Which Meditation Program Is Right For You?

If you're a beginner with meditation then there are probably a hundred and one things buzzing through your mind. After all, you want to not just make sure that meditation is right for you, but you also want to know that the meditation program you choose is the best choice you can make. Here are some things to look for to help you make the right decision.

Start with finding out how easy your chosen meditation process is to learn. Some meditation methods are almost second nature and don't involve much (if any) learning on your part whilst others take years of practice to achieve the kind of perfection you're probably striving for.

Most beginners start with some form of guided meditation. This takes the guesswork out of the process as you simply follow along to the MP3 that you're playing. Guided meditations are a great way to start and also have the advantage that they're cheap and also available for lots of different options. So you could choose one that helps with your overall health or one that will assist you with connecting to your higher self or one that will help you to use the law of attraction to bring abundance into your life. There are hundreds if not thousands of these guided meditation tracks available on the web - you simply need to choose ones that suit your current purpose and where the voice is one that you get along with. If there's a sample of the track, listen to it before purchasing.

Another meditation program that's often chosen by beginners is a breathing meditation. Again, this falls into the "simple to use" category as you already instinctively know the basics of the system - breathing.

Much like the guided meditations, a breathing meditation will have a set of instructions for you to follow. These could be in MP3 format or they could simply be a sheet of instructions that you need to read through and use. You'll know which of these methods suits you best - some people prefer the speed of being able to skim down a PDF or Word document whereas others prefer to listen to the instructions on their iPad as they go along. Choose the method that you're most likely to prefer.

A third meditation program that you may come across is one that uses binaural beats to recreate a meditative state in your mind. This is kind-of similar to a guided meditation except that there are normally no words, just a backing track of natural sounds or music to disguise the fairly ugly noise of the binaural beats themselves.

The beats are designed to be slightly different in tone - one tone played into one ear, the other played into your other ear. Your mind then tries to match up the two almost identical beats and, in doing so, takes itself into a deep meditative state. Whilst you can create this kind of program yourself, it's better to use a system that's been designed and recorded by professionals. These are simple to use and inexpensive. They're also claimed to help you reach the same kind of deep meditative state achieved by Zen monks but without the years of practice.

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The Best Way To Write After Doing Your Guided Meditation or Guided Imagery Program

When you do a guided meditation or guided imagery program, you offer yourself an ideal opportunity to explore a deeper level of awareness about yourself, receive higher truth, and know more about how you feel inside. Writing immediately after your guided meditation or guided imagery session is an important way of exploring and mining that information. But how successful you'll be in making the most of what's available to you depends on how you go about doing your writing.

If you've ever kept a diary or written in a journal, you might have noticed that the experience can vary a great deal in terms of your level of satisfaction, and what you get out of the time you put in. You'll get the most from your writing when you're going into new levels of honesty within yourself. In my experience, it all depends upon where you're coming from. Here are some places you could be coming from as you journal, after doing a guided meditation:

Your Intellect: In this case, you'll find your writing fairly dry, and fairly boring, with little real engagement. Your intellect can probably go on and on, spouting out everything you know ad-infinitum. But there's not much real point in writing down what you already know, unless you want to practice your handwriting. (By the way I've read that it's been scientifically proven that more of your brain is engaged through handwriting than typing. So when you're writing in your journal, pen and paper is the way to go.) After your guided meditation, writing from the intellect will get you no further than you were before you started.

Your Emotions: In this case, you're giving voice to feelings that may have come up during your meditation. That can be helpful, if you've not been particularly in touch with your feelings. So called "free form writing" is one way to do this, where you just let yourself spill whatever comes up and out of you, for example, using the words you wouldn't want to actually say to someone you're mad at. For that kind of writing, you might find it helpful to burn the pages afterward. (Never mail them!) In general, emotional writing can be cathartic, especially if you're willing to let the emotions go when you're done, and not hold onto them.

Your Higher Consciousness: Here's where you're apt to get the most bang for your buck. Guided imagery and guided meditation can help you open to higher consciousness and receive input from your own Higher Self, as well as all kinds of wonderful spiritual figures who tend to stand by waiting for an opportunity to be of assistance. Writing immediately after a guided meditation or guided imagery session, when you write from higher consciousness, can bring forward all kinds of great information. Look for my article, Writing From Higher Consciousness Following Guided Imagery And Meditation, for more about how to do this.

Max Highstein is an author, music composer, and spiritual counselor who's work includes bestselling title, The Healing Waterfall, Touch The Sky, Visiting Saint Francis, and many others. Visit his website to learn more and download a free guided imagery and guided meditation program.

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