Are You Alone Or Lonely? (Talk + Breathwork + Meditation)

Social distancing, quarantine, and lockdown are for your physical health. But what about your mental health and the fundamental need for human connection? In the next few minutes, In this workshop, Jay shares some simple ways to stay connected to ride the ups and downs in these unusual times. The breathwork prepares the mind for a deep state of rejuvenation.

Transcript

This is like I said,

It's episode number 115.

And we have been meeting since the beginning of the pandemic.

We haven't missed a beat.

And we talk about different subjects.

And today we're here to talk about the difference being between feeling lonely and being alone.

And what are the health ramifications?

What are the psychological implications of these things?

Especially at a time when we are so much more lonelier in terms of separation.

How does that affect us?

And how do we process it in a way that is actually using that to awaken?

Using the time to become intimate with who we are and thereby being able to be of service to others around us.

Yasmina says,

For newcomers we have a circle that we would like for you to join.

It's called Meditate with Jay on Insight Timer.

I'm looking forward to seeing you there Yasmina.

I appreciate that.

Yes,

There is a circle on this app.

It's called Meditate with Jay.

And especially if you're here and you haven't joined that,

It's an active thriving community.

I think it's close to 600 people at this point.

Yes,

I agree with you Yasmina.

It's a good place to join so that we can keep the conversation.

So it's not just twice a week that I'm here live.

And especially for those of you new or not familiar,

I've been doing these sessions since the beginning of the pandemic.

We do meet on Wednesdays,

6 p.

M.

Pacific.

And also on Sunday mornings this time,

9 a.

M.

Pacific.

Now in between,

On Saturdays,

We have another forum.

It's called the Sacred Circle.

The Sacred Circle is a closed group of people who choose to go deep.

And I say closed meaning if you have to sign up for it,

It's not something you can just drop in one week and decide to take it easy for the next three.

So it's month by month.

So we have a series of four sessions every Saturday.

And we dive deep with a hands-on exercise.

And it's a cohort-based learning community wherein we break the group into subgroups depending on what your interest is.

If you are a healthcare worker,

If you're a teacher,

If you're a person dealing with separation issues,

Relationship issues,

Whether it's somebody that is a war veteran,

Whether they're returning with PTSD,

Whatever the case may be,

We put you in groups where you will learn best with people going through similar things.

And then we come back as a larger group and we discuss and we take away steps on how to work on ourselves.

So if you're interested in the deep dive,

You can go to my website.

It's joywithjay.

Com.

And you will find information to The Sacred Circle.

You can sign up.

The next cohort starts on December 4th,

This coming Saturday.

Oh,

Good,

Muritha.

The Sacred Circle has helped me grow and deepen my spirituality.

It would be great if you could join.

Ah,

Yes,

Thank you.

Yes,

Joywithjay.

Com.

You'll find all the information there.

Sue from the Canary Islands.

Fantastic.

I'm a kite surfer,

Sue,

So it's on my list to come over to the Canary Islands.

And I think there's a place called Fuerteventura.

I don't know how far that's from where you are.

And it's a kite surfing mecca for us.

Okay,

Now we've given it a few minutes.

I'd love people to join in while I was sharing my story.

Just a quick introduction in terms of those of you who are brand new to this channel.

Like I said,

This is episode number 115.

My name is Jay Chodagam,

And I'm a meditation practitioner based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

I've been practicing for about 20 years.

I was a monk for 18 years.

And I have two engineering degrees,

Which brings the question of what is it that I have to offer.

And I consider the way that I practice,

The way that I process things,

Is melding ancient wisdom with modern science.

And so this is about these two parts of my brain,

The ancient,

The more holistic.

And then there is the compartmentalized,

Asking the who,

Why,

What questions of the scientific inquisitive mind.

So that's what we do.

And this is what we have,

Our thriving community,

Like I said,

There are over 600 people on the circle Meditate with Jay on Insight Timer app.

And each of these sessions,

By the way,

Are recorded.

The Sunday ones are posted on the Insight Timer audio channel.

It's just audio that records.

So today's being recorded as well.

So for you to go back and revisit,

And if you want to go back and say,

Oh,

I've missed those steps,

I missed that practice,

I want to be able to do it again.

Then you have a place,

Certainly.

And the Wednesdays are recorded in video.

The Wednesday sessions are a little bit longer.

And I record those and put them on my YouTube channel.

