How to get the most out of our podcast
Posture – find a comfortable position
Unless otherwise stated, these guided meditations can be done either sitting or lying down. In general, if you meditate sitting up, you’ll tend to stay more alert for the meditation. You might tend to doze or fall asleep while lying down. You can try meditating both ways to see the difference for yourself. In either case, find a position that is comfortable and close your eyes for the meditations.
Listen easily without straining
Listen easily to the meditations, without straining in any way to follow the instructions. Treat the instructions as gentle suggestions, and allow yourself to follow them in a way that is easy and natural. The mind will wander from time to time — that doesn’t matter. Just easily bring your attention back to the voice-guided instructions when you realize it has wandered.
Meditations with and without a focus
Some of the meditations have a focus, such as the breath, emotions or body awareness. It’s not necessary to concentrate to keep your attention on these things. Just be easy with the process and come back to the focus when the mind has wandered.
Many of the meditations don’t have a specific focus like the breath. The instructions are simply pointers to encourage the mind to let go of its usual patterns and settle down. Listen to them in an easy, effortless manner, simply allowing the words and music to wash over you. The phrases may not make sense to the “logical mind”. It is not necessary to understand, or even to hear, all the words.
Ending the meditations
At the end of most meditations, you will be given the option to continue longer with the meditation on your own for a while longer. When you are ready to end the meditation, take time to come out slowly. Stretch, take some deep breaths and gradually return to your activity. Opening your eyes downcast can also help the transition to activity to be more graceful and smooth.
Doing these meditations on your own
Once you’ve listened to these meditations for some time, you will become familiar enough with the processes to do them on your own. You can always come back to the guided meditation as a “refresher” once you’re doing them on your own.
Value of repeating the meditations
Listening to any of these guided meditations should bring relaxation and a shift in your way of being. Listening to them more than once increases these effects and helps you to develop new habits in living. If you need to be more grounded, for example, you can listen to the Body Awareness or Grounding Meditations repeatedly. (This doesn’t mean listening many times a day or many times in a row, but rather over a period of days or weeks.)
Beginning meditations – best meditations to start with
We have a number of different meditations for different purposes. Some are designed simply to help you get into a relaxed, meditative state. Others have a focus such as the guided meditations for connecting with nature, support with grief, working with your inner child. These are most effective if you are able to get into that relaxed state first. If you are new to meditation, we suggest that you start with the more basic meditations listed below before trying the others.
Beginning Meditations
Breath Awareness Meditation — written instructions
Breath Awareness Meditation — (listen) guided meditation from our podcast
Mini-Relaxation Break — (listen) guided meditation from our podcast
Simply Being — (listen) guided meditation from our podcast
Effortless Meditation — (listen) guided meditation from our podcast
Letting Go — (listen) guided meditation from our podcast
Note: Three of these meditations are on our Meditation Oasis CD –Breath Awareness, Effortless Meditation and Letting Go. Order this CD or MP3 download for a convenient way to use these meditations at home.
Regular meditation brings the most benefit!
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29 Responses to “How to get the most out of our podcast”
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Is it necessary to “close” your Chakras at the conclusion of the meditation? She said leaving them “open” could lead to negative energy.
Hi John,
Are you asking about the chakra meditation?
We don’t have any meditations where I say anything about leaving chakras open leading to negative energy, so it’s not clear what you are talking about. If you are talking about the chakra meditation on on the podcast, there’s no need to do anything about closing chakras.
How many of your meditation recordings are available for Podcast download, what titles and where can I find them on the website – Many thanks
Monica, you can find all of our podcasts on the Listen to Our Podcast page.
Which meditation will work best to reach the unconscious mind?
Sue, to answer I’d need to know what you mean by reaching the unconscious mind. What are you hoping to do?
I am preparing for a major sports event but there are circumstances around me “interfering” in my seeing the outcome of successful completion. Please recommend which meditation will be best for me. The interfering aspects might be around during the event as well and I need to be able to cope with them. Thank you for a beautiful place to visit!
