30 Day Challenge Introduction

The 30-Day Challenge is for you to develop a meditation practice over 1 month. The course starts with a 15-minute meditation that is about 15 minutes long and extends to over 30 minutes of meditation 4. Each meditation:
- build on the previous one,
- is designed for practice for 1 week each
- will provide the greatest benefit if practiced at least every second day, at the same time.

I hope you rise to the challenge.

Transcript

Hi Andrew Hughes here and welcome to the first part of your meditation program as part of the 30 day challenge.

Okay for this first meditation our aim is going to be simply to get you in the habit of having a single pointed focus.

That's the purpose of this first week and this first meditation.

So it's going to be pretty simple getting you to focus singularly firstly on your breath and then on some different parts of the body and you'll just be able to follow my voice.

Now the idea with this is that we're trying to retrain your brain in a sense to begin to find some space.

What happens in our culture is that we are addicted to thinking and the brain is constantly on overdrive.

Always thinking thoughts.

They say we think something like 60,

000 thoughts a day and 95% of those are the same thoughts over and over and over again.

And when you tend to,

When you think the same thoughts over and over and over again what happens is you tend to create the same results in your life.

And remember as I've been saying for some time now you are your rituals and your rituals include what are your ritualistic thoughts because they are defining and creating the life that you're living.

So this first part of meditation,

This first track,

The design is simply to get you to begin to turn off some thoughts and find some space internally.

Now a couple of things I wanted to talk to you about meditating before we get going.

Firstly,

There are many,

Many,

Many ways of meditating.

Many ways.

There's lots of different processes.

This is just one.

Ultimately they're all trying to do the same thing is they're trying to turn off the thinking because when we turn off the thinking that's when we get insight.

That's when we get internal space.

That's when we get clarity.

And that's when we can begin to change the very thoughts and the very foundations of our sort of personality that's defining the results or creating the results that are coming up in life.

So as we go through this process,

One of the important things to bear in mind is go easy on yourself.

Don't be beating up on yourself.

Some people they sit down to meditate and they're doing it wrong and they start getting cross with themselves and being critically yourself.

Well that's exactly what we don't want.

We're trying to find some space and some non-judgment and some presence being totally in the moment because being totally in the moment means not being in the past,

Thinking about the past,

Thinking about what has been and not worrying about the future.

Thinking about and worrying about what might be.

The present is right now and when you're right in the moment you are just experiencing without all of the judgments that we normally would have in everyday life and those judgments come from past and often they're related to future.

So for us today if you find that you know what you wander off that's okay.

Don't beat up on yourself.

If you do wander off when you notice and that's great that you notice because that means you'll be present.

When you notice you just gently acknowledge it and then you will just gently make a preference to come back to the meditation.

When thoughts come up as they always do,

They always do and this happens for everyone who's ever done any meditation,

Thoughts always come up.

But when they do the trick is to observe them rather than immerse yourself in them.

When you observe them you can imagine observing them like a wave on an ocean.

A crest comes up and then it just goes by and then you might find another one coming up,

A swell comes up and then goes by.

We can imagine them as clouds in the sky.

So one thought is a cloud comes along and then disappears without us buying into it,

Becoming the thought,

Owning the thought but just observing that it is a thought.

So that's the first thing I wanted to say about meditation.

The second thing is look most important is your comfort and I'll talk about this in all the steps make sure you're comfortable.

There is no right way to sit to meditate.

You don't have to be in a half lotus position in order to get the benefits of meditation that's just crazy.

You really can be in any position you like as long as it will allow you to be comfortable and to go into this sort of peaceful internal state.

So if you want to lay down fine,

Lay down.

The problem with laying down though I will say is that so many people go to sleep when they lay down because you know what when you want to go to bed,

When you want to go to sleep what do you do?

You lay down.

So there's a connection that you've made neurologically between laying down and sleeping and as you begin to slow down your brain waves unless you're well practiced at going into a meditative state while you're horizontal most people will go to sleep.

So I would generally recommend don't lay down particularly if you're just beginning to meditate.

If you've got a bad back and you have to lay down so be it.

If you can stay awake while you're laying down go for it.

But for most people it's better to sit up now you can sit up in a chair,

You can be in a lounge chair,

It could be sitting on the floor with your back against the wall.

Any position really or any location where you can sort of sit there comfortably for 15-20 minutes.

In terms of what the rest of your body is doing it doesn't really matter.

You can sit with your legs crossed if you like.

If you're on the floor you can sit with your legs out.

It's good to have your hands just resting in your lap.

Now what I'd like you to do with your hands is just hold them up for a second.

Just go in that hold that ok sign you know what I mean.

The thumb and the first finger or the index finger just making a circle and just gently touching at the tips.

And then just allow your hands to fall face down on your thighs.

Now if that's not comfortable what you can do is you can even tuck that index finger a little further up in behind the thumb a little.

Just so you're sitting there comfortably.

That's a good way to hold your hands.

Now some people who have meditated a little bit longer like to sit in a similar style with their palms facing up and maybe with their index finger or forefinger making a little circle.

But to start with hands down thumb and index finger making a gentle circle or just the index finger tucked in to the back of the thumb there.

The only other thing I'd say is that if you can try to have your back reasonably straight.

You know anyone who's been to the chiropractor knows that the chiropractor will tell you when you've got a straight spine you're more likely to get information flow up and down.

The spine up and down and through the body and from the brain is going to be more likely to be communicating fully and clearly with the rest of the body.

So when we meditate it's good to have as straight a spine as we can.

With this proviso you have to be comfortable.

So not many people will find sitting bolt upright in perfect posture to be super comfortable.

For many people that will be a strain.

So the trick is we don't want to strain.

We want to be comfortable.

But we want to have our back as straight as it can be within that context if that makes sense.

Okay so that's just the precursor to meditation.

That's just the intro I want to do with this meditation that's coming up.

Enjoy it.

What you're going to do for the next week now is just play the next track which is the meditation and practice meditating.

The meditation goes for a little over 15 I think might be up to 20 minutes.

A little bit of chat chit chat at the beginning which you can fast forward as I recover just go over a few of these points again just to bring them home and have fun with it.

And I will talk to you again in a week's time when we do track 2.

Bye now.

Reviews

Very easy and relaxed explanation to start with

Very gentle and good explanation of meditation