The Benefits of Self-Sufficient Meditation

Like many people, before I landed on a meditation practice that worked for me, I tried ALL the things. Apps, in person meetings, online classes, guided meditations, even just closing my eyes and trying to focus on nothingness.

It wasn’t until I finally found a practice that stuck, Vedic Meditation, that I began to understand an important distinction between many of the options I’d dipped my toe into. You see one of the key differences with Vedic Meditation, compared with many other ways to meditate, is that once you learn from your teacher, the practice is yours. You don’t need anything special to do it. No app. No guidance. No class. No special cushion. No teacher. You don’t even need quiet. 

Self-Sufficient Meditation Practice

This is what I now like to call a ‘Self-Sufficient Meditation Practice’ which I define as a meditation practice which can be done without the need for any particular tool, person, guidance, conditions or equipment once learned. All you need is you.

The benefits of a self-sufficient practice (like Vedic Meditation) are that once learned, you have no barriers to meditating (other than perhaps your own self and finding time). You don’t need to go anywhere, download anything, have a device with you (which on a side note, I believe is not fully conducive to meditation), choose a track, find your headphones, find a moment where the kids are out of the house, have your special cushion with you and the list goes on. Fewer barriers, means fewer excuses. 

Also with some practices like Vedic Meditation, the technique is simple with only one way to do it. Meaning you don’t have a decision to make when the time comes to sit down and meditate. (Eg. Will I choose the 20 minute guided ABC track or the 45 minute XYZ track).

Dependent Meditation Practice

A dependent meditation practice on the other hand, can’t be done without the need for a tool, person, guidance, conditions or equipment. The practice may not teach you how to do it on your own or might be reliant on something outside of yourself to practice correctly. Or alternatively, it might be a practice that can be practiced independently, but you haven’t developed the level of knowledge/experience to do so.

The benefits of many dependent practices are they are great for dipping your toe in the water and exploring different techniques and modalities. They are also great when you’re just starting out and learning, or if you don’t have the time or headspace to devote to learning a self-sufficient practice. They can, in some cases, also be more affordable initially. Particularly with apps like Headspace and Insight Timer. But you have to look at the cost over time if you plan to stick to it.

Dependent practice can also be great if you have a regular self-sufficient practice, but are supplementing with something different. For example, while Vedic Meditation is my core practice (which I practice 20-30 minutes twice a day), I’ll sometimes add in a guided visualisation or a loving kindness meditation which serve a different purpose to Vedic Meditation. 


In some cases too, if you regularly attend live classes with an experienced teacher, to a certain extent you may not want practice independently from them. It might be their wisdom, guidance and presence which is part of the joy for you.

Moving from Dependent to Self-Sufficient Practice

Many meditation practices and traditions, you will need to begin with dependent practice. You need to be guided or taught how to do it first before you can do it on your own. With some techniques like Vedic Meditation, you literally learn the technique itself in about half an hour, but then you spend a number of additional hours learning how to work with the technique, understand what’s happening when you’re meditating and how to build it into your life. Over a 3-4 day course, you go from complete noob, to fully self-sufficient practice. And this is part of the aim of the course.

With some other techniques or ways of learning I’ve tried, it’s not that you can’t make the practice self-sufficient, but the teaching places less emphasis on this. This means the responsibility is with you to transition from dependence to self-sufficiency. Let’s take a really simple example. You might use the Headspace app every day. You might be very diligent. You might have even been using it for years. But if you couldn’t use the app, would you be able to practice on your own? If the answer is yes, congratulations, you can practice independently. But if your answer is no, you are still dependent on the app. Ask yourself the question ‘What would I need to do, so that I could practice this technique confidently on my own?’ In many cases, it might be simply that you need to pay a bit more attention and create a clear intention this is what you want to do. 

It’s like when you’re a passenger in a car. If you’re just letting yourself be driven around and are not paying attention to where you’re going, it’s easy to have no idea how you got to your destination. But if you know you are going to be the one driving home, Google Maps aside, it’s likely you will be more aware of the directions and the landmarks and be more confident when you’re in the driver’s seat.

Which is Better? Dependent or Self-Sufficient Meditation Practice?

A lot of this comes down to personal preference and knowing yourself. I’ve said many times before, the right mediation practice is the one you stick to. However, I do strongly believe it’s easier to stick to a practice when you can do it self-sufficiently. Of course, it can take time, commitment and in some cases a financial investment to develop and certain self-sufficient practice. So if those things are a barrier for you, dependent meditation may be your best option. At least in the short term.

I highly recommend everyone has some form of meditation they can do that is completely self-sufficient though. Even if it’s something as simple as paying attention to your breath - one of the many techniques taught as part of mindfulness meditation. This means when your teacher is away, or your phone has no battery, or your dog chewed your earphones, or you’re travelling and don’t have your special chair - you can still meditate. 

Building a consistent meditation practice is difficult enough. So becoming self-sufficient in your mediation practice, is a great way to reduce the barriers and make sure it happens every day. No matter what circumstances you find yourself in.

Want to learn Vedic Meditation? Contact me to arrange an introductory call to learn more about the technique and whether it’s right for you. You can also read more about it HERE.