And my YouTube channel is youtube.

Com slash Jay Chodaga.

So that's the place where you can go back and revisit each one of these different episodes.

I'm here from Kansas City.

I agree with Murata and Yasmina.

Sacred Circle is wonderful.

Thank you,

Anne.

I appreciate it.

Sue says,

Sacred Circle is just great and I could not join last time.

So I missed the people already and the deepness.

Well,

Sue,

You can be back in December.

We're starting on the Saturday for the next series.

Fantastic.

So in terms of an agenda for today,

The first half of the session will be breath work.

The breath work is a way to prepare the mind and the body for the deep aspects of self-reflection,

The matters of the heart,

As I call it.

And the second half will be a guided meditation.

And then I'm happy to hang around and answer any questions.

So the officials set the breath work and the meditation should take about half an hour.

And then we open it up and we just see you address whatever needs to be addressed.

That's the agenda,

My brothers and sisters,

Soul tribe from all over the world.

So let's now jump right into the practice of pranayama.

In this practice,

I ask that you do something called Vishnu Mudra.

So you're going to take your hand and let the two fingers,

The index and the middle finger fold in.

You're going to use the ring finger and the thumb.

And this one,

You're going to use the thumb to seal your right nostril,

Allowing the air to go up through the left.

And then allow it to come out from the same side you inhale.

Let's do this for three more rounds.

For a count of five in,

It's only nostrils,

No breathing through the mouth.

And for a count of five out.

One more round.

Let's switch sides.

So now using the ring finger to close your left nostril,

We'll just breathe in and out through the right.

In for five.

And out for five.

In.

And out.

In.

And out.

One more round.

And this next round,

We're going to alternate the breathing.

So inhale from the left nostril,

Sealing the right.

And switch,

Exhale from the right.

Inhale from the same side you exhale,

Which is your right.

And exhale from the opposite.

Inhale from the left.

And exhale from the right.

Inhale from the same side,

Right.

And exhale from the left.

Continue doing this.

Inhale.

Opposite exhale.

Inhale from the same side you exhale from.

This as you continue to do it,

I'll explain.

This is called Anuloma Velloma.

This is an excellent practice for harmonizing the masculine,

The divine,

Feminine.

The two parts of your personality,

Each one of us possesses the divine masculine and the feminine.

This is about bringing that into harmony.

As you're doing this,

You're harmonizing and integrating the two parts of your brain,

The left and the right hemisphere.

The creative and the analytical.

And as you're doing this for a count of 10 seconds per round of breath,

You're bringing your breathing down to 6 cycles a minute,

Which has tremendous benefit of slowing down.

As usual,

A normal average human being breathes anywhere between 8 to 10 to 16 cycles per minute.

That's a lot of shallow breathing.

And so as you slow it down and breathe deep like this,

You're automatically relaxing your body,

Slowing down the brain,

Reducing the blood pressure,

Stabilizing the heart rate.

So many benefits.

Let's do two more rounds of it before we move on to the next exercise.

Okay,

Now as we move on to the next exercise,

This would involve using the thumbs.

The thumbs are going to seal the ear,

The ear so that there's no flow of air completely shutting it.

And in my case,

I have headphones.

And if you have headphones,

You don't need to worry.

You just put it next to it.

And then the two fingers,

The middle and the ring finger will be used to close your eyes.

This exercise is called Brahmari.

The Brahmari is the buzzing bee.

And the way that you do this exercise is you inhale deep into the belly.

And when it comes out as an exhale,

It comes out with the hum.

The mouth is closed.

The hum starts at the bottom of your throat.

And you feel like there's a massage going on as you're exhaling through your nostrils.

First with an example.

And that you will continue for at least 10 seconds as you exhale with this hum.

So let's go ahead and do this together.

Three rounds.

Three rounds together.

Take a nice deep inhale into the belly.

And exhale with the hum.

Take a nice deep breath into the belly.

And exhale with the hum.

Well done.

And now take in a nice deep breath.

I love the breathing to go in and out of the belly,

Expanding and the collapsing of the abdomen,

Not the chest.

And as you do this,

Just notice the feeling of clarity in your head.

Just a few steps of breathing.

Just halfway into our breath work and already there's a tangible difference and notice that.

Next exercise is called jalandharabandha.

In pranayama this is a very powerful fundamental technique and this exercise what we'll do is I'm going to go ahead and breathe into the belly.

Inhale nice and deep.

