The first time I was ever introduced to meditation was my freshman year in an “Intro To College Life” class. An instructor came in and discussed ways to help live a stress-free life. She turned off the lights and had us sit in the dark with our eyes closed while she spoke in a soft voice telling us how to focus on our breathing. I remember during that moment how relaxed I felt and how everything I was worried about during that time just went away for awhile. I recently have been stressed with my class schedule and everything else I have on my plate. A couple of weeks ago, I recently came across a post on Instagram mentioning guided meditation. I figured I would give it a try and see if it made me feel as peaceful as it did almost 2 years ago.

Whatever guided meditation you listen to will include tranquil meditation music that will help you to relax even more deeply. Your meditation guide will have you sit comfortably, or sometimes ask you to lie down. You then listen to your guide while they lead you through a series of relaxing visualizations and have you focus on your breathing. As you start to relax and become more still, your stress will fade away, and your mind becomes clearer and clearer. The only way to really understand what guided meditation is to try it yourself! Guided meditation can be experienced either in a class with the help of a meditation teacher, or by listening to a guided meditation through a podcast or other type of recording. I found that I prefer doing it in the comfort of my own space and, I don’t have much time in my day to go to a meditation class. I go onto Spotify and search for Guided Mediation and go through the playlist. Spotify guided meditation collection offers a variety of practices. I choose ones that are shorter in time because I don’t usually have time to do a session for 40 minutes. There are 10 minute, 20 minute, and 30-minute options.

I have been dedicating at least 10 minutes a day to guided meditation and I am so so happy that I do. During that 10, 20, sometimes 30-minute sessions all the stress and thoughts in my head drift away. I feel at peace whenever I am done with the sessions. What I have been loving doing lately is doing a session while in bed before I fall asleep. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I get caught thinking about everything I have going on in my life and it is hard for me to fall asleep. Doing a quick guided meditation before bed helps me fall asleep easily, and peacefully.