A guided meditation is a recording, or a live voice, that holds the shape of a sit so you do not have to invent one. Useful if you are new. Useful if you are not, and the mind wants company.

You do not need a paid app. You do not need a teacher I am selling you. You need a quiet-enough chair, a voice you can bear for ten minutes, and a willingness to notice what is already happening.

I write as a public educator. Take one sit into the week and leave. If you wanted a coach, a clinic, a download funnel, or a promise that a track will send you into higher realms, this is the wrong door — on purpose. New here? Start here. Who I am: About. Daily practices: Wellness. A menu of methods, if you want those later: /2022/02/24/6-meditation-methods-never-to-overlook-your-brain-will-thank-you/.

I will not tell you this treats stress, anxiety, or insomnia. I will not tell you it is a protocol I deliver. If sitting makes a feeling larger than a rough week, stop. Get help that is allowed to help. The rule sits on Disclaimer.

Five steps (verified from the live post)

The live archive, after a Source essay, used five moves. I keep the five. I drop the app hard-sell.

  1. Ground
  2. Set an intention
  3. Choose a recording
  4. Sit after
  5. Carry a line

Morning or evening is a kind slot because the house is quieter. A lunch-break chair works. A bed is allowed if a chair is a fight — you may fall asleep; that is a nap, not a failure.

Before the five: put the phone on silent. Turn the other screens off. Sit in a way your back can stand for the length of the track. A chair you already own is enough. There is no special furniture.

1. Ground

Before you press play, arrive.

Feet on the floor, or legs folded if that is already yours. Feel the weight. Cool air at the nose, warm on the way out. Do not improve the breath. Do not hunt for “subtle energies.” The body is already here.

If the mind is still in the inbox, give it a job in the room for thirty seconds: three things you can see, two you can feel, one you can hear. Then stop.

A short stretch is optional — roll the shoulders, fold toward the floor as far as your hamstrings allow. A visualisation of roots is optional. Neither is required. Grounding, here, is contact: chair, feet, breath. Once you feel ordinary enough to listen, go to step two.

If sitting still makes you more restless, you may ground on a slow walk and then sit, or use a walking drill instead and leave this page. The point is contact with this moment, not a pose.

2. Set an intention

Not a goal list. Not a SMART framework. Not a coaching worksheet.

Name how you want to meet the sit. One line, quietly: “I will stay for the length of the track.” “I will notice when I leave, and come back.” “I will be kinder in the next hour.” Light. Possible. A direction, not a verdict you pass at 21:00.

The live post asked you to spend up to fifteen minutes imagining peace, confidence, resilience, or joy, and to bring that energy into the now. I will keep the naming and drop the mood-commission. You do not have to pre-feel the outcome. You do not have to order a personality from the sit.

Ten seconds is enough. Then press play.

3. Choose a recording

This is the guided part.

Pick a voice you can listen to without bracing. Length that fits the actual gap you have — five minutes is a real sit; an hour is for a day that has an hour. Morning may want something clearer. Night may want something slower. There is no moral difference.

Where to find one without a funnel:

  • a free public recording: a library channel, a university or hospital wellbeing track posted for the public, a teacher whose voice you already trust
  • a track you already have
  • silence plus a kitchen timer, if no voice is the kinder choice today

I may point at free public recordings. I will not name a paid app, and I will not send you to an affiliate. An app can play a bell. It cannot sit for you. If a platform asks for a card, leave.

While the voice is on:

  • sit upright enough that you do not slide into sleep unless sleep is the honest aim
  • hands where they land
  • eyes closed or a soft gaze
  • when a thought arrives, you have not broken anything — hear the next instruction, or the next breath
  • you are not required to empty the mind. Noticing that it ran is the drill

I am not teaching you to “be the watcher” as a metaphysics exam. If that language helps, use it. If it does not, come back to the soles.

4. Sit after

When the recording ends, do not lunge at the phone.

Stay. Thirty seconds to two minutes. Same chair. Notice what is here: ease, fidget, a leftover sentence, nothing in particular. All of that is allowed. You are not grading the sit.

Then one practical question, not a spiritual report: is there one way this hour could be 3% slower — the walk to the kettle, the first reply, the way you put the cup down?

Do not wait for a personality transplant. Benefits, if they come, come as ordinary effects of having paused. They are not a treatment I deliver, and they are not due on a schedule.

5. Carry a line

The live post asked you to write a mindfulness quote on a sticky note. Fair. I will keep the carrying and drop the quotation contest.

One line from the sit, or from your intention, in a notes app or on the back of a receipt. Something you can actually use in a queue: “Come back.” “Softer jaw.” “This is the only hour I have.”

Look at it once in the afternoon. That is the whole drill. Journaling after is optional. Clearing the mind “completely” is not a target I set, and “transcending ideas” is not a product of this page. A line that can stand a grey Tuesday is enough.

The twelve-drill page has sitting, walking, and intention as cousins: /2021/06/07/12-mindfulness-exercises-to-start-using-daily/. You do not need the other eleven to use these five.

How little is enough

You do not need all five as a ceremony. If you only ground and press play, that counts. If you only carry a line from a sit you already did, that counts.

You can keep the faith you have, or none, and still listen to a track. Guided meditation is not a religion on this site. Traditions are named with respect. I do not run a class from this URL.

I do not take 1:1 clients. There is no call to book. Leave with one sit.

Next: Wellness, Start here, About, Disclaimer.

Paid guides, if you want them: Guides.

This page is education, not medical advice, not a diagnosis, and not a treatment plan.
I write as Ultimate Wellness, a public educator — not a doctor, not an HPCSA-registered dietitian, and not a therapist.
I don’t take 1:1 coaching clients from this library; take one useful idea and use it.
If you have a condition, take medication, or need care, please see your own clinician — more on Disclaimer.