Companion to The Mindful Vegan Book Meditation Practice: Day 4

In this audio, Lani Muelrath provides support for Day Four of her book The Mindful Vegan: A 30-Day Plan for Finding Health, Balance, Peace, and Happiness. Today’s practice is for four minutes, including instruction.

IMPORTANT NOTE TO USERS: Each audio download is the same length of time as the practice time designated for each day. Thus, the audio download for Day One is one minute in length, Day Two is two minutes, and so on. The first few days, instructions are provided for the entire length of the audio. As the days progress, though each day’s audio will open with guidance, there will be increasing segments of silence so that you can continue practice uninterrupted.

Day Four reinforces the four steps for setting up formal mindfulness meditation practice that are practiced in Day One through Day Three using PAIR: position, anchor, intention, and remindfulness.

Lani Muelrath has created an audio of support for each of the 30 days as instructed in The Mindful Vegan book.

Transcript

This is Lanny Muehlraff and this is the audio support for Day 4 of the Mindful Vegan,

A 30-day plan for finding health,

Balance,

Peace,

And happiness.

Today's practice is for 4 minutes,

Including instruction,

Though you are welcome to practice for longer.

Today we will reinforce the 4 steps for setting up formal mindfulness practice that you learned in Days 1 through 3 using pair,

Position,

Anchor,

Intention,

And remindfulness.

First Position Whichever position you have chosen,

Whether seated on a floor cushion or a chair,

Let your position be dignified and attentive while comfortable at the same time.

Your spine should be upright yet not rigid so that you can be at ease yet attentive all at once.

Breathe deeply once or twice to help gather your attention.

Become aware of your body and how the body feels sitting on the cushion or chair.

Anchor Find your anchor point at the base of the nose,

The area that gives the most focused connection with the sensation of the breath.

Remember in mindfulness of breath practice,

Your task is to simply be with the natural in and out flow of the breath.

The key to mindfulness of breath is to actually feel the breath at anchor point while staying at ease rather than visualizing the breath or thinking about it in any way.

Simply be aware of the physical sensations of the breath coming and going.

This brings you mindfully right into the present and sharpens your concentration.

Set the intention of sitting in continuous practice today for four minutes.

If you become uncomfortable,

Take note and see if you can remain still,

Bringing your attention back to the breath.

Just as important is the intention of attitude that you bring to your sitting practice.

Kindness,

Patience,

Non-judgment,

A sense of relaxation,

Equanimity,

And a willingness to be present with whatever arises are the qualities to cultivate.

Remindfulness It's likely that your mind has already started to wander,

And if that's the case,

You're not doing anything wrong.

It's actually quite normal.

Many distractions will arise,

A steady parade of thoughts,

Mental images,

Or emotions.

You may not even notice this wandering until you have been lost in thought for a while.

Engaged in planning or excavating a remembrance.

But the instant you become aware that your attention has wandered,

Gently return your attention to anchor.

The important thing here is not that you shouldn't have any thoughts.

You are practicing letting go of thoughts and returning to the point of concentration every time you realize you've wandered off to thinking.

This is what mindfulness training is all about.

The return of the attention,

Not the absence of thought.

This simple act,

Beginning over and over again,

Is the essential art of mindfulness meditation practice.

You simply begin again,

Gently,

Patiently.

When the time is up with the sound of the chime,

Gently open your eyes.

Set an intention to bring some quality of this mindfulness to the present moment forward with you into your day.

You are welcome to sit beyond the chime for longer practice.

Reviews

Finally on day 4 of The Mindful Vegan and so happy to be able to use your offered meditation here with the ease of Insight Time. I can see myself coming back to this day 4 as a reminder of getting started and staying on track. I'm loving the book Lani...and the accompanying audio support for 30 day plan! For once I'm not reading ahead but taking it day by day. I have been a long time Insight Timer meditator but I believe this book an Your work with it is going to take me up a notch. Bless you! ✨💖🙏🏼💖✨

Absolutely loved this. Thank you ♥️

I am so glad to see this companion track to The Mindful Vegan book, Day 4, already being put to good use. I also appreciate those who have taken the time to look at the brief instrunction and share to help othere see that this is different from other programs on Insight Timer in that it is audio support for the progression of lessons in the book. More tracks are pending as Insight Timer is backlogged, but those with the book know that all 30 tracks are available for free download at www.themindfulveganbook.com. The instructions for how to navigate to these tracks is in the book.

I have been reading The Mindful Vegan book, to which this meditation practice is a companion, and just got to day 4. I absolutely love the progression of these lessons and the clear instructions in the companion tracks, with increasing time for silent practice each day. People who are just dropping in to check these tracks out should pay attention to the program notes which tell you the prerequisite and how to use the tracks in this series. It is set up really great because you build on the previous day's lessons in such simple fashion. Excellent.