Meditation & Coffee - Counting Calm

Two simple counting exercises to help our mind focus, train our attention, calm our nervous system, start the day with focus, compassion and clarity; and keep things simple. Brought to you by iced coffee during a London heatwave!

Transcript

Hello! You are listening to Meditation and Coffee, The weekday meditation podcast that helps you start your day off calm, Aware, Intentional, Focused and most importantly, Awake. Because did you know that the word Buddha actually means awakened one? I'm Hannah, Your host and founder of the online meditation community Breathe Like a Badass, And I am obsessed with starting the day with good coffee and seriously simple meditation. As a trained meditation teacher and a female entrepreneur, My mission is to help anxious yet ambitious women cut through overwhelmed, Negative self-talk, Constant comparison and fear, So they can get the calm, Clarity and focus that they need to build happy, Fulfilling, Freedom-filled businesses and lives. Meditation is not magic, But it's a pretty good place to start. So whether your coffee is a shot of espresso, A latte decaf or even a tea or a chai, I invite you to join me every weekday to start your day off right. FYI, These sessions are recorded live on my Instagram page at BreatheLikeABadass, So if you'd prefer to join in and watch them live, You can do so there every weekday morning between 8 and 8. 30am London time. The videos are also available after the lives on my IGTV page. Now on to the meditation and coffee. Good morning friends, It's Monday morning over here. Let me just post in the comments what we are doing today. How was your weekend? If you're watching this live, How was your weekend? If you're watching this not live, If you're watching the replay, Let me know, Write replay down in the comments and let me know how you're doing. Today is very much an iced coffee day. It's still really hot in the UK. It's kind of super humid, Not even necessarily super sunny, Just really humid. So yeah, Definitely an iced coffee kind of day. I would jangle my ice cubes for you, But they've already melted because it's that warm so I literally poured this coffee a few minutes ago. Welcome to another session of meditation and coffee. I hope that you're well, I hope that you've got your coffee, Tea, Anything in between with you. Today the title of our meditation is counting calm. Now that just is kind of a fancy way of saying that today we're going to focus on a breathing technique that uses counting. It's something that I've done before in some of these sessions, But I've never just done a single meditation on it and I think it's important to do so. One word of caution today, I do live near the UK's biggest international airport and the planes are flying directly over my house this morning. So yeah, If you can hear that in the background, I really do apologise. There's not a lot I can do about a jumbo jet flying above my house, But I've kept the windows closed to try and make sure that this meditation is as calm and peaceful as possible. So I do apologise though if you can hear planes flying over every now and again. We'll just make them part of the meditation, Right? We'll just use them as another object of focus, Yeah? So okay, So with that said, Thank you for being here today. Today's meditation is like I say, It's going to be using counting. We're going to literally allow ourselves to come into meditation and count the breaths. The reason why I do this and the reason why counting can be such a fantastic tool is because it offers you another object of focus. And like I always say, Meditation is not about emptying your mind. It's not about never getting distracted. It's not about being this like Zen perfect, Calm version of yourself. It's about giving your mind an object of focus that is really going to allow it to train your attention on that one thing. So it can be anything like literally you can focus on anything when you meditate. You can focus on your body, You can focus on your breath, You can focus on your surroundings, You can focus on your hearing, Your taste, Your smell, Even if you really want to if you're that kind of person. So you really can focus on anything when you meditate. But quite often beginners meditations start with breathing. And the reason I say beginner is not to necessarily say that it's easy or that it's kind of like, You know, Basic meditation. It's just that we start with the breath because we because it's always there because we always have the breath because no matter where we go, No matter what we do, We're always breathing so we can use it as a tool that's always with us. So that's why many beginner and basic and simple meditations use the breath as the object of focus. And today we're going to take that step further and we're going to take the breath and we're going to count it. And the reason for that is like I say, Because it just gives us another object of focus. And when when we do it, You'll realize that it really does take more effort and more concentration to count our breaths and keep ourselves occupied. And to kind of keep keep our breaths in order in every count from one to 10, We find that actually it's really easy to lose track of where we are. And this in itself builds compassion. And this is something that we always need when we meditate as well, Just remembering to give ourselves grace, That we're not going to do it perfectly, That we are just only human, And that's completely normal. So without further ado, Let's begin. I invite you to come into a comfortable position. You can keep your coffee in your hand if you wish. I've got mine