Advice & Tips for Beginners, Closing Guided Session

Begins with advice and tips for beginners: expectations, posture, the noisy mind, finding a space. Then I discuss beginners' obstacles: uncertainty, the noisy mind, etc. I discuss the process of meditating then close with a 3 minute guided session.

Transcript

Hello everyone and welcome.

This is Jonathan.

Thank you for joining me.

The session is going to be a little different today I'm gearing this toward the beginner and if you've never meditated before or you're new to the practice and you've tried a few times Maybe this will help I'd like to offer some bits of advice and some tips that I wish that I had heard when I was starting First I'll give some tips and some advice and then I'll discuss some common obstacles that many newcomers experience and how to overcome them I'll discuss how to meditate in a very simple form.

That's good for newcomers and Then we'll close with a short guided three-minute session So the first piece of advice that I'd like to offer is to remember that during this you're learning This is a practiced skill that develops over time I'd ask that you're patient with yourself Understand that there will be setbacks There will be frustrations but what I've noticed in any form of meditation is that The only way that you fail is to stop I've seen a lot of beginning meditators on the brink of breakthroughs Get impatient and quit And I don't want that to happen to any of you so be patient with yourself and go easy and Just remember that right now you're learning and that feelings of discomfort or unease or just feeling strange These experiences are common and natural and Eventually,

They will subside Next piece of advice that I would like to give would be to try to remember to come at this With no expectation expectation sets us up for disappointment and Can blind us to other arenas in our lives where we are experiencing benefits and maybe don't realize it Because we're not focusing on the right thing The only agenda that you should have right now is to learn and see outcomes Next piece of advice is to start small and start simple By small,

I mean short sessions at first two minutes three minutes Longer sessions of 20 minutes 30 minutes can seem very daunting at first next thing I'll address is the idea of meditative posture For someone who's beginning I would ask that you not put too much emphasis on your posture right now I'd ask that you just do two simple things Keep your torso upright Don't lean back on anything Three things keep your hands on your knees or in your lap now part of approaching meditation is to Understand and accept that this is a regular practice.

It's like going to the gym It's something that needs to be done regularly and one way to create that routine is to find a space That is conducive to the meditative practice a space that is free of excessive noise and foot traffic Where you can find some privacy and try to practice at the same time every day Myself,

I'm a morning meditator clears my head and gets me ready for the day I'd also ask that you put the phone away and if you're using it as a timer just turn off your Wi-Fi and your data So just a quick recap come to this with no expectation Right now you're learning Accept that there are going to be some stumbles along the way Go easy on yourself and be patient Don't try to do too much too soon We'll start small with short sessions and a simple form of meditation It's practice Find a space that is quiet and private and try to set a routine and Maybe make this a part of your life Worry about your posture too much right now Just keep the spine upright don't lean back on anything keep your hands in your lap or on your knees Body upright eyes closed and put the phone away So there are a few obstacles that Many beginners experience and I did as well Without fail the most prevalent of those is someone begins meditating and then I hear them say I can't quiet my mind to meditate The mind's natural state is thinking We are not trying to stop our minds from thinking We are trying to become aware when thinking is happening and then to refocus our attention and our awareness Back to whatever focus point we've chosen for the session very often.

It's the breath and that's what we'll be doing today Wander you will realize it.

You'll bring your attention back Shortly thereafter the mind will wander you'll realize that it's wandered away You'll refocus your attention come back to the breath and we do this over and over and over.

I Hear a lot of newcomers also say that they don't know that if they're doing it,

Right?

Which is true.

You don't know if you're doing it,

Right?

And that's completely understandable Right now I would ask that you accept that you don't know if you're doing it,

Right?

Accept that you don't feel that you're doing it,

Right and to know that eventually you will and for right now,

That's okay.

I Also hear a lot of beginners say that they have a hard time keeping their eyes closed especially as we start to get into longer sessions a trick that I learned and I don't remember where is To close your eyes If you cross them just a little bit and look up at the area above your nose between your eyebrows That will unclench the muscles of your eyebrows and your cheeks and the eyes will just stay closed almost effortlessly So if you're having a hard time keeping your eyes closed give that a shot may help I'd like to talk for a few minutes about how we actually meditate in The steps and what we're doing Essentially we are continually Catching and refocusing the mind We choose an anchor point in this session.

It will be the breath and There are two common places where we find it It's either in the rising and the falling of our belly or it's the skin around the nostrils Where you can feel the breath enter and exit the nose My advice to the beginners is choose the point where you feel the breath the most We choose our posture You can be on the floor on the mat or in a chair You want an upright spine?

You want your chin tucked just a little bit?

Your eyes closed with your hands in your lap or on your knees The first thing we do is bring our attention just to the weight of the body We start to narrow the focus of the mind Towards something that we can feel and eventually we become aware that the body is breathing and the sensations of that breath and We fix our focus on those sensations On the rising of the belly and the falling of the belly those little pauses in between Or on the breath as it enters and exits the nose It's quite simple But as we will find out,

It's not easy.

The mind is going to wander.

You'll be distracted by thoughts You'll be distracted by sounds or smells You'll see things behind your eyelids All of these things will distract you from the simple act of keeping your mind on your breath You realize that you're distracted Whatever that distraction is you let it go Whatever that distraction is you let it go without judgment And then just bring your mind back to your breathing And we'll do this over and over and over throughout the course of a session This will be very difficult at first And that's okay So with all of that said i'd like to go ahead and lead us through a short session Go ahead and find your posture You can be on a mat or on a cushion on the floor or in a chair And we'll just start with a deep breath And when you exhale just allow all of the air to flow out naturally Don't restrict it or restrain it like a big sigh Take another deep breath Gently close your eyes And allow your breathing to find its own natural rhythm And as you sit here Bring your focus and your attention Just to the weight of the body as it sits to the pressure below you And just feel the weight of your being And just slowly scan the body for tension and relax tense muscles Your legs your hips Your stomach your shoulders And the muscles of the neck and the face your jaw your cheeks your eyebrows Your tongue Allow everything to relax And now at some point become aware that the body is breathing This can be at the belly Or the breath entering and extending the nose Wherever you feel it the strongest And just gently bring your mind and your focus to this area Allow the body to breathe And keeping your awareness and your focus on these sensations of breath As the belly rises and falls Or as the breath enters and exits the nose Become aware if you are thinking or if you've become lost in thought Without judgment of the thought or the content of the thought or yourself Just allow the thought to go And bring your focus back to the breath Back to the rising of the belly and the falling of the belly Or the breath as it enters and exits the nose Mind is thinking You may feel sensations in the body or on the body An itch or pressure or tightness or warmth or pain Know that you're aware of them Allow them to sit to change Without judgment allow that sensation to be And bring your attention back to the breath In this way,

We begin to build equanimity The ability to stay calm in difficult situations If the mind is distracted by sounds in the room Or outside the room Become aware that the mind is hearing Allow those sounds to be Without judging them or yourself Just gently bring the mind back to the breath.

We do this with thoughts With smell With visions With sounds With feelings With emotions Be aware That something is happening to distract you Allow that distraction to be And gently bring your mind back to your breath And we'll sit and meditate in this manner Beginning at the sound of the bell You will have three minutes of silence to practice Now gently bring your mind back to the breath one last time Take a deep breath Bring the mind back to the body the pressure below you And with one more deep breath Gently open your eyes I hope this session has been helpful I hope you have a lovely day And I hope to see you soon

Reviews

I have been trying to meditate for weeks now and that was the first time I have ever felt totally relaxed and focus more on my breath. Thank you for your teaching