And when I am fully inhaled,

I have full lungs,

I go ahead and hold the breath and turn my chin down to touch my collarbone.

So we're going to hold that in the position of being locking the air and turning the chin down towards the collarbone and hold.

I'll do the counting.

We're going to do a round of 30 seconds of holding.

You can do it.

Maybe you don't have the practice.

You don't believe in yourself.

But I tell you,

You definitely can do it.

So go ahead and let's do three rounds of that together.

Inhale nice and deep into the belly.

Hold and turn your chin down.

Hold your breath.

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Exhale and come back up.

Let's do a full cycle of breathing air in and out.

Now this next inhale will go into round two.

Full breath in and then lock chin down to the collarbone.

Second round of jalandharabandha.

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Exhale and come back up.

Full round of breath in and out.

And hold this time with a full pair of lungs.

Third round.

Last round of jalandharabandha.

We can do it together.

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One and exhale.

Let's return back to the normal cadence of breathing.

Five in and five out.

Now we're turned to the next and final pranayama exercise.

This is five,

Seven,

Three breathing.

So how this works is you're going to inhale through your nostrils for a count of five.

Exhale from the mouth for a count of seven.

And then you're going to hold for three seconds with empty lungs.

Different from what we did before.

Empty lungs hold for three.

So that's five,

Seven,

Three.

So we're going to do a few rounds of this together.

Let's go ahead and start.

Five,

Inhale.

Exhale from the mouth.

And hold.

Inhale through the nostrils.

Exhale from the mouth.

And hold.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Then hold.

Inhale.

Exhale.

And hold.

Inhale.

Exhale.

And hold.

Now return back to the natural cadence of breathing in for a count of five.

And exhaling for a count of five through the nostrils.

Notice what just fifteen minutes of breath work,

How it has changed you.

Notice the slower pace of thoughts in your mind.

The lightness you may be feeling in your entire being.

Perhaps even some tingling sensations.

This is breakfast for the lungs.

This ancient practice of pranayama has been tried and tested through millennia.

As a way to reinvigorate,

Rejuvenate,

Oxygenate every nook and cranny,

Every single cell and pore of your body.

The way that you know that you've had breakfast for the lungs is because you feel it.

You can feel the difference.

Just the depth of your breathing is invaluable.

Because whether you realize it or not,

During the course of the day as you're multitasking,

As you're getting distracted by different things,

We tend to breathe shallow or even hold our breath,

Depriving our body of the much needed prana,

The life force.

So just taking fifteen minutes like this every day can compensate.

Now with your eyes still closed,

Why don't we shift gears with this nice and calm mind into the matters of the heart.

This discussion is,

Are you alone or lonely?

At a time like this during the unprecedented times of isolation,

When we go on the internet,

There's no shortage of advice on what to do.

There are plenty of answers if you Google it.

But there is very little in terms of how to be alone during these challenging times.

Certainly self-isolation is a bit scary for some,

As they're not accustomed to being on their own.

Being only with myself,

Being isolated is not easy.

And there's an old saying that can be found on many spiritual paths and it says,

We come alone and we go alone.

When you hear this,

You're probably nodding in your head in recognition.

It reminds us that at the deepest level,

We are always alone,

Even in a crowd,

Even when we are with the family at a Thanksgiving dinner or the upcoming Christmas.

But it's not the same as being lonely.

Feeling lonely is what happens when we are uncomfortable being alone,

And we long for the company and the stimulation of another.

If it's not another,

It's our TVs,

Our laptops,

Smartphones,

Seeking relief from this I am lonely feeling.

So let's try and understand why.

Why are more people more lonely than ever before?

Especially in a world that is busier with more people,

More stimulation than ever.

Why are we so uncomfortable with our self when we are left alone?

Why do we fear aloneness?

How do we overcome both our fear of aloneness and the loneliness itself?

At a time like this one,

We're asked to socially and physically distance ourselves.

And the root of it could be the fact that we're social beings by nature.

It's often believed that to be unnatural,

To be by our own,

Sometimes it's perceived to be antisocial.

But we also recognize that dependency in any relationship is unhealthy.

Of course we're all dependent.

We're dependent on the farmer,

The supermarket,

Even the social care,

If you can no longer care for yourself.

But we're not talking about that kind of dependency.

The dependency that we want to explore here is the kind where we become dependent on another or others for how we feel.

Not physically,

But emotionally.

