Transitioning From Guided To Unguided Meditation?

The world is flooded with guided meditations like never before. So many websites, apps, and programs all offer guided meditations. While guided meditations certainly have their place to help us relax and focus, can there be a time when it can be limiting when it comes to awakening our inner teacher?

Guided meditations are the starting point for all of us and are wonderful. However, meditation is a never-ending journey, so what's the next step in moving into a more unguided meditation practice? Here we unpack this question a bit.

When we use techniques to get into the "state" of meditation, we connect with the part of us that is eternal and unmanifest and formless. Some traditions refer to this as "being". In our culture and in our schools we are not really taught how to connect to our being, although of course it is always with us. Through certain pranayama and meditation techniques, we can begin to tune into this eternal aspect of ourselves in which we find peace, bliss, divine love and pure awareness or consciousness awareness.

Guided meditations give us a nice introduction to the realm of meditation. Here we learn techniques, begin to relax, become more self-conscious and get our first glimpses into the experience of silent points in meditation. Since someone is leading you and “holding space” for you, it is easier to participate.

When listening to this voice you often feel that you can hold your attention a little longer than if you were just alone, and this can be very helpful in stepping into states of relaxation and moving into the present moment.

However, meditation is a never-ending journey, it has so many levels. The guide is wonderful to help you transition into relaxation and prepare for deeper meditation states, but if then you meditate for a while and really want to explore your inner space, guided meditations can often only get you as far. I believe this is because you can rely on a voice leading something outside of you rather than indulging in the divine aspect of you and allowing that divine energy to lead you into deep meditation.

• The Spiritual Gym – In the beginning, unguided meditations can take more practice, especially when it comes to sharpening your attention and staying present in the now. However, like anything, it only takes practice. I often refer to attention like building muscle, increasing the ability to be present, or going to the spiritual gym. After a while you can sit in meditation and no longer need the training wheels of guided meditation, you know the techniques that work for you and bring you into the meditative state. As with anything we do a lot, we begin to build “muscle memory” and can often begin to connect in less time.
• Go With Your Natural Flow Of Energy – An unguided practice allows you to let go of a technique as soon as you feel connected and become aware when you've drifted off and come back. Another aspect is to tune in to which energies are alive for you and to pull you into your inner space. When your heart energy is alive but you are in a guided meditation that prompts you to focus on the third eye, then you can go against the natural flow of energy that is trying to help you connect.
• Deeper states of surrender and silence – By staying present with yourself from moment to moment, you can then tune into this divine energy and become more sensitive to your inner space, come into a deep state of surrender and silence and get away from the meditation energy be guided. In the deepest meditation states, we focus only on what is happening in the inner space – sometimes referred to as "subjective awareness," and in this state everything outside of you is either a distraction or you are so deep in meditation. is not aware of this.

When you have learned the art of unguided meditation you are really attuned to the divine energy to guide you and once we have learned this in meditation we can trust how to flow with that energy in life. I think that's a really important aspect of meditation. So both guided and unguided practices have their place. The secret is to always stay curious and hungry to delve deeper into the experience.

If you've been meditating for a while and want to go deeper, you might consider an unguided practice. In one of my courses Addicted to being I am sharing some pointers that can be very helpful in awakening your inner teacher if you are interested in exploring this path further.

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Belinda Matwali is a spiritual nutritionist who provides space for others to feel nourished by their own inner light through meditation and meditative life. After traveling the world for 10 years and learning from various masters and teachers, she has created several meditation courses including Addiction to Being, Ecstasy, Individuality and Creativity and Intimacy Beyond Words. An avid music fan and the creator of Electronic Music Meditations, she lives between London and Ibiza.

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