Hi Nessie, I can’t be sure which meditation would work best for this, but I would guess that the Breath Awareness or Body Awareness Meditations, if used regularly, would help to develop the habit of being less distracted by thoughts and distractions, and more focused on the performance of the body. Of course, some athletes do meditations where they visualize themselves performing perfectly and this can help. Perhaps you could do this while listening to the podcast episode of music. Good luck!
Hi. I would like to know if you have any podcasts to help with weight loss. I looked down through them on iTunes and while I downloaded many of them for other things none caught my eye as being for weight loss.
Thanks!
Me, We don’t have any on weight loss.
i woud like it very so much to meditate for many hr. at one time or med. for days is it can be done and i am thanking u so very much for this is gift for all is love 2u
jezzariya, It’s not a good idea to meditate for many hours or days at a time.
The process you use is excellent and can be universally applied to almost any intention and focus. Still, since your voice is so wonderful, I would like to have you considered creating a guided meditation on compassion and/or giving.
As with expressive arts, I would think that meditation could be combined on occasion with movement or drawing before or after practice to strengthen the positive experience when it arises.
These are great suggestions, Gregg. We get many requests, of course, but I think there’s a good possibility I’d do a meditation on compassion.
And yes, meditation can certainly be combined with movement or drawing. Beforehand it would set a tone, and help ease you into meditation. Afterwards it could be an expression of the meditative experience. With the Creativity meditation podcast, I have suggested that it can be done immediately before creative work. Thanks for commenting!
Which podcasts do not have music in the background? I prefer to listen to the meditation without music. Thank you!
Piper, will make a notation on the Listen to Our Podcast page in the near future as to which have and don’t have music. Until then you’ll have to start streaming them and see…
What are the benefitts of the mediation
You can read about the benefits of meditation on this page.
Love these meditation podcasts!!!!! No nonsense and simple to follow. Have also found it helpful to wear noise cancelling headphones over my iphone headphones to prevent outside noise distractions from leading me away.
Thank you very much for your meditation podcast. I am going through a rough time and it has helped a great deal.
On second thought, is there a meditation for loss you would recommend?
Julie, you might want to try the Guided Meditation for Grief. Glad the meditations have been helping. Best wishes.
Am in acrisis of money bad luck which meditation is for attracting money
Mooya, we don’t have a meditation for attracting money, although regular meditation can help us improve all areas of our lives. Also, having gratitude for what we already have can create an energy which brings more into our lives. You might try the Gratitude Meditation on the Listen to Our Podcast page.
thank-you mary and everyone affiliated with this web site. it is beautiful & generous gift you have given.
Hi. I’m new to this but what little I have heard sounds very good indeed. Can meditation help to lower blood pressure? And if so, which would you recommend?
Thank you.
Steve
Steve, yes meditation can help lower blood pressure due to its relaxing effect — this has been researched. Try some of the meditations in the podcast — Simply Being, Breath Awareness, Letting Go, Relief from Stress and Pressure are ones you can try. Or try the ones you’re drawn to and see which works best for you.
Hi Mary…i have just found your website and really like what i see so far. I have been trying to meditate each morning for 6 months or so and have been struggling a great deal of late to maintain focus and motivation – the meditation i have been trying is a combination of mindfulness of breathing and bodyscan…i suffer from anxiety and low-self esteem – also bouts of depression – i am determined to become a life long meditator to help with this (i am tired of all of this and don’t want it to be my life) – do you think it will help? Do you have any tips for which particular meditations to use? I am going on a retreat soon in UK so this should be a chance to deepen my practice. Finally thanks for sharing the podcasts, it is very kind
Hi Tom, I definitely feel meditation can help you with these things, but it might be necessary to also get some professional help as well. It’s impossible for me to say, of course. Find a meditation style that you like and look forward to doing — that will most likely take care of the focus and motivation issues.