Hi friends,
This is a brief introduction to the practice of meditation or mindfulness.
I'll give you a little bit of the how and the why for the practice and the what of that it is so that when you listen to the included guided meditations,
You'll be able to drop in a little bit more.
So mindfulness is all about the present moment,
Observing what is with this aspect of the self called non-judgmental awareness or clear seeing,
Seeing what is without judging it or adding commentary or evaluation,
Nor are you trying to push something away that's occurring or grasping for something that isn't occurring.
You're not repressing anything and all thoughts that you're having are equal and valid.
Again,
They just are.
So that's non-judgmental awareness.
It's the state of accepting what is exactly as it is.
And it's a quality that you cultivate and also a space that you drop into through the practice of meditation,
At least that's what I find that that quality gets stronger the more that I practice.
And then there's this element of mindfulness,
The present moment awareness that's also includes a sense of focus or concentration or stability.
And we usually have an object of meditation that we focus on.
And in these practices,
Sometimes it'll be your breath.
Sometimes it will be like an image that I'm guiding you towards,
Or it's just the sound of my voice and following the sound of my voice.
So in the practice,
You'll listen to these guided meditations and simply try to follow along without evaluating or adding your own commentary or pushing anything away,
Listening and observing and letting yourself focus on the train of my voice so that you can become more receptive and more passive.
A passive attitude is one of the qualities that helps to facilitate relaxation.
So in order also to have a passive attitude,
It's helpful to be in an environment where distractions are limited,
And you can be in a comfortable position and where it's pretty quiet.
So quiet environment without too many distractions and where you can kind of rest,
That'll help you to engage more with that receptive part of the self.
And of course,
Thoughts are going to arise.
The practice of meditation isn't about the cessation of thoughts of like stopping thoughts completely.
That really doesn't hardly ever happen unless you go into a more transcendent state.
It's simply about becoming aware and seeing that you're having the thoughts that are arising even while you're doing the practice of concentrating on my voice or what is being suggested.
So thoughts are there,
But you're choosing to not engage in them and kind of take the bait.
So when we're beginning,
And even those of us like myself that have practiced for a long time,
We do take the bait and all of a sudden we find that we're off in a thought of the past or the future here or there,
But we're not present anymore.
And we're probably evaluating something or judging something in some way.
So that'll occur and you'll catch that.
You'll see it's,
Oh,
There I am thinking,
And you can simply label it as thinking.
And then you drop it.
You just let it go.
Like you take the hook out of your mouth and you come back to the present moment and to listening to perhaps the music or again,
My voice,
Whatever is being cued for you and you just follow along.
So the practice of coming back to the meditation and coming back to the present moment is really what meditation is all about.
Returning to this here and now moment.
So you'll have my voice as a,
As a point of concentration for you to help you surrender and to open up and to release.
And the more that you're able to do that,
It's like the whole energy,
All the energy in your body begins to downregulate and downshift where you were maybe running at like high stress,
Anxiety,
RPMs through the practice,
The parasympathetic nervous system,
The rest and digest and heal response of the body gets activated and turned on and you start to feel calmer as your energy restores and you come back into balance mentally,
Physically,
Emotionally,
Spiritually,
Everything starts to regulate and get in harmony with each other.
I think of these practices as like taking my car in for a tuneup.
It's something I do regularly to make sure my physical and mental,
Emotional,
Spiritual systems are working at the optimal rate that they're able to,
Their optimal capacity.
And the more that you do them,
The easier it will be to drop into the space of calm,
Reset,
Mindfulness,
Presence,
Witness consciousness,
That nonjudgmental awareness.
So the more often you return,
The easier it is to get there,
To get to that,
That quality feeling state of stability,
Peace,
Acceptance,
Even oneness and definitely connection too.
So those are just a few guiding principles for you for this album.
I wish you the best.
Wish you all the best.
Please enjoy.