still. But if you like you can put it down. And just come into a comfortable position doesn't have to be a perfect meditation pose. I just like to get into a position where I feel comfortable and supported. My lower back is supported, But my spine is straight. Shoulders back but relaxed. And allowing yourself to just notice what it feels like to be sitting here today. And allowing your eyes to close if that feels good. And if not, You can leave them open looking forward. Allowing yourself to take some deep, Deep breaths in through the nose, Out through the mouth. Giving yourself grace and space permission to just be where you are right now, Allowing your body to breathe very gently. Gently allowing yourself to notice your body breathing in and out. No expectation, No judgement. Noticing your body sitting here now breathing in and out. And I invite you to bring your attention to a particular part of your body where your breath feels strongest. So it could be your nose. Or your chest perhaps or even in your back. Your stomach maybe. For me it's my nose I can really feel my breath in my nose and between my eyes. So I invite you to bring your attention to wherever that feels most comfortable for you. And once you've identified that we're going to count the breaths from 1 to 11. The reason that I do 11 is just because I find that it invites you to focus your attention even more than if we just do a generic number like 5 or 10. So as I say, I'm going to do the first few breaths with you. So we're going to go in for 1. And out for 2. In for 3. Out for 4. In for 5. Out for 6. In for 7. Out for 8. In for 9. Out for 10. And in for 11. And now you can start again. So in for 1. Out for 2. So I invite you to keep doing that. Practice a little bit on your own. See how you go. And if you lose track or if you don't know which number you're on, That's totally normal. That's why we do this exercise. Because that's very very common. So if you get distracted, That's absolutely fine. Just notice it without judgement and start again at 1. So every time that you get lost and you don't know which number you're on, You're not sure if you're supposed to be breathing in or breathing out, It's all good. This is just the exercise. This is the practice. We're not doing it to be perfect at it. We're doing it to practice it. That's it. That's all that you can ever ask of yourself. And with these breaths, You'll notice that you don't have to breathe in a special way. You don't have to take particularly deep deep huge breaths or anything like that. We're just noticing what we would be breathing like normally even if we weren't meditating. Which is kind of a difficult thing because sometimes paying attention to a breath in itself makes us kind of breathe more deeply and we're like, Well what am I doing? How would I be breathing normally? I don't know. But this exercise is a good way to practice that. And just tune in with what's already here. Another way of counting the breath that can be more calming, And this is something that I've worked with with clients before where they maybe suffer from social anxiety or they need a kind of breathing technique that can help them kind of in the moment in a stressful situation in their lives even when they're not kind of meditating formally like we are now. And that's actually taking the breaths even slower. So you'll notice previously I was saying breathe in for one and out for two. What we're going to do now is we're going to breathe in for one and out for one. Breathe in for two and out for two. So I'll join you. Breathing in for one. Maybe holding it at the top slightly and breathing out for one. Breathing in for two and out for two. In for three. Out for three. And I'll let you go up to eleven at your own pace. So as you see, We're going to breathe in for one and out for two. Breathing in for one. So as you see, When you do a much more slower, That was not very grammatically correct, That sentence, When you do a slower breathing like that, Where you're breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth and you're counting both your in breath and your out breath as part of the same breath, So like I say, In for one, Out for one, That can sometimes feel really even more calming because it's really showing you the power of just slowing down your breathing. And sometimes when we're in a stressful situation, Maybe we got social anxiety or we're doing something that is really quite stressful, Maybe even nowadays it could be as simple as going to the supermarket. Everyone's got masks on, It can be quite intimidating, We've spent a long time indoors, Maybe it's having a phone call that you know is going to be difficult, Maybe it is going on public transport or something that makes you anxious like that, Maybe it is meeting new people or doing something that feels difficult to you in your life, Whatever it might be, This kind of breathing can be extremely calming. It allows you to slow down, It allows you to effectively turn on what we know as the parasympathetic nervous system, Which is kind of the opposite of fight, Flight or freeze, So it allows us to kind of be in our body and remind ourselves that we are safe in the moment rather than just reacting to our first impulse or our first fear. Counting the breath gives our mind another thing to focus on other than just the breathing. So you'll notice at the beginning of this meditation I said to you, Notice where you can really notice your breathing. And for me, Like I say, It's my nose between my eyes, So not only are we focusing on our breathing in that particular place of our body, But we're also focusing on the counting