It's where the presence of another is essential to relieving our anxiety,

Perhaps even restore our sense of who and what we believe of ourselves.

Let's look at couples for a moment.

One becomes dependent on another and may eventually suffer from an anxiety that the other will cease to be present in the relationship.

It's the fear of being left alone and the imagined feeling of loneliness that would follow.

Or there is the fear they may love me less and give me less attention.

Yes,

They are socialized as a couple,

But perhaps a dependency has developed on one side.

Maybe it's been there right from the start of the relationship.

Perhaps there is even a form of codependency where one is dependent on the other being dependent.

These are not any new ideas or insights.

Let's simply set the scene where we can understand an attachment has formed in people's minds.

Attachment to the team,

To one's fellow supporters,

To the game,

To the other person in the relationship,

To the objects in one's life,

To your pet,

To your position at work,

Etc.

Attachment and dependency come together.

And where there is any attachment,

There must be the presence of fear.

Fear of loss or fear of damage.

Fear that we will be separated from our attachment,

Our dependency,

And get isolated.

Walk any wisdom path and they have one thing in common.

The insight that a stable sense of personal security can only come from within oneself.

In one sense,

Some would say paradoxically,

It's only when there is no attachment to anything or anyone in particular,

But a non-attached relationship with everyone and everything in general.

Not in particular,

But a relationship with everyone in general that we can create a feeling of security.

This idea of no attachment to anyone in particular,

But a non-attachment,

Non-attached relationship to everyone in general is not easy.

Because we're not taught about this.

Instead,

We are schooled into believing dependencies are natural and attachment is good.

You need to discern that there are two energies at play in your life.

There is the material,

The physical,

And there is the spiritual or consciousness.

We have material bodies which we need to look after and care for.

So in one sense,

We are dependent on food,

Air,

Shelter,

And light,

Which are aspects of the material world.

But the invisible world of our consciousness is non-material.

And that is completely under our control.

Only if we have a level of awareness that allows us to be the master creators of our thoughts,

Feelings,

Perceptions,

Decisions,

And actions.

That is not easy as the very fact we do not feel secure and we are searching for security is a sign that we do not have the level of self-awareness.

That is the foundation of such mastery.

So what do we do?

I'm going to propose one way forward.

Notice feelings of self-security are strongest when you are either openly loved by someone or you are loving towards someone.

If you become a little bit more aware,

You will notice that when you give anything,

Whether it's time,

Attention,

Help,

Guidance,

Etc.

,

Without wanting anything in return,

You are being naturally loving.

You don't think,

Aha,

Now I'm being loving.

No,

You just are.

A little more awareness and you may notice what you feel in such moments.

You feel not only good in yourself,

As all your anxieties and insecurities begin to disappear,

You feel you are being of value to another.

It feels natural.

At an even deeper level,

You may become aware there is a feeling of freedom of spirit and your heart may even soar.

Most parents in their relationship with their children,

When they are in their innocent years,

Will know such moments.

But when the child grows,

Such moments tend to become lesser and shorter.

So when we are being loving,

Our anxieties disappear and we feel we are secure with ourself.

We no longer seek,

Need or are dependent on someone else saying,

I love you,

Or indeed doing loving things for us or even being with us.

If they do,

That's great,

But we're not dependent on it.

Why?

Because we have found a state of being with ourself that is loving in itself.

And when we express that state of being,

We feel at our best.

And in such moments we realize we are reminding ourselves that love is what I am.

And a connection is made.

When you are being your natural loving self without needing to think it,

You feel secure within yourself.

Ultimate security for every human being is love.

Not the love of another,

But the realization that love is what I am and expressing that state.

Which brings us to a question,

If love is what I am,

Then what is love?

It is simply a word that describes a state of consciousness.

It is a word that points towards the highest state of being that is possible for any and every human being.

It is a word that describes our natural state.

And we cannot know it,

Feel it,

Be it unless we express it in action.

That is unless we give it away.

You might say that we've been cleverly designed.

Then you know who you are and what you are.

A being of consciousness whose highest state is described by one word.

And don't get it mixed up with concepts of attachment,

Dependency,

Desire,

Passion or even possession.

And when you are in a loving state and loving that state to shape your intentions,

Thoughts and actions,

You feel naturally secure in yourself.

The search for security in what we are not,

That is in the world out there comes to an end naturally.

Your anxieties disappear naturally.

