Keys To Deep Peace And Love #1

This track features 1 hour of guided mindfulness meditations that are focused on key teachings in The Mindfulness Code book. Silence is a powerful antidote to the breakneck speed of modern living. Enjoy!

Transcript

Welcome to Donald Altman's mindfulness code,

Keys for awakening to joy,

Peace,

And deep mind body awareness.

And now,

Donald Altman presents,

Making peace with the mind through observation.

I'll be guiding you through two practices that are designed to help you get to know your mind better and to make it more effective.

First,

You will learn how to observe your mind in a neutral and non-judgmental way.

One way to accomplish this is by using the mind to look inward and observe its own workings.

What it is attracted to,

What it is repelled by,

What is it put to sleep or confused by.

New brain research has shown that simply by observing and naming your feelings,

You actually inhibit the inner reactive part of the brain.

By watching from a safe distance,

You can objectively notice and label a feeling.

There's frustration,

There's anger,

There's hurt,

Or there's sadness.

Right now,

Let's practice what it's like to observe and name feelings from a safe distance.

We're going to use a thought experiment,

Much like those that Einstein used,

To stimulate the part of the brain which is located behind the forehead and the eyes,

And which helps us notice things in a more neutral and non-judgmental way.

Here's the thought experiment.

Imagine you are in line at the store and you see a friend who you haven't spoken to in a while.

This person has just checked out and is walking toward the exit.

You wave and call the person's name,

But he or she continues walking out of the store without turning around.

What would you think and feel at having this happen?

We're going to take a short pause as you observe and name the feelings that you have by your interpretation of this event.

You may feel anger,

Sadness,

Upset,

Frustration,

Or any number of feelings.

So,

For the next few seconds,

Observe and name all the feelings that appear.

As you do this,

You may also notice that the part of your mind that is watching and naming the feelings is not experiencing those feelings,

But is just noticing them.

So,

Let's start now.

The objective here is to start paying closer attention in a neutral and non-judgmental way to how your mind makes contact with any event or object.

To observe how it then interprets the event or object,

And then how it responds with a related emotion.

You may even notice how a feeling would result in a behavior on your part.

For example,

If you interpreted your friend as snubbing or ignoring you,

Then you may have felt hurt or angry.

A possible behavior resulting from that interpretation might be that you won't call your friend,

Or that you may decide to have no future contact.

If,

However,

Your interpretation is that your friend is lost in his or her thoughts,

Or maybe going through a hard time,

You could feel sad or concerned,

And may decide to follow up with a call as soon as you get home.

The point here is that different minds make different interpretations and evaluations of everyday events.

By paying closer attention in a safe and neutral way to how your brain makes these decisions,

You can start to uncover hidden patterns or habits.

Or,

You may decide to test out an interpretation before absorbing a powerful negative emotion.

In other words,

You can begin to discover that thoughts are not necessarily facts.

It can be very liberating to not have thoughts push and pull on you,

But to see them in a fresh and new way.

Before moving on,

I'd like to share one practice you can use to observe your mind in a neutral way.

Make a top 10 negative thoughts journal.

In the journal,

You can list those negative thoughts that are rattling around in your head.

You may not be fully aware of these thoughts,

Or even how frequently they appear.

As you put together the list,

Start to notice what themes they have in common,

Such as blaming or critical thoughts like,

I'm no good at such and such,

Or what I do is not good enough.

Do this for at least a week,

Knowing that your thoughts do not define you.

This practice increases your ability to observe thoughts in a more calm and neutral way,

Without letting them push you around.

But to get more skillful at observing the mind,

You also need to develop the ability to sustain attention.

Attention is critical,

Because it is always present when we observe anything.

Multitasking actually fragments attention,

Because the brain is switching focus from this thing to the next,

To the next.

This may not seem important until you feel overwhelmed by stress,

Can't sleep at night because your mind is racing like a supersonic plane,

Or can't focus on homework or other tasks for any length of time.

This attention practice will rebuild your focusing ability.

What makes this practice doubly useful is that it also uses the breath.

And you can practice it anytime and anywhere.

It's totally portable.

Here's how it works.

You are going to pay attention to each breath that you take.

For each in and out breath you will count a number,

Starting at one and continuing until you have reached 25,

Meaning you have taken 25 breaths.

The idea here is to keep the mind sharp and attentive while breathing.

As you proceed,

If you find that you lose count,

Just begin again with the number one.

It's okay.

You may also observe thoughts and emotions that arise when you lose concentration.

That's normal too.

The idea here is not to be perfect with the counting.

It is just to be present and increase concentration.

So if you lose count,

You can notice any thoughts that arise with a sense of neutrality as if they are passing clouds.

Let them go and begin counting again.

Don't worry if you can't get to 25 right off the bat.

You may notice that when you are tired or sleepy,

You don't have the same concentration power.

Practice this for 5 to 10 minutes each day until you reach 25.

Then you can go for 50.

If you don't get to 25,

That's okay.

Just start over with one whenever you lose count.

Just for trying and building up the skill,

You get an A+.

Let's begin now.

.

How did that go?

You can try this anytime you feel scattered or unable to focus.

Have fun learning more about your mind.

I like to think of this as being a detective looking for facts but not judging them.

.

Reviews

Very helpful as a guidance to be aware of thoughts and emotions. When I'm stressed or tired I tend to shove negative thoughts to the background so they keep coming back. The counting technique has helped me a lot in the past, so thank you for the reminder. 🧘🙏

A good meditation that shares a helpful counting technique and way of looking at your own emotions from an outside perspective.

thanksss youuu 😘😘😘