Starting A Mindfulness Practice: Two Core Things

Hello and welcome.

I want to do a quick video on how to begin a mindfulness practice.

A friend of mine.

Owned a recruitment agency and he did an event once.

Called if I had to do it all over again and he invited Successful local people.

You know,

There was.

There were news people and authors and marketers.

He asked them to talk about if I had to do it all over again,

What would I do?

The reason I bring that up is that I'd like to do that when it comes to mindfulness,

If I had to start a mindfulness practice all over again.

What would I do?

And what would I do differently?

And I began a mindfulness practice about 25 years ago.

And I think fortuitously the internet wasn't as prevalent back then as it is today.

There wasn't like millions of videos for me to watch.

There wasn't an app with thousands of different meditations on it.

All I had was a few books that I could turn to.

And,

Uh.

.

.

I came across a book called Centering Prayer by Fr.

Thomas Keating.

Along with some others had started this practice called Centering Prayer.

And I went deep on it.

I read everything that he had written at the time.

There were some YouTube videos.

Eventually,

I joined a group and I took workshops.

There was a video workshop thing that you could take and then we met together afterwards for a number of weeks.

To follow up and then I joined their newsletter.

I just really went deep with it and I really committed to this one method for quite a number of years.

That eventually evolved and actually was sort of my gateway into meditation where I learned more about all sorts of different types of meditation and then eventually tools like Insight Timer came along.

I could learn even more and practice different practices,

But it really formed a foundation for me and really grounded me in a particular practice.

I would just invite people to do that as well.

I think there's two things there.

There was the method and there was the person.

I really followed Father Thomas Keating very carefully as well.

Anything that he would write or do from that point forward,

I even took a live Workshop where I was on the phone.

This was this was it before he zoomed and he was on the phone and a facilitator was on the phone And yeah,

It was like a group phone call.

And so,

Yeah,

I really.

So,

The point is.

.

.

I would encourage other people as well.

They're just starting out a mindfulness practice is to find something and stick to it and even find a teacher.

I know it's a little scary to choose a particular teacher but online you can sort of have like a bit of a safe distance there are some false gurus that pop up.

Now and again.

So just be wary of that.

But yeah,

I would do that again.

And I think the second thing I would do,

And this came out of Centering Prayer as well,

Is that I would Encourage you to do whatever practice you choose.

Whatever you do for your practice is to be gentle,

Like and to do it gently.

Again,

I was at a Centering Prayer workshop years and years and years ago.

It was at a church.

Centering prayer for people who had addictions or were in recovery.

Anyways,

The person who led it was just,

She was just like this angelic.

.

.

Person and at one point She just reminded us to come back to our centering.

Word,

Our sacred word.

For other people it might be the breath,

It might be just simply being or stillness.

Which it is much more for me today,

Is to just,

When I get caught up in thought or lost in thought or feelings take over,

Is to just gently return.

No matter what I'm doing,

Even throughout the day,

Realizing I'm I'm lost in thought.

Again,

Thought's not the enemy.

But,

Um,

Just.

.

.

Eventually,

We learn how transformational it is to be centered.

You desire that.

I did eventually,

And still do.

I just desire to be centered and calm and to be still.

And so when I realize that,

And to be present as well.

So when I realize when I'm not Practicing that,

I can gently return.

Okay,

I'm just going to take a quick look at my notes and so yeah just to wrap it all up again if I were to begin again.

I would do the same two things.

I would choose one practice and go deep with it.

And whatever I chose to do,

I would practice it.

Gently.

Because mindfulness isn't about getting somewhere.

It's about learning to return again and again with kindness and love.

I could talk about this for a long time,

But over time.

Mindfulness,

When we return with kindness,

It transforms the way that we relate to ourselves,

And consequently,

The way we relate to the world.

And I really believe that that's what it's all about.

Thanks again for joining me.

Namaste.