AKICO...

[oyceter]

Does anyone have good recs for guided meditation/mindfulness/something of that sort podcasts? Audiobooks are okay but not preferable, since it'll probably be harder for me to get to them.

Basically I need some sort of voice talking me through something, as opposed to vague nature sounds, and I'd rather have something that doesn't have too much "mystical East" ickiness. This is to listen to in bed right before falling asleep in an attempt to a) get better at mindfulness stuff and b) stop mind from racing, which is usually what keeps me from going to bed.

Comments

[kaberett]

I've used the Frantic World files and associated book (British men); I've also used this set of guided meditations from UCLA (US woman).

[oyceter]

Oh, thank you! I will be trying those.

[sasha_feather]

There are a few voice-only ones here at UW-Madison's student health services page. They seem to be live-streaming.
http://www.uhs.wisc.edu/health-topics/stress/relaxation.shtml

[oyceter]

Awesome, thank you!

[telophase]

The Great Courses has a course on practicing meditation and mindfulness. I've got it, but I'm only a few lectures in, in the section about What This Course and Subject Is and What It Is Not (it is: practice in mindfulness and meditation. It is not: religion. There, I've summed that bit up.), so I can't tell you if the actual practice is good or not.

I will say, however, that if you're intrigued, wait for one of the Great Courses sales--if you're unfamiliar with the company, everything goes on sale at least a couple of times a year, at steep, steep discounts. I think I paid $35 or so for the audio downloads.

http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/courses/course_detail.aspx?cid=1933

[oyceter]

Ooooo, good to know about the sales, thanks!

[mme_hardy]

I'm glad you asked this; I need them as well.

[oyceter]

Hope you find something useful!

[laurashapiro]

I have recordings of Jon Kabat-Zinn leading 4 meditation practices. You both can have them for free! LMK what file formats you like.

The body scan is particularly relaxing.

[oyceter]

Oh, that would be awesome, thanks! mp3 works fine for me.

[laurashapiro]

Okay, here they are!

http://laurasha.com/tunes/mindful/

I should note, these are part of a program geared at helping people with chronic pain as well as stress, so the yoga is suuuuuuuuper easy and restful. No sweating involved, just some gentle stretching.

[oyceter]

Ooo, thank you! Also, easy yoga is good.

[jjhunter]

I really like the free audio tracks you can download related to the 'Mindfulness: an eight week plan for finding peace in a frantic world' book. I've had friends meditate with me using them a guide who haven't read the book, and they still found it meaningful & valuable.

[oyceter]

Oh sweet, thank you!

[vass]

Dalek Relaxation Tape
This is absolutely NOT what you're looking for, and would not be a good thing to watch when you're trying to relax. I'm posting the link here anyway because it's funny.

[oyceter]

Bwahaha, awesome!

[19_crows]

Several people I know swear by these podcasts, from Kaiser.

[oyceter]

Oh wow, I had no idea Kaiser had those! (For other people reading, you need to be logged into Kaiser (and obviously a Kaiser member) for the link to work.)

[19_crows]

I just tried it and it looks like you can listen without being logged in or being a member. That's what the person who gave me the link told me, too.

[oyceter]

Oh, huh! It does work on my computer. I think something with the Kaiser mobile site and redirects or something got in the way when I tried on my phone.

[chomiji]

The U.S. military has started to go in for this sort of mindwork in a big way for their personnel. Here's a page of useful links from the Navy.

(I found this while I was doing an article on relaxation breathing for work.)

[jesse_the_k]

The Navy! That is so .... wonderful? weird? what would Gandhi do?

[oyceter]

Wow, that's really cool that they provide that! Plus with links to full mp3s!

[vi]

Thank you for this post! I've bookmarked many of the above to go through myself. ^^

I like the "Coming to your senses" track in the ABC Radio National's Guided Audio Meditations. The ones I've tried were all voice-only with Australian speakers.

[oyceter]

Oooo, thanks for the link, and hope you find useful stuff as well ^_^.