Have you ever found that the very professional sounding Guided Meditations are somehow not quite what you need ? The Voice just that bit "too" soft and gentle ? You just want to keep it simple ? Here is a suggestion.
Use a 4 part cycle of describing what your breath is doing. below you will see a chart showing four ways to describe your breath coming in and going out. The idea is that saying the first word/phrase as you breath in and then the second half as you breath out will help you to concentrate on what your breath is doing. I find that breathing slowly and evenly feels right for me. The idea of the 4 different ways to describe what you breath is doing stops the "counting sheep" effect. Simply keep going round this cycle for as long as you feel comfortable.
I like to have some sound in the background - not loud music, but a neutral soundscape that you can think of as you purposeful and mindful way to concentrate your mind. I tend to use soundscapes from MyNoise.Net ( see earlier article, "Be Mindful To MyNoise")
The advantage of using this simple technique for your Mindful Meditation is that it allows you to change the length of the meditation according to your time available or your concentration level.
Give it a try and let me know how it went for you. If you have other similar aids drop me a line and we can put an article on here making that idea available to others.
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