Meditation
What is guided meditation?
Is Guided meditation for beginners and advanced practitioners?
It is beneficial for both beginners and people who have been practicing for long.
Guided meditation is a kind of meditation where the mentor guides the participants to slip into meditation.
The mentor, through her/his words and the energy in her/his voice, gently leads the participants to delve deeper into their core self.
During my years of experience as a Guided Meditation Mentor, I have observed that it is easier for the beginners to slip into meditation when they are being guided. Our mind tends to wander, and Guided meditation helps our mind to focus and meditate with awareness. The participant must simply follow the words of the mentor.
I am often asked questions like the ones below and I thought of answering these for the benefit of everyone.
Q) “I haven’t done meditation before; will I be able to do it?”
Even you haven’t done meditation you can slip into this beautiful realm by just following what the mentor is asking you to do. As one of the participants recently exclaimed
“it seemed like an On and Off switch. I just slipped into meditation the moment the mentor started to lead the meditation. Time just flew.”
Q) “I can hardly sit for 5 minutes; how will I meditate for so long?”
You will surprise yourself when you start meditating with a mentor. You will be able to sit for long and most importantly you will meditate with focus and mindfulness.
Q)“My mind keeps wandering, I wonder if meditation is for me!”
One of the main objectives of meditation is to balance our mind. To capture the calmness and feeling of in control of our mind and thoughts. With continuous practice, one can achieve more focus and mind wandering becomes lesser.
Q)“I cannot control my thoughts, how can be thoughtless?’
This is a very pertinent question and I want to tackle it separately. Read here for more.
Q) “I don’t believe in any religion, so how can I meditate?”
Meditation is not dependent on any religion. Anyone can meditate. Though there are meditations where one chants and use prayer beads, but that is absolutely at the discretion of the person who is meditating. There are many other kinds of meditation practices. One may choose as per his/her comfort and belief.
In a nutshell the answer to all the above questions is ,
YES, YOU CAN MEDITATE.
Give yourself a chance and believe in yourself. If you won’t then who will!
You will get better with practice. Like any other practice/skill/technique, you need to give yourself sometime to let the meditation work on you and your mind. It is not a magic pill which you can pop in and everything changes overnight. It is a sacred practice, which requires commitment and respect.
For the ones who have been meditating for long , Guided meditation is always a welcome treat. It takes you deeper within yourself and the connect is deeper and stronger.