What is Guided Meditation?

Meditation has long since been touted as the answer to many of our everyday problems. We’ve heard about the countless benefits of meditation that range from physical, mental, as well as behavioral. There are more types of meditation practiced in this world today than we can count. One of them is Guided Meditation.

What is Guided Meditation?

As the name suggests, guided meditation, is a type of meditative practice that is guided or directed by an experienced mentor who aid an individual through the meditative journey to reach the deep state of thoughtful awareness that is only possible via meditation.

How Does It Work?

Guided meditation is a form of relaxation that is mediated by the guidance of a trained professional. This guidance can be provided either in person through a visual or verbal instruction, or via any of the media modalities such as sound recordings, videos, written texts, or a combined mixture of all.

Normally people find it difficult to attain that perfect balance of thoughtless awareness that is necessary for meditation on their own. Guided meditation works by the meditator sitting or laying down in a comfortable position while they are lead through a series of different audios or visual directives that are designed to allow you conscious and subconscious mind to relax one step at a time.

Guided meditation may be used for a variety of reasons such as personal growth and empowerment, emotional development or healing, for stress relief, improved sleep, decreasing anxiety and increased positivity, etc. It is an aided method of achieving deepest levels of relaxation, to provide perspective along with the opportunity to rejuvenate yourself. A guided meditation session, depending on your needs and the method you choose, can range from as short as 10 minutes, to as long as an hour.

As a Burbank therapist one of my favorite meditations to teach my clients is Body Scan by Jon Kabat-Zinn. You can download a Body Scan Meditation app in most phone app stores or find a Body Scan guided meditation on YouTube.