How To Relax Your Brain In 12 Easy Steps (With Waves, 12-28-20)

Do your thoughts get in the way of your meditation? Learn how to make problematic thoughts a thing of the past with these 12 simple steps of mindful breath and thoughts that will leave your body and brain totally relaxed and encourage creative and intuitive thoughts. Simple, effective, liberating.

Transcript

We'll begin the 12 simple steps to completely relaxing your brain.

The first step and the first five steps are about the breath,

Mindfulness of the breath.

And the first step,

And as promised they're all very simple,

Is to become aware of your breath.

When I make that choice to become aware of my breath,

I like to really try and feel the physical sensations of the breath in the body.

So I'm really feeling the breath,

And feeling it in the body.

Feeling the movement the breath causes in the body and any related sensations.

And this first step is a good place to just set our approach to all the steps of this meditation.

And that is for each step we're just going to lightly,

The invitation is just to lightly hold the awareness in this case of the breath.

Just gently within an open awareness,

A light,

Easy,

Open awareness.

So letting go of any idea of focus or concentration or effort.

Attention but without any tension,

Easy,

Open awareness.

So I like to think of it as just having the breath in the foreground or the centre of your awareness,

But not excluding or ignoring anything else that you're aware of.

So everything else of this present moment,

Other sensations in the body,

Your thoughts,

Emotions,

Sounds,

Etc.

They're all still completely welcome.

We're just allowing them to continue in the background.

I'm choosing to be most interested of all these things,

Just for these few moments in the breath.

So aware of the breath within an open awareness first step.

Now the second step is a very important step,

But it's kind of a non-step in a way,

A non-action.

The second step is to not try and change your breath in any way at all.

So you don't need to try and breathe more deeply or more slowly or in a more measured,

Regular way.

Just allow the breath to breathe at whatever rhythm and pace and depth it happens to be in this moment.

So the second step is to consciously choose not to change the breath.

When we do this step in the second part of the thoughts,

It's a particularly important one.

So really just getting familiar with being aware of the breath and choosing not to affect the breath.

Being aware of the breath as it happens to be in your body in this moment.

The third step is to just break down the breath into the inhale and exhale.

So for the inhale,

Keeping true to the second step of not making any effort to change the breath,

We just want you to add the thoughts or the intention or approach to the breath and to the in-breath to allow the breath in.

So just having that thought of allowing the breath in each time you take that in-breath.

So the point of this step is that maybe not consciously we might be restricting the breath.

So we might actually be affecting the natural breath through some tension maybe in the body or some anxiety that's restricting the breath.

It's just giving a few moments to,

If there is any restriction,

Any tension there,

To maybe allow that to ease.

So we really are truly allowing the breath in freely and fully without imposing any restriction on the breath.

So just notice how the in-breath feels as you have the thought of allowing with each in-breath.

Just notice how that feels.

And further in the exhale.

Having that thought of releasing the breath or letting go of the breath.

So again just checking that we're not holding on to the breath,

That we're allowing the breath to leave the body as freely and as fully as it enters the body.

Again if we are holding any tension in the body or anxiety,

Then we may without realising it be holding on to the breath a little.

So notice how it feels each time you breathe out,

Just with that thought of release,

Letting go.

So this won't necessarily change the breath in any way,

That's not the aim,

But it may affect our experience of the breath.

To allow the breath into the body and to release,

Let go of the breath as we breathe in.

Allow and let go.

Now the fourth simple step is to see if you can get a sense now of the breath flowing through the body.

This allowing the in-breath,

Letting go of the out-breath,

Bringing those together and getting just a single sense of one breath flowing through the body.

Rising and falling and flowing freely through the body.

Remembering we're just lightly holding the breath in the centre or foreground of our awareness,

Still open to everything else happening around us,

Not blocking anything out.

Allowing the breath to flow freely through the body,

Through our awareness.

Okay,

And moving on to the final fifth step of the breath,

So the first part of the meditation.

This is a subtle shift in the way we can experience the breath,

An invitation is to see if you can feel like your body is being breathed by the breath.

Rather than I am breathing,

More like the body is being breathed.

So the body is the passive recipient and it's the breath that is the active part.

To allow your body to be breathed by the breath.

See how that feels.

Really we're just acknowledging that we don't have to make any efforts to breath.

We don't have to remember or make a conscious choice to breath.

It's an automatic,

Natural,

Spontaneous process happening within the body that we could affect if we wanted to,

But at the moment we're choosing just to allow the breath to happen to us and to flow freely.

A few more moments with the breath.

So all we need to do for the second part of this meditation is apply exactly the same five approaches in almost exactly the same order.

But now to our thoughts rather than our breath.

The thing to note as we begin to shift our attention from the breath to our thoughts is that the main difference really with our thoughts is that we tend to identify with our thoughts more than the breath.

We tend to attach more value,

Expectation and identity to our thoughts.

So the invitation is to just treat your thoughts just as we have the breath.

Just something else that's happening within our experience,

Within our awareness.

So the first step is to simply become more aware of your thoughts.

Simply notice that you are thinking.

This may feel a little different,

May even feel a little strange to begin with.

By adding awareness and attention to something,

It can make us feel self-conscious.

For example,

If you become very self-conscious while doing the simplest of things like walking,

Then walking can suddenly feel a bit strange and awkward and difficult.

So actually the experience of thinking whilst being aware that you're thinking is a different experience to just our normal everyday thinking.

So we'll spend a few more moments just getting a feel for what it's like to think whilst you're consciously being aware that you're thinking.

Remembering to keep that awareness open like we did with the breath.

So the thoughts just gently in the foreground of your awareness.

Not focusing,

Not concentrating.

