Meditation: Info Session & Practice – A Great Place To Begin

This is an informative discussion on meditation as well as a guided practice. What is meditation? What are the benefits? Why is it especially helpful when stressed? It also includes a guided practice of focus, breath, and more.

Transcript

Hi there,

Welcome.

I'm going to give a brief intro session on what is meditation,

Why do we meditate,

Benefits of meditation,

And then I'm going to lead you through a guided meditation practice.

And especially talk about at this time when I'm recording this,

As we are in the space of being quarantined and physically distancing ourselves and experiencing a lot of stress and trauma,

Why it is especially beneficial at this time,

But really when anything is going on in your life.

So first let's start with what is meditation?

It's this broad umbrella term,

A buzzword that is constantly being thrown around,

I think,

But that's so great that it's become much more mainstream.

It is an internal mental practice.

It is a subduing of the mind and bringing it to the right understanding of reality.

There is a lot of different definitions depending on different lineages,

Different philosophies of who you speak to.

That is what resonates with me.

I practice and teach Ashtanga Yoga and it is a limb of Ashtanga Yoga,

Another limb being the physical posture,

The asana,

But it's kind of a step along the way.

It helps us to see the inner workings of the mind more clearly during our meditation and also throughout the rest of the day.

For me it has been so helpful in recognizing patterns and instinctive harmful habits that I have,

What we might call samskaras and vasanas,

And to then help us rid ourselves of those habits and those patterns.

The purpose and the goal in my experience and in my research and education has been that it's to transform the mind to make it more sattvic,

More clear,

Harmonious,

And pure and eventually reaching towards the eighth limb of Ashtanga Yoga being this reconnection and this state of enlightenment and bliss and really coming back home to yourself.

But all of that is open to interpretation depending on who you speak to or what sources you go by.

Let's talk about some of the benefits of meditation.

I find it helpful to know the why behind things.

It kind of creates more of a motivating factor sometimes for me to do it more,

To incorporate into my routine more often.

Meditation has been shown to reduce stress and blood pressure,

Balances and calms the nervous system,

Tones the vagal nerve,

Can improve concentration and increase self-awareness.

It can even increase alertness more than a nap can.

They found that the brain ages at a slower rate in those who meditate and I thought this was really cool that the neuroplasticity of the brain has been shown to improve among meditators.

That means that the brain's ability to change structurally and functionally on a basis of environmental input.

There was also a study where people who meditated daily were able to control their thoughts and reactiveness and to not get stuck on a particular stimulus more than others who did not.

So let's talk about why this is important in general and especially why in this time when you might be connecting with me in the present when we are quarantined and distancing and experiencing a lot of stress on a global level.

Whether that stress is from work,

Health,

Mental health,

Isolation,

Anything that is a stressor to you.

Dangerous work conditions or being out of work.

Our nervous systems are pretty primitive and don't differentiate between being chased by a bear in cave days and our work stress or our generalized anxiety.

Our fight or flight or freeze,

Not rest and digest functions start to really kick in and sometimes stay there.

This is an inflammation,

A stress response that keeps us on high alert and some of our brain does not function properly,

Not everything is functioning properly.

Higher blood pressure,

Adrenaline spikes,

Digestion being put on hold.

Not even all our enzymes are produced to digest food.

That's sometimes why we just crave more of those what we call comfort foods as high dense carbohydrate foods because those are the only enzymes that are still being produced when we are stuck in that state.

You might find that you end up crashing later or inability to rest and sleep but we can elicit the relaxation response.

We can help to switch over to the rest and digest functions controlled by breath,

By focus,

By movement and by chanting also.

Now that we know why we want to do it and the benefits of it and what it even is,

I'm going to guide you through a little breathing meditation,

Simple but I think that everybody can benefit from.

Finding a comfortable position.

I personally like to close my eyes when I meditate but that is completely up to you and what you'd like to do.

Maybe even just close them halfway or even finding a spot ahead of you that you can rest your eyes upon.

This meditation will help us to begin to develop concentration and we will work to focus the mind on the breath.

Whenever your attention wanders,

Just bringing it back.

We are human,

Distractions come up in our home,

In our life,

In our mind but just bringing your focus back if it wanders.

Our breathing is happening right here,

Right now.

Our breath is always with us.

We'll bring our attention there.

We don't need to use any objects or images or anything,

Just something that is always with us,

Our breath.

Begin to bring your focus and attention inward.

I'll give you the option if you'd like to set a positive intention or motivation for this practice today.

Perhaps to generate more positive energy or calmness or reducing stress in yourself and maybe sending that out to others as well.

Focus the mind on the breath and find a space that you can physically focus on your breath.

Maybe it's where you feel the sensations of the breath as it enters your nostrils and as it exits the nostrils or perhaps by focusing on the movement of the chest rising and falling.

Or maybe it feels best for you to connect with the belly rising and falling as you breathe.

Use the space as an anchor to bring your mind back to this place every time that your mind wanders.

Now let's observe our attitude towards our thoughts here.

Notice what comes up when a thought pops up in your mind.

What is your reaction to it?

Is it a positive attitude,

A negative attitude,

A neutral attitude?

Do you follow the thoughts?

Do you fight the thoughts?

Or do you just let them come and go?

Now if you had a neutral attitude towards your thoughts,

Stick with that.

If not,

Then follow me along in starting to cultivate a neutral attitude towards the thoughts.

No attractions or aversions,

Trying not to react to them.

Just as they pop up,

Notice them,

Acknowledge and then return to awareness of your breath,

That physical space in your body that you had connected with earlier as your anchor.

Maybe another thought pops up and you just notice,

Acknowledge,

Let it continue on its way and you bring your focus back to that anchor.

Even if you have to do this 50 times in one minute where you're bringing yourself back,

That's okay.

Try to keep frustration at bay if this happens.

Being gentle with yourself as it is a practice.

Now,

I'm going to do a little exercise here with you where we will count the breath,

Saying to yourself,

Breathing in,

Breathing out,

One.

Breathing in,

Breathing out,

Two.

Breathing in,

Breathing out,

Three.

Breathing in,

Breathing out,

Four.

Breathing in,

Breathing out,

Five.

Now do that one more time from one to five on your own.

If your mind wanders,

Then start back at one.

Now slowly bringing your awareness back to the body,

Back to your surroundings,

Back to your surroundings,

But keeping the eyes still gently closed if you chose to close them at the beginning.

See if you can find the feeling of contentness here.

To stay in the present and to accept whatever frame of mind you are currently in and whatever arises in your mind.

Without judging it as good or bad,

No one is good or bad at meditating.

Not judging this process,

But reminding yourself how beneficial it is to even have just made the effort to meditate and listen in with me today.

Your focus comes back here and now and check in with how you're feeling.

But see if you can stick with that neutral attitude,

Whatever the answer is.

Thank you so much for joining me today and for listening and allowing me to guide you along in this process.

If you choose to commit to a meditation practice,

Some tips that I give that I think will be supporting and helpful for you is to take it one step at a time.

Setting a goal and just even thinking how long,

How many times a week is reasonable for you.

I want you to set yourself up for success.

So if you're just beginning,

I wouldn't recommend saying I'm going to do 20 minutes every single day forever.

But maybe you start with either 5 minutes every other day or every day or even your goal might be 3 times a week.

This is personal to you.

I want you to just think about it.

See what number,

What schedule you can come up with.

And then put it on your calendar.

You can use these resources for me as well as there are tons of apps out there that will also be helpful to you.

If you have questions,

Comments,

Please leave them for me and I hope to be of service.

Have a beautiful day,

Feel good,

Be well and happy and healthy.

Thank you.