Guided meditation
Guided meditation is a process by which one or more participants meditate in response to the guidance provided by a trained practitioner or teacher, either in person or via a written text, sound recording, video, or audiovisual media comprising music or verbal instruction, or a combination of both.
The term "guided meditation" is most commonly used in clinical practice, scholarly research, and scientific investigation to signify an aggregate of integrated techniques. The most common and frequently used combination or synthesis comprises meditation music and receptive music therapy, guided imagery, relaxation, some form of meditative practice and mindfulness, and journaling.
Investigators, clinicians, and research authors frequently analyze and discuss the effects and efficacy of this intervention as a whole, with the result that it is often difficult to attribute positive or negative outcomes to any of the specific techniques that contribute to guided meditation. Furthermore, the term "guided meditation" is frequently used interchangeably with the terms "guided imagery" and sometimes with "creative visualization" in popular psychology and self-help literature, and to a lesser extent in scholarly and scientific publications. Consequently, understanding the nature, scope, application, and limitations of guided meditation requires it to be considered in context and relationship to the multiple techniques that are integral to its practice, allowing for variations in terminology.Benefits
Guided meditation as an aggregate or synthesis of techniques including meditation music and receptive music therapy, guided imagery, relaxation, meditative praxis, and self-reflective diary-keeping or journaling has been shown to be effective in precipitating therapeutic, rehabilitative, and educational benefits when employed as an adjunct to primary clinical and instructional strategies, including as a means to lower levels of stress, minimize the frequency, duration, and intensity of asthmatic episodes, control and manage pain, develop coping skills, improve ability to carry out demanding tasks in exacting situations, decrease the incidence of insomnia, abate feelings of anger, reduce occurrences of negative or irrational thinking, assuage anxiety, raise levels of optimism, enhance physical and mental aptitude, and increase general feeling of well-being and self-reported quality of life.
