Guided Meditations From Master Meditators
In sobriety and on my job as a Recovery Coach I have become an evangelist for meditation. I can't say enough about it and frankly I think everyone should be doing it because it simply makes your life better.
I had been meditating for about two years when I came across the book, 10% Happier by Dan Harris. The book has a simple approach to what meditation is, how to get started, and how to keep going. That book led to a franchise about meditation with a second and even better book, Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics and a podcast (you can listen to it on iTunes and on CastBox for android).
The compelling thing about this particular podcast is that Dan Harris is a news reporter and anchor who had a nervous breakdown on national television as a result of anxiety, depression, and self medicating. Many of the people he interviews on the podcast are first and foremost famous mediators. He is, after all, a national news reporter, so he has access to people like the Dalai Lama, Danica Patrick, Oprah Winfrey, Anderson Cooper, Russell Simons, Jewel, and Gearge Mumford who taught mediation to the Chicago Bulls, Los Angeles Lakers, Michael Jordan, Shaquille O'Neal, and Kobe Bryant. In addition to the super famous people, he also interviews many famous meditators such as Sam Harris, Shinzen Young, John Kabbat-Zinn, Joseph Goldstein, and Sharon Salzberg to name a few. More importantly, many of the people he interviews, regardless of fame have struggled with substance use. Alcoholics and addicts, because of their overactive minds, compulsivity, and general psyche are prime candidates for meditation.
I'm not talking about the woo-woo relaxation, getting in touch with yourself, tuning out, and feeling good idea of meditation; I'm talking about the kind of meditation that leads you to knowing yourself and your addiction. The kind of meditation that leads to understanding that the voice(s) in your head is a compulsive liar and that you are not the author of your thoughts. The kind of meditation that leads to a better understanding of yourself and the world around you.
I'd suggest you read the books and listen to the podcast. If you read just one, make it Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics. The podcasts are really worth listening to as well. A few of the guided meditations from top meditators are posted below.
This first one is a kind of Q&A about meditation.
One of the founders of Insight Meditation Centers, Joseph Goldstein guides this meditation. The three most important words for a beginning meditator may be, 'Simply Begin Again.'
A meditation to help you become aware of our ever-changing thoughts, and help us watch the turbulence of our inner mind.
Here's a great start from meditation teacher and Buddhist scholar Shinzen Young.
When left unchecked, our thoughts exert enormous influence over our lives. But when we become aware of them, we realize that they are little more than nothing.
Enjoy them. Sit on the floor, sit in a chair, on a park bench, in your office, anywhere. You don't have to sit on cushion on the top of a mountain top. Get over it and meditate. And just for the hell of it, here's one that pretty much breaks it down to what and where meditation gets us to. Keep the kiddies and easily offended out of the room for that one though. This is only a decent place to start, the rest is discovery.....
