“Another meditation?” you may be thinking. And it’s six phases?
Before you “ugh…” and roll your eyes, understand that we get you. There are a lot of tools and practices out there that help transform your mind.
So what makes the 6 Phase Meditation so special? Discover what it is and how it works with—bonus!—insights from the creator of the practice himself (and also the founder of Mindvalley), Vishen.
What Is the 6 Phase Meditation?
First off, don’t be fooled by the name. The 6 Phase Meditation isn’t meditation as you know it. Instead, it’s a “form of transcendent practice that allows you to go into your mind and optimize the very act of being human,” explains Vishen in Mindvalley’s The 6 Phase Meditation Quest.
Simply, it’s unique thought exercises—six of them, to be exact—designed to transform how you think, perform, grow, heal, and shape the world around you.
[The 6 Phase Meditation] is a state of being that is possible for everyone. — @Vishen Click To TweetAnd the best part, really, is the amount of time it requires from you: about 15-20 minutes a day. That’s less than the time some of you take in the shower.
Why is it called the 6 Phase Meditation?
So if this is a meditation that’s unlike the others, why have it in the name?
Well, let’s take a look at exercise, for instance. Under the umbrella of “exercise,” we now understand that it’s much more complex than just a form of movement. In fact, there’s a wide spectrum, including jogging, basketball, swimming, yoga, and even 10X.
The art of mastering your awareness has yet to be understood in that way. All the different practices — mindfulness, mantra, spiritual, movement, transcendent, and so on — are clumped under one (and often misinterpreted) word: meditation.
Plus, “meditation” is something that people are often searching for. Besides, when was the last time you googled “multi-faceted psycho-spiritual transcendent mind-training technique”?
How Does the 6 Phase Meditation Work?
Before diving deep into the magic that is the 6 Phase Meditation, let’s have a closer look at the science behind brainwaves and how they work within the realm of meditation.
How meditation works
Meditation is perhaps the most important tool we have to harness the power of our minds, cultivate peace and well-being, and increase our productivity. In fact, a growing number of studies demonstrate that meditation can increase the quality of life.
But why is that true? And how does it work? Here are three ways:
1. Activates various brainwaves
We have five main categories of brainwaves — beta, alpha, theta, delta, and gamma. Each brainwave frequency corresponds to different activities.
For instance, most of us spend the majority of our day in beta, which is the “thinking, functioning, working” brain. If we go to a yoga class, we might find ourselves in theta, which is associated with calmness and groundedness. And when our sleep is dreamless, we usually have gamma waves. (Fun fact: Monks who have meditated their entire lives are able to reach this state while awake.)
As we turn meditation into a habit, we increase our ability to alter our brainwaves consciously. It turns out that this ability comes from forgiveness, which is one of the six states of the 6 Phase Meditation.
2. Changes your brain structure
When you switch to a different brainwave frequency, you also activate different areas of the brain. Over time, this changes the physical structure of your brain.
Here are two parts of the brain that change due to meditation:
The lateral prefrontal cortex
Known as the “assessment center,” this part of the brain is involved in balancing emotional responses that originate from the fear center or other parts of the brain. When your lateral prefrontal cortex is active, you’re less likely to take things personally, and you’re more likely to override automatic behaviors.
The medial prefrontal cortex
Known as the “me center,” this part of the brain helps you process information about yourself. That includes behaviors like thinking about your future, self-reflection, daydreaming, inferring about someone else’s state of mind, social interactions, and feeling empathy for others. After meditation, we begin to draw on this center only when we need to.
3. Strengthens your corpus callosum
You might know that the left hemisphere of our brain specializes in linguistic skills, analysis, and math, while the right hemisphere of our brain specializes in creativity. That’s what people are referring to when they talk about the left-brain-right-brain paradigm.
The problem most of us (especially in the Western world) experience is that we tend to strengthen our left brain more, leaving our poor right brain to deteriorate.
These two hemispheres do “talk” to each other through the corpus callosum, feeding ideas to each other. As a result, we become more creative. But this only happens if we strengthen the corpus callosum.
The good news? The 6 Phase Meditation does exactly that.
What the 6 Phase Meditation is about
“In life, there are certain characteristics we need to constantly uplevel with,” says Vishen. And when we’re able to embrace them, our lives will flow with ease.
These characteristics include:
1. Love and compassion. It’s all about the intention of moving from judgment to caring, from isolation to connection, and from indifference or dislike to understanding. And in doing so, you’re able to receive love as well as give it to others.
2. Happiness and gratitude. Medications to feel happiness? Nah, try gratitude instead. Science shows that the consistent practice of being thankful is greatly associated with happiness. And it’s all within your control.
3. Peace and forgiveness. Here’s one thing many people often forget: Forgiveness isn’t about excusing past behaviors or actions. It’s a process that allows you to free yourself of the blame game and find peace within.
