Guided meditation
If you want the practice with the most boring, solid research, it is this — not because it is mystical, because it is repetitive training of attention and attitude.
Families of practice
Focused attention: one object (breath, sound, a phrase). The work is returning, not remaining unbroken. Open monitoring: notice whatever arises, without grabbing. Loving-kindness / compassion: phrases and images that rehearse goodwill, starting where it is easy. Body scan: a slow tour; cousin to nidra. Yoga nidra: intention (sankalpa), rotation of consciousness, breath, opposite pairs, imagery, rest. It is a structured hypnagogia with a more yogic wardrobe.
MBSR and MBCT are the clinical brands. You do not need to copy their eight-week arc to make a ten-minute scan. You do need their manners: ordinary language, no trance claims you will not defend, and an invitation to stop.
Writing a guide
Shorter sentences than hypnosis. Less metaphor. More space. The listener’s job is to notice, not to follow a plot. Name the object, name the wander, name the return. Do not congratulate them. Do not threaten them with doing it wrong.
Compassion tracks fail when they start with the difficult person. Start easy, then self, then difficult only as far as honesty allows. Nidra fails when you rush the rotation. One body region, a pause, the next. If they sleep, that is in-bounds — say so at the start so they do not fight it.
Ten to twenty minutes is the commercial sweet spot. Daily 10 beats weekly 45 for most humans. Put that in the listing so people stop treating a track like a weekend retreat.