What is a guided meditation?
Just like its name says, it is a meditation with the help of a guide. It could be a meditation teacher in a class or a recorded voice. The role of a guide is to help you enter into a state of deep relaxation, quickly and effortlessly. A guided meditation is indeed the easiest way to enter into that state.
All you have to do is sit or lay down in a comfortable position, listen and follow along. A good guide, whether it is a teacher in the class or a registered voice will guide you, as if he took your hand, to a place where you can meet your subconscious self and get some really amazing insights.
How does it work?
The guided meditations usually consist of three parts:
- The purpose of the first part is to relax your body and mind. You will hear a pleasant and relaxing music in the background and a soft and calm voice will give you guidance in order to relax all your muscles and let go of all concerns, worries and issues of mind.
- Once your body and mind are deeply relaxed, you will become highly suggestible, and in the second part, you will hear messages which will attein your subconscious mind (more or less efficiently, depending on your state of relaxation).
- In the third part, you will again become conscious and aware of your surroundings, and you will feel refreshed, in peace and in harmony with the present moment.
There are many types of guided meditations: for sleep, for healing, for relaxation, for chakra balancing, for motivation, for meeting your spirit guide, for past life regression…
Some guided meditations use beta and theta waves in order to make your brain more flexible and your subconscious mind even more suggestible. More about this in another post…
In order to meditate efficiently, it is very important to prepare yourself for meditation:
- Find a calm and comfortable place.The majority of people always imagine a meditatingperson in the lotus position. The lotus position is not mandatory at all. A comfortable chair will do just fine. For some meditations, it is even recommended to lie dawn on a bed or floor.
- Make sure that no one disturbs you during the meditation time. I always meditate when I’m alone at home but you can simply tell the people you live with that you need to spend some time alone without anyone disturbing you.
- Turn off your phone!
What are the benefits of guided meditation versus meditation without a guide?
The meditation is a solitary activity. Its purpose is to find peace inside yourself by remaining present. It can be more difficult than it seems to sit down and remain quiet and present for 10 or 15 minutes every day, and meditating only from time to time, although it can make you feel better at the moment, won’t have a considerable impact on your life. And this is why the guided meditations are really beneficial, especially for beginners.
With the help of a guide, you can enter into a meditative state faster and more easily. Another advantage is that you can choose a short or a long guided meditation depending on the free time you have ahead. A 5 minute guided meditation in the middle of a busy and stressful day could be more beneficial than a half an hour of sleep.
There are some critics saying that a guide isn’t really useful and that guided meditations can even be limiting giving the fact that meditation is a solitary activity. Some of them go as far as to say that a guided meditation is not a real meditation and that you cannot attain the meditative state with a guide because their voice and words can be disturbing.
Obviously, my point of view is completely different. There is no real spiritual journey without a guide, whether is it a spiritual person in your surrounding who you respect and/or admire, an author, a religious authority or just a voice in a recorded guided meditation. The role of a guide is not to give you limiting directions telling you which way to go but to ask good questions helping you this way to achieve better knowing of yourself. The most important thing though is to choose a good guide.
There is an abundance of guided meditations online. Not all of them are good, and even if a meditation is a good quality one, it doesn’t mean that it will suit your needs. If you don’t like the voice or the music or if what a guide is saying is meaningless or simply not inspiring to you, there is no chance that you will enter into the meditative state.
So, before starting meditating, choose your guide carefully. There are several guided meditations that inspired me the first time I heard them and listening to those meditations on a regular basis helped me made a shift in my consciousness very quickly. So, when you find a good one, save it for regular use, and share it with others. They may thank you for that.
I hope that I managed to answer to some of your questions in this post, if you have any thoughts that you would like to share or any further questions, please leave me a comment below. I will be more than happy to discuss with you.