We work with expert mindfulness teachers to offer guided meditations that speak to the defining moments and challenges that we encounter throughout the course of each year. Each comprehensive practice guides the listener step-by-step with the goal of supporting you as you build a rich practice influenced by diverse perspectives. Here are the 10 guided meditations we published in 2024 that our audience revisited again and again.
The 10 Most Popular Meditations of 2024
1. Meet Difficult Emotions With Compassion
Often when we’re struggling, the things that feel the most supportive aren’t complex techniques, but simple, down-to-earth practices, says mindfulness teacher and leadership trainer Carley Hauck. In this practice, she reminds us that it’s OK to feel overwhelmed, and guides us through noticing the sensations of our body and visualizing care so we can find calm.
2. Widen Your Perspective
“When we feel stressed, anxious, irritated, or angry, one of the things that happens to the mind is that it shrinks down and zooms in on the challenge at hand—the stressful moment, the emotion we don’t want to feel,” explains mindfulness teacher and author Nate Klemp. This guided meditation helps us intentionally expand our awareness by adjusting our visual focus. When we take on a relaxed gaze instead of a focused stare, research shows that we shift the nervous system, too.
3. Embrace Your Inner Mountain
In this guided meditation, “we will embody the mountain’s steadfast calm amidst the swirling winds and shifting clouds of life,” says mindfulness teacher and psychotherapist Elaine Smookler. The classic metaphor of the mountain helps us ground ourselves in the present moment, finding a sense of resilience and ease.
4. Replenish Cognitive Energy
We only have so much energy to put toward cognitive processes like decision making, planning, and willpower, says researcher and meditation teacher Shalini Bahl. “If we keep drawing from that pool of resources without restoring them, we can feel depleted.” This guided meditation is designed to replenish our cognitive energy by guiding us to return to our senses.
5. Act On What’s Important
“Research shows that we are most energized when we find purpose and meaning in what we’re doing,” says Shalini Bahl. But a challenge many of us face is that we don’t always know what is most important to us. So how do we connect with our inner wisdom that knows what matters to us the most? This meditation is designed to help you let go of ideas of I should, I must, and this is right or wrong so we can “allow ourselves to be in companionable silence with the deepest, truest parts of who we are.”
6. Slow Your Breath and Your Thoughts
This meditation brings us back to the basics: awareness of the breath. “By becoming more aware of our inhales and exhales, we gradually bring calm to our mind and our nervous system. We’re giving ourselves permission to slow down for a few minutes,” says mindfulness teacher Will Schneider. This practice can help you relax, let go of expectations, and strengthen present-moment awareness.
7. Sit With Uncomfortable Feelings
Although it may feel counterintuitive at first, a key mindfulness practice is to welcome what arises—even when it’s an emotion that we’d rather not feel. “Avoiding our emotions or closing off to them can lead us astray from listening to the underlying need of our emotion or the values that the discomfort is pointing to,” says clinical psychologist Diana Hill. In this meditation, she guides you to observe and offer compassion to a difficult feeling.
8. Nurture Your Heart
This guided meditation by cardiologist Jonathan Fisher invites you to notice the sensations in your body, “from the soles of your feet to the space around your heart. As you shift your attention through different parts of your body,” he says, “you allow a sense of softness and kindness to flow in.” With this meditation, listen to what your heart needs most and imagine filling your body with a warm, nurturing light.
9. Let Go of Stress and Fall Asleep
The stress of daily life can often be felt in our bodies, even after the stressful day or event is done, which can make it difficult to relax into the restful sleep we need. In this guided meditation, mindfulness teacher and non-sleep deep rest expert Kelly Boys says, “As you gently breathe and move your attention from place to place, you’ll notice where tension is hiding. Then, you can give it permission to let go, inviting a sense of lovely heaviness and relaxation.”
10. Rediscover Your Essence
“We often misunderstand meditation as an escape from real life, a place to get away from the noise, busyness, chaos, and confusion of our daily hours,” says mindfulness teacher and mind-body expert Cara Bradley. “Yes, the noise is a part of our real lives, but we also carry with us an essence that is quiet, calm, and deeply relaxed.” This meditation helps us drop below the noise of daily lives to connect with that deeper part of ourselves.
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