of the breathing. So we're really giving our mind a lot of stuff to focus on so that it can really capture our attention, Which means that it's a really strong and powerful anchor that we can always bring our attention back to whenever we get distracted. And that's why counting can be so useful, Because it occupies our mind so much that we find that it's actually easier for us to focus on it, Because we're less likely to get distracted. And even when we do get distracted, It's cool because we can come back, Start at one, And we've always got something that we can be working towards. It's also interesting from the point of view of your own mind, Maybe you're feeling particularly distracted or particularly stressed one day, To notice that actually you're struggling to even make it to two breaths or one breath even. Whereas on other days you might find it easier to get all the way up to 10 or 11 or however many you would want to do. So it also shows you that on different days you're going to have different levels of attention, Different levels of awareness, And that's normal and fine and okay and totally what you would expect. Because when we meditate every single day or nearly every day, We start to notice patterns in our own mind, And we start to understand how to be compassionate to ourselves and recognize that some days we're going to be great, Really focused, And other days we're going to be distracted and it's fine. It doesn't mean that we're rubbish at this, It doesn't mean that we're a bad meditator. All it means is we're human and we go up and down, Have good days and bad days and that's totally fine. So that's why counting can be so useful to help us develop our meditation habit and develop our focus. Because developing our focus and our attention is what builds the brain muscle which can then help us to react better to our lives, Feel happier, Less triggered by things that happen in our life, Less stressed, Less overwhelmed, And allow us to choose a kind of happier and healthier course of mental action. So that's why we do it. So that's my little potted reason for why we meditate in the first place. I'm just taking a sip of my coffee. Now often I give you these techniques in these meditations as an invitation, It's a suggestion. So as you saw in this meditation I've given you two options, Two different kinds of counting, And I really invite you to experiment with yourself and see what works better for you. So I'll just give you a few moments before I end this session today to go back into your breath, Notice where you can feel your breath most strongly, And find which breathing pattern works best for you, Which one resonates the most, Which feels the most natural and calming. Is it going in for one and out for two? Or in for one and out for one? I'll give you a few moments to try it for yourself and see which works better. Yeah. Okay, So I think that's a good enough time for us to practice that technique. Like I say, I really do invite you to figure out what feels best for you and maybe try it on your own a few times just to see which feels most natural and which feels most calming and helpful. If you had your eyes closed you can open them now. Thank you so much for being here, I hope that that was in some way helpful and instructive. Counting, Super simple, Not always easy. But a really great meditation technique that can help us to get started, Get focused, Get grounded, Get a little bit of calm into our parasympathetic nervous system. It's just basically a fancy way of saying give ourselves a break and not get caught in flight or freeze. Let me know what you think about that one. Some people love counting, Some people think it's really useful and other people are like oh this feels really robotic, Not sure. Let me know if you have any feedback or comments. Let me know which technique worked best for you. Was it in for one and out for two or in for one and out for one? Personally I prefer the second one. So I'd love to know which worked best for you. Let me know. This was another session of meditation and coffee. I hope that it was useful. Simple, Not easy but simple. From me and my iced coffee and my very hot and humid London, I wish you a wonderful day. I hope you have a brilliant week as well. I'll be back here tomorrow morning for another session of meditation and coffee. In the meantime, Thank you so much for being here. Let me know which one worked best for you. Come say hi on Instagram. I'd love to hear any comments, Questions, Feedback, Criticism, Anything that you may have. Thank you so much for being here. Have a wonderful day. I will see you here bright and early tomorrow for another session. Thanks so much. Bye. That's it for today. Thanks so much for listening and spending your morning with me. If you like this podcast and you are as obsessed with coffee and maybe meditation as I am, Please go ahead and leave a rating and a review on Apple podcasts or wherever you normally listen as it helps spread the word and get the message out to more brilliant women just like us who need it. You can also share with your friends on Instagram tagging me at breathe like a badass. I always love to see you there. If you like this and you'd like to hear more from me and breathe like a badass on how to use meditation to get the calm, Clarity and focus you need to build a happy, Fulfilling, Freedom filled business and life, Head on over to my other full length interview style podcast. Just search breathe like a badass anywhere that you normally listen to podcasts. Thank you so much for listening and I will see you for the next one.

Reviews

Wonderful! So simple and so powerful!