For teachers, and anyone recording
Guided meditation scripts
Written to be spoken, not read. With timing marks, real pauses, and none of the writing habits that make a script sound like an audiobook.
A five-minute script you can use today
Free to use in a class, a session or a recording, with a credit and a link back. Marks: [5] means pause five seconds, [20] means twenty.
Settling — 5 minutes
Find a position you can keep for a few minutes. Both feet on the floor if you're on a chair. [5]
Let your eyes close, or rest them on the floor a little ahead of you. [5]
Start with the feet. Just the feet. Feel the weight of them, and the floor pushing back. [20]
Now where you're sitting. The seat holding you. Notice where the pressure is greatest. [20]
And your hands, wherever they've come to rest. Warm, cool, heavy, light. [20]
Now, if it's easy, let the breath come into it. You're not changing it. Just noticing that it's happening. [30]
At some point your attention will go somewhere else. That's not a problem — it's what attention does. When you notice, come back. Feet, seat, hands, breath. [45]
Staying here. Nothing to work out. [60]
And once more, coming back. However many times. [45]
In a moment we'll finish. Let the room come back — sounds around you, the light through your eyelids. [10]
When you're ready, open your eyes.
How to write one that doesn't sound written
- Time the silences, don't guess them. Write the number in the script. Under pressure everyone speaks too fast and leaves too little room.
- Say "when you notice you've drifted" early. Before it happens, not after. It reframes wandering as expected rather than as failure.
- Cut every hedge. "Perhaps you might like to gently allow" is four hedges and no instruction.
- Name body parts, not concepts. "Your jaw" lands. "Your physical form" doesn't.
- Promise nothing. No "this will release your tension". Describe, invite, stop.
- Land the ending. Bring the room back before you bring the eyes back — a script that stops dead leaves people jolted.
- Read it aloud, standing up, timing it. Every weak line shows up in ninety seconds.
Adapting the script above
| For | Change |
|---|---|
| Sleep | Lying down. Double every pause. Drop the ending — don't bring them back. |
| A class | Add ten seconds at the start for people still settling. Speak slower than feels natural. |
| Children | Halve it. Swap "notice" for "see if you can feel". Two minutes is plenty. |
| Before an exam or a talk | Feet and hands only, eyes open, ninety seconds. Skip the breath entirely. |
Related
- What is guided meditation? — the structure these scripts follow.
- The big list — recordings to listen to for pacing.
- Grounding — the practice this script teaches.