in silence. You can lie down or sit down, whichever you are most comfortable with and just be in the quiet, with your breath.
You will inevitably hear sounds, just let them pass.
Your mind will decide to think, allow thoughts to pass. Do not strain or struggle with this, just gently return to a place of silence and start with about one minute at a time.
If you can sit in silence of the mind for one minute, that is an excellent feat even though it may not sound like long.
Once you feel comfortable with one minute of silence, increase the time slowly. It may take a long time to feel strong for even one full minute. The longer you practice though, the better it gets. Eventually it will become easy for you and you can then continue on to longer time periods.