Emotional dependencies come to an end naturally.

Loneliness comes to an end naturally.

Being alone or being with others are both equally okay.

But only when we start acting from our higher state of being.

And as you do,

There is an awareness that your sense of inner security is stable.

And that stability,

That security arises from the inside out.

Your neediness for the stimulation of another or many others is gone.

And you realize those are just ways of escaping.

Now you know your value.

You know you are a source of the most valuable energy in the world.

And you also know no one can ever take that away from you.

And your sense of security is now arising from the inside out,

Thereby your fear of being alone is no more.

I want you to please bring your palms together in prayer position at your heart center and stick above of gratitude,

Acknowledging how you feel right now.

I want you to go ahead and put your palms out facing forwards as if you're sending a blessing,

Both palms facing outwards.

We're going to practice giving away this most valuable energy in the world.

Do something like saying thank you to those amazing,

Wonderful people on the front lines of our health service.

Give blessing to those people working tirelessly,

Well beyond their physical capacity.

As you do this,

You may feel a little emotional at first.

Gradually you will come to see love is not just another emotion,

It's the natural state of being of every human.

It's your reality.

Now pick some other object of your blessings,

Your good wishes,

Your love.

It could be any person,

People or place that could use the blessing right now.

As if there's a beam of light emerging from your heart center,

Shining towards that person,

People or place,

Giving them just the amount of courage,

Positivity,

Hope.

Radiating from your natural state of being love.

You give away,

You give this blessing without any expectation.

May their troubles end,

May the obstacles in their path be removed,

May they experience joy.

Bring your palms back together in prayer position at your heart center.

And ask yourself,

How do you feel right now?

And if you could summarize how you feel right now in one word,

What would that be?

And I ask that you please go and share that one word in the comments so that we all may know how you're feeling right now.

Free,

Lighter,

Content,

Grounded,

Peaceful,

Light,

Relaxed,

Whole,

Emotional,

Warm heart.

Wonderful,

Anxious,

Yes Renee it's important to acknowledge that as well.

Open,

Calm,

Calm,

Full,

Bewildered,

Softened,

Peaceful,

Yes,

Beautiful.

I'm feeling fulfilled.

At peace,

A little sad,

Yes,

You know it's important not just the good and the bad,

But everything,

You're a being that has all emotions and whatever it is,

Acknowledging it,

Just feeling comfortable to go there and name it and sitting with it.

That's the first step,

Just becoming aware of how you're feeling,

Grateful,

Magnanimous,

Restored,

Peaceful,

Confident,

Yes.

Thoughtful indeed,

Lots to think about.

Today's session was the foundation of being and probably your first time you've ever had an encounter with the subject and going deep like this and thinking of your aloneness and it comes from a state of being content,

Fulfilled and loving,

The love that you are expressing that naturally without any expectations.

Could be a brand new subject folks,

So it indeed is thoughtful.

Okay,

So I invite you to go ahead and hit that donate button,

Express your gratitude,

Support this mission that we are on to awaken,

To enlighten,

To create more love in this world and do so generously.

There's some of you here just to receive and you're very welcome,

But those of us who can donate,

I ask that you please do so for those,

Not just for yourself,

But for those of us who are here just to receive.

So what questions would you like me to expand,

Would you like me to clarify?

And yes,

I see there's some comments about the December circle.

Please go ahead and join the sacred circle that happens every Saturday and the way you can find information to that is on my website,

Joywithj.

Com and you can find information on joining the sacred circle that we host every Saturday.

It's an in-depth exercise.

It's a cohort based learning,

So it's a community where it's not just I am inspiring you and leading you through a hands-on exercise and deep spiritual work,

But also you're creating community.

Around topics of your interest and wherever you are and whatever you're dealing with in your life,

Whether it's single parenting,

Whether it is working in the healthcare industry,

Loneliness,

Separation issues,

Et cetera.

We have a cohort that will be most apt for you in that circle.

It's called sacred circle on my website joywithj.

Com.

Okay.

Tatiana says,

I have a question.

Is there a book that you recommend to learn about the different pranayama practices?

Thank you.

Yes,

There is.

And both in terms of a book,

I can give you the one that I have studied my master,

B.

K.

S.

Iyengar,

And it is called In the Light of Pranayama,

But that's a very in-depth book and it's like a Bible.

It's a complete compilation of all the pranayama practices.

