Meditate the way you like best

The best way to meditate is to find a technique you are comfortable with, rather than one that may be popular.

So says Adam Burke, a professor of health education at the San Francisco State University.

"Because of the increase in both general and clinical use of meditation, you want to make sure you're finding the right method for each person," Burke was quoted as saying in EXPLORE: The Journal of Science and Healing.

If one fails to find the right technique, one is more likely to abandon meditation and lose out on medical benefits like reduced stress, lower blood pressure or even treatment for addiction.

Burke compared the four popular meditation methods - Mantra, Mindfulness, Zen and Qigong Visualisation - to see if novice practitioners favoured one over the others, according to a San Francisco university statement.

The 247 participants were taught each method and asked to practice at home and evaluate which they preferred.

The two simpler methods, Mantra and Mindfulness, were preferred by 31 percent. Zen and Qigong had smaller but still sizable contingents of adherents.

Older participants, who grew up when Zen was becoming one of the first meditation techniques to gain attention in the US, were more likely to go for that method.