Daily Mindfulness

In today's session, Rhonda V. Magee will teach you about the significant impact that a short but daily mindfulness practice can have on managing your stress levels. Rhonda will then guide you through a gentle, mindfulness-based meditation practice through which you learn to sit still and observe your emotions. Regularly doing so will enable you to become better at noticing stress without reacting to it.

Transcript

Welcome to day four of Insight Timer's Strategies for Stress Challenge.

Let's take a moment to get settled.

Close your eyes,

Take a deep breath in and exhale out.

Let's dive in to today's Strategy for Stress.

Welcome to the Strategies for Stress Challenge here on Insight Timer.

My name is Rhonda McGee and I'm here to offer a mindfulness meditation practice to you to assist you in developing a regular practice yourself.

These days,

Mindfulness is often presented as a tool for focusing and increasing productivity,

But actually it's so much more.

It's a practice for reclaiming the radical power of your attention in ways that can alleviate the excess stress you face and open up pathways toward ongoing healing and renewal.

Mindfulness is most commonly defined as paying attention on purpose in a particular way with an attitude of curiosity and openness.

It can be an invaluable inner natural resource for sustainably navigating a world of change and uncertainty.

So I'd like to share with you a little bit more about how and why a daily practice can assist you in managing stress in the long term.

And I'll introduce a simple practice,

An approach to mindfulness capable of shifting the way you meet everyday challenges and actually reducing the stress you feel and its negative effects.

This practice,

By the way,

Is similar to but different from what we call breath work.

Mindfulness meditation is an ethically grounded practice inviting reconsideration of just how you are in relationship to everything that comes your way.

And in so doing,

Helping you develop a deeper sense of well-being for yourself and for all those touched by your life and work.

As you may already have heard,

For more than a decade a growing body of high quality research has increasingly shown a number of benefits that can result from a regular mindfulness meditation practice.

For example,

Researchers have found that mindfulness meditation can assist us in improving our immune responses,

Reducing high blood pressure levels,

Improving our sleep habits.

So in addition to helping us improve our capacity to place our attention on a chosen object and maintain focus on it over sustained periods of heightened stress,

It can also offer protection against some of the effects of social distress,

Including social identity-based biases and the discrimination that can often painfully result from them.

And while mindfulness is not a panacea and actually might not be the right thing for any one of us all of the time,

The ability of mindfulness meditation to increase our body's basic capacity to handle the tough things that come our way make mindfulness a tool worth exploring for all of us.

Before we get started,

There are a few things to think about to ensure that you'll be off to a really good beginning.

You want to find a place for meditation where you can feel relatively secluded and certainly safe,

Whether it's inside or outside in nature,

For example in your backyard.

Preliminarily in this style of meditation,

We call to mind our intention for practicing.

And ideally we think of some way that the practice might benefit ourselves,

But not only ourselves.

This is the ethical foundation that can make this practice a deep source of well-being that includes ourselves but extends into our workplaces,

Communities,

And the broader world.

After that,

We select something in particular to focus our attention on and then allow our attention to rest on that as a primary feature throughout the meditation.

In the guided meditation practice to follow,

We will allow the sensation of breathing,

To be our primary object of awareness.

And you'll select a posture that allows you to feel the dignity of your body just as it is,

Whether seated or even lying down or standing,

Whatever is most comfortable for you.

You'll decide whether to close your eyes or not.

And then just as much as you're willing,

Allow my gentle guidance to support you in exploring mindfulness meditation for yourself.

To begin this meditation,

Start by bringing your attention,

As best you can,

To the feeling of your body in the posture you've chosen.

Notice the points of contact between the body and the supports beneath you,

Whether it be a floor,

The cushion of a chair,

Or bed.

Allow yourself to feel at least one point of particular pressure between the body and that support.

This capacity to feel your own body right here,

Right now,

Can be an anchor throughout each and every practice of mindfulness.

Bring your awareness to the sense and experience of breathing in this posture.

As best you can,

Let your attention just focus picking up on that in-breath or the out-breath,

Wherever you happen to find yourself right now.

And placing your attention there,

Seeing if you can just notice perhaps when the shift from in to out occurs.

And then following along the beginning,

The next day in-breath,

Middle,

The top,

That moment where you naturally release into the out-breath.

Just attending,

Following the wave of each in-breath and out-breath interchangeably.

Feel,

Sense,

And really know the quality of the breath in this moment,

This breath,

Just as it is.

As you breathe in and out,

Notice one of the ways that the body responds to this breath,

Right here,

Right now.

You may notice some pleasant sensations or just the basic sense of contentedness that a conscious breath can enable for you.

As best you can,

Maintain a focus on your breath for the next few cycles,

In and out,

As we sit in silence.

And sooner or later,

You may find that the mind will begin to wander,

Whether it's thinking about something that you anticipate happening soon,

Like my voice returning,

Or you're remembering something that happened earlier today,

Conversation you had,

Or want to have.

No matter what it is,

It's very common for the brain to get itself engaged,

Even in those moments when we are inviting ourselves to place our attention on the breath.

And you know what?

It's no big deal.

So rather than go into any kind of judgment,

Beginning to think,

I'm doing this wrong,

Or it must be much easier for other people,

Just come back to the sensation of breathing.

Picking up on the in-breath,

Or the out-breath,

Wherever you happen to find yourself right now,

And continuing to follow along.

With mindfulness,

You're developing not only the ability to build the muscle of placing our attention where we choose,

And returning our attention to the chosen object of awareness,

Again and again,

As we practice.

We're also developing the ability to meet ourselves just as we are,

With compassion.

So each time you notice that your mind has wandered off the focus on the breath in this moment,

Simply notice it,

And bring it back with as much kindness,

As much compassion for the mind,

And training for mindfulness as you can.

Each time you do so,

Again,

Just like bodybuilding,

You're developing the strength of mindfulness.

And because we have to do this over and over and over again,

As we're practicing,

Noticing the brain,

Get engaged,

Move off the chosen object of awareness,

And then gently bringing it back.

This is why we call it a practice.

Stick with it,

You will begin to see results.

As we begin to bring this meditation to a close,

Feel the sense of your body right here,

Right now.

Notice the way you respond to this breath.

Notice any way in which you can feel a shift in the sense of your being present right here,

Right now.

As a result,

Just these few moments of mindfulness-based meditation.

And when you're ready,

Gently open your eyes and reconnect with the sense of being right where you are,

And ready to proceed from this moment of meditation into the rest of your engagement in life.

And that's it.

You've just explored mindfulness meditation.

Notice what it feels like in your body and mind right now.

Having practiced meditation,

You might have struggled just a bit.

You might not necessarily feel totally at peace.

As you may have noticed,

Your brain is probably quite engaged,

And actually working to develop and cultivate a regular ability to focus at will might take some time.

But trust me,

If you continue with this practice,

Doing just a little bit every day,

You will begin to notice that you can deepen your ability to be present at will.

Thank you so much for taking the time to explore this practice.

Remember,

Practicing just a little bit every day is a wonderful way to support you.

And remembering to take a mindful pause,

To stop and take a conscious breath,

And you can then,

From that place of regular meditation,

Bring it into your daily life in the midst of a stressful commute,

During a challenging conversation with a coworker,

For example,

Or right before an important meeting where you really need to feel your strength and feel your highest and best self.

We appreciate you taking the time to practice with us.

And if you could just take a moment and share just a little bit,

Something specific about your experience of this practice in the discussion forum.

There's no right or wrong here.

We really would appreciate it.

Let us know how you have used this practice or how you imagine using the mindful pause or the stop practice in times of stress in your life.

Thanks so much.