The Effectiveness of Guided Meditations

The Effectiveness of Guided Meditations may reduce blood pressure, symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome, anxiety and depression, and insomnia. Evidence about its effectiveness for pain and as a smoking-cessation treatment is uncertain.

If you meditate, I am sure that you would have used guided meditations to help you along at some point in your practice. They are easy to follow and serve as a useful tool for cultivating regular practice. Through guided meditation, practitioners are provided with guidance and instructions by a facilitator, either in person or audio recordings. Like any meditation practice, guided meditations are designed to help practitioners develop awareness, relieve stress, and enter into a meditative state with proper guidance. It is especially useful if one is new to meditation because a well-scripted and well-narrated session can provide clear directions on how to meditate based on a step-by-step method. All the practitioner needs to do is to focus on the guiding voice of the facilitator.

There is Something for Everyone

The use of guided meditation is becoming increasingly popular because of the wide variety of themes available. If you can think of a topic for meditation, you can probably find it on Youtube or Google. Besides more mainstream themes such as stress relief, restful sleep, and breath meditation, we are seeing more and more creative topics such as attracting a windfall, finding love, and most recently I found a guided audio track that uses a large dose of swear words in the meditation script! Talk about innovation!

Whatever your needs, there will always be a guided meditation theme suitable for you, but what is most important here is to know the intention of your practice. Do not assume that a guided meditation that is loaded with mystical content will always yield better results. Similarly, a guided meditation that lasts for an hour is not superior to another that is just ten minutes long. Sometimes a simple meditation can do a world of wonders, what is most important is how well you can cultivate your mind, not how long you can sit (wondering) in silence. Make sure you know the intention of your practice before selecting the right meditation for yourself.

So Many Benefits

Whether it is guided or non-guided meditations, they all bear elements of mindfulness that are meant to bring stillness and peace to our ever-wandering minds. This state of peace will then cascade to our emotions and behavior and finally the choices that we make in our daily lives, and this is where true mindful living can take place.

With regular meditation practice, we tend to experience less impulsive behaviors and improved emotional control, which helps to build better relationships. In many studies, meditation has also been proven to improve mental and physical health, productivity, and psycho-motor skills, all of which are essential for positive transformation that can lead to success in life.

Why It Works

While we may think that guided meditation merely works as a guideline for our practice, there are proven track records for its effectiveness. Guided meditation uses narrative words to guide practitioners into a meditative state and positively alter the state of mind. A well-crafted script that uses positive phrases and leading statements can permeate our subconscious mind and serve as a reinforcement to re-programming ourselves towards more positive behaviors, emotions, and mental focus. The guided scripts are like clever programs that can create a positive impact on the subconscious mind through affirmative words, imageries, and soothing music. With different types of guided meditation, we can subtly create new states of consciousness to manifest an outcome that we want.

So how does this work that the brainwave level? During meditation, our brainwave often transits into the theta range which is around 4 to 7 Hz. At this highly relaxed state, we hover between the sleeping and waking zone where body-consciousness disappears. In hypnotherapy, the hypnotherapist often helps patients get into this state before developing behavioral transformation or reinforcing memories. In the same way, a guided meditation mimics the same method by reinforcing affirmations and guidance to train the subconscious mind for greater transformation.

Guiding You to Mindfulness

The effectiveness of guided meditation audios and videos helped me in my practice. It was an easy way to get started and because there is such a wide variety of themes to choose from, it kept my practice very exciting and exploratory. I am not suggesting that anyone should follow my taste for exploring different meditations, but I certainly think that guided meditation is a good option if anyone has difficulty getting started or maintaining a consistent practice. It is also good to note that there is no need to use a different guided meditation every day. There were times that I will use the same guided meditation audio for months because it puts me in the right headspace and is aligned with my objectives. Do not be confused by the myriad of choices out there, the key is to know your intention and then find the right guided meditation that suits your needs.

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