A guided meditation audio on CD or mp3 is a great way to make the most of a spare few minutes and de-stress. Many people are aware of the potential benefits  of meditation but are put off by the idea of years of daily practice to master it. But it doesn’t have to be like that. It’s not an all or nothing situation.

Read the whole post and find out about my 30 day meditation challenge

You don’t have to make the decision that you will follow a particular meditation practice, set up your meditation room and then sit there for several hours a day, every day without fail. Any time that you spend meditating is good time.

Drawbacks of traditional meditation

There are several problems with trying to follow a traditional meditation method. The first one is, which one do you choose? There are hundreds, if not thousands of different types. This can be narrowed down by what is available in your area. Then there is the issue of time.

You will need to attend regular sessions in order to learn the method and also practice at home. This means committing time that most of us don’t have. My own experience has been that away, from the  formal class, it is much more difficult to achieve that state of relaxation. You can’t help wondering if you are ‘doing it right’.

It is a symptom of modern life that if we don’t see quick results, we have a tendency to give up and move on. It is very easy to think that your home meditation practice is not working. Then something important comes up and you miss a class. You start to think that if you can’t give total commitment, there’s no point carrying on.

Benefits of guided meditation audio

Guided meditation audios address all of these problems. CDs are available from many stores, as well as online, and you can also get instant mp3 downloads. You have a whole world of meditation techniques to choose from. They are cheap enough that you can try out several different ones and see what suits you best. You don’t even have to stick with one. You can mix and match.

The guided meditation means that you don’t have to spend time learning the technique before you benefit. It’s like always having a teacher with you. It also puts you in control. Having a regular time to meditate would be good, but you can also pop in a disc whenever you have a few minutes. There is no need to beat yourself up because you miss a session.

Even better, you can get meditation audios that use brain entrainment to put you into a relaxing meditative state, every time, guaranteed. This is my personal method of choice and now part of my daily routine. You don’t have to adopt that but it has produced tremendous benefits for me.

A guided meditation audio challenge

I read this great blog post called ’30 Days to Success’. The idea is to try on a new habit, just as a 30 day trial. You are not making a lifetime commitment, just seeing how it works out. At the end of the trial you are free to go back to your old habits. It is much easier to commit to just a trial and if it gets tough, you know that there is not long to go.

At the end of the trial, if the new pattern is working out for you and you are seeing results, you have already pretty much established it as a habit. It is now very easy to carry on with the new behavior. If not, just drop it. No harm, no foul.

I would like to offer you a challenge. Below is a link to a free trial audio guided meditation that you can download immediately. It is only ten minutes long. Try it out, 10 minutes a day for just 30 days. If you are not feeling less stressed, just delete it and go back to your normal life.

“Ready for the challenge? Get your free download and start today”

Relaxation with meditation audio can provide quick and easy relief from the stresses of modern life. We are are under so much pressure, with so much to do and so little time, that when we do get a moment to ourselves, it is hard to switch off and relax. Meditation CDs and MP3s are now widely used to aid relaxation.

There are 3 main types of meditation audio available and I’ll describe them here so that you will be able to decide if they might help you to relax and which type would work best for you.

The 3 main types of meditation recordings

The first type is of the music or sound variety. These contain either soothing music or sounds that are considered to be relaxing. Popular ones are whale song, falling rain or waves breaking on the beach.

These are popular and continue to sell well, presumably because people are getting results with them. I haven’t really tried them myself, but I guess that they would depend quite a lot on your ability to relax anyway.

The second type is guided meditation audios. There are many types of meditation practice that involve counting breaths, focusing on a particular word or mantra, or visualizing something specific. Again, I haven’t tried the recordings but I have attended live guided meditation sessions.

These were very effective for me and very beneficial for needing help in learning a meditation practice. I don’t how the recordings would compare to a live session in a controlled environment in terms of effectiveness. But even if they are slightly less effective, at least they are more readily available whenever you need them.

Thirdly there are entrainment technologies. These use various methods to lead the brain into meditative states reliably and safely, using tried and tested technology.

What has worked for me

What I am most familiar with is binaural beat meditation. Music or sounds are used to mask two tones that are applied to each ear via headphones. The brain resolves these to produce brainwaves at the required meditative level.

This has been my daily practice for over two years now, and it has greatly increased my ability to relax and to stay calm in the face of situations that would have caused high levels of stress before.

This is what has worked for me but it may be too much of a time commitment for most people. At least you now have a basic understanding of what types of relaxation meditation audio are available and can decide which to investigate further. Also read my page about meditation recordings.

“Learn more about relaxation with binaural meditation and get your instant download, free trial”

In the darkest days of my depression, one of the most frightening things that happened was when my mind seemed to be out of control. Thoughts raced through my head constantly and I couldn’t do anything about it. It was as if my mind wasn’t a part of me.

