There are types of meditation that go with each stage of the life cycle – adolescence, studying, entering the work force, courtship, marriage, birth, raising children and suffering the pangs as they become independent and leave home, and so on.
There are meditations that go with each type of person, and there are tens of thousands of important distinctions. And beyond that, no one is a "generic person."
Each of us has unique qualities, ways we don't fit the mold, and these need to be converted from what feels like a curse, to a gift.
The meditation traditions of the world have preserved many thousands of different techniques. The knowledge that is lacking is which technique goes with which type of person.
When you find the technique that suits you, you'll feel that it supports your life as it is now and it nourishes the person you are wanting to become. The meditation will be an affirmation of your being.
Doing someone else's meditation is like trying to live someone else's life. It might be entertaining for awhile, even educational at the same time that it is weakening you. Some day you will want to get back to rediscovering who you are. If you feel that a meditation practice is in any way undermining of who you are, make careful note, for the effect may be like taking a medicine you don't need.
Meditation in the past has been used to obliterate individuality. This is because sometimes a person has to do whatever it takes to fit into the ashram, monastery, lamasery to which they have been assigned. What is it to be a monk? You give up your name, your identity, your family, your clothes, your money, your desires, and your individuality.
Monasteries the world over use certain types of meditation to break the egos of recruits and make them compliant, submissive members of the religious order. But if you are not in a monastery and you do monastic-type meditation, you may just become weak-willed, submissive and easily manipulated.
When you approach meditation, do only that which strengthens you.
This is not mystical - you can sense it in your daily life.
Instinctive Meditation is an approach to learning and practicing meditation that focuses on your individuality, so that you thrive in daily life and do not become dependent on gurus and external authorities.
