When I began meditating, this set of “Meditative Mind” guided meditations was the first set I started with. I found them to be very high-quality and dependable. Moreover, I found that starting out with guided meditations was the right way to go. I started by doing the root chakra (chakra #1) and sacral chakra (chakra #2) meditations, then this meditation, and then eventually worked my way up through the heart chakra (chakra #4), throat chakra (chakra #5), third eye chakra (chakra #6), and the crown chakra (chakra #7) meditations.

After I worked my way up through these guided meditations, I began expanding my meditations outside of guided meditations to 432 Hz. meditations, Tibetan singing bowl meditations, etc. But I think for beginners, through my experience (non-medical opinion), guided meditations are very helpful in teaching one the proper techniques.

Especially, in terms of breathing techniques, casting out negative and distracting thoughts, and truly learning how to control your focus to block out distractions around you (e.g., itches, background sounds, back pain, etc.). But as always, do what works for you and what brings you the most happiness and enjoyment. The whole purpose of meditation is to make your life better. In my experience, it has helped me extremely lower my anxiety and stress, become healthier, increase my mindfulness, acknowledge what actually matters in this life, and has empowered me to pursue goals I never thought were possible. I experienced a very traumatic health event, and began meditating thereafter, in my non-medical opinion, through my life experience, I found it to be life-saving. I could not imagine my life without mediation now. I have tried many offshoots of meditation as well that are a bit more physical such as reiki, tai chi, qigong, etc. I love doing all of these now, and I continue to learn more and more about them each day. I am very grateful and appreciative that I have come to learn these essential elements of life, and I truly hope they can bring you as much joy, happiness, and peace as they have brought me.

Finally, it is generally recommended amongst the meditation community (regardless of religious background) to engage in a pre-meditation spiritual protection prayer before opening yourself up to meditation. All religions and spiritual beliefs offer some sort of spiritual protection prayer, if you do a simple YouTube search, you can find a spiritual protection prayer that is tailored to your specific religious beliefs.

For example, a pre-meditation Christian spiritual protection prayer would go as follows:

“Dear Lord,

Can you please cast out around me (include family members here if around you or if you just want to include them) any and all evil, danger, negativity, and any being, force, or the alike that does not have my highest and best intentions in mind?

Furthermore, Lord, can you please place your golden white Christ shield of golden white protective Christ light around me (include family members here if around you or if you just want to include them), my home, my neighborhood, my city, my county, and my state?

Thank you very much Lord. Thank you for all of your blessings. Glory to God.

Amen.”

Again, do your research regardless of your religious background, and you will find that spiritual protection prayers are recommended by frequent meditators of all faiths

Finally, I know to a beginner, this whole “spiritual protection” thing may sound a little “out there,” but I would caution you to take it seriously. In my opinion and in my experience, meditation is a spectacularly beautiful aspect of life, you will experience things you never thought were possible. The best way to approach it, is to do so with an open mind and an open heart, you must leave behind any and all of your “mainstream everything is a conspiracy and untrue” conditioned biases before beginning your meditation journey. If you have the maturity to do so, you will find that much of meditation is rooted in physics and is supported by many well-respected scientific studies. I hope you all can take this step of leaving your preconceived biases behind so you can go explore what this life and universe truly have to offer. It’s truly rewarding beyond words. And if this is not for you, all the power to you, I wish you the best in your alternative endeavors.

I would just say that last time I checked, the world is in complete and utter shambles. Everyone followed the “mainstream approach,” and we are all experiencing the backlash of the narrow-mindedness of that “mainstream” approach. So if now is not the time to question mainstream biases and try a new approach, then when is?

Meditation can teach you things that you never thought would be possible based on “mainstream” opinions. Many of these experiences have been coming to light more and more each day. But even at the lowest levels, having the ability to slow your heart rate by controlling your breathing is a very useful tool if you are ever in a highly stressful situation. I would frequently use this technique before big exams and high-stakes interviews. It would always help me, and I hope your meditation and spiritual journey will be as helpful for you as it was for me.

As always, I wish you all peace, love, and happiness in your journey. God bless you and yours. I truly hope this article and these videos improve your life in some way. I hope you have a wonderful day.

By: Taylor Johnson

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