Welcome to Dr. Bannink's Guided Meditation Page
Here you will find guided meditations to support your emotional wellness and stress management as part of your comprehensive self-care efforts.
Below you will find both free Metta Meditation recordings (scroll to bottom) and recorded audio albums for purchase that you can use at home any time you need support in relaxation and stress management.
I offer an interactive on-line community for those interested in ongoing support, spiritual growth, metaphysics, and access to guided meditation library to support stress management at quantumspiritualselfmastery.com
VIDEO DISCUSSION AND GUIDED METTA MEDITATION
with Dr. Erin Bannink
ABOUT METTA MEDITATION
Metta is a Pali word which means "loving kindness".
This meditation is the namesake for Metta Pets.
With consistency, repetition and gentle daily effort, this practice supports an increased sense of peace and well-being.
Below you will find audio recordings of a few guided metta meditation practices followed by advice on how to get the most out of Metta Meditation.
Read more about Metta Meditation on my Metta Meditation blog post.
Full instructions about how to get the most out of Metta Meditation are below.
As you listen to this meditation, silently recite each phrase over and over as you allow the positive feelings associated with the experience of those phrases to arise. Try as best you can to embody those feelings, to feel them in your body.
**If you are currently in the midst of strong negative emotions, other mindfulness practices will be better for you. Those can be found at the Mindfulness webinars here.***
Background music: Source Vibrations. sourcevibrations.com
*stereo headphones recommended for optimal experience
Solfeggio Harmonics, vol. 1
Celestial Navigation
Cosmic Shores
HOW TO GET THE MOST OUT OF THE METTA MEDITATION AUDIOS
Listen with good stereo headphones. The background music in the guided meditations consists of binaural beats (sourcevibrations.com) which help your brain sync into more harmonious states. If you want to enjoy the calming benefits of the binaural beats, you need headphones. Otherwise you can listen anywhere and just enjoy the ambient music that accompanies the meditation.
I recommend that you listen to the introduction first. Research has shown that learning about metta meditation is statistically associated with an increased likelihood you will experience positive benefits.
If you connect in a positive way to this meditation, challenge yourself to listen to this once daily for 30 days and see what positive changes you notice. Keeping a journal of your experiences can be a helpful way for you to track your progress in finding more inner peace and contentment.
Start with the 20 minute self-focused meditation. Once you have done this for a while and become familiar and comfortable with the meditation, then you can work with the extended version of the self-focused meditation (or start here if you are a seasoned meditator) and the 20 minute self and other focused meditation.
HOW TO DO METTA MEDITATION CORRECTLY...SO IT WORKS
First of all, this practice is best done when you are in a relatively calm state. If you are in the throes of significant mental afflictions or severe emotional turmoil, this practice can feel traumatizing because it puts you in touch with your inner landscape. In those circumstances, I would recommend working with the the mindfulness practices I describe in the first two "Mindfulness for Stress Reduction" webinars.
For detailed instruction on Metta Meditation and tips for navigating emotional bumps in the road, watch my Metta Meditation webinar.
The key to Metta Meditation, and what sets it apart from other mindfulness practices, is that here we are specifically working to allow the experience of the feelings of happiness, compassion, joyful well-being and peacefulness to arise in our bodies and in our mind.
We are not just wishing these things with our minds or thinking about them as concepts with our thoughts, we are feeling them. We are allowing ourselves a few minutes to escape into a reality where we feel these states as if they are already present. We allow ourselves to let go of thoughts of the past or worries about the future and just be present with these feelings and enjoy the experience of them.
If you have trouble with this at first, I find it's helpful to ask yourself, "what does happiness feel like?" Then try to feel happy. Mirror the experience of "happy" in your body. What does happiness feel like in your mind? What does happiness feel like in your emotions? What does happiness feel like in your whole body?
Do the same with "safety", "joy" and "peaceful".
If it doesn't feel authentic, that's totally okay. Just fake it. Pretend, like you are an actor. Try to become the experience of the word or phrase.
This is a "fake it 'til you make it" practice :)
I offer meditation events, workshops and other emotional and spiritual wellness support resources regularly. More info on my Healing Center website www.DivinePowerHouse.com