Relieve Stress with a Guided Meditation Practice

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I can almost hear your agitated and stressed out thoughts: “Guided meditation for stress and anxiety? Hmmm… it sounds interesting… and peaceful. But does it work for me? Can anyone, including me, do it? Does it take long? Do I have to do it daily? Do I have to do it often? For what period of time? Do I have to get dressed in a long orange robe to get it done right? What does guided mean – does this mean that I need a guru? Someplace to go to be guided by someone? Will I feel better instantly? Do I have to do it more times or once is enough?”
How about pausing your thoughts, worries, and agitation and let me calmly answer all these while you listen peacefully?

Stress and Anxiety

Stress and anxiety suck and they suck the life out of you. They don’t only affect your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health, but the well-being of the people around you, too (family, close friends, colleagues).

Symptoms of Anxiety:

  • Tension, irritability, restlessness
  • Expecting the worst
  • Seeing and looking for signs of danger everywhere and anytime
  • Palpitations
  • Shortness of breath
  • Excessive sweating
  • Tremor, twitches
  • Headaches
  • Fatigue
  • Insomnia and sleeping problems
  • Upset stomach and diarrhea
  • Frequent or emergency urination

Life is Stressful

Many situations want to trigger stress and anxiety within you. The problem is how we manage them and how we control ourselves, so we don’t get controlled and overwhelmed by situations. When too much is just too much for us, we may experience chronic stress and anxiety. That’s when our nightmare begins.

Long working hours or extra hours, exceeding workload, the safety of your finances, bad relationships with your boss are only a few of the cases of stress. The immediate results are the decreased productivity and creativity, loss of interest for your work, over-reactions, resentments and even health problems like heart diseases.

What is Anxiety?

You have to know that there is a difference between having a momentary feeling of fear (which is normal), such as feeling “butterflies” in your stomach, sweating, palpitation, tension, headache, tightness in the chest, upset stomach. It’s a usual response of the body when the adrenal glands activate the “fight or flight” mode in certain situations, such danger or potential danger, conflict, or before a wedding, a competition, delivering a speech, etc.

However, being anxious every day for months and months, and even years, is not healthy, and it becomes a severe problem. When the worry, panic or fear don’t decrease or stop, it is becoming a constant nerve-wracking, consuming, self-destroying day by day situation. It develops into a persistent worry, negativity, even without any reason.

And you’re not the only one. Many people suffer as you do. So, you’re not alone. Statistics show that over 3% of the U.S. population is affected by anxiety; women tended to be twice as much affected than men.

Common Types of Anxiety:

  • Generalized anxiety disorder or GAD
  • Social anxiety disorder
  • Panic disorder
  • Phobias (such as agoraphobia – fear of open spaces, claustrophobia – fear of tight spaces)
    Separation anxiety disorder

One of the treatments for stress and anxiety is meditation. One accessible form of meditation is a guided meditation.

What is Guided Meditation?

Guided meditation is a form of meditation that is led with voice by someone, either a meditation teacher or even yourself (if you record yourself). You can attend guided meditation classes, or you can listen to an audio recording of guided meditation, or you can watch a video with a guided meditation.

A Guided Meditation Session Includes:

  • Soothing background music or sound effects (could be ambient, instrumental music, or sounds from nature like rain, river murmuring, waves, winds through the leaves, birds, dolphins, and whales, etc.)
  • Calming, pleasant, warm voice (male or female)
  • Guiding steps that introduce you to meditation and with a content that leads you to calm your mind let go of anxiety and stress, and directs your focus on breathing, happiness, serenity, light, your inner self, etc.
  • It may include visual imagery and visualization.
  • It starts with a short relaxation part, continues with releasing stress and anxiety, and ends with becoming aware of the result of the meditation: the feelings of relaxation, lightness, letting go of emotional and mental burdens, calmness, peace, positive emotions, etc.

Practice Guided Meditation at Home or with a Class

The first and most comfortable way to do a guided meditation is over the internet or at home. Like this, you can sit in the comfort of your home, in your chair or on your meditation pillow, without needing to go anywhere.

