Guided Meditation 101

Incorporating different techniques into your practice may help keep your daily meditation routine more challenging and interesting. As your meditation skills increase, your meditation preferences may change as well. You may want to occasionally check in on the effectiveness of your practice by reflecting on questions such as:

• What type of changes have I noticed in myself, if any, since starting my meditation practice
• What are my current meditation goals?
• How effective has my practice been in helping me reach those goals?
• How can I measure my daily progress towards these goals?

• If my practice is not helping me reach my goals, what should I change about my practice in order to improve?
• Is my meditation practice currently challenging me or have I reached a plateau?
• Am I connecting with fellow meditators to answer questions that come up for me?
  
  Revisit these questions every few months to determine if your meditation practice is working for you. It is best to approach your practice with an open and flexible mind in order to ensure continued growth.
  
  For more insight on mindfulness and meditation, be sure to listen to this Untangle podcast with instructor Michael Apollo.

You can experience meditation in a variety of ways. An important part of the practice is finding the right type that works for you! Here are some methods to cultivate a meditation practice:


1. Guided Meditation Apps
2. In-Person Meditation Classes
3. Online Meditation Classes and Workshops
4. Unguided Meditation

If you are just starting your meditation practice or want to expand your current practice, guided meditations can introduce you to experienced teachers that can enhance your meditation experience.

There are numerous guided meditation apps on the market, but it can be hard to know which tool is right for you. Here is a quick overview of a few of the top meditation apps:

Muse app: Includes free guided meditations, including courses, pep talks, and mindset talks as well as relaxing soundscapes and real-time biofeedback when paired the Muse brain-sensing headband.

Headspace: Includes guided meditations and basic meditation techniques for beginners.

Calm: Includes meditations as well as ambient sounds and bedtime stories.

Insight Timer: Includes guided meditations, music and talks for relaxation and sleep.

Simple Habit: Includes five-minute meditations for users too busy for longer sessions.

The guided meditations and courses in the Muse app cover a wide range of topics to ensure that you have the guidance you need to meet your personal and professional goals. The Muse app also includes monthly challenges, meditation streaks, progressive meditation minute goals, and milestones to help beginner and experienced meditators stay motivated and build a more consistent and rewarding practice.

To access additional free guided meditations and monthly challenges on the Muse app, sign up for our newsletter.

For a more thorough overview of the costs and benefits of various meditation apps, be sure to read What’s the Best Meditation App for You?

Muse’s guided meditation collection and courses are also available on Amazon Alexa, providing users with a screen-free meditation experience accessible via simple voice commands. Skill users can ask for meditation by collection, meditation title, or topic. The skill includes 14 free guided meditations.

Muse guided meditation subscribers can connect their Muse account through the Amazon Alexa app to access Muse's entire collection of more than 300 guided meditations, including a weekly featured meditation. All meditations completed on Amazon Alexa count toward your streak count in the Muse app.

Local meditation classes are a great way to develop a more rewarding practice and can be used in conjunction with a meditation app. There are multiple benefits to in-person meditation classes, including:

• Meet like-minded individuals and become part of a meditation community: In-person classes can help you develop personal connections with other meditators and tap into the collective energy of the group.
• Develop a more consistent practice: Just like having a gym buddy can help you burn more calories, meeting a friend at an in-person meditation class can help keep you accountable and help you build a more consistent practice.
• Work through meditation blocks: If your meditation practice hits a plateau, your teacher and more experienced meditators can provide you with personalized advice that can move your practice to the next level.

Similar to meditation classes, in-person meditation retreats, and workshops can help expose you to new meditation techniques and introduce you to new teachers, mentors, and students.

By removing distractions and getting you out of your day-to-day routine, meditation retreats can also accelerate and invigorate your practice, whether you’re a beginner and a more experienced meditator. You can search online for local meditation centers that provide in-person classes like MNDFL or more immersive meditation experiences like The Big Quiet.

Online meditation courses and workshops are an affordable alternative to in-person classes and retreats and can help you improve your practice at your own pace and in the comfort of your own home.

Online meditation classes can also give you an increased level of access to your favorite online instructors and, depending on the class, you may also have access to the course materials after the class has ended.

In addition, through community forums and chats, you can tap into an online community of students from all over the world, helping you feel more supported and connected throughout your meditation journey. Check out Muses's community to share your meditation results and insights!

With a guided meditation subscription, Muse users have access to a wide variety of guided meditation courses specifically designed for beginner and experienced meditators, including sessions on Meditation Essentials, Neuroscience and Wellbeing, Mindful Work, Uncovering Happiness, and more.

Muse meditation courses include step-by-step, in-depth instructions and can be completed at your own pace.

Each course was developed by one of our expert mindfulness and meditation instructors and include instruction, meditations, and even journaling prompts to ensure you get the most out of your meditation course. As long as you have a Muse guided meditation subscription, you can access or revisit the course materials at any time.