And my concern is that it might overwhelm you with the amount of depth and the amount of detail that that book goes into.

Now,

Another way of going about it,

If you want to learn about pranayama,

Is going to my YouTube channel,

Youtube.

Com slash J.

Chodagam,

And I have over a hundred sessions.

And I don't believe every single one has pranayama,

But there's a playlist for pranayama.

Pranayama and meditation.

So if you go to that playlist,

You will see at least 50 episodes,

If not more,

In which I have led a breathwork exercise that you can learn from and you can,

You have a visual video presentation versus reading text and wondering how that actually translates into physical practice.

Okay.

To the people who would like to join,

Yasmina is saying,

It's,

Oh,

The comments are coming too quickly and I'm trying to read something and it just flies by.

Jai does live meditations on Wednesdays and Sundays,

Thank you.

And yes,

Thank you Yasmina for mentioning this.

I have a circle on this app,

It's called Joy with Jai.

And by joining it,

You'll get all the links to the recordings after they're edited and posted either on Insight Timer for the audio or the video on my YouTube channel.

Also,

There's a reminder that you get before I go live on each of these sessions and every day in between,

There is always a thriving live active conversation going on.

So it's a good place for you to join.

It's called Meditate with Jai on Insight Timer.

Okay,

Let's see.

Oh,

Wednesdays meditation can be listened to afterwards on YouTube,

Thank you.

On the breath work,

I can often breathe out much longer and deeper from the mouth than through the nose.

Feels like I can't get enough air in through the nostrils,

Any tip.

It's practice.

Now this is one of the things as I,

You know,

Especially if you came to my last Sunday session,

Wednesday session,

I had this long pauses for up to a minute.

Now,

For some people,

That is a very tall order.

And the idea is that I don't expect you to get to that point at day one.

It's a gradual progression.

You're building capacity like anything else.

You're building a muscle,

You're building concentration,

You're building focus,

You're building immunity,

You're building resistance,

You're building stamina.

It's the same thing.

The capacity for you to be able to hold your breath,

For you to be able to elongate your breath.

Both inhale and exhale.

That's where PRIMA is.

It's prime value is.

It's the regular breathing,

Anybody can do it.

Just observing your breath,

Anybody can do it.

But it's in the manipulation of the breath that this ancient wisdom really makes a difference.

So it's slow.

It's something that you have to steadily practice and build a capacity.

Okay,

Sister Sunshine says,

Thank you so much Jay.

Love your work here.

Much appreciated.

You're welcome.

Jay,

Can you please talk about why you do breathing with us before we meditate?

No,

That's an important question,

Muritha.

Thank you for asking.

So there is a deep connection between the body,

The breath,

And the brain.

Body,

Breath,

And brain are all things that we all want to have better control and have a better vitality,

Have a deeper sense of peace that exists in these three of these components.

Now,

The brain is the hardest thing to rein in.

The Buddha taught about this.

There have been sages and saints who have talked about this for thousands of years and yet it continues to be the one that is the most elusive.

Our ability to control,

Regulate,

And keep it within our control.

Now,

What we do have access to is your breath,

Which is specifically to say the diaphragm,

Which is your muscle that regulates the opening of your abdominal cavity,

Which regulates your quality of the depth of your breath.

And so when you control the breathing,

And as I said,

When you're breathing,

Your breath and your body are connected,

You're influencing your brain.

You're affecting your brain.

You're helping it to slow down.

And as your breathing is helping your brain to slow down,

Your brain is helping your body to slow down.

You see?

So how this has a virtuous effect,

All of with the use of the muscle,

That's the one thing that we have control over,

Is how we are regulating the breathings.

And therefore,

As you breathe,

Prepare the brain to slow down.

And then when I plant you those seeds of those powerful concepts,

Like today we talked about aloneness and the concept of being love,

They will land.

They will be in a much deeper place and fertile ground.

So that's why I always precede my meditations with breathwork.

And if you come to any of my retreats,

This is how I do it.

I always emphasize on using breathwork as a way to rein in,

To calm the mind before we go deep.

Okay.

Let's see.

I agree with Mial.

Finding the cause of feeling of loneliness is very important.

I worked on that in therapy.

It was very useful or helpful.

Okay,

Good.

And so I don't see my donation,

Says Sue.

Hopefully you received it,

Jay.

Love your work,

Sue.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate everything that you do.

You were showing up for my Sacred Circle for the donations.

