The world is becoming more and more fast-paced, and the more we resist having to catch up, the more exhausted we become.
Each day we face the challenge of juggling finances, career, family, our health, and social life, which takes a toll on our physical, mental, and emotional health.
But you don’t have to pursue a meditation practice alone. You can try these top guided meditations for better sleep, less anxiety, self-healing, and greater mindfulness.
Why Should I Meditate?
Life can quickly become a treadmill of anxiety and stress — two culprits that catapult an even longer list of ailments that we increasingly find hard to control.
But what if you had an easy way to press “stop” on that treadmill?
What if you learn that you actually have the power to access everything that you need to get through your day, to unwind from the overstimulation of demands placed on us by society?
What if you can easily tap into inner peace and tranquility, anytime, and anywhere you please, to restore balance and reclaim our inner life force?
And what if you have a scientifically proven, hassle-free, natural process targeted for a specific purpose?
If you are new to meditation, trying simple guided meditations can ease you into getting the full benefits of meditation practice, and thereby, finding solace, joy, and peace from the demands in your life.
Click on the links below to find our favorite meditations:
- Guided Meditations on Youtube
- Guided Meditations for Sleep
- Guided Meditation for Anxiety
- Guided Meditations for Healing
- Guided Meditations for Mindfulness
Introducing Guided Meditations
If meditation can make you a happier, healthier, and more well-balanced person, why isn’t everyone doing it?
The truth is, many of us give up on meditation because it seems impossible to quiet our thoughts, or we’re unsure if we’re “doing it right.”
Fortunately, with guided meditations you don’t have to go it alone, and it isn’t all that complicated to do.
How do guided meditations work?
Believe it or not, you don’t need to know how to meditate to do guided meditations.
All you need to do is listen.
You meditate in response to guidance provided by a trained meditation practitioner, either in person, a sound recording, video, or written text, mixed media with music or spoken instructions, or a combination of both.
Sound too easy? Well, it is… But there is more to it.
As you listen to guided meditations, you actually access your subconscious mind, which is the principle generator for creativity, healing, self-improvement, and self-empowerment.
Whatever your aim for meditation, guided meditations for specific goals — for anxiety, stress, self-healing, better sleep, etc. — is a useful (and cheaper) alternative to target-specific conventional medicine.
It’s a preventative way (not a reactive way) to a healthier, productive, youthful, and more balanced you.
How to start your own meditation practice
Guided meditations that target specific areas of improvement are not merely trends or passing fads. They are highly researched and proven approaches that have lasting benefits for vibrant health, happiness, and self-empowerment.
Meditation doesn’t have to be sitting in silence in an empty room listening to the sound of chimes blowing in the breeze. You can find a huge variety of easy, effective, and enjoyable guided meditations online or on your mobile so you can practice anywhere and anytime.
Regardless of where you meditate, you’ll find you’re leaving behind worry, anxiety, anger, and frustration in less than an hour.
Meditation is something you should enjoy and look forward to — not stress about.
So without further ado, below are our favorite guided meditations to ease you into a regular meditation practice, to target specific areas of healing, or to generally tap into your inner sense of peace and well-being for a better you.
Below you’ll find a list of our favorite meditations in the following areas:
- Youtube
- Sleep
- Anxiety
- Healing
- Mindfulness
We hope that these collections of best guided meditations are helpful enough to get you started on your meditation journey and a path to a more peaceful and productive mindset.
Let the videos below be your guide!
Top 6 Guided Meditations On YouTube
These easy and accessible meditations on YouTube are a great place to start your practice:
1. 6-Phase meditation
Time: 21 Minutes
Purpose: Productivity
If you need to be on the top of your game every single day and you find it challenging to set time aside for taking your mind and soul to the gym, this is the most efficient guided meditation you can find.
Combining compassion, gratefulness, forgiveness, creative visualization, and connection with the divine, this 6-Phase meditation practice will up-level all areas of your life in a fraction of your busy schedule.
2. The seat
Time: 16 Minutes
Purpose: Mindfulness
This imagery-rich guided meditation is highly recommended if you are soothed by beautiful images, especially ones vibrant in color.
The first six minutes provides easy instructions for a deep-breathing exercise, and the rest of the video is accompanied by quiet music to access your inner stillness.
2. Summer meadow
Time: 21 Minutes
Purpose: Mindfulness
Perfect for sun-seekers, this summer meadow guided meditation allows you to escape to the warm breeze of a summer meadow. Relaxing tunes and the light ambiance of the imagery allows you to think back on your favorite summer day. The narrator enhances your meditative state prompted by the summer imagery by guiding you to “breath in fresh, clean air.” It’ll leave you feeling fresh and rejuvenated to conquer the rest of your day.
