How Meditation Works – A Complete, Evidence-Based Meditation Course

Let's start with the basics: how do we turn meditation into an enjoyable activity that we look forward to? Finding joy in meditation is a key to progress. In this first session, we will explore the state of mind best suited for meditation - playful, exploratory and joyful. Meditation is a gift we're offering ourselves, and one that should be enjoyed fully!

Instead of going straight for the breath, we will take a few moments to move from daily life to breath meditation in a relaxed, pleasant and step-by-step way. In this session, we will also explore a technique called the "Four-step transition". This technique will help our mind settle on the breath gently yet firmly, and smoothly transition between daily life and meditation practice

Despite our intention to watch the breath, our mind seemingly has a mind of its own: it wanders away. This is natural, and points to a profound truth: we are not really in control of our own mind! We will use this knowledge to our advantage. Instead of trying to control our mind with force, we will reward it when it notices that it has wandered away. By positively reinforcing this aha! moment, we will reduce the frequency and length of mind-wandering, and turn our mind into an invaluable ally.

Now that we've learned to deal with mind-wandering when it occurs, we're ready to level up our practice with a new challenge. For the mind to stay engaged and enthusiastic about meditation, it needs a task! In this session, we will learn a technique called “Counting the breaths”. This technique will help prevent mind-wandering from occurring in the first place.

Our mind has two faculties: attention and awareness. In this session, we will explore these two different aspects of the mind and use this knowledge to better understand how distractions sneak up and catch our attention. We will also learn how concentration and mindfulness differ, and how we can leverage both to increase the clarity and power of our mind!

We've learned to count the breaths up to 10. What's next? In this session, we will give the mind a new, more difficult (but enjoyable!) challenge. This new technique is called "Following the Breath". When following the breath, we want dissect and investigate the different parts of the breath in an engaged, interested way. You will be stunned by the effectiveness of this technique, and by the power of your own mind!

We’ve covered a lot already. We've calmed the mind, stabilized our attention and picked up a few useful concepts and techniques along the way. So far though, we've concentrated most of our efforts on training attention. In this session, we will learn a profound technique that will cultivate strong awareness. This new technique, called “labeling”, will help us notice distractions before they take the center stage, and will allow us to observe the inner workings of our own mind with unparalleled clarity.

There are two main obstacles to meditation: agitation and dullness. At some point, every meditator will experience both of these obstacles, as you probably already have. In this session, we will discover antidotes to these obstacles. By applying the right antidotes to the right hindrances, meditation will become more enjoyable and fruitful.

To progress in meditation, the most important habit we must develop is a daily meditation practice. Like with any other skill, mastering meditation takes time and effort. In this session, we will discuss the best ways to include meditation into your daily life to reap maximum and lasting benefits.

We've come a long way in 10 days. In this session, we'll quickly go through all the tips and techniques we've added to our toolbox, and take a moment to appreciate and share the benefits of our meditation practice. We will also get a glimpse of the next stages of meditation progress.