Online Guided Meditation - And How It Can Help YOU

We're living in a 24-hour culture these days, and that often means working at times when in past generations, we would have been at home with the family, or out socializing. These days, most urban people work, sleep, eat and socialize according to the needs of corporate culture. It means we're not always in synch with the rest of the population and can't always attend classes at the times they're offered. There’s precious little time for cultivating personal growth – and so that's where online guided meditation comes in!

If you can't make it to a regular meditation class, and you don't want to order a CD or books and wait for them to arrive, why not try online guided meditation? It's exactly the same as real-time, real-life guided meditation class, but accessible through your computer, usually from user-friendly web pages on official meditation organization sites, or from companies offering samples of larger audio products which they’re offering for sale.

The real advantage to online guided meditation is that, by its very nature, it’s available at the time and place you want it. You choose when to go to your computer and listen to it. Download it to your ipod for even greater flexibility - now you can take your guided meditation outside, or play it at a friend's house for several people in a group. You can contrive your own online guided meditation class, when and where you want it.

One drawback of online guided meditation, if you practice at home, is that it’s harder to remain focused and disciplined about practicing. It becomes even more important to make a commitment to practicing at a certain time each and every day (or twice a day). After all, when there’s nobody there to encourage you, or to chivvy you into getting on with it, it’s very easy to become slightly lazy and let your practice drift. Practicing at the same time and same place each day will help ‘set’ the routine in your mind, and make it more likely to become a habit.

In addition to the convenience aspect of online guided meditation, it really democratizes the process of spreading meditative practice. Computers and interactive courses make it possible for disabled people, those without their own computers, or those who would have to travel long distances to a class, to practice as regularly with a class as those who can.

People experiencing exhaustion, depression, anxiety, or any other problem that makes it difficult for them to leave the house, will be significantly relieved and helped by online guided meditation. It benefits everyone, in exactly the same way the offline class does, and it offers more than the normal offline class, by being able to present a range of images and other visual material, to complement the teaching.

There are undoubtedly many disadvantages to the advanced and fast-paced nature of modern life – but at least computers can help us study meditation whenever and wherever we want to, or need to.