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 Breathe Like a Badass 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.
Hello beautiful people.
We are on.
Good morning.
I think it's Wednesday today.
I'm not 100% certain.
I think it is.
Yeah it is.
Although I know a lot of people watch these not on the day anyway.
You watch the replay later so it's fine.
Good morning,
Good morning.
We are back for another morning session of meditation and coffee.
How are you doing today?
Let me know.
As usual,
I've got my big cup of coffee here.
This one's not quite as massive as some other days.
It's in my beautiful sunshine yellow mug.
And I say that for people that can't see.
It's sunshine yellow inside the mug.
It's not on the outside.
On the outside there's a beautiful pattern,
Different flowers.
But then the yellow is actually inside the mug which I kind of love because it's like the sunshine's actually in the coffee.
So I'm drinking actual liquid sunshine from the mug which is kind of amazing.
Love that.
So I've posted in the comments what this meditation is about.
But it says meditation and coffee one great breath.
So one great breath really is just what it sounds like.
And the objection,
Sorry,
The objective of doing one great breath is that we only focus on one bit of our breath at the time and we only worry about focusing on one breath.
And that's it.
And it's basically a way of making our meditation feel more doable,
Less intimidating.
It's a way of focusing our concentration even more.
Like I said yesterday,
If you watched yesterday's session,
Meditation is not about emptying our mind or showing up as this like parallel super zen version of ourselves.
It's about showing up as who we are right now.
Floors and all.
Busy mind,
Tiredness,
Annoyed,
Frustrated,
Stressed,
Happy,
Zen-ed out.
All the things that we might be every day,
Every single minute.
Sometimes we can change every minute.
So meditation allows us to be all of those things that we are.
But however we show up,
If we just think,
Oh well it's okay because I only need to focus on this one thing.
I only need to focus on one breath at a time.
So if we take one great breath and if we only manage to take one great breath in the whole of our meditation session,
That's already good.
For some meditation sessions it's like,
Actually to be honest,
I'm so distracted,
I can't even focus for a whole in-breath and out-breath.
If I just manage to do it for one breath,
Then yeah,
It's pretty sweet.
Pretty good.
Going pretty well.
So that's what we're going to do today.
So I'm just going to take one last lovely bit of liquid sunshine coffee.
I invite you to join me if you've got your coffee or tea or chai or latte or matcha with you.
Please feel free to continue to sip it if it feels good.
This is after all the meditation and coffee session.
So if you're ready to begin,
I invite you to come into a comfortable position,
However feels good.
You can sit in the perfect meditation position if you like,
In the lotus or in cross-legged.
You can put your hands like this if it helps you to focus,
But we really don't need to.
This is not the kind of meditation that I teach.
You can literally just come as you are,
Allow yourself to sit in position and notice your body and start to notice your breathing a little bit more than you might normally.
Sitting up straight but without introducing any more tension into the position,
Dropping your shoulders,
Figuring out whether you're balanced,
Finding a position that feels grounded.
And you can close your eyes if you like if it helps you relax,
But if not you can just leave them open looking slightly ahead of yourself and letting your eyes glaze over.
And now as you come into position I invite you to allow yourself to notice the gravity on your body,
Allow yourself to rest,
Take up space in the position that you're sitting in right now.
And allowing yourself this moment to just settle.
The image that I like to use here is if you imagine one of those snow globes and you shake the snow globe up and then you allow it to settle,
It's kind of what we're doing here.
We're just allowing ourselves to come to stillness.
Maybe our mind feels like the snow globe being all shaken up.
Maybe our to-do list looks a bit like that snow globe.
Lots going on,
Stressful.
Just right now we are stopping the shaking of the snow globe and we are allowing the snow inside to settle very gently,
Very gracefully.
And allowing our body to do the same.
Our head,
Our neck,
Our shoulders,
Our arms,
Hands,
Chest,
Front of your torso,
Back of your torso,
Your hips,
Your thighs,
Your knees,
Bottom of your legs,
Ankles,
Top of your feet,
Bottom of your feet.
And that was just a super quick body scan and all I'm inviting you to do is notice each part of your body and allow it to relax any areas of tension you notice.
Being that snow globe,
Allowing yourself to come to rest in position today.
And now I invite you to bring your attention to your breath.
And as you breathe slightly deeply than you might normally,
Noticing where you can feel it the most.
Where does the breath make itself known the most when you breathe in and breathe out?
And breathe out.
And I invite you to bring your attention very curiously as deeply as you can to the in breath.
