How To Use Guided Meditation for Greater Results

The choice between going it alone or using guided meditation is sometimes a difficult one to make. On surface, it seems that when you are thinking about starting a meditation program, it should be easy enough to do at home without much help. I mean what’s the problem? You find a quiet time and place, you sit down, you meditate. No problem right?

Well the reasons to use guided meditation versus this kind of “lone wolf” attitude are grounded in the real world experiences of most people who have tried meditation before including…

* If you go it alone, it’s easy to let yourself compromise the discipline. A guided program, even if it is recorded gives you something to live up to. If you are just working from a book or a web page with some general guidelines, it’s too easy to “customize” the program to suit your comfort. And there is some real value to the disciplines of meditation, even the uncomfortable ones.

* One word – distractions. The image of sitting in a quiet room meditating for hours is a tranquil one but the truth is, we are easily distracted. You can get pulled away from the focus of meditation by sounds in the house, outside, your own thoughts or even by sleepiness. Having an external guided meditation resource, that is much less of a problem.

* Guided meditation gives you something to focus on. Much of meditation is learning to focus your mind and your consciousness on a mantra, an object or on breathing. But if you have a guided method to give you the focus point along with instructions and encouragement, you are much more likely to be successful with each meditation session and, as a result, more successful in your long range program.

* Guided meditation is much less lonely. The draw back of meditation is you often go through your routines alone. You have to in order to reduce the distractions that can keep you from a successful session. But if you have family in the next room or people out there enjoying each others fellowship, you may be tempted to hurry your program to join the fun. A guided meditation regimen gives you some social contact even while meditating.

These are just a few of the reasons that guided meditation will do more to assure that you will have a program you stick with and you don’t have that frustration of having tried something and gave up on it. So let’s get some basic ideas how to use guided meditation for greater results in your meditation program.

The Variety of Guided Meditation Resources

The term “guided meditation” gives the image of sitting in a classroom with an instructor quietly speaking to you as you focus on his or her voice and learn to reach that level of contemplation that you a want. And to be sure, direct classroom meditation is one of the best forms of guided meditation. Very often you can find a guided meditation class or instructor using a local free school directory. Or there may be a number of fine institutions in town that you can use. Just ask friends and make sure they are reputable before signing up.

But direct participation in classes is not the only form of guided meditation you can use. Others include…

* A book on Tape. We discourage using a book for your guided meditation even though there are some very good books on the market about the subject. But the act of having to reach over and pick up a book for the next step in your meditation session can be a huge distraction from your meditative state. The book on tape approach takes away the page and replaces it with a voice.

* Television. Just as there are ample exercise programs on yoga, you can often find fine guided meditation programs on your cable TV stations. Check with your meditation teacher to see if he or she or the organization they work with either has a program on or knows of one they might recommend.

* A CD or record that is a guided meditation course. A good record store will have dozens of good programs you can use that will guide you from the beginner stage to an advanced level using guided meditation techniques. And if you need more time at one step, you can repeat that lesson as often as you need to for no additional cost. If you don’t have a large book or record store to shop for a meditation course in, you can always use Amazon or one of the other online services to find what you need.

* The Internet. A simple “Google” of guided meditation will return a wealth of sites that offer services to help you out. Shop wisely and make sure that if you must subscribe to the service, they are reputable and will deliver as promised. But it’s a viable option because you can use your computer room for your meditation retreat and work through the guided meditation with the aid of the online instructor.

The Value of a Plan.

These are all fine resources for you to use to get a guided meditation program moving. The important thing to use as a guideline is that you will do best when you have a plan. Look at the index or curriculum of a guided meditation course however you access it to see that there is a path to greater and greater success that you can look forward to by enrolling yourself in a guided meditation program.

Then once you commit to the program, commit to it with all you have. Don’t miss a session and be fully committed to what you are trying to do while you are in your guided meditation session. That level of engagement is probably the number one reason why you can look forward to being successful in your guided meditation approach and that you can look for all the great rewards from meditation that you want and that you deserve for your dedication and hard work.