We dug out some old videos Steven Aitchison, the voice behind the guided meditations on this site, recorded to talk about common questions surrounding guided meditations (FAQ), what they are, how they work, are they safe, what is the best way to listen to our albums, etc...
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In the next posts we will talk about Safety and then about Technical questions, while in this post, we will cover these basic questions:
Basic questions about guided meditations:
- What is guided meditation?
- How does guided meditation work?
- What if I am no good at seeing in my mind?
- How long does it take to work?
- Will the effects last forever?
- How should I listen to the albums?
What is guided meditation?
Have you ever seen a movie that's totally changed your life, or changed your way of thinking, or changed your beliefs about something?
That's kind of like what guided meditation is.
It implants images and movies into your mind, that we've recorded for you. I narrate the guided visualization for you - it implants into your subconscious mind in order to change your thoughts, your beliefs and habits and your mindset.
Guided meditation is basically a fusion of meditation and guided visualization together.
We all know the benefits of meditation which has well been documented by doctors. Guided visualization is also been shown to be extremely beneficial for you.
When you fuse the two together, you've got a really powerful system to access your subconscious mind and effect change in your life through your thoughts, beliefs, actions, habits and your mindset.
*"Guided Meditation is an amazing way to calm the mind, whilst working on your desires at the same time
. You are taken on a beautiful guided journey in your mind to help you clear limiting beliefs and negative thoughts that may have been holding you back in life. Whilst entering a deep meditative state the soothing voice of the narrator will reach deep into your subconscious mind to bring about the changes you desire in life."*
We've written about this question a bit differently in our FAQ, so check it out here.
How does guided meditation work?
Think about it this way - the images and movies that you play in your mind over and over and over again, day in and day out, form your habits, beliefs, actions and your behaviors in life.
Guided meditation works to replace the old limiting images and movies that you play in your mind. It replaces them with new images and movies that help you to develop a new habit, a new behavior or a new mindset - which in turn really affect your whole life.
As images and movies that we play for you in your mind, while you listen to (a guided meditation audio) we guide you through a beautiful journey and through the guided meditations - and that replaces the old images and patterns that you have subconsciously.
That is how we go about creating change with guided meditation.
This in a nutshell is what guided meditation is and how it works.
We've written about this question in our FAQ, so check it out here.
What if I am no good at seeing (images) in my mind?
One of the main questions I get here all the time at GuidedMind.com is 'what if I'm no good at seeing things in my mind?
If I'll be honest here, most of us can see images in our mind. If I asked you to, for example, describe your front door - to make you close your eyes and describe your front door, you'd be able to see in your mind what color it is, where the keyhole is, where the letterbox is, where he handle is...
You'd be able to see it as a matter of practicing visualization. And every single CD and MP3 demo that we have here at Guided Mind gets you a visualization exercise with three parts to every download:
- You've got the relaxation part.
- You've got the visualization exercise.
- And you've also got the guided journey.
So we're also strengthening your visualization skills and your minds eye as well.
We've written about this question a bit differently in our FAQ, so check it out here.
How long does guided meditation take to work?
A question I get asked quite a lot is 'how long do the guided meditation take to work?'
Well, it really depends on what you're looking to change. I know that sounds like a little bit of a coup out, but it really does depend.
If you're looking to change an addictive behavior, if you're looking to give up drugs (if you're addicted to drugs and alcohol), obviously it's going to take a little longer than if you're looking to get more motivated in your life.
So it does depend on what you're looking to change; generally, you can change most things - like installing a new belief or installing new habits, or installing a new mindset into your subconscious mind after a few weeks.
Typically, you'll start to see the effect of guided meditations taking change after a few weeks.
We've written about this question a bit differently in our FAQ, so check it out here.
Will the effects of guided meditation last forever?
Another question I've got a lot is 'do the results of guided meditations last forever?'
It does last forever as long as you keep topping up. As we said in another video, we recommended that you listen to guided meditations every two weeks, and then cut it down to every two days, and then after a month cut it down to once a week, and you can do this on an ongoing basis.
It's really topping up your beliefs and keeping them planted into your subconscious mind so to speak.
You want these images and movies to play in your head almost all of the time for the first few weeks, and then keep topping that up once a week. And after a month or so cut it down to once a month.
Results from guided meditation does last forever, but you have to do some work here - it's not just about listening to it once and then going away and thinking that you're going to change after that.
It doesn't work like that.
If you put in a lot of effort - about 20 minutes a day - it should be enough for the first few weeks, and then the effect will last forever.
We've written about this question a bit differently in our FAQ, so check it out here.
How should I listen to the guided meditation albums for maximum effect?
One good question to consider for maximum results is 'how should I listen to the guided meditations?'
What I would recommend is listening to guided meditations using your headphones. I think it's best this way because there's no other distractions.
If you're listening to on your computer, or on your iPad or however you're listening to it - if you're not using headphones, there tend to be other distractions gnawing at you.
I would recommend trying to find a place away from everybody else for 20 minutes or so, and listen to it with your headphones on - so you're totally immersed in the powerful experience of guided meditations.
So those were my suggestions. Obviously, you'll find your own way as everybody is different, but I hope that helps you.
We've written about this question a bit differently in our FAQ, so check it out here.
As you know, all of our meditations are free to listen to online - there are over 130! recordings - so have a look and enjoy the free guided meditations by clicking here.