3. Surrender meditation: Letting go
Time: 35 Minutes
Purpose: Surrendering
Calling those of you who just can’t seem to “let things go” — this letting go guided meditation is perfect to release your relentless desire for control and surrender to the universe, whatever the outcome may be.
The narrator helps you bring your mind at ease by trusting your body to relax in its own time, from the tips of your toes to the crown of your head.
4. Meditation for anxiety, worry, and urgency
Time: 10 Minutes
Purpose: Anxiety
In this 10-minute guided meditation, the narrator’s soft voice is reminiscent of a loved one comforting you to sleep after a long, hard day that is deserving of some TLC.
Isn’t that what we all yearn for? The warming music along with the tranquil images makes this meditation the perfect 10-minute breather when you’re in need of a well-needed break from your day’s worries.
5. Calming warm light: Spirit healing rainfall
Time: 1 Hour
Purpose: Deep Sleep
If you have an hour to spare during a busy day, or if you’re looking for a meditation to lull you to sleep, this spirit waterfall meditation may be yours to bookmark.
Soft sounds of summer rainfall create a powerful cleansing effect, and the subtle gamelan-like music allows your thoughts to drift away to a spiritual land. The narrator’s beautiful voice encourages you to find stillness, releasing all mental and emotional stress.
The world will not come to an end because you’re taking time for yourself.
Guided Meditation For Sleep
Suffering from insomnia? Meditation for sleep is an effective, natural solution for anyone who wants a more natural approach to achieve deep, rejuvenating sleep, and waking up feeling refreshed and recharged.
While various meditation practices can help with sleep disorders, guided sleep meditations are an effective solution for restful sleep as it helps you gradually fall into a sleep-state through soothing sleep-inducing music, vocal tracks, and visualizations.
For best results, listen with headphones while falling asleep and set your audio player to replay for uninterrupted hours of sleep.
Here are the top 5 guided meditations for deep, rejuvenating sleep (click on the title or images below to enjoy these meditations):
1. Deepak Chopra’s guided meditation for deep sleep
Deepak Chopra leads you through 4 minutes of easy instructions for mindfulness sleep meditation — nonjudgmental observation of your thoughts, a silent sleep mantra, and breathing awareness — to achieve deep, restful sleep.
2. Go to sleep! Guided meditation
This 10-minute meditation incorporates brainwave resonances, a tonal track, and guided calming visualizations designed to bring you to a relaxed state of body and mind. Cuddle up with your favorite pajamas and expect a blissful slumber within minutes.
3. Into deep sleep meditation
This 20-minute deep sleep meditation pulls you into a deep, rejuvenating slumber by gently guiding you to replace your everyday thoughts with comforting dream imagery. This could be a wonderful way to catapult you into a soothing, and exciting dream world as you catch your deserving zzz’s.
4. Meditation for insomnia and sleepless nights
Time: 1 Hour
Tranquil soft music enriches this 60-minute guided meditation featuring a soothing male voice — powerful for people struggling with insomnia. In time, you are brought into a deep meditative state, and incomplete contentment by surrendering to a night of still and comforting sleep.
5. Floating amongst the stars meditation
Time: 1 Hour
The title of this guided meditation says it all — this guided meditation with deeply moving music will make you feel like you’re floating in our cosmos. Enjoy this heavenly 1-hour meditation to put your mind at ease as you drift into an adventurous, yet calming, journey into the skies.
Guided meditation for anxiety
We all experience anxiety, one way or another.
But most (if not all) of us experience it far too often — our sense of urgency from our increasingly hectic lives from modern-day living has shaken our ability to shed away our stresses to find stillness and appreciate each moment for what it is.
Fortunately guided meditations are a proven way to combat anxiety, panic, and stress. And there are countless benefits and new research emerging that demonstrates the power of guided meditation to alleviate the negative effects of stress and anxiety.
Here are the top 5 guided meditations to help ease anxiety and stress:
1. 5-Minute anxiety reduction guided meditation
Time: 5 Minutes
It only takes a few minutes to alleviate stress and uneasiness and bring your mind to a place of peace, security, and calm. This 5-minute guided anxiety meditation can be done at any point in your day when you need a breather.
Find a quiet place where you won’t be disturbed and get into a comfortable position. You’ll be surprised how just a few minutes of this guided meditation can release unwanted feelings anytime throughout your day.
2. Deepak Chopra’s guided meditation for stressful moments
Time: 6 Minutes
Deepak Chopra is known for making meditation easy, fun, and empowering. In this 6-minute guided meditation, Chopra uses simple mindfulness techniques to release unwanted worries and stress.
Through controlled breathing exercises, Chopra’s guidance invites stillness and space to replace convoluted thoughts and feelings of being overwhelmed.
Try this guided meditation when you need to calm your nerves during a stressful situation — before an important presentation, job interview or exam, during tight deadlines, a heavy to-do-list, or even a difficult conversation.
