Just as there are many teachers, there are a wide variety of guided meditations. Ideally, their goal is to allow you to be both alert and relaxed, while your guide draws your attention to that which is larger, grander, and wiser than yourself. Through regular use of guided meditation, you improve your sense of oneness with that which transcends you, and yet is at the heart of you.

Here is a guided meditation I received from fellow-writer and chaplain, Christie McKaskle. You can lengthen or shorten the pauses to fit your needs. In fact, she suggests recording both a short and a long version, so you can use this guided meditation no matter what your schedule is like. You can record your own voice reading it or ask a beloved person to read it for you.

"Take a breath and get comfortable (pause).

Breathe again. If any of your clothes are binding, loosen them (pause).

If you are chilly, get a sweater or shawl. If you're warm, remove a layer.

Breathe.

Breathe and allow your eyes to close (pause).

Notice the sounds around you voices, dogs barking, any traffic sounds (pause).

Notice the sounds within you your stomach growling, your heart beating, your blood rushing throughout your body (pause).

Listen to all of these sounds and allow them to become a picture in your mind. See them as waves, like those at the surface of a choppy lake or ocean. But instead of an ocean of water, this is an ocean of being, where you breathe more freely and deeply, the further down you go. This is an ocean in which you live and move and have your being.

Take a deep breath, hold it for a second, and as you exhale now, go deeper into Being,
Down past the surface noise,
Down past your history, with all its victories and disappointments,
Down to the ground of your being.
Take a moment to settle here and get your bearings (pause).

Once you feel centered, look around and see that everything you need is here perfect peace, vibrant health, constant love, endless supply for all your needs. Theyre all here as pure potential. You give them form in your imagination (pause).

Look at all of these forms of good, and choose one to take with you now. Take whatever you need a more harmonious expression of peace, more compassionate and generous love, livelier health, or a constant, generous overflow of supply for every need. Choose the good you want now, and have no fear: you can return here at any time to get anything else you need. What are you willing to take with you right now? Whatever you are willing to receive is yours by right of consciousness (pause).

Breathe in, and as you do, take that quality of life from pure being into your physical form. It is a part of you now and will come back with you into your manifest life. As you take one last look around, you see that you have always had a connection to this place. A golden cord grows from the center of you and anchors you here. You never saw it before, but now you know it's what drew you here, and will bring you here again.

So breathe again, and as you exhale, head back to the surface of your life on the daily physical plane. Take a moment to bring your full awareness to your body and your surroundings, and open your eyes when you're ready."

You are free to adapt this guided meditation as you wish. Soon, you'll become so familiar with the experience, you'll feel ready to choose a new one from the thousands of CDs and tapes available. Or, write and record a new one of your own!