Whether you are new to meditation, out of practice or simply prefer guided meditation sessions, there are countless free guided meditations available online for anyone who needs to put things aside for a moment and find their center again. The increasing speeds of the internet in recent years has opened the flood gates for audio and video for just about every taste. Here’s a few that I find helpful when I don’t have the time or focus to sit down for a longer meditation session on my own. Most of these are samples provided by organizations that offer full programs at their websites.
A Moment of Calm
Belief.net has offered a guided meditation entitled A Moment of Calm for years now, and it’s one that many people come back to again and again. This is a ten minuted guided meditation provided by Tara Brach, founder of the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, DC. This is an excellent, tradtional guided meditation that is a great first stop if you’ve gotten out of the habit of quieting your mind. After using this guide for a few days in a row, you’ll find that you’re doing it on your own and the guided portions are almost an interuption.
Three Minute Meditation by Dr. Susan Taylor
Another fairly formal one is the Three Minute Meditation from Dr. Susan Taylong of the Center for Meditation Science. This one is devoted to getting your awareness seated back in your body and being aware it’s natural functions for a few moment. It’s a very effective set of techniques, but it sometimes feels a little too sterile for some reason. An excellent video for when you are not feeling up for anything too fruity.
The Ocean Breath Meditation is a decidedly more fun and invigorating one, coming to us by way of the Meditation Society of Australia. This a visual and auditory meditation in which the guide talks about the power of the ocean and instructs listeners to imagine breathing in with the incoming waves and out with outgoing. There’s some great video of large ocean waves breaking and a relaxing guitar strumming in the background that combines with the guides laid-back Australian accent for a beach side meditation that doesn’t take itself to seriously.
Point of Focus
Alright, a one minute meditation might sound like we’re pushing it, but this is a surprisingly powerful technique to regain focus and control in your daily life. A search of YouTube reveals a wide variety of one minute meditations, but Point of Focus from Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University is amongst the best. The purpose of this meditation is to recenter one’s awareness on the internal and is a brief reminder that everything external is observed and influenced by this still awareness. Very useful when you are need to quickly regain focus on a project or are simply feeling a bit scattered.