So nothing else,
Nothing else to think about.
Literally just bringing your attention to how it feels to breathe in.
Noticing the temperature,
Whether it's a shallow breath or a deep breath.
How it makes your body feel when you breathe in.
And then bringing your attention to the out breath.
So focusing very curiously,
Gently but very interested,
How does it feel?
Literally just this breath.
This in breath.
And this out breath.
This in breath.
And this out breath.
And now I invite you to bring even more attention to just the in breath.
And just the out breath.
And I remind you that there's no right or wrong way to do this.
Maybe one breath will be easier for you to follow.
Maybe the in breath rather than the out breath.
Maybe it makes the most sense to you to only focus on the in breath.
And allow yourself to relax on the out breath.
But with each new breath we let go of the last one.
So we're not thinking oh,
You know,
I didn't do a very good job on that one or gosh I really need to focus more or each time that we take a breath in we have a chance to renew our concentration and our focus.
So we're not trying to think oh I need to be so focused for ten breaths or I need to count up to twenty or any of the other exercises that sometimes we'll do in meditation.
We're literally just focusing on one breath.
This moment.
And this moment.
And this moment.
And this moment.
And that's it.
So if you get distracted,
Which we all do and you very likely will,
Remembering that that's completely normal.
And all we want to do is just notice that distraction and bring it back.
And remembering oh yeah all I've got to do is just focus on one breath.
Specifically the in breath.
And the out breath.
And when we say that that's all we've got to focus on it becomes less intimidating.
Because that's literally it.
That's all we're doing.
In breath.
And out breath.
And as long as you are bringing your attention back to that and as long as you are noticing when you're getting distracted and bringing it back each time and trying again with each new breath then you're doing it right.
There's no other way.
There's no way to get this wrong.
That's what's so great about it.
Literally all you're asking of yourself is that and you're giving yourself permission to just do that.
To just breathe in.
Noticing how it feels.
Perhaps stopping at the top.
And breathing out.
And this practices our focus and our attention.
But it also practices self compassion and kindness because we realise that sometimes we do actually find it a challenge to even focus on one whole breath.
And that is OK.
And all we have to do every time we get distracted is give ourselves that space and grace to just be with one single breath.
So now I invite you to let go of everything that may or may not have happened in this practice and literally focus on this one breath right here right now.
I'll do it with you.
Breathing in.
Maybe holding at the top for a second.
And breathing out.
And allowing your shoulders to drop even more.
Noticing what happens to your muscles when you breathe out.
And every single time renewing your attention.
OK great.
One more breath.
And you can even split it into two things.
You can even split it into literally the in breath and all you're doing is noticing the in breath.
And then when you breathe out all you're doing is noticing the out breath.
So I invite you to drop your shoulders even more and open your eyes if you have them closed.
And thank you so much for being here today.
Thank you for joining me in this meditation.
This meditation coffee session from me and my very yellow mug.
And I hope that you enjoyed that simple exercise of training your focus and giving yourself grace.
Like all you gotta do sometimes is literally show up and give yourself the time,
Space and permission to allow yourself to breathe.
To allow yourself to breathe in and breathe out.
And that's all you've gotta do.
And sometimes that already feels difficult you know.
Like if you're finding it difficult to find time to meditate or you were wondering if maybe you even had time to do this this morning.
Like one breath.
One breath in.
One breath out.
And that's all that we ask.
So let me know how you found that.
Let me know if you found that useful.
If that's a technique that you'll be employing.
Perhaps in a future session or just going about the rest of your day.
Let me know.
And also let me know if you have any requests for different kinds of meditations or things that you'd like me to deal with or things you'd like me to address.
I'm always really happy to take requests.
And yeah.
Let me know.
Also these meditations are free.
So if you are enjoying them and you appreciate the fact that you can have meditations for free.
You can allow me to continue giving them for free.
You can buy me a coffee if you would like over at PayPal.
Me.
So PayPal.
Me forward slash breathe like a badass.
Or you can drop me a donation over on the Insight Timer app where these meditations are also found.
That would be wonderful.
I would be super grateful.
And yeah I love giving these meditations for free.
So if you're able to support the meditation and coffee cause that would be absolutely fantastic.
I'd be very grateful.
So yeah.
So breathe like a badass is my brand name.
So PayPal.
Me forward slash breathe like a badass.
In the meantime thanks so much for being here.
Have a wonderful day.
And remember all you gotta do is focus on one breath and that's it.
Cheers and thanks so much.
Bye bye 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.
