Take a moment for yourself with a guided meditation

What is a guided meditation?

Meditating is not always easy. You sit still for a while doing nothing, nothing at all. During that time you could also be reading your emails, making that important phone call or already preparing the sandwiches for the kids. And then you have to think about "nothing. Quite a difficult task for someone who has never consciously taken these moments of rest before.

Yet the benefits of meditation are great. It is a fine way to unwind, gain new energy and sleep better. An easy way to start meditating is through guided meditations. During these meditations, you listen to a voice (either purely or in combination with music) guiding you through the meditation. So all you have to do is listen and let the voice guide you completely.

This form of meditation takes relatively little effort and is nice to start with. You don't have to think about what you should (and especially shouldn't) do and think. Guided meditation is great for people who have a need for meditation, but find it challenging to find the peace to meditate on their own.

Where does guided meditation come from?

Meditation is an ancient way for people to find peace of mind. We can say through found Hindu writings that people were already practicing meditation 4,000 years ago. Around the fifth and sixth centuries BC, there were also Buddhist texts that referred to this form of rest.

It wasn't until centuries later that meditation began to appear in Western society as well, though first in the form of yoga. In the original way of meditating, for example, yoga was seen as one of the eight steps to enlightenment.

One teacher per student was assigned to teach them how to meditate in silence. These teachers had devoted their entire lives in studying yoga, both philosophically and practically. As they did, the need for guided meditation grew, and private lessons grew into group classes. This was the beginning of guided meditation.

The purpose of a guided meditation

In a guided meditation, the voice guides your attention somewhere, such as to a particular situation in the past or to circumstances that give you a calming feeling. It helps you focus on your breathing, your body or certain memories and images. Once you are more practiced, you can add your own twist to your meditation moments and meditate without audio, for example.

Guided meditations with music

Guided meditation is actually used as an umbrella term for well-known meditation techniques that use guidance. This can include music or soothing clients.

Music

Have you ever taken a massage or been to a beauty salon? One of the components that makes you relax wonderfully is the music. There are very few salons that work entirely in silence. The reason for this is that silence can sometimes cause your thoughts to run wild.

Therefore, special meditation music is played that automatically brings you into the here and now. This also helps with meditation. By sitting down in a comfortable position and putting on the music, it is a lot easier to close your eyes for a moment and bring back the peace in your mind.

Sounds

This method often involves the use of singing bowls. These bowls are designed so that the vibrations set something in motion in your body. The vibrations cause you to go out of your head and into a different state of consciousness. This experience is said to have healing effects on both body and mind.

Guided meditation app

Are you looking for a guided meditation app? The Meditation Moments app is full of guided meditations. These are suitable for different moods and times of day and have different lengths. From 3 to 45 minutes! Some of the meditation exercises from the meditation app are:

1. Gratitude

It is wonderful to start the day well as well as end it. Among other things, the guided meditations that deal with gratitude help you get into an energy of gratitude. What are you grateful for this morning or evening?

Found in: 'Start your day' and 'Sleep well' category

2. Affirmations

Affirmations are phrases you repeat to yourself, over and over, as if they were reality. 'I am successful.' 'I have a wonderful life.' 'I have a beautiful body.' During the guided meditation'daily affirmations' you are guided by daily, positive affirmations.

Found in: 'Start Your Day' category

3. Anti-stress breathing

The guided meditation'anti-stress breathing' focuses on improving your breathing. Are you stressed or just need a break? Then breathing exercises help you become calmer and relax. During the guided meditation, you follow the voice that helps you breathe better.

Found in: 'Relaxation' category

4. Inspiration

The guided meditations of the 'inspiration' category are designed to motivate and inspire you. You are encouraged to reflect on questions that lead to greater self-insight and self-awareness.

Found in: 'Inspiration' category

5. Visualization

During visualization meditations you are taken on a journey and put your own imagination to work. You translate thoughts into images and you can eventually come to greater relaxation and new insights and ideas.

Found in: 'Visualization' category

Getting started with a guided meditation app?