Yes,

Everybody,

For those of you who can donate,

Please do so.

Do so generously,

Not just for yourself,

But those of us who are here to receive.

Because I want to make this about free-flowing.

Anybody who needs it should be able to access it.

Money should never be the barrier.

There should never be a paywall.

It's time between your need for support and receiving those resources.

But at the same time,

It costs to put on these things.

It costs to pay your bills and keep the lights on,

Keep updating equipment,

And giving you the highest quality experience that possibly we can.

And for that,

I suggest that you consider making a donation to support this movement.

I do not find that pranayama slows down my brain.

Okay,

Well,

Let's find something else then.

Because a lot of people,

Like I said,

There's 115 episodes.

People come back here because they do find it helpful.

And I also believe that not one size fits all.

There could be other things that maybe some sort of tai chi,

Some sort of yoga exercise,

Asana exercise,

Something else.

Maybe painting,

Maybe dancing.

Whatever it is,

Find it because that's important.

We want to make our lives more meaningful,

Aligned with purpose,

And it requires us to go into those deep places.

Janet,

You donated earlier but can't see it either.

You know,

Sometimes we've known that Inside Timer has the issue that donations are not necessarily visible readily on the wall.

But they do show up.

And many of us teachers have complained and said that some donations don't ever show up,

And there's no way to resolve it.

Well,

There's one thing that you can do is that I have my Venmo account or PayPal account,

But I don't want to derail this conversation by putting all those links here.

But,

Yeah,

So there's other ways to contribute.

But if you're new to my channel and if you don't know me,

Haven't joined any of my private circles,

Then perhaps you continue donating here and just hope that it comes through.

But,

Yes,

It's a known issue.

Inside Timer knows that their donations just disappear.

How long is the Sacred Circle meeting on Saturday,

Asha?

So it is 90 minutes.

It starts at 9 a.

M.

Pacific,

So if you're in the East Coast,

It's at 12 noon.

If you're in the UK,

5 p.

M.

If you're in India,

It's 1030 at night.

And it lasts for 90 minutes.

And that 90 minutes is broken down into four parts.

The first is I start with a spiritual inspiration,

Then I give a hands-on exercise where you work on it.

And when you reach a level of depth and personal work,

You break out into cohorts,

Into subgroups,

And have a discussion there.

Then you come back and share as a larger circle,

And we take next steps and take action on what we're going to do before we meet the following week.

Hema,

Maybe Inside Timer,

Look for Jay's guided meditations on chronic pain and terminal illness day four.

Thank you.

I don't know what the question is.

I appreciate your deep meditation.

Does deep breathing help with pain in the body?

Yes,

Yes,

Yes,

Deep breathing has.

So breathing has a connection.

Okay,

Now here's something I've mentioned in the previous sessions.

I'll do it again,

Hema,

Since you asked.

Your skeletal structure,

So your spine,

Your rib cage,

And your diaphragm are connected.

If you think about it,

Your posture is determined by your skeletal structure.

And when this muscular skeletal structure,

So when your diaphragm that is actually connected to your rib cage,

It will help you to retain a certain posture,

A nice deep posture.

Now,

If you remember in front of my previous sessions,

I've talked about how the horizontal breathing,

The expanding and closing of your rib cage horizontally was going up and down.

So you know military breathing is actually more hurtful for your body.

So therefore,

I've been teaching how to do horizontal breathing,

Which helps you to alleviate pain in your body.

So absolutely,

There's a deep connection between your breath,

Your posture,

And your pain.

And again,

Go back to some of my previous recordings,

And I have talked extensively about this subject.

Okay,

So it brings us to the top of the hour.

Thank you so much,

My soul tribe.

Thank you for being with us.

You hopefully have registered.

There's plenty of ways for you to interact.

There is my circle,

Meditate with Jay on this app,

My YouTube channel,

Which has all of the recordings,

Youtube.

Com slash Jay Chodagam.

All of the information is collated on my website.

You can find links to each one of this on my website as joywithjay.

Com.

And until I see you all again,

I suggest that you go and look at the Sacred Circle,

And you may want to join it.

It's starting this coming Saturday,

Which is December 4th at 9 a.

M.

Pacific.

Great,

Great in-depth exercise.

And either I see you there or one of the live sessions or one of the recorded ones.

One way or the other,

Until I see you all again,

I wish you all stay strong,

Be cheerful,

Go spread your light,

And be well.