There are many reasons why you may wish to learn to guide meditations. Perhaps you have a group of friends who get together to talk about spiritual topics and you want to add another dimension to your gatherings. Perhaps you wish to establish a meditation group (you could trade off the responsibility of leadership). Perhaps you are in a position to demonstrate the power of meditation in business, schools or organizations serving special populations. Please use these resources freely (with acknoledgements, of course). And tell anyone interested in learning to guide meditations about this page!
1. Your confidence lends confidence. This was a hard one for me. It helps to meditate before class yourself and even pray for guidance.
Remember to breathe.
2. Talk about the benefits of meditation. You can print out the appropriate page on this site and read from it.
You will likely gather your own additional information over time.
3. Let them know that meditation is a practice. It is not a thing to necessarily be accomplished the first time out. Skill grows with practice and it is only through practice that the benefits of meditation begin to manifest.
In my own experience it took a few weeks of sitting quietly, and determinedly for five minutes a day with my eyes closed before I suddenly discovered myself outside of space and time. The realization brought me back to “normal” consciousness. But it proved to me that I could do it!
4. If you wish to use one of the scripts included on this website, go ahead and print it out.
Speak slowly and gently while leading the meditation. Allow a breath or two of time after each suggestion — it’s easier to go too fast than too slow. When in doubt, slow down.
5. The entire meditation should take between 15 and 20 minutes (or 10 minutes at the end of a yoga session). It doesn’t hurt during the silent meditation to remind people that if they are distracted they can gently bring their attention back to their breath as a focal point.
6. After the meditation, if you wish, when everyone’s eyes are open again, encourage discussion. Ask each person to talk about their experience after reminding everyone that there are no right or wrong experiences. If nothing happened it’s okay to say so. This discussion helps build community in the group. Admittedly, people will be shy at first, but if the group meets often, that will diminish and folks will learn a great deal from one another.
7. Ask for questions. It’s okay if you don’t know the answers. There will always be questions to which you do not know the answer, but once the question is asked, there is receptivity in you to recognizing the answer when it comes.
8. Recommend meditating daily — if only for five minutes at a time.
Meditation for Every Mind 