As much as it may have seemed like I was coming down on external tools in Friday’s post, it was just a lead-in to these articles. I wanted to convey that while I like these tools for what they can do, I don’t like to rely on them.
Guided meditation is a powerful tool, in that your job is to be as relaxed as possible and to let the experience happen. This can be anything from a cleansing experience (good for defragging) to something else entirely. You can use guided meditation to face your fears, get a glance at your mental filters and sneak a peek at what’s beyond them, face parts of you that make you uncomfortable, resolve unwanted issues, work on integrating desired character traits and more.
Using Guided Meditation.
There are actually many different ways you can do this. Typically, one thinks of popping in a tape or CD, or perhaps grabbing your mp3 player. However, there are many different ways to go. One classic example, is to have someone guide you through it themselves. If you can trust the person, I would call this the ideal method, simply because you can hand the situation over to them and let them handle it. Their job is to monitor you and make sure everything goes according to plan. Your job is to relax and pay attention to the experience. In a safe environment with a trusted friend, you’ll be much better equipped to focus.
Another method would be to read them yourself. You could either record them and play them to yourself (I have gone into greater detail on that here), or read it to yourself aloud. The second one takes a bit of skill, but I’ve had some pretty good luck with it (I’ve gone into more detail on that one on my hubpage). This also maintains trust, and hearing your own voice seems to enhance it somehow, probably because you identify with the voice immediately.
Last but not least, we have the recordings. There are thousands of them out there and they run the range of excellent to atrocious. Only experience can tell you which is which. I’m not making any affiliate money with this, but if you are going to go for such recordings, I would suggest going with the Paraliminals. They’ve served me well, and have helped me get through a tight mental jam once or twice. They have a whole library of paraliminals on many topics. (Although if you’re looking for more esoteric development, you might want to check out Higher Balance, but I’ll come back to them at a later time.)
When you are looking to use recordings, remember to make sure that:
- You feel safe (i.e. you don’t feel mistrust)
- You are using a recording that actually pertains to what you’re going for, and
- The recording “feels right” to you.
Trust your gut on this one. If you start listening to something, and it feels wrong, drop it like a hot piece of metal. If on the other hand it feels like a stretch, then I would advise simply remaining open to seeing what develops, and watching yourself. If you don’t like where it’s taking you, you can still drop it. If, on the other hand, you find it empowering or a positive change, then you can take it out of your mental “sandbox” and accept it.
Above all, remember what I said on Friday: Guided meditation is great, but remember that it’s an external tool designed to create an internal change. It’s not doing anything that you can’t do yourself.
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