Meditation or Guided Meditation?

Meditation or guided meditation? Which do you prefer? When we think of meditation, we think of sitting and clearing our mind for a specific amount of time. We do this by either reciting a mantra or clearing the mind by counting backwards from 10 to 1, and each time a thought arises, going back to 10 and repeating the process. There are, of course, many ways to meditate. In my previous blog, Routes into Relaxation, I mentioned breath awareness as a relaxation technique.

According to an article in Yoga Journal (June 2010), "Your Brain on Meditation" by Kelly McGonigal, "Science has proven that meditating actually restructures your brain and can train it to concentrate, feel greater compassion, cope with stress, and more." How and when do we do it? Or do we pick a time to be led into a state of relaxation that trains the mind like meditation?

In a study published in the journal Brain Research Bulletin, researchers found that people trained to meditate over an eight-week period were better able to control a specific type of brain waves called alpha rhythms. Christopher Moore, an MIT neuroscientist and senior author, stated: "Our data indicate that meditation training makes you better at focusing, in part by allowing you to better regulate how things that arise will impact you." The group that meditated listened to a CD to be guided through the process.

In the first video lesson of the site What Meditation Really Is, we are instructed to "simply relax your mind." What a simple statement; how do we do this? Since meditation is called a "practice," perfecting the technique is a practice. One of the benefits is getting to know our mind. The real objective, she says, is to become familiar with the "unchanging pure awareness that underlies our whole experience of life."

Yoga Nidra is a yoga-based practice with a similar objective. In his Yoga Nidra CD, Richard Miller, PhD guides us into our internal space, sensing into our body, breath, energy, and feelings. He invites us at the beginning "to realize the timeless wisdom that lies hidden within you, that your underlying true nature is unchanging heartfelt equanimity or presence that is always present during every circumstance of your life."

I love the word "presence," since we are each a presence. We bring to each circumstance all that we are in the form of our presence. I love that meditation wants us to define ourselves beyond our roles, our chronological age, even our experiences. It points to something more about who we are in totality. Our state of mind seems to be a marker of how close we are, how often we touch the greater part of ourselves.

I have used relaxation CDs for years, currently alternating between the Yoga Nidra CD and a few others. Sounds True is a wonderful site that offers podcasts and products relating to spirituality, meditation, psychology, and healing. By training our minds with meditation, by doing yoga, by walking in nature, by bringing our awareness to everything we do, we can practice mindfulness. We can develop an awareness of that part of ourselves that is witness consciousness.

Whispers of the Breath Diva:

In this moment I am fully aware, fully conscious and ALIVE!