A guided meditation suitable for those completely new to meditation, or anyone who has previously struggled with the practice.

An updated version of this track is available at https://soundcloud.com/user-996051730/your-first-meditation

Your First Meditation

What’s a good meditation? What kind of experiences do you have that leave you feeling satisfied with your ‘sit’? And what do you do when you meditate?

If you’re like most people, you probably set out with the intention, or hope, for a quiet mind; a mind in which thoughts slow down, or stop altogether. It’s also likely that most of the meditation instructions you’ve been exposed to encourage you to divert your attention in this way. That is, away from thoughts and perhaps towards the breath or body. 

You may also have noted that despite your best efforts to follow such instructions, and despite all your wishes, the mind stubbornly continues to remind you about just who’s really in charge, (and what you need from the supermarket).

Here then, is a refreshingly realistic meditation — one that doesn’t require you to make any effort to still or quieten the mind. Instead, you’ll be invited to welcome your thoughts, to lend them an ear, to listen to what they have to say, and to see if you can’t glean some useful information even from the most trivial, hostile and irritating amongst them.

This meditation is quite long, (35 minutes) It gives you plenty of opportunity to think, and lots of space to follow the instructions and to investigate for yourself what goes on in your mind. If you feel like you’ve had enough after 5 or 15, or 25 minutes, that’s perfectly fine. You can continue at another time.

Meditation On Thoughts

This meditation introduces a somewhat novel and unique approach to emotion; in which sadness, fear and anger are welcomed and regulated as a means to feel more centered, calm, aware and safe.

Meditation On Sadness, Fear & Anger

This is a series of six short (spot) meditations. Each of them can be done in as little as 30 to 90 seconds, or extended out to up to 5 minutes or so. When sequenced (in any order) they provide a useful template for a meditation of 10 to 20 minutes in length, and provide a useful structure for those who are just learning to guide themselves.

Because there is quite a bit of variety on offer, you'll probably find you remain quite well focused - and this can lead to fairly reliable states of calm and relatively deep relaxation.

Six Spot Sequence (Guaranteed Calm)

Exploration Of The Senses

A meditation for when you are feeling lazy, tired, frazzled or worn out. 

Note: this is a new version with modified nature sounds in the background.

Meditation For A Tired Body & Mind

A two-minute meditation to do on-the-go: at work, at your desk, between clients, at the traffic lights...

Mindful Moments

Pause

Explore what it's like to meditate in a very natural, receptive style; simply out of curiosity, as a way to find more enjoyment or in order to ease yourself gently towards deep relaxation or sleep.

Zzzz: A Recipe for Sweet Dreams, Slumber & Sleep

Most meditations encourage you to relax. Rarely, however, are you given suggestions about how you can actually do that. As you’ll know, it’s not always as easy as just saying the word. In this meditation, we’ll explore numerous options for triggering relaxation and rest, physically, mentally and emotionally.

Greatest Hits

How to Relax Without Beer or Wine

It’s natural to shy away from discomfort and difficulty, conflict and pain. But doing so often keeps us trapped in cycles of avoidance. With a little courage, we can begin to face up to life as it is, and we may discover that what we feared contains within it gifts of which we were unaware. In this meditation, explore what it’s like to play with ‘radical acceptance’, a practice in which you make no effort to change or manipulate how you feel.

The Red Pill

Meditation and mindfulness made simple, easy and enjoyable.

Six Spot Sequence (Guaranteed Calm)

Melbourne Meditation Centre