4. Vision for your future. This is where the power of visualization comes in. What the brain visualizes creates shifts in the body. So soak in a future vision of something incredible you want to attract in your life.
5. Mastering your day. Play the game of “Wouldn’t it be nice if…” with all the segments of your day. Because your brain will focus on what you need it to focus on, imagine, with all your senses, how you’d love for your day to play out.
6. Support and blessing. Step into your day with ease and guidance, as well as with your intuition on high, knowing that the Universe (or whichever Higher Being you believe in) has your back.
Notice that the first three focus on the present, while the last three center around the future.
With each of these six human needs, there’s a transcendent exercise attached to it. As you move through each phase, you may just find deep emotional, intellectual, and possibly even spiritual breakthroughs.
Here is a visual representation of how it works:
Things to keep in mind
When it comes to meditation in the traditional sense, you’re encouraged to be mindful of your thoughts and breath as you sit or lie comfortably. But with the 6 Phase Meditation, the rules are slightly different.
Clearing your mind? Not required. Focus on your breathing? No need for that. Sit or lie comfortably? Not unless you want to fall asleep.
So what do you need to do instead? Here are a few key things to remember:
- The best way to get into a deep state is to do it as soon as you wake up.
- The more you meditate, the easier it becomes.
- If you feel distracted or uncomfortable, adjust and get back to meditating.
This practice wasn’t designed to be stringent. Instead, the 6 Phase Meditation is an easy way to create the biggest uplifts in your well-being.
So easy and effective, in fact, that some big names in the world of celebrities use it to level up their lives.
Success Stories: How the 6 Phase Meditation Transforms Lives
There are numerous success stories of those who use the practice. Here are four amazing ones to inspire your own 6 Phase journey.
Bianca Andreescu
There are very few people who can say they defeated one of the greatest athletes of all time, Serena Williams. In 2019, professional tennis player Bianca Andreescu did just that at the U.S. Open. And fun fact: she was only 19 years old.
How did she do it? Creative visualization.
At her post-match news conference, she held up her phone to reveal Vishen’s 2016 best-selling book, The Code of the Extraordinary Mind. She explained how she used Jose Silva’s ‘mental screen’ model — one of the concepts taught in The 6 Phase Meditation Quest — to envision her win.
Tony Gonzalez
Tony Gonzalez is no stranger to meditation. In fact, this former American football player used visualization during his active years in the NFL.
“I’ve actually been meditating for almost 15 years,” he said in an interview with The New York Times. “Now, I do it for my emotional state. I’ve used apps and guided meditations, but when I started, it wasn’t trendy and it wasn’t easy to find all this material that’s so accessible now. There’s a guy on YouTube that does guided meditations called Vishen Lakhiani.”
And the guided meditations on YouTube he was referring to? The 6 Phase Meditation.
Reggie Jackson
“I always try to envision those before me and just did my best to try to mentally make up the idea of getting to the NBA and then, everything else kind of just followed,” says NBA player Reggie Jackson in an interview with Vishen.
Introduced to him by NBA trainer Arnie Kander, the 6 Phase Meditation helped change his perception of what meditation is and in turn, helped him better listen to his body.
“I continued to work very hard, but once I’ve kind of seen it in my mind and it was very tangible and I could feel it, it was a journey that became easier to go down.”
Miguel
If you’ve ever been a part of the guided meditations at Miguel’s concerts, know that it was inspired by the 6 Phase Meditation.
In an interview with Billboard, the Grammy Award-winning artist explains that including meditation as a part of his Ascension tour was “the perfect way to incorporate my personal habits into the professional process.”
With an overwhelmingly positive response, the 6 Phase practice has allowed him to connect, educate, and be educated by his fans.
Step Into Your Greatness
[The 6 Phase Meditation] is for those of you who lead busy lives, those of you who may believe you have ADD, those of you who are entrepreneurs, those whose minds are always racing, those of you who are professional sports people, those of you who are creators whose minds are always creating…And the 6 Phase brings an elegant balance, beauty, efficiency, and power to your beautiful minds.
— Vishen, founder of Mindvalley and author of The 6 Phase Meditation Method
Whether you’re new to meditation or a veteran, incorporating this meditation method into your life will help you turbo-charge your performance, transcend your goals, and make magic.
So head over to your nearest bookstore (or Amazon, if you prefer) and check out Vishen’s latest book, The 6 Phase Meditation Method. It’s filled with psycho-spiritual wisdom and a practical how-to — delivered in classic Vishen humor, of course.
No more relying on Lady Luck or counting on coincidences to happen. As you get familiar with your own 6 Phase journey, you show up—always—as the best version of you.
Miguel’s image: @miguel / Instagram