Unguided meditations are a form of self-directed meditation that is conducted in silence or with ambient background noise or meditation music playing in the background. These meditations do not include guidance from teachers or instructors but can include bells or chimes to signal time intervals or the end of the session.

During an unguided meditation, you can decide how long you want to meditate, which meditation technique to use, and how to direct your practice. Unguided meditation gives you the freedom to meditate anytime, anywhere without the need for a device or internet access.

Many apps with unguided meditation timers allow you to choose an ending sound and whether to meditate in silence, with meditation music, or with relaxing nature sounds, such as birds, ocean waves, or a babbling brook.

Unguided meditations are suitable for both beginners and experienced meditators but may be most appropriate for meditators who are able to recognize when their minds’ wander and redirect their attention. Some practitioners may prefer unguided meditations because they are easily distracted by voice guidance. If you do choose to go the unguided route, make sure to keep track of your progress through journaling. This can help bring insight into our practice.

Guided meditations completed with the Muse brain-sensing headband allow users to track their brainwaves during their session. Post-session graphs show the amount of time brainwaves are inactive, neutral, and calm states.

Overtime, meditators can use these graphs to track their progress, determine which types of meditation techniques work best for them, and stay motivated to build a more consistent and rewarding meditation practice.

Without biofeedback from the Muse headband, both beginning and experienced meditators can be left wondering:

• Is my meditation practice effective?
• Is my meditation practice improving?
• Has my meditation practice hit a plateau?
• Should I increase my meditation time?

Data from the Muse app can help answer these questions and ensure your meditation practice is always on the right track.

Did you know that Muse has the ability to track the full spectrum of brainwaves, including:

Gamma: These brainwaves are associated with heightened perception, learning, problem-solving, and cognitive processing.

Beta: These waves are associated with alert consciousness, thinking and excitement.

Alpha: You experience alpha waves when you are physically and mentally relaxed.

Theta: Theta waves are associated with creativity, insights, dreams, and deep meditation.

Delta: These brainwaves are associated with deep sleep, repair, and loss of bodily awareness.

In order to better understand how Muse works, it can be helpful to know the definitions of the below terms:

Biofeedback is the process of collecting feedback from sensors that are placed on your body. These sensors can help you learn how to control how your body functions. Biofeedback is a general term that can refer to feedback from your brainwaves, breath, heart rate, muscles, and body temperature.

Neurofeedback is a form of biofeedback that is specific to brainwaves and electroencephalogram or EEG readings.

Real-time feedback: Individuals receive biofeedback from sensors in real-time as opposed to after the exercise or session.

Muse is a state of the art EEG system that uses seven sensors—two on your forehead, two behind your ears, and three for additional reference—to track your brainwaves, heartbeat, breath and body movements during guided meditation sessions.

Compared to traditional neurofeedback devices, Muse utilizes a more complex algorithm that takes into account each type of brainwave to determine whether your brain activity is active, neutral, or calm.

Traditional neurofeedback devices only focus on monitoring and training individual frequencies. Feedback from guided meditation sessions is delivered to the Muse app after the meditation is complete.

The sensors on Muse can also track your breath, heart rate, body movements and brainwaves in real-time while you are completing one of our unguided soundscape meditations. When the mind is active, the volume of the soundscape increases. For example, if you're using the beach soundscape, the sound of waves will get louder as you lose focus. When the mind calms, the waves sound will soften.

If your mind wanders during a session, the increase in volume can help remind you to refocus your thoughts. This feedback loop helps accelerate learning and may improve the effectiveness of your meditation sessions over time.

While any type of meditation is more effective than not meditating at all, you may be wondering how your practice may be improved with the use of Muse, the brain sensing headband.

A study conducted by Professor Michela Balconi at the Catholic University of Milan followed 40 participants over four weeks to determine if participants who meditated with Muse would show measurable differences as compared to participants who completed breathing exercises while listening to nature sounds.

After four weeks of meditating with Muse, meditators showed an improvement in response times while completing cognitive tasks as well as positive changes in their resting brain states, which suggest an increased ability to relax.

Muse users also displayed positive changes in their brain plasticity and a significantly larger—more than 15 percent—reduction in stress over the control group.

These findings show that regular use of Muse in well-controlled studies can lead to brain changes that suggest measurable improvements in overall brain health.

For more information, you can read Professor Balconi’s full studies here.

Beginning meditators may be wondering what to expect during their first guided meditation. Guided meditations may include:

1. A brief introduction to your teacher
2. A moment to get settled into your meditation seat
3. Instructions on how to sit or lie down during the meditation
4. An introduction to the meditation technique being used in the session
5. Prompts for moments of reflection on the meditation theme
6. Instructions on how to integrate the meditation technique into your daily life
7. Moments of silence to help you achieve deeper relaxation and focus

This 13-minute guided meditation by Kate Johnson will help you stay grounded and find love during especially difficult times: SOS Calm. Listen to it anytime you’re experiencing a crisis or just need a relaxing break from your day-to-day stress.