Guided Meditation Vs Observe the Silence/ Silence Meditation
1. How they are different from each other.
Guided Meditation means listening to someone else’s voice, which may be in-person or over media such as Youtube or other Applications.
Silence Meditation means Focusing on one object (such as Breath, heart, third eye)
2. What Happened in it?
Guided: A guided meditation script may be based on a traditional technique or guided imagery. Basically, we are focusing on
1. The voice of the instructor. & 2. The object of meditation.
It is logically impossible to have either complete mental stillness or one hundred per cent focus in this technique. You might get lost in thoughts and feelings, and because of this, we do not achieve inner stillness. And therefore, we do not produce the same level of relaxation. It certainly helpful for temporarily releasing stress just at the beginning only.
We focus the mind on one thing. This reduces mental activity and creates one-pointed focus. When we do this, we are purely observing the object of meditation. When we do this we produce inner stillness. This makes mental phenomena (like thoughts and feelings) much clearer. Because of this, we can then observe the mind.
While focusing on the breath, for instance, it becomes much easier to see our thoughts and feelings as they exist in the present moment.
3. What is more beneficial?
The ultimate purpose of meditation is to increase insight into how the mind works and thereby be less reactive to it. Most common Benefits of Meditation are
- Leads to calmness.
- Provides insight into the mind and makes us more conscious of mental processes.M
Observing Silence:
Just need to focus at one point which produces inner stillness because there is no movement of mind. So, when we are aware of our thoughts/ feelings we can say
“This is just a thought / feeling and I, therefore, do not need to react to it”.
This reduces reactivity, helping to alleviate issues like stress and anxiety. When we focus on one thing (such as the breath), we
- Stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system &
- Reduce activity of both the amygdala and the sympathetic nervous system.
This leads to feelings of inner peace and enters the body into a restorative state that is incredibly effective for healing both the mind and body. [Harvard University, 2019].
In conclusion:
Guided Meditation is not as effective as Observing the Silence or Silence Meditation. This was proven in 2019 research by Lancaster University, which shows that meditation apps are not as useful as silent meditation.
