When starting a mindfulness practice, people often turn to written scripts. These scripts can be used to guide the practice, and offer suggestions for what the mind can attend to. They often give cues that remind the listener that yes, minds do wander, and that this is normal – and how to bring the mind back to what the focus was on. There are heaps of these guided meditations available online and pre-recorded, and there’s no doubt they’re both popular and readily available.
Today I want to explore scripts and why a person might choose to move away from using a script. I don’t have research to back this discussion – but some practical questions have led me to ponder it.
Recorded scripts – some person with a lovely resonant voice, speaking relatively slowly, perhaps with a ‘hypnotic’ tone (it is a thing – see this paper by Montgomery and colleagues; 2021)… ahhh bliss. Unless the voice speaks with an accent that’s either unfamiliar or doesn’t ‘feel’ right to the listener! For example, in New Zealand, it’s common for people to say they don’t enjoy listening to US accents (while others say they’re delightful!). Some don’t enjoy listening to a male voice, others don’t like female voices… Some like a background ambient noise, others really don’t. Selecting a recording seems to be quite a personal choice. As a clinician, my advice is to listen to the recording with the person to judge how it lands for them.
In clinical practice, my approach to introducing mindfulness has been to record my voice during the session when I’m guiding that person’s mindfulness practice. In this way I can judge the speed to use, include cues if I notice the person shifting (or falling asleep – it has happened!), and bring the focus to aspects particularly relevant for that person. My voice is familiar, I’ve developed the pace and tone in line with hypnosis protocols (eg Jensen, 2011), and it’s easy to record good quality using a smartphone. Prior to smartphones I used a digital recorder and turned it into an MP3, and before then I used CDs and even cassette tapes!
When I’m thinking about which one to use as an introduction I start with understanding where my client/patient is at. While mindfulness practice is about learning to be in the moment, without judging or controlling, the skill first being drawn on is attention control. For this reason I start by considering the person’s current ability to attend: can the person stop and just sit and breathe for three or four slow breaths without fidgeting or falling asleep? As a clinician, my ability to sit with the person and notice is pretty important – hence my need to do my own mindfulness practice. I’m noticing the person’s response – any signs of distress? any indication of dissociation? I may suggest the person doesn’t close their eyes if they say they’ve been traumatised, and just notice their breath or the contact of their body on the chair with eyes open. I then adjust the duration and cues I use to help the person remain in the present moment, attending to whatever I’ve chosen as the initial attentional focus. I encourage people to return to the focus repeatedly: it’s not about maintaining attention, it’s about noticing that attention has wandered and gently bringing it back. We’re just ‘messing about with attention’ so it’s not a deep experience, just dipping the toe in. I often suggest the person does this dipping in to sensory experience many times during the day – and don’t use a script for it. If my aim is to encourage noticing and begin training attention, I want to make it as simple as possible to repeat, without anything that can get in the way of practice. I tend not to suggest eyes closed for these brief sensory awareness moments so that they can be done anywhere and any time – even at the traffic lights!
I’m inclined to offer a recording at the second session. I’ve established how the person has got on with the ‘dipping the toe’ experiences over the week, and I will usually do either a body scan or breath exercise during the session. The body scan can take a little longer than a breath exercise. I record the exercise I use in session, and I sometimes will use a pre-written script for the body scan. This recording will usually be for around 5 – 7 minutes, and I encourage the person to use it two times a day – morning and night, or at a scheduled time that will work within the context of their life. At the same time I encourage people to continue with the brief moments of awareness throughout the day, as many times as they can remember.
In subsequent sessions, I can introduce other forms of mindfulness – and record these slightly longer versions for the person to practice.
I’ve practiced mindfulness for a long time, and mainly don’t use guided meditations for myself. There are times when it’s nice to use one and I have a few I’ve recorded for myself (yes, in my own voice!) for times when I’m perhaps feeling a bit hurried, worried, or tired. My experience with recorded mindfulness scripts on apps is that I like the novelty of them and learn a lot – but they’re not my preference for my own practice. The main reason is that I often like to do mindfulness practice spontaneously and if I have to locate the recording, grab my headphones, find a place to do it I’m less likely to actually do it. And some of the voices irritate me! Which I try to deal with mindfully – !
Mindfulness scripts can be boring because we become familiar with them and I find my mind drifting off more when I know what’s coming. This might be something I could work on, because it is all about managing my willful mind and its wandering! I can also find scripts not the right length for my practice. If I want to do a longer meditation, and the one I’ve chosen is too short, while I can still sit with my practice once the recording stops, the learning curve for me is to do that. If I don’t have as much time and all I have to hand is a long one, I feel my mind wandering off towards ‘when is it going to end?’ or ‘will I run over time?’
I also find mindfulness scripts not terribly useful when I’m outdoors, say by the beach or in the bush or by a lake or river. When I’m in those places I want to immerse myself in the sensory experiences of these settings, to be fully present, and I find recorded guided meditations take me away from those.
Ultimately, I think it’s useful for people to move away from using a recorded guided meditation over time. It’s more convenient for practice in different contexts, invites experimenting with different ways of paying attention on purpose and without much judgement. I think it allows people to use present moment awareness often. Scripted guided meditations – nothing wrong with them, they offer structured and often novel ways to pay attention. They’re just not mandatory, and perhaps we can shake ourselves loose from them to foster more playful practice.
Jensen, M. P. (2011). Hypnosis for Chronic Pain Management: Therapist Guide. https://doi.org/10.1093/med:psych/9780199772377.001.0001
Koenig, H. G. (2023). Person-Centered Mindfulness: A Culturally and Spiritually Sensitive Approach to Clinical Practice. J Relig Health, 62(3), 1884-1896. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-023-01768-w
Montgomery, G. H., Green, J. P., Erblich, J., Force, J., & Schnur, J. B. (2021). Common paraverbal errors during hypnosis intervention training. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 63(3), 252-268. https://doi.org/10.1080/00029157.2020.1822275
Strand, M., & Stige, S. H. (2021). Combining mindfulness and compassion in the treatment of complex trauma – a theoretical exploration. European Journal of Trauma & Dissociation, 5(3). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejtd.2021.100217