There are many video or audio guided meditation out there, with a focused on yoga, meditation, mindfulness, or Reiki. Teachers from all over the world offer many sessions of various guided meditation techniques. You can find guided meditation for about everything, stress and anxiety included. Some videos include beautiful imagery that helps you get into the mood and others are just in an audio format, keeping you from any visual distraction, to hold your mind solely on the guided steps.

Discover at Home Help with:

  • Youtube
  • Digital Apps (Android or iPhone)
  • Support Groups and Forums
  • DVDs, CDs (usually for purchase)

Or, secondly, if you instead prefer to go to your nearby meditation class, that’s great, too. You will probably have a good selection of places you could try.

You are guided step by step, with each stage of the meditation explained to you in the most gentle way.

Benefits of Guided Meditation for Stress and Anxiety

When you do a guided meditation, it’s easier to relax and follow the lead, with no worries about how to do it, if you do it right when to jump to the next step, and so on. You are sure that you have the best guidance possible and you follow it for your health and well-being.

It is also easier because, usually, the person who is speaking has already a calm, peaceful, and soothing voice that instantly puts you in a cheerful mood. From there, it is even easier to relax and enjoy the meditation, and go deeper and deeper into the state as the reflection enfolds. It guides and teaches you specifically to let go of worries, negative thoughts and emotions, stress, anxiety, and panic.

Studies show that as little as 5 minutes of daily guided meditation is enough to decrease stress levels and anxiety. So, it doesn’t necessarily have to be an extended meditation, important is to do be perseverant, and better if you do it daily.

5 Health Advantages of Guided Meditation

1. Reduces Cortisol

Meditation decreases the levels of cortisol (so-called “the stress hormone” that is excessively produced by the adrenal glands when the “fight-and-flight” mode is triggered. When the levels of cortisol go over the roof, it increases inflammation, blood pressure, fatigue, foggy thinking, stress, and it disturbs the sleep). Guided meditation regulates the cortisol levels, helping your body and mind to recover.

2. Controls Blood Pressure

It regulates blood pressure and has a positive effect on your heart health.

3. Reduces Anxiety

The regular guided meditation practice for stress and anxiety calms your mind, reduces the obsessive-compulsive behaviors, the panic attacks occurrence, agitation while increasing attention, awareness, and well-being.

4. Restore Energy

Helps you recover your physical, emotional, and mental vitality and energy.

5. Align your Mind & Body

Helps you align your soul and heart. Enables you to regain your self-compassion, non-judgmental thinking, awareness on your value and abilities, trust, and allows you to build a better-adjusted resilient you.

4 Reasons Guided Meditation is Great to Manage Stress and Anxiety

Guided meditation helps improve not only your emotional and mental distress, but it improves your performance at work, your social interactions, and your family relationships. Here are four reasons why everyone should practice a guided meditation to keep everyday stress and anxiety at bay.

1. Anywhere, Anytime

You can practice it anywhere, anytime – you don’t depend on someone else or a place to go. Download the guided meditation on your iPod, and you’re free to wander the world. You can do the guided meditation at home, in the park, in the forest, on the beach, in the car, in the subway, in the bus, in the waiting room at your dentist (yes, it will help you panic and stress when you are on your dentist’s chair), and even at work – in your lunch break, for example.

2. No Equipment Needed

You don’t need special equipment to do it (only to download a couple of free or paid guided meditations), and you can carry it with you anywhere (with your iPod). Or you have it on your smartphone with you everywhere. Smart, right?

3. Cost-Effective

It’s economical – even for free. So no money involved – it won’t break your bank. It will help you save money on your health and well-being, as they will improve with each guided meditation practice.

4. For Anyone

Anyone can do guided meditation – regardless of age, sex, race, cultural and religious appurtenances. Guided meditation goes beyond any differences, and first, it unites your body, mind, and spirit for a better and calmer your, and it unites us all in the peace of the heart.