Do you prefer guided meditations?

For me personally yes I like guided meditations. My mind tends to wonder if it’s not guided and when my mind wonders I’m not really meditating properly.

Yes, I do prefer guided meditations. When I am not able to have a guided audio meditation, I remember the past meditation prompts and guide myself or gently bring my attention to my breath.

They are good to start with, because focusing on the guidance prevents you from drifting off to other thoughts, but up ultimately you want to remove that guidance as well.

Most of the time, I do prefer guided meditations. It helps me remain more focussed & it helps me to stay more focussed when I meditate on my own. It’s like, you learn how to first with someone helping you stay in the moment, because they’re always giving guidance. So when you do it alone, that voice is still kind of in your head, keeping you focussed.

I do have a preference for guided meditation because I tend to focus on the visuals of the meditation. I wish there were more of the sleep meditations on this app to help me get better sleep.

Yes! I am new and love the guidance. I find the voice to be very soothing and it keeps me focused on meditating vs my mind going a mile a minute.

Yes I do. I have an app with a wide variety of different guided meditations so I can choose voice, length and special purpose. I prefer guided meditations where the guide leaves enough space for me to get into the meditation.

At first I did but now I prefer meditation that I can do instantly at any time of the day at any place for any length of time. I let how I feel decide the length of the meditation. I will meditate until my jaw stops feeling tense or until my breathing has normalised.
I use the meditation to get in touch with myself to learn about what is on my mind. What are going to be my daily distractions. At this moment there are so many that it costs me too much effort to focus on a guided meditation. So for now I am just accepting I have lots of distracting thoughts and I meditate on them and work on getting the most urgent one's out of the way after the meditation so I can get on with my day.

If I'm starting off my day I'd rather meditate on something that I feel would be helpful. At other times guided ones can be extremely helpful for me. I like to practice guided ones until I can use them on my own.

Yes for sure .. it would help stay consistent. . I love and I enjoy meditation..i am just to build a routine and stick to it

So far – no, plenty of things to focus and go through as is, without being directed certain places, they'll show when they want to.

Strictly? No. I prefer a mix of both guided and unguided meditations in equal amounts. In practice I find that guided mediation trans me to be a better practitioner and reminds me and inspires me to do better at it, but I also find I never am able to practice as deeply as when I’m practicing without guidance.

The guided meditation both reminds me and interrupts me. It reminds me to get back on my focus when I’ve wandered, but sometimes also is what knocks me off of my focus. Unguided meditation is just me and my focus, and I have to rely a bit more on myself to maintain that focus, but it’s only myself that’s going to be in the way.

In practice of taking what I learn about focus and mindfulness from meditation into the real world, that mix of about half and half feels about right, too. Sometimes the external world prompts me back into being more mindful, and sometimes it’s what knocks me off balance. And sometimes it’s just me and my own thoughts getting in my way. So, for me, practicing both ways better prepares me to deal with both contexts.

I like guided meditations quite a bit, especially first starting off. You feel like you are doing it right when someone is walking you through it. I like guided visualization the most when I meditate it takes you on a journey and leaves you feeling great!

Sometimes I do, especially if the sound is soothing I tried headspace for few months and it was helpful for two reasons, first helped me how to do it properly and second reason is it gradually helped me stay focused and not getting distracted by just listening and following the steps.

Sometimes, especially if I haven't meditated in a while. Normally however I do Mindfulness meditation which doesn't require instructions once you know the basics.

Yes, guided meditation brings awesome results. It helps me to disconnect when I’m following the instructions of the voice.

I do usually prefer guided meditation. For now, it helps me stay focused and adds structure to the meditation. That being said sometimes it’s nice to have little impromptu unguided meditations.

Sometimes guided meditations are good, as I’ve meditated more, I find non guided meditations better for deeper relaxation

I prefer guided meditations. I am still learning and it really helps me stay focused. Do you offer meditations for third eye opening? Or the Ajna chakra. I am fascinated with that particular type of meditation. I am also interested in how the chakras are impacted by types of yoga. From what I understand certain types of yoga are helpful in removing blockages from certain chakras. It would also be amazing if there were letters on chakras and how they relate to meditation, and yoga. If it is also feasible, I would love to know the impact healing crystals have on chakras, i.e reiki.

Since I am new to the idea of meditation I prefer guided. Maybe once I get used to it I won’t need to be guided though it.

I use both guided imagery meditations (have one set for anxiety by Bell Ruth Naperstak) that really works and the 10 minute Guided Meditations on the Calm website. I really like those because there is always time for deep meditation in those too, guided by ways to focus on your breathing, etc.

I learned about metta on the Daily Calm that they offer every day with a different topic. So the meditation is also a learning experience. It is recommended by doctors as a great start to your day to give yourself peace and relaxation for at least 5 minutes.

There is another guided meditation set that I have from the Mindfulness Meditation course offered by Dr Chris Chroniak in Chicago. His CDs have 45 minute meditations and are mainly silent so you can be lightly guided but mostly you are meditating at your own level and with mainly yourself. Does that make sense? Sometimes I find it difficult to try to describe meditation

I sometimes do mindfulness meditation simple. Just myself and my seat. For about 7 minutes, it seems like, although it can go far longer. This practice is to calm myself, refocus on just letting go and being in the present, in-depth, with no one outside to distract you.

At first I learned to meditate by sitting in silence and listening to a sound in the room, like a fan. I chose to listen to this constant ringing in my ear. I learned from there what meditation felt like. I use the app insight for guided meditations now that I know the feeling of the connection that I am looking for. I feel like guided meditation is appreciation plus meditation which is higher vibrating than meditation alone.

I prefer to use background music now when I meditate on my own. Guided meditations are generally beneficial when just starting, but later on you'll find whatever works for you.

Ihave been meditating for a year just using sounds. I prefer that then voices I find them to be slightly jarring form what I'm used to.

I've not enough experience with meditation to give a definitive yes or no. However I can tell you the guided meditation that I have tried is helping me on my path to self improvement.

Most of the time. I focus on a topic such as letting go, or sleep, or happiness. Recently however, I’ve started listening to “singing bowl” meditations which I like.

I prefer guided because I find it easier to keep my mind from wandering. It knows what to do and it can simply listen if it loses track of its task and fall back into a state of relaxation

Yes. I find them really useful and I meditate so much better if they are guided. I also choose meditations to suit my mood, what my concern is at the time, things I want to work on etc.

Enjoy!

Yes I prefer guided meditations as I get very lost very quickly if it is not guided. I like the feeling of having someone there with me and guiding me along the right path

Honestly depends, there’s no right or wrong. Usually I tend to go for guided because I enjoy background noise. But other times, for example if I’m outside, I prefer the calm natural noises. 🙂