Release yourself to guided meditation to open your awareness of deeper reality. Lead your mind with visualization exercises. Religions, spiritual traditions, secular organizations and individuals turn to guided meditation to find inner calm and fortitude to face life's challenges. There are as many guided meditations as there are people who seek release and inner growth. Breath work is a factor in guided meditation.
Purpose
According to the Eupsychia Institute in Austin, Texas, guided imagery addresses the connection between mind and body. When your senses are engaged, your body "responds as though what you are imagining is real."
Turn within using guided imagery to achieve goals and illuminate ideals. Guided meditation can be used for many purposes. If you need to relax or revitalize, guided meditation with visualization soothes tension or refreshes flagging energy. Engage in guided meditation to solve difficult material problems, such as smoking or procrastination. Saints and mystics of all the world's spiritual traditions have used varying forms of guided meditation seeking connection with the Divine. This is the loftiest purpose of guided meditation. Not all guided meditations include imagery.
Environment
As you prepare for guided meditation, find a quiet environment. Create a space in your home reserved for spiritual or reflective practice. Some people prefer finding a spot in nature. Go to a quiet corner of a park. Bring an MP3 player to listen to guided meditations. Often guided meditation is accompanied by soothing music. New age, Baroque, and Zen music offer many choices.
Details
Lie down for some guided meditations. For other forms, sit in a comfortable chair in a straight, but not rigid, posture. You do not always need another person to read a script for all guided meditations. Nor are your eyes always closed. With some forms, rely upon your imagination and senses to achieve liberation, healing or mastery. You are not bound by rigid rules for guided meditation. In some forms, someone who knows deliver guided instructions leads you. In those cases, you likely will close your eyes. In all cases, pay attention to your breathing.
While many people experience guided meditations one-on-one or at seminars, guided meditations are available to anyone at any time. Buy CDs and DVDs with audio and/or visual meditations. Enter into an online guided meditation experience at the command of a mouse click.
Breath and Mastery
Select from a long list of types of guided meditations. If you want to visualize the dark side of your personality to find a forgiving and healing path, that is possible. Do this with expert supervision. Release suffering caused by craving something or someone. You might want to attain a sense of mastery for an important test. Guided meditation is a powerful tool for these and countless other goals.
Zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh offers a simple guided meditation to center yourself in the present moment. You can recall this meditation any where, in any position. With this simple breath-centered guided meditation, feel regret over the past and fear of the future slip away. You will be home in the present moment. You will be free. You will have been there all along. Abide in your in-breath.
Exhibit mastery with a guided meditation designed to relax people about to take an exam. Students benefit from guidance to recall that they know everything they need to know. They easily recall information in a relaxed alert state. This meditation can be done anywhere.
Considerations
Spend time after a guided visualization to process the experience. Write your impressions in a journal so they do not slip away. Discuss your impressions with a trusted person to work through what erupts from your mind and emotions during sessions. Ease back into the external world. Different people visualize differently. Do not worry if you cannot "see" the images guiding your meditation. Visualization is a relative experience in which an individual experiences thoughts or sensations. You will find that all of your senses engage during guided meditation.
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