Guided vs Unguided Meditations: What is better for YOU?

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Frankly speaking, both guided and unguided meditations should be a part of your practice! There are many reasons for that. Guided meditations teach you new things. And they also disturb you sometimes! While unguided meditations are really distraction free, but you have fewer chances to learn more!

 So let's get to the real topic 'Guided vs Unguided Meditations: What is better for YOU?'

 You can decide that by considering three criteria.

1      Since how long have you been practicing meditation?


Guided or Unguided meditation, what is better for you?
Photo by Patrick Schneider on Unsplash
If you are practicing since long, you might already know that you need both type of practices, but if you are still confused, according to me, you should do unguided meditations more than guided meditations.

The sole reason is that you have grown enough focus to be attentive during the entire session. But you can never learn enough in meditation, so trying different meditation through guided meditations is also necessary.

On the other hand, if you are new to meditation, you should do more guided meditations.


There are two main reasons for that:
                           I.          You will learn more from the guided meditations.
                          II.          One requires real focus and attention to do unguided meditation for 20 to 30 minutes! But if you are beginner, you don’t start with that long sessions, also it is easy to lose interest and start hating meditation if you start like that.

If you are a beginner, then this article will help you beginning with your meditation journey.

Now, how can you know how experienced you are in meditation? 
You can answer this by asking yourself how many types of meditations you know. However just knowing them isn’t enough, you must have practiced them for months! 

Also, take a challenge, can you meditate more than 1 hours on a guided meditation? 

Also consider since how long have you been practicing meditation? If the answer is more than a year (daily practice), then I think you should do both guided and unguided meditations.

2        Do you really enjoy the process or are doing it because of its benefits?


There are people that have been meditating since years but still find it difficult to sit down for more than 20 minutes! Don’t worry, I am one of them! Here's how I started my meditation journey!

People like me need guided meditation more than unguided, not because we don’t know much about meditation, but the timely reminders to take you back to track are really helping!

But even if you need constant reminders, you need to do unguided meditations, because in order to increase the focus of your brain, you need to try harder things!

So people who are able to do unguided meditation without losing focus, they need to increase the length of the session!


       3. How much do you sleep!!

It doesn’t not sound related to the topic, but sleep plays a very important role on your meditation sessions!

If you have been meditating since a while than you know that having lack of sleep will just ruin your meditation! You start to feel sleepy, and that sleepiness initiates dreams and storylines in your head!

So, if you sleep for about 6 hours everyday, and feel sleepy during the days, (well first thing is you should sleep more!) you need constant reminders to be focused and alert in meditation! However, it is absolutely okay to be lost in stories, and you are doing meditation right, if you suddenly realize that you were dreaming and come back to the object of focus.

"Sleepiness during meditation leaves you with more sleepiness after meditation!"

This is one thing that I have experienced the most!

So how should you tackle that, and what kind of meditation you should do! It is a no brainer that guided meditations are better (though, not best) in this scenario. The reason being that you get constant calls to be on track!


So, now you know, 'Guided vs Unguided Meditations: What is better for YOU?'

And the best way to scheduling is experimenting, there is no perfect schedule that you need to follow, there are no set guidelines that you need to follow in order to do meditation ‘correctly’. Because as long as you try to meditate, you are on the right track! Its okay to sleep after meditation. It is absolutely okay to miss a day! But just don’t get discouraged if you are not able to concentrate, or you suddenly fall asleep during a session!

If you have any questions regarding meditation, just throw them in the comment section and I will answer them in the FAQ series!

Keep meditating, be consistent, and don't be afraid to explore! 

- A Mere Meditator







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