Episode 7 - Guided Meditation
I’ve always found guided meditation to be a beginner-friendly introduction to meditation. Join me as I explore a little bit about guided meditation and give one a try.
Links Mentioned in this Episode
Transcript
Guided meditation has been a go-to for me for quite a long time. I often use it to help me fall asleep at night, to relax, or even to work on manifestation.
Personally, I find it difficult to meditate if it’s not a guided meditation, and I find that having words to focus on help me to stay in the moment and not have my mind racing a million miles a minute.
I know a lot of people are hesitant to meditate because they feel like they can’t do it properly, or get zen enough, but really the goal is just to relax and try to detach from your thoughts, not to rid yourself of them altogether.
We’re human, and our brains have thoughts, that’s what they do, but we don’t have to get caught up in them and follow them down a stressful rabbithole. We can acknowledge that we’re having a thought, and let it go, bringing ourself back to the meditation.
There are so many different kinds of meditation and so many different techniques, so if you find that one particular meditation doesn’t work for you, don’t write it off altogether, just try another one to see how it feels. It’s like finding that perfect pair of jeans, the first pair, or few pairs, may not be quite right, and that’s okay, just keep trying them on until you find something that feels comfortable and right.
As an introduction to meditation, I found that guided meditation was helpful for me, because there was someone giving me instruction on what to do, and for me that felt a little less awkward as a beginner. I could just follow along and not have to worry about what I needed to do next.
Some meditation techniques are focused more on mindfulness, and others are focused on replacing stressing thoughts and feelings with those that are more relaxing. I’ve found both helpful, but for this episode will focus on general relaxation meditations. We’ll definitely be talking more about mindfulness in upcoming episodes.
Some of the benefits of meditation have been shown to be decreased stress, increased happiness, better sleep, improved attention, and an improvement in overall wellbeing.
Since meditation can take just a few minutes, and can be free, or affordable, it’s definitely a great investment in your health and wellbeing!
To receive these kind of results, consistency is key, so once you find a type of meditation that you enjoy, keep it up! Create a daily practice for yourself - perhaps first thing in the morning to start your day, or last thing at night to help yourself rest. And if you find one meditation in particular that you enjoy, repeat it, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every day, you can continue to use the same meditation over and over again, and many meditations encourage this as it helps to train your brain.
There’s no hard and fast rule on when is the best time to meditate, just choose a time that works with your schedule - this will help to ensure that you can consistently work on creating a practice for yourself. You can even incorporate it into your current practices, like meditating while walking, meditating before you get out of bed in the morning, meditating before journaling to focus, or meditating before sleep to relax and destress your brain.
If you share a household, make sure to let your family or housemates know that you are meditating so that you’re not interrupted. Give yourself a few minutes for a little self-care and self-soothing. Turn off the ringer on your phone, and find yourself a comfortable and quiet spot where you can sit or lie down.
If you’re feeling a little restless at first, or having trouble with following thoughts that come up, be gentle with yourself - this is a practice, and it takes practice to get better.
But what if you give meditation a try and it’s just not for you? Well, that’s okay too. Not everything will work for everyone, but as mentioned earlier, there are lots of types of meditation and many different techniques, try a few different things to see how they feel before giving it up altogether. There are so many great resources on the internet, or even just type in meditation on the search in YouTube.
Today’s tiny takeaway is to try a relaxation meditation. If you’re driving or operating heavy machinery, please come back to this meditation when it is safe to do so.
I invite you to close your eyes, or soften your gaze, whatever is most comfortable for you. Settle yourself either sitting or lying in a comfortable position as we create this space for you today. We don’t always take the time to take a moment for ourselves, so that is what we are doing today, in creating this safe space, just for you to relax.
As you inhale, just focus on bringing the air into your lungs, and feeling your chest rise, and then fall as you exhale.
I invite you to focus on the sound of my voice, and become comfortable with any sounds in the room around you, knowing that they will not distract you in any way, but will only help you to feel more relaxed as you listen to this meditation.
On your next inhale, we’re going to start to relax your body, just letting yourself feel more and more relaxed as you listen to my voice.
We’ll start at the top of your head, and just feel the top of your head relax.
Moving down your forehead, feel the tension in your forehead lessen, and your face begin to relax.
Unclench your jaw and relax your mouth, just letting the rest of your face relax.
Moving down to your shoulders, feel your shoulders relax, and just let any tension slip away.
Moving down your arms, feel your forearms relax, letting go of any tension that’s built up, relax your hands, and feel your fingers able to move freely.
Relax your chest, feeling your breathing now able to fill up your chest fully, and as you exhale, noticing that you can fully let go of your breath, exhaling it all.
Relax your stomach, moving down your body, just feeling all the muscles relax.
Feel your legs start to relax, just letting go of any stress and tension you’re holding there, relaxing your thighs, and calves, just letting all the tension go.
Relax your feet, as you stretch your toes, feeling any built up tension leave your body.
Now just relax your whole body, let your whole body relax. Enjoying the release of tension and relaxing deeper and deeper as we let each body part relax and expand, taking up more space, unclenching, and becoming free.
And taking another inhale in, notice how deeply you can now inhale, enjoy the openness of the body, and how light and relaxed you feel.
We’ll start to come back to the room now, just wiggling your fingers and toes, feeling the energy coming back into your body.
Just gently flutter your eyes open, and bring yourself back to the room.
I hope you feel more relaxed and have enjoyed today’s tiny takeaway guided meditation.
Thank you so much for joining me today on Shift Your Shit With Sara, where I help people that are feeling stuck shift into the life they want to live. I’m currently able to open up a few spaces in my calendar to work one-on-one to help people make a transformational shift in their life. If you’re interested in working together, I invite you to schedule a call with me so we can explore the changes you’d like to make and see if it would be a good fit for us to explore it further. Just pop over to shiftyourshitwithsara.com/workwithme and schedule a complimentary call.