You’ll be surprised how just a brief moment of stillness can catapult your A-game mindset.
3. Meditation for anxiety by Rodrigo Tarraza
Time: 10 Minutes
This 10-minute meditation led by internationally renowned master flutist and meditation teacher, Rodrigo Terraza, takes you on a journey to find your inner stillness.
Instrumentalized by beautiful melodies of the Indian Bamboo Flute, you’ll discover your innate source of stress-relief, self-empowerment, and joy and ease of being to rid yourself of any unneeded sense of urgency.
4. Stress relief meditation (Downloadable)
Time: 20 Minutes
If you’re looking for a slightly longer guided meditation to alleviate stress and anxiety, this 20-minute stress-relief meditation uses awareness and mindfulness techniques to let go of all tension and tightness. This guided meditation is also available without background music and includes a free mp3 download and preparation and posture guide.
5. Guided meditation for detachment from over-thinking
Time: 30 Minutes
A journey of relaxation, celestial imagery, and pure visualization, this guided meditation is for the visually adventurous. Powerful breathing instructions using vibrant color imagery allows you to become aware of any tension that you have, and releasing it to find stillness and peace.
The soothing male voice guides you through a lucid and deep rest state. You’ll feel a heightened sense of spirituality and connectedness within mere minutes as you move away from all the chaos and mental clutter.
Guided Meditation For Healing
Meditation calms the mind, improves attention, boosts productivity, and promotes joy, peace, and happiness.
But there’s also significant evidence of the healing powers of meditation — meditations can heal addictions, mental and emotional distress, and even physical ailments.
Believe it or not, stillness is the best way to create physical healing. The relaxation response is the experience we have when we slow down. When we slow down our mind, our body slows down, and when we allow ourselves to be in stillness we let our body heal and restore. Meditation is the true source of genuine healing and is one of the greatest things you can accept in your life.
Below are our top 5 guided meditations to promote healing. Whether you’re going through a physical health condition, or you just want to feel less anxious, use the below guided meditations to allow your body to restore its natural healing process.
Deepak Chopra’s healing meditation
Time: 23 Minutes
Experiencing tightness, tension, or pain in a physical sense? This powerful guided meditation for healing taps into your vital energy life source to strengthen your mind-body connection for healing.
After a 6-minute informative introduction on the power of healing meditation, you’ll start with a 4-part breathing exercise to lull you into a meditative state. Body scanning, and moving your awareness throughout each of your body heightens your connectivity at the most subtle level as you give yourself a “virtual massage.” This guided meditation allows you to experience a sense of physical, mental, and spiritual wholeness that might be the answer (or the awareness you need) for self-healing.
Guided Meditation For Mindfulness
Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us.
Being present through guided meditation requires just a few minutes of your day to reap its benefits. It’s about the quality of your practice, not the quantity.
Want to try mindfulness meditation but unsure of where to begin? Here’s a list of our top 5 favorite guided mindfulness meditations:
1. Mindfulness meditation by the Honest Guys
Time: 10 Minutes
This Honest Guys guided meditation is the perfect introduction to achieve mindfulness — finding a point of completely being aware of the now, letting go of any obstructing thoughts to achieve stillness. Notice your breathing and the “still point” between inhaling and exhaling. With guided imagery and a soothing narrative, this meditation is best enjoyed with headphones.
2. Quieting the mind by Tara Brach
Time: 15 Minutes
Led by mindfulness and meditation teacher, Tara Brach, this is a simple 15-minute meditation to relax your body, calm your mind, and be present in the moment. There’s no such thing as a good or bad meditation, whatever experience you have is the one you need. Download this meditation for free so you can have it handy in times of need.
3. Mindfulness of Breathing Meditation
Time: 26 Minutes
Observation of the breath is used every time your attention wanders behind the present moment, redirecting our thoughts to the physical sensations of the breath. This Wildmind meditation is useful when experiencing restlessness, anxiety, cravings, or other negative emotions.
4. Connecting to the calm within by Diane Yeo
Time: 21 Minutes
Mindfulness coach, Diane Yeo, is passionate about helping find greater awareness of themselves to lead a balanced life by living in the moment. This guided meditation allows you to move beyond your usual thoughts by simply bringing awareness to your breath. Be open to whatever experience you may have. Diane’s narration is effective, easy, and helps to completely let go. Simply observe your breath, observe your thoughts — no need to push anything away or control whatever thoughts or feelings that may arise.
You’ve Probably Got Meditation All Wrong.
A lot of people don’t do it, because they just can’t seem to ‘clear their minds’.
They try to empty their thoughts, and when that doesn’t work, they think they suck at meditation and give up.
But you see, the mind is designed to think. It does so automatically, just like how your heart beats.
The truth is, meditation isn’t about clearing your mind. It’s supposed to improve performance in all other aspects of your life.