Have you ever had the experience of learning a foreign language and hearing a native speaker. You catch a word that you know and your mind runs off to check its internal database. By the time it comes back with the translation, you have missed the next 6 words and you can’t keep up with the conversation. That was happening to me internally.

Thoughts were running through my head so insanely quickly that I could only catch one occasionally. There was a conversation going on in my mind and I couldn’t understand it. It just wasn’t making sense to me. This went on for several days and it was at its worst when I tried to settle down to sleep. I was becoming physically and mentally drained. It was when I started to attend meditation classes that I started to have some periods of calm.

Meditation CDs are the answer

The classes were only once a week and I found it difficult to get the same results outside of the class setting. But then I found out about meditation CDs. By using headphones and playing a different tone into each ear, the brain is forced to produce the type of electrical signals associated with deep meditative states. This is known as entrainment and has been well established since the nineteen seventies.

The system that I first heard of was the Holosync Solution. This is a more industrial strength system than most. It is not just a quick fix. It is intended as a daily meditation practice. You work through progressively deeper levels, but don’t have to do the entire course. You can stop at any time and maintain the benefits you have already achieved.

Holosync is not the cheapest solution but I believe that the level of support and back up that comes with it justifies the price. I have chosen to reduce the cost by buying several levels together. I have the next 4 years or so covered. I am happy to know that that is taken care of as I have benefited greatly from using Holosync. I am much more physically relaxed and the best thing is that my mind is still. I don’t have thoughts running out of control all the time. I have periods of great tranquilty and when I need to think, I can do it with much more clarity.

Meditation has been an amazing discovery for me and I tend to tell everybody I meet that they should try it. And meditation CDs make it possible for everyone to fit it into their busy lifestyles. Those who say they don’t have time to meditate are exactly the ones who need it most.

Get a free trial of Holosync

Meditation was one of the first stress relief techniques that I tried, once I was up to looking for solutions. It was recommended by a friend.  There is a Buddhist centre near to where she works and they hold open meditation sessions on Friday lunchtimes. I had virtually no experience of meditation but I she found it very relaxing so I thought I would give it a go.

Non Religious

I should say that I have no religious affiliations. I believe that the original philosophy of all the great religions have something to offer, but it seems to have been lost in all the rules and dogma. I went along just to do the meditation class, with no thought of converting.

I found it to be a very pleasant experience. I met some very nice people there and took to staying for lunch after the class. That may have been as therapeutic as the classes themselves. I came to look forward to these sessions and the walk to the centre.

Short term benefits

As to the meditation itself, it is not at all what we are used to doing in our daily lives and requires some patience and the development of some skill. We are not used to taking time for ourselves or controlling our thoughts and not just letting our minds wander. And in my hyper state, I found it particularly difficult.

I did feel much calmer and  more tranquil for several hours after the sessions, but the mind chatter would soon start up again. And the problem with traditional meditation is that it takes years to master and the results are not guaranteed. It doesn’t fit in easily with the modern lifestyle.

Technology to the rescue

Fortunately, by the time I was back at work and had to give up the Friday sessions, I had discovered that there are easier, technological solutions. There are a range of these, with different aims, benefits and price tags. It depends on whether you are looking for a quick de-stress after work or a more profound life change.

I have tried out some of these and become a daily user of one of them. More on these later.

Many good things have come about as a result of my brush with stress and depression. One of them is my daily practice of meditation. Since I began to appreciate its benefits, I have recommended it to several people. Ironically, the ones who obviously need it are usually the ones who say they don’t have time to do it.

We live life at a breakneck pace these days. We have become accustomed to instant gratification and nobody wants to wait for anything anymore. We carry cell phones so we can be constantly in touch.  If we want to talk to someone, it’s got to be now. Our phones  also provide constant entertainment. God forbid that we should have a second to stop and think.

The video game generation

A generation of people are reaching their thirties, having played computer games for most of their lives. They have learned to be constantly reacting to quickfire changes. Films are being edited differently these days for the benefit of these people. They need the fast movement on the screen and the constant switching of camera angles.

We touch base with lots of people but hardly have time to connect with any of them. You see groups of people, apparently together but they are constantly texting or talking to someone else on their cell phones. We have lost the ability to be present. Wherever we are, we are thinking about where we are going to be.

The antidote

Meditation is a way to step off the treadmill and get some to for ourselves. The problem is that a lot of people have never experienced that. The idea of being alone with your thoughts is a frightening one. And their is quite a bit of misunderstanding about what meditation is. It is associated with mainly eastern religions and people think of monks in loin cloths sitting on mountain tops, taking years to achieve mastery.

There may be some truth in this but it is not necessary in order to gain some of the benefits of meditation. There are some very simple forms of meditation that can be learned virtually instantly and a little goes a long way. If you are used to having no tranquility in your life, the effects can be remarkable. You may not realize it but you have a pause button. Give it a try.

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