Guided vs. Unguided Meditation: Which is Right for You?

There are many ways you can practice mindfulness. And finding the best technique is crucial in order to enjoy it. If you are a newbie, you might wonder what is better: guided vs. unguided meditation? They both offer numerous benefits, but are suited for different purposes.

Introduction to Meditation: What Are Guided and Unguided Practices

Imagine that you are sitting with your eyes closed, in a silent room. The only thing that you can hear is soft music and a delicate voice. Voice that guides you into meditation, with phrases like “relax your body”, “slow down your breath”, “observe emotions” etc.

This is—simplifying—guided meditation. It can be both done with someone face to face, via the internet or using pre-recorded audio.

Unguided meditation is a practice that you either:

• Perform completely alone;
• Start with someone, but go with the rest on your own.

At least—that’s how I define it. You can probably find a lot of different definitions. I like these, as they are simple to get.

Of course: both practices have different subcategories. However, let’s first explore which one works for you: guided vs. unguided meditation?

The Benefits of Guided Meditation: Structure and Support

Guided mindfulness practices have a great advantage: they are easy to start. They have a set structure that serves a certain purpose. And thus, it is easy for you to find one that suits you best.

Need to calm your mind?

Want to focus on certain tasks?

Or even feel like your sexual energy is too low?

You can find guided meditation revolving around each one of that. What’s more: they offer great support along your journey. There are some guided meditation cycles, where you have everything planned and prepared.

Thus, you can just sit and relax, while listening to audio. And if you need something more: you can always talk to a spiritual guru to help you.

His/her experience will benefit you greatly on your path!

Exploring Unguided Meditation: Freedom and Self-Direction

Unguided meditation has a crucial benefit: it can be done everywhere, anywhere. You don’t need any audio or help. After practicing, you can just hop into 5 minutes of relaxing meditation. Or perform a short, yet powerful breath-work.

What I love the most about unguided meditation is freedom and self-direction. If I feel like changing my subject of meditation, I can do it in the middle of my mindfulness practice.

It goes even deeper. I can meditate or put myself in a trance and work on my own, personal memory or emotion. Then I explore it anyway I want, with any tools I prefer to. Breath-work, PMR, deep trance, emotional release—you can use it whatever you want.

Of course, it takes some practice, but the benefits are surely worth it!

Comparing Benefits: How Guided and Unguided Meditation Align with Your Goals

Before choosing what type of meditation suits you best, ask yourself: what are my goals? Do you need stress relief after work? Tool to help me focus on learning? Or maybe mindfulness practice before workouts?

Guided meditations are great, if you:

• Are a beginner and need something to start with;
• Like to have plain, yet effective guides;
• Want to easily relax, without having to worry about overthinking and distractions.

What’s more: guided practices are also great if you have a problem with consistency. Many guides offer “daily challenges” that you just follow along.

And if you are skeptical about meditation: finding a spiritual mentor helps a lot. Following his path will definitely help you to get started.

On the other hand, unguided meditations works best, if you:

• Prefer working on your own;
• Need a personalized tool, that you can use everywhere and anywhere;
• Have defined, personalized goals of mindfulness practices.

The more independent you feel, the better you are (usually!) with unguided meditations. Especially that we are not always able to use guided meditations. If your internet is off, then unguided practice is the only way to go!

Choosing the Right Approach: Factors to Consider

There are some other aspects that you need to consider when thinking about guided vs. unguided meditations. They include:

1. Time – guided practices are great if you are short on time. 10-minute whole body relaxation with soft music and gentle voice works wonders. Meanwhile, unguided practices require time and dedication to learn them first.
2. Environment – if you are often on the road, far from home, without access to good internet, then guided meditations might be a problem. Also: busy, noisy environments are a nuisance as well for both. Guided practice might be hard due to not hearing the mentor/voice, while unguided—it is easy to get distracted.
3. Experience – listening to audio and following it is way easier than coming up with your own routine. Of course, after some time you will get it. But it takes some practice!

Problematic thing is the effectiveness of both practices. On one hand: guided meditations seem better in that field. They are easier to get into, don’t require a lot of mental work or preparations and offer clear, concise structure.

However, on the other hand: they are not tailored to you. And don’t offer a personalized approach to certain problems. You also can’t just switch your focus mid-time if something appears during meditation.

With unguided meditation, you work with whatever you want. However, at the same time, it will be easier to get distracted, if too many thoughts arise.

Personalizing Your Meditation Journey: Finding Your Best Fit

As with almost all mindfulness practices, guided vs. unguided meditation comes down to finding your best personal approach. There is no such a thing like one, perfect, universal fit for everybody.

So, in my opinion, try both of them!

This way, you can ease into meditation (with guided ones) while building a solid basis for your own practices (with unguided ones). For example, you might go with the following scheme:

• Mondays – 10 minutes guided meditation.
• Tuesdays – 15 minutes guided meditations.
• Wednesdays – unguided meditation for 5–10 minutes.
• Thursdays – 10 minutes guided meditations.
• Fridays – 15 minutes guided meditations.
• Saturdays and Sundays – unguided meditations without set time span.

This approach lets you go easy on work-days, while also leaving time and space to explore mindfulness on your own. However, you can always change it. Remember: meditation is for you, not you for meditation!

My Personal Take

That part of the article is just my personal approach. If you want to, you can skip to the summary. However, I’d greatly appreciate it if you stay with me here!

In my opinion, guided meditations are great when you are skeptical, don’t know where to start or just feel lost. They also work great, if you just need to quickly meditate on something general. E.g.: attraction meditation or deep relaxation.

However, these kinds of practices are limiting your full potential. I truly believe that in the end, you should meditate as much as possible on your own. Not in the first month, maybe not even in the first year. It takes time and practice to learn mindfulness.

But after some time, you should be able to meditate everywhere, anywhere and on any subject you want.

Thus, I believe that while you can (or even: should) start with guided meditations, don’t rely solely on them. Work on your own practices, learn and experience. Treat it like training. After some time, you will come up with your own, personalized practice.

One that will work wonders for you!

Guided vs. Unguided Meditation – Summary

Guided meditations are a great way to start and get into mindfulness. They are easy to start, and you can find guides on almost every topic online. Also: you can work with a mentor that will teach you the basics.

Meanwhile, unguided meditations offer freedom to forge your own path. While harder to learn and maintain consistency, this is the way to explore yourself everywhere and anywhere. What’s more: you will learn what works best for you.

However, the “conflict” of guided vs. unguided meditation doesn’t mean you have to choose just one. Mix them up, see what works better. Start with guided practices, while learning to meditate on your own.

There are a lot of different approaches. Find the one that suits you best! And if you want to know more on how to create a consistent meditation routine, check out my guide HERE.