Guided meditation can take various forms, often based on the many different styles and techniques in existence. These include styles from well-known traditions such as transcendental meditation and Buddhist meditation.

It’s true that most meditation traditions are rooted in religious practice. That does not mean, however, that you must be an adherent of a certain religion to adapt and benefit from guided meditation. The use of meditation for sleep, and to help with issues related to health, stress, and spiritual wellbeing, is widespread, and practitioners come from all kinds of backgrounds—some religious, some not.

The best meditation type for you is the type that gets you results. But if you don’t know much about guided meditation, where do you start?

All dedicated efforts to meditate will help improve your life in general—we believe that strongly—but sometimes the best way to start establishing your practice is to ask yourself what specifically you want out of it. Are you looking to develop your spiritual side? Is better sleep your goal? Are you trying to improve focus and get yourself “centred”?

A great deal has been written about guided meditation, and there’s a lot of good material on the internet. But there’s so much of it that searching for helpful material can be bewildering. We suggest that you start with a couple of articles we’ve written here on the Spoko blog.

This article on meditation for beginners may prove helpful, as may this one on different types of meditation. We’ve also got an article specifically on the use of guided meditation for sleep, which is one of the most common reasons people seek to start practicing.

We hope you’ll find these helpful starting points!