What is guided meditation?
Closed eye meditation normally involves tying your mind to a calming rhythm or a narrative, much like changing radio stations on a transistor radio: from worries - to peace, from overwhelm to clarity, from stress to calm.
The rhythm could be your breathing or heartbeat, counting, or a mantra you repeat to yourself. Guided meditation often uses some of these methods alongside a storyline and imagery designed specifically for the purpose of relaxation. For example, meditation to relieve anxiety can include visualisation of a calm beach or other imagery traditionally associated with stress release, which brings about positive thoughts and feelings.
Besides stress reduction, guided meditation can also be used to learn new skills, improve concentration, confidence or sleep and to increase productivity, amongst many other things. Group guided meditation can be used in corporate setting to alleviate burnout as a part of a corporate wellness programme.
Meditation could feel like pressing the pause button on a whirlwind day — the rush slows to a halt, and you’re cradled in a pocket of stillness where everything else fades away.
It can be used in the mornings - to start the day on the right foot.
Or before lunchtime - to wipe the slate clean and start again with renewed energy.
It’s also soothing in the evenings, after a long hard day at work, to ease you into a restorative sleep .
How Guided Meditation Works
The process of guided meditation works by guiding participants through a structured series of mental and physical relaxation techniques, which helps calm the mind, reduce stress, and improve focus. Here’s how it might impact you:
Calms the Nervous System: Deep breathing and relaxation slow down the heart rate and reduce the body's stress response, activating the parasympathetic nervous system, which promotes calm.
Focuses the Mind: By concentrating on the breath, body sensations, or guided imagery, participants disengage from everyday worries, bringing their attention back to the present moment.
Reduces Mental Chatter: Regular guided meditation quiets the mind’s internal dialogue, providing mental clarity and emotional balance.
Promotes Mind-Body Connection: Meditation strengthens awareness of how thoughts and emotions affect the body, helping individuals develop greater control over stress and physical tension.
Increases Emotional Awareness: Mindfulness-based meditation helps participants observe their thoughts and emotions without reacting to them, fostering emotional resilience.
Guided meditation is effective because it provides structure, making it easier to stay engaged and experience the benefits of meditation, this is especially useful for beginners.
Guided Meditation Benefits
Supervised by a Trained Practitioner
Live Guided events led by a clinical hypnotherapist or otherwise qualified professional are the safest way to get the benefits of guided meditation. Your guide will support you by reminding you to be gentle with yourself throughout the process, to use non-judgemental acceptance and to go at a pace that’s comfortable for you - stretching your mind a little, but not over-stretching it.
Easy to Follow :
In traditional meditation, let’s say you’re counting your breaths, whenever you notice your mind wandering - you gently bring it back to your breath. When we first start meditating, the mind often flutters off continuously, so the job of the meditator is to train it - much like a puppy - to stay put.
The beauty of guided meditation is that the storyline is often engaging enough for your mind to have something to concentrate on, so prolonged wandering is less likely to occur. This is especially useful for meditation beginners, when the idea of continuously consciously redirecting your mind on your own may seem too daunting.
Uses the Power of Your Mind
Themed Guided meditation also introduces thoughts and ideas that are the opposite of what you’re feeling (the issue you’d like to resolve), so that they ‘slot into’ the places where the troublesome thoughts were. E.g. guided meditation could encourage you to interpret nervousness about a future presentation as excitement. Once that idea is fully integrated into your mind, whenever you feel your palms getting sweaty ahead of public speaking, your brain will interpret it as anticipation of success and that story will replace any previous stories.
Alleviates Stress & Anxiety :
Meditation and mindfulness routine have been shown to decrease panic attacks, depression and anxiety and increase positive feelings, since the practice helps us disengage from negative thoughts.
There’s nothing for you to do in guided meditation, except to listen and follow the suggestions.
so it may even feel that you have gone to sleep at some point, as you might not remember ‘what happened’ after a certain part. This is perfectly natural. In most cases when people feel like they’ve fallen asleep, they were simply deeply relaxed.
Elements of Guided Meditation
1 - Clear, Gentle Guidance
Soothing Voice: The guide’s tone and pacing should be calm, soft, and reassuring, helping participants ease into the meditation without feeling rushed or overwhelmed.
Step-by-Step Instructions: Clear guidance on breathing techniques, posture, and mental focus helps participants know what to do at each stage. This creates structure and prevents the mind from wandering.
2 - Breathwork
Deep, Conscious Breathing: Guided meditations often begin with breathwork, asking participants to focus on slow, deep breathing. This helps relax the body, calm the nervous system, and bring attention to the present moment.
Breath as an Anchor: Focusing on the breath helps participants return to the present if their minds begin to wander, acting as an anchor throughout the session.
3 - Present Moment Awareness
Acceptance of Thoughts: where meditators are encouraged to observe their thoughts without judgement, without attaching meaning or getting lost in the thoughts. And instead simply letting them pass like clouds in the sky.
Non-judgmental Attitude: Participants learn to stay present and non-reactive to whatever arises during meditation, whether it’s a distracting thought, emotion, or sensation.
4 - Progressive Body Relaxation
Body Scan: Many guided meditations include a body scan, where participants are asked to focus on different parts of the body, releasing tension and bringing awareness to areas that feel tight or tense.
Gradual Unwinding: The guide often leads participants through a process of gradually relaxing each part of the body, from head to toe, deepening the state of relaxation.
5 - Visualisation and/or Imagery
Calming Mental Imagery: In guided visualisation, participants are invited to imagine a peaceful setting, like a beach, forest, or any safe place of their own choosing - real or imaginary. This helps to disengage from stress and create a mental space of peace and comfort.
Positive Intentions: Visualisation may also include mentally “seeing” desired outcomes or emotional states, such as feeling calm, confident, or compassionate. This is where your meditation guide’s imagination cooperates with yours to create images and scenarios that convey desired feelings to your subconscious mind in high definition.
Visualisation relies on the fact that we’re constantly creating our own experience, and even when the external circumstances are out of our control, the way we interpret them and the way we experience them - is often within our control, even if it doesn't feel so.
Visualisation can be targeted or general. For example, in the process of improving specific skills - guided meditation can create a virtual reality for you, in which you’re able to practise the desired skill safely, as often as you like. Running that many trial runs in real life could be cumbersome or simply unrealistic.
For instance, if you’re preparing for an important presentation, your guided meditation can take you through every part of that event - from entering the room to the standing ovation at the end (if that’s what you want of course). As you submerge yourself in that meditation over and over again, it’ll start to feel like you were really there and you’ve already done that presentation many times and it’s gone fine -
just like something else you’ve done dozens of times before. This calms the nerves, allows you to think clearly and to even enjoy the process of presenting.
If you’re interested in personalised one-to-one meditation, designed specifically for you - you can read more about it and book a consultation here.
If you’re interested in professional group meditations - you can find out more here.
If you have any other questions in regards to meditation, hypnotherapy or RTT Therapy, please get in touch
nika @ epiphanytherapy. co . uk - we’re always here to help.
