Guided Meditation to Calm the Mind

One of our recommendations for calming the emotions is to meditate, however we realize that some people are intimidated by the word 'meditate', don't know how to do it, or feel that they aren’t good at it.  Sitting with the thoughts that arise during meditation can be very difficult for those who are dealing with traumatic experiences.  In these cases, guided imagery is very helpful to calm the mind and can be a great way to learn to meditate.

Psychotherapist, author and guided imagery pioneer Belleruth Naparstek is the creator of the popular Health Journeys guided imagery audio series.  She has partnered with Kaiser Permanente to offer these guided imagery meditations for free.  There are several that you can download that address anxiety, grief, stress relief and many others.  Bookmark this website  so that you can come back to it when you want to listen.   Have a listen here to one of her guided meditations that helps with anxiety and panic attacks.

BTW - Sitting crosslegged in front of a beautiful waterfall for meditation is the bomb, but it is definitely not required.  The main thing is to find a comfortable seated position and sit with the spine tall, whether that's sitting on a chair, your living room couch, on the floor or in a flower-filled meadow.  To start you'll want to find a quiet spot, but as you become more focused, you will find it easy to meditate most anywhere.    

Posted in Lifestyle, Meditation