Still aware of everything else happening around us in this moment.

Just taking a particular interest in the experience of thinking.

The second step is that step of non-action,

Of not making any effort to change our thoughts in any way.

This may have felt a bit redundant,

A step for the breath.

It's a really crucial one for the thoughts because we do identify so much with our thoughts and judge our own thoughts,

Have expectations of our own thoughts.

But actually maybe it's not so easy to really not make any effort at all to change or judge or expect anything from the content of your thoughts.

So the invitation here is to not care at all about the content of your thoughts.

Don't try and change them,

Don't try and slow them down,

Don't try and stop them.

So as with the breath,

Whatever the speed or the depth or the regularity,

Whatever the content of your thoughts,

It really doesn't matter.

So being neutral.

Not uninterested in the thoughts because we are interested in them,

We are paying attention to them.

But disinterested,

We don't care what particular thought comes on.

We are not attached or identified with any particular thought.

Now the third step for the thoughts,

We are going in a slightly different order,

Is to see now if you can get a sense of the flow of thoughts.

Getting a sense of a succession of thoughts,

One thought after the next.

So there is a particular thought in my mind,

And at some point there will be another thought.

In the Six Elements Meditation you have that idea of viewing your thoughts like water flowing in a river.

So getting a sense of your thoughts flowing freely through your mind.

So the fourth step is to experience that subtle shift like we did with the breath where we can realise that it is not really that I am thinking.

But that thoughts are happening to me.

I am a passive recipient of thoughts.

I don't have to remember to think,

I don't have to choose to think,

I don't have to make any effort to create any thoughts.

I could make effort to affect my thoughts just as I could with my breath,

But for this time I am choosing not to.

So see if you can get that perspective,

That experience where we feel the thoughts are occurring to us,

Arriving in our mind,

Without us making any effort at all.

Not to decide or choose any particular thought.

So again that idea of an open awareness and noticing that thoughts are happening to us,

We are receiving the thoughts in the mind.

So that is the third step.

So the fourth step is to experience that subtle shift.

So the fourth step is to experience that subtle shift.

And the fifth and final step for the thoughts,

The tenth of the twelve simple steps,

Is about firstly allowing thoughts to be around in your mind for however long they want to be there.

So not trying to push thoughts out,

Not trying to get rid of any thoughts and not holding on to thoughts,

Not stopping them leaving the mind.

So allowing your thoughts just to be present within your awareness for however long they want to be there.

Because what we are going to do with our fifth step for thoughts is to really particularly turn our attention and our interest and our openness,

Not to the present thought,

But to what the next thought might be.

So we are not going to try and guess what the next thought will be.

But really setting that attention,

That alertness and that openness to be prepared to welcome whatever the next thought is going to be.

So we accept whatever our current thoughts are,

They can stay as long as they like and we don't care what that thought is,

Content is irrelevant.

But can I be alert and open enough to catch that moment when the next thought arrives within my mind,

Within my awareness.

And whenever and whatever that thought is,

Whenever it arrives,

That becomes the current thought.

So we are not interested in that anymore.

What's the next thought,

The following thought going to be?

Alert and open,

Waiting to welcome the next thought.

And then what's the next thought going to be?

Can you catch it just as it arrives?

So all the previous nine steps are really preparation for this practice.

So spending a few more moments before we move on to the final two steps of being open,

Alert and tension without tension.

Waiting,

Welcoming for the new thought,

The next thought and the next one after that.

Okay.

Okay,

So to round off the meditation,

The last two steps.

So step 11 is to,

And again like the first five steps with the breath,

This is a practice step.

So thinking of any part of your body from the shoulders down,

Maybe a hand or a foot,

An arm or a leg.

All I want you to do is just relax that part of the body.

But I want you to do that with great attention and really feel the experience of your body relaxing.

So it might be quite a gentle,

Subtle experience if you're not particularly tense at the moment.

I want you to do this a few times,

Maybe with one hand and then the other or one leg or foot and then the other.

But doing it with care,

Attention,

Alertness and really feeling whatever relaxation response comes as you simply relax a part of your body.

To exaggerate that sensation,

To exaggerate that relaxation response,

You could tense that part of your body first.

So maybe make a fist and then relax,

Allow the hand to relax and really feel that relaxation response.

So just give you a few moments just to do that a few times.

OK,

So now if you can move your attention to your face,

You can wear all those little muscles across the face,

Around the jaw,

The eyes,

The forehead.

And with or without tightening those muscles first,

Just allow all those muscles across the face to relax.

And how does that feel?

To allow that relaxation response across the face.

Being aware of the top,

The back and the sides of the head and the scalp.

Allow all these parts to relax.

And how does that feel?

Now become aware of the brain in the centre of the head.

And treating it just like any other part of your body.

Allow the brain to relax now.

And how does that feel?

Just like any other part of the body,

Allow your brain right now to relax.

Feeling that relaxation response in the brain.

So to bring everything together at the conclusion of the meditation,

Allow your breath to flow freely through your relaxed body.

And allow your thoughts to flow freely through your relaxed brain.

Free flowing thoughts,

Free flowing breath.

Relaxed body in a relaxed brain.

Relaxed body in a relaxed brain.

Relaxed body in a relaxed brain.

OK,

So we'll finish there.

Reviews

Really enjoyed. I could switch off and focus internally. Thank you.

Not being hyperbolic when I say, this was one of the best guided meditations I've ever had. Thank you.

Breath work and freeing of the thoughts was exactly what I needed to benefit from. Thanks!

I found these 12 steps very effective and challenging, but in a way that hones one’s awareness in a unique way. These are brilliant focuses and tools for meditation.