Struggling To Meditate? Start Here.

If you’ve ever said, “I can’t meditate” or “my mind won’t shut off,” this microdose of wisdom is for you. In this short talk, Gina breaks down the most common misunderstandings about meditation and explains why your busy mind isn’t a sign of failure — it’s simply being human.

You’ll learn the difference between automatic and intentional brain processes, why thoughts arise even when you’re trying to be calm, and how to shift from “doing meditation right” to simply being with yourself.

This is a compassionate reframe that helps you release perfectionism, quiet self-judgment, and discover that you are far more capable of meditating than you ever realized.

Perfect for beginners, overthinkers, and anyone who has felt defeated by meditation.

Transcript

So a lot of my students will express at one point or another that they they just can't meditate like they're not doing it right they can't get their brain to shut off or stop and you know I resonate with this because I too at one point felt that way and one of my teachers actually had told me in a meditation retreat that I was at I had made a comment similar to this and he asked me he's like Gina what does your what does your heart do and I was looking at him like is this a trick question he's like no no just like tell me logistically what does the heart do I was like it beats he's like how about your lungs I'm like they breathe he goes yep and what about your brain I was like oh it thinks and he looked at me goes yeah we don't want your brain to stop thinking because that means you're dead but what I like to explain you know one step further beyond that is that we have different parts of our body you know some function automatically and some we need to bring conscious awareness to to get them to function the way that we want so like breathing and digestion and blood flow all happen without a conscious awareness they just happen in the background we don't have to think like I need to digest dinner now and then you know start the process it just happens automatically and we also have aspects of us that will only function if we are intentionally choosing to so we're not going to just get up and start walking unless we intend to get up and start walking you know aside from any medical conditions that may cause our body to move without our conscious awareness of it that is an intentional conscious choice I need to intentionally choose to get up from my chair and move one foot in front of the other I don't have to necessarily think about left foot right foot left foot right foot but I need to make the decision I have to choose to start walking but we also have aspects to us that function automatically yet we can also bring conscious awareness to like our breath and also our thoughts so my breathing while it happens automatically I can intentionally choose to bring consciousness to my breath and change the way that I'm breathing and then this will change my energy if I'm breathing in a calming fashion it can help to regulate and calm my body if I'm doing more of a transformational breath or holotropic breath it can activate and kick up my energy but those are things I need to bring intention to they're not going to happen automatically maybe the panting if you're in an anxious state your breath will change and then if you intentionally bring a calming breath to that you can reduce some anxiety or panic but the brain also can think things automatically it's like almost like a muscle memory or response and so when we catch ourselves in thought during meditation the trick is to just come back to the breath notice be the observer oh I'm thinking look at that I just had a thought look at that okay let me come back to my breath and it's a practice right just like going to the gym the more you do it the stronger you get the the more that you have this practice of oh look I'm thinking let me come back to my breath the easier it is to stay in that calm relaxed receptive meditative state and as we learn to be more conscious of our thoughts we'll start to notice that we have almost reflexive thoughts or thoughts that pop up intrusive like I don't I don't like I don't like that thought I don't I don't agree with that thought I don't really want to think that thought and the exercise I like to employ when I find that my brain has this sort of like spasm or reflex and it puts some thought out in there that doesn't actually resonate with how I want to show up in the world I pretend they're little bubbles and I pop them and I'm like nope we don't want that that thought out there floating around no need for that to exist and then I intentionally choose a different thought that is in more alignment and resonance with the energy I want to bring to the world and so if you are having difficulty with meditation that doesn't mean you're not doing it right it means your your your brain is working the way that it should and the practice of meditation is to just become the observer identify oh look I'm thinking my brain is doing what it should be doing let me come back to my breath and practicing that will just make the process easier and easier as you go forward so thank you so much you beautiful souls for tuning in and choosing to expand your consciousness through this microdose of divine wisdom and until next time stay empowered and in love and alignment