Hello,
Welcome back to day two of the meditation for beginners series Today we'll talk about some of the definitions of mindfulness as well as some of the potential benefits of meditation But first let's start by getting comfortable I invite you to have a seat with your spine long and tall and if that's not possible for you aim for the sensation or the intention of length and alertness in the body Become oriented to the room where you are your position in this space And using your senses of sight Hearing touch Smell and taste Notice what sensations you're experiencing right now Scanning from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet Perhaps you can feel the pressure of the ground or the chair Where it touches your seat and legs underneath you Maybe you can hear a dog barking in the background or rain falling on your window Closing the eyes whenever you feel ready So What is mindfulness one definition is paying attention on purpose in the present moment Non-judgmentally or put more simply it's being aware of yourself and your surroundings and Meditation is the intentional practicing of mindfulness The way you would practice the piano The ideas of mindfulness and meditation Originally come from Buddhism,
But what we practice here is not inherently spiritual or religious and it can be practiced by anyone as You embark on this seven-day meditation journey you may be wondering what some of the benefits of meditation are and Mindfulness is quite a new field of study.
So there's not a lot of scientific research out there yet But recently the Journal of the American Medical Association published a study which showed that people who participated in an eight-week mindfulness and meditation program showed the same decrease in the severity of their symptoms of anxiety as a group of people who started taking a generic form of Lexapro a common anti-anxiety medication So they found that meditation was as Effective as taking medication and helping people with their anxiety Although it is important to note that is not necessarily a replacement Beyond anxiety Meditation can help you to change your relationship with yourself To help you be more respectful and caring of yourself and others It can help you change your relationship with a situation Even if the situation itself does not change You may find that you'll start to react to stress differently or that your focus and well-being increases Mindfulness has also been shown to reduce unconscious bias Beyond these I think one of the great things about mindfulness and meditation is that it's so Individual and the benefits that you discover may be totally unique to you So even though there are some common benefits you might discover some Additional benefits through your individual practice That I haven't mentioned here.
So come back to your body and your breath Like we did in the beginning scanning through the physical body and Just sensing what's here without any judgment And Sensing what's here without any judgment you And if you start to notice that your mind is drifting away Bring it back to the body and the breath firmly but with kindness Bringing the attention back to the in breaths and the out breaths and Any sensations that can be felt in the body?
And as you scan through the body if you find anything unwanted Like any sensations of tension or feelings of discomfort As much as you can just notice that they're there No need to try and get rid of it or fix it in any way Just acknowledging that the sensation is there and noticing what it feels like That is mindfulness And Just like the unwanted sensations if you're noticing any pleasant sensations coming up like feelings of openness calmness or relaxation Let yourself feel those two and As we come to the end of today's practice I invite you to bring some small luxurious movement back into the body wiggle the fingers and the toes give yourself a stretch if that feels good and Open the eyes whenever you feel ready Thank you for meditating with me today,
And I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow
