The popularity of meditation has skyrocketed in the last decade – and with good reason!
A regular meditation practice boasts seemingly endless benefits. It reduces stress, helps us stay balanced and grounded through life’s ups and downs, and is even associated with better health outcomes. And my personal favorite benefit of meditation – it helps us live a life that’s guided by Spirit and keeps us aligned to our highest good.
Guided Meditation for Beginners
If you’re looking ahead to 2022 and desiring a year that’s more easeful, happy, and inspired, why not dip your toes into a guided meditation practice?
The great thing about meditation is that it is simple and accessible to everyone. If you’ve felt intimidated by meditation in the past or you’ve worried you wouldn’t be able to quiet your mind enough to do it, I’m going to show you an easy approach.
Guided meditation is my absolute favorite kind of meditation for beginners. And really for anyone who wants to take their meditation practice to a deeper level!
In this Ultimate Guide to Meditation for Beginners, I’m going to walk you through the fundamentals of guided meditation and cover:
- How I discovered the magic of guided meditation
- Why practice meditation?
- Why guided meditation is good for beginners
- How to start a guided meditation practice
- Where to find the best-guided meditations
- How to continue your guided meditation practice once you start
How I discovered the magic of guided meditation
My meditation practice began 36 years ago when I was in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction. At first, I found the idea of meditating completely overwhelming. You see, I had never been successful at trying to sit still and quiet my mind. It felt like every time I sat down alone in silence, my inner dialogue took off and ran the show. My mind was all over the place and I could not stop thinking about random things like- what was for dinner or why did so and so say that, and I better not forget to do “x”.
One day in the women’s recovery center, I was asked to attend something called “relaxation time.” Little did I know, I was about to fall in love with guided meditation!
As I went through the guided journey (something about a babbling creek, if I remember correctly), I felt my thoughts drift away and a sense of calm came over me. It was a kind of relaxation I hadn’t felt in a very long time.
After that, I was hooked! This experience sold me to using guided imagery above all other types of meditation. Since that day I’ve regularly practiced guided meditation and have shared its magic with thousands of people around the world.
Why practice meditation?
A regular meditation practice can support us in many areas of our lives.
Today so many of us live hectic lives with full schedules. We work, manage families, drive in traffic, get exposed to the constant news cycle, and scroll social media. In other words, we are overloaded with stimulation. It’s no wonder so many of us struggle with anxiety, overwhelm, and other mental health concerns.
We weren’t designed for this level of intensity! Our minds and spirits need spaces of calm and stillness to return to baseline. When you practice meditation, it gives you the ability to drown out all of the noise and connect with your inner self.
People who regularly practice meditation have lower levels of stress and anxiety. This is in part because it allows you to keep a sense of inner calm regardless of what’s going on in your outer world. Life is never going to stop being stressful and fast-paced, but with meditation, you can learn to stay calm and grounded no matter what life throws your way.
Why guided meditation is good for beginners
There are many wonderful types of meditation, each with its own benefits. If all you do is sit down for 5 minutes a day and focus on your breathing, you’re already meditating and getting the benefits of meditation! It doesn’t have to be complicated.
Another one of my favorite types of meditation is mindfulness meditation. You can learn more about mindfulness meditation here.
Today though, I want to specifically share the benefits of guided meditation for beginners.
Personally, I think this is the best kind of meditation for people who are new to meditation. This is partly because of the way guided meditation helps us bypass the subconscious mind. Not only does it quiet our thoughts, but it also helps us move into our unconscious, dreaming mind and out of the patterns and stories of our subconscious, which is the trained and conditioned mind.
The benefits are twofold – for one thing, it’s often much easier to stay still and not feel so fidgety when you have guided imagery to lead the way. And on top of that, it actually takes you past those old patterns and stories that run on repeat in your mind and allows you to tap into something deeper all without trying.
Another benefit of guided meditation is that you can find one for almost any theme or topic you want to focus on. There are guided meditations for healing, anxiety, stress, peace… the list goes on!
Later in this guide, I’m going to share the best-guided meditations of 2022 with you.
How to start a guided meditation practice
Feeling sold on the benefits of guided meditation yet? Great! Now let’s talk about how to start guided meditation for beginners.
The only thing you need to begin your guided meditation practice is a curiosity to get started and plenty of compassion for yourself. No need to be perfect or get anything right. Think of this as a project of self-discovery. Set an intention to try out a few meditations and take it one day at a time.
If you’re overwhelmed by the number of guided meditations out there, I have the perfect starting place for you. I created this 11 Minute Guided Meditation for Beginners to help people just like you begin their guided meditation journey.
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Where to find the best-guided meditations
When you first begin your guided meditation journey, you might get overwhelmed by the number of guided meditations available to you.
I’d love to make your exploration of guided meditation easier by pointing you to some of my favorites and what I consider to be the top 3 best-guided meditations of 2022.
- iAwake Technologies – iAwake uses incredible sound technology that helps create body-mind coherence through guided imagery and sound. This is a list of my favorite meditations from iAwake.
- Get on Your Bird Guided Meditation – this guided visual journey is simple and powerful. It’s one of my favorites for a quick reset and to reach a place of emotional neutrality when you’re feeling overwhelmed or stressed. It’s available for FREE here.
- Trust the Universe Guided Meditation Album – one of the greatest benefits of regular meditation is the way it can connect us to the Universe and give us a sense of trust in the flow of life. The meditations in this album are designed to help you align with this feeling of trust and flow. You can download them here in my store.
There’s really no wrong way to begin your guided meditation journey, but I hope some of these resources will support you as you explore.
How to continue your guided meditation practice once you start
Once you’ve started exploring and trying out guided meditation, then comes the hard part – staying consistent!
Like any new habit, your meditation practice will likely ebb and flow in different phases of your life. This is okay. Have compassion for yourself. AND… you will get way more out of your practice if you can find a way to practice consistently.
The best way to be consistent with your meditation practice is to have a plan.
Start by saving the links for your favorite free meditations or buying a meditation album. Then, write out which meditation you will do each day for the next 7 days. You might make it into a checklist you hang on your wall or set reminders on your phone. Think about what will help you stay consistent as you develop this new habit.
There is a great book called, Atomic Habits by James Clear that teaches a research-proven method for developing a new habit. Clear teaches us how to use the power of intention to create sustainable habits.
Basically, you set a clear intention by creating a statement that says, “I will [Insert Desired Behavior] at [Specific Time] at [Specific Location]. For example, to help create a sustainable meditation practice, you could write down, “I will meditate at 9 am each morning in my bedroom.”
By writing out this simple but clear intention, you are significantly more likely to follow through on your new habit! It might sound simple, but the results are incredible. Read more about why this approach works here.
Choose a location for your meditation practice where you can get into a comfortable position and have as few distractions as possible. This will maximize your potential for success as you build your new guided meditation habit.
Regular guided meditation practice has the potential to help you create a life with balance, low stress, and a connection to the Universe and your inner self. It may feel challenging to build a new habit, but the payoff from adding guided meditation into your life just might be more magical than you can imagine!
Where are you on your journey with meditation? Comment and let me know!
Whether you’re new to all of this and you’re trying to make meditation a regular part of your life or you’re meditating daily, leave a comment and let me know how you plan to incorporate meditation into your life. I love reading your comments!
