7-Day New Year's Practice: Day 1 Starting A Successful Practice

Day One of Seven Days of Guided Meditation Lessons. How do we set ourselves up for success with our mindfulness or meditation practice? Today's short guided lesson helps us learn and practice to harness a higher quality of happiness and self-acceptance so we can start our practice with the ideal mindset and approach. A quality mind for a quality practice.

Transcript

Happy New Year.

Welcome to day one of our seven days of guided meditation.

This is Salima speaking,

And I'm so happy that you're joining me today.

The theme for today's session is going to be setting up for success.

And so while we may have many goals and ambitions for this upcoming year,

One of the things that I would like to provide for us today is some insight in how to make our meditation or our mindfulness practice more successful.

A lot of people try and have meditation goals or mindfulness goals.

They think that they're going to practice every day for an hour,

And then when they try and do that,

It becomes very difficult very quickly.

And so one of the things that I've learned from my years of practice is that no two days are going to be exactly the same.

And there are a few things that we can do to help our practice feel more successful,

Even though sometimes it will feel busy and the mind will feel agitated.

We still can practice rather well by being observant and by having the level of awareness that's required.

So first things first,

If you haven't listened to the instructions on how to practice mindfulness that I recorded yesterday,

So I started a little early,

Go ahead and press pause on this recording.

Go and listen to yesterday's recording.

It's about 11 minutes.

Once you're finished that,

You can come back and listen to this one,

Having had a little bit of a primer on some of the things that are helpful,

Like how to sit,

What to do when you feel agitated,

When you want to move,

Or what to do with your eyes,

Keep them open or closed,

And so on and so on.

If you don't need those instructions very well,

Just continue on.

So we'll get started with settling in,

Just allowing yourself to be in a comfortable position,

Allow yourself to be upright,

Feel the support that is provided by whatever surface you're sitting on.

So notice the support of the floor under the feet,

If the feet are against the floor,

And notice the support of the chair,

The seat,

Or the floor,

The cushion,

Whatever it is that's under the bottom of the body.

Just noticing that sensation or that feeling of pressure and feeling how this body is in its posture.

So feeling the back upright,

Feeling the breath coming and going,

Just coming and settling into the body and regarding this body the way we would regard another person's body.

See if we can observe it as though it's not our body.

Feel free to take a deep breath,

And if you'd like,

Bring the shoulders all the way up towards the sky when you're breathing in,

And on the exhale,

Release the shoulders back and down,

Letting them come to rest a little closer to the ground.

If that felt good,

You can do it again now or later.

You can do it any time throughout this practice.

So what does it look like when we set ourselves up for success in terms of our mindfulness practice,

Our formal practice,

Or our meditation?

Well,

One of the things that's difficult for us is if our mind is overly agitated,

If we aren't proud of something that we've done or said,

Or if we're reviewing things in our mind,

If we're doubting something,

If we're second-guessing our actions or our words,

If there's a feeling of unsettledness in our mind,

It will create a sense that we can't feel at ease in our practice,

And we do want to feel at ease.

We want the mind to be alert,

And we want ourselves to feel at ease.

So there are a few things that we can do to set ourselves up for success,

And we'll do some of these things today.

Just feeling that you can bring to mind a memory of something that you did that was very kind,

Something wholesome,

Something that you did out of the goodness of your heart,

Perhaps to someone that you know,

Someone that you don't know.

You might have been helpful to someone,

To a stranger.

You might have been very generous or very kind to somebody who's a loved one of yours.

See if you can remember the feeling of that kindness,

No matter how big or small,

Sensing the feeling of you doing something out of the goodness of your heart.

If you can't recall something that you did that was very good,

Then simply bring to mind a beautiful experience that you had that made you feel at ease,

That made you feel supported,

That made you feel wonderful,

Perhaps a place that you visited where you had no worries,

No burdens.

Or you could bring to mind a pet that you love very much or a young child that you love very much.

Usually,

The younger,

The easier it is for us to be smiling and happy when we think about them.

So no one that brings up any tension in our mind,

Any worries in our mind,

Just happiness.

So whichever one we've chosen,

Whatever we've chosen to bring to our mind,

Allow the feeling in the heart to feel wholesome,

To feel happy.

If we've done a kindness for someone,

Allow that kindness to be felt in the heart.

Allow the joy of that action or perhaps those kind words to be felt in the heart.

We have a beautiful memory of being in a place that we enjoyed very much that made us feel comfortable,

At ease,

Safe,

Secure.

Then really feel that sense of safety and security of being at ease.

Take a few moments to just really let this sink in,

Open your heart to it.

Notice that happy feeling.

This is a much better quality happiness than the happiness we get from a gift or an achievement or something like that.

It's a much more wholesome quality of happiness.

Just breathe it into the center of the chest.

Feel that your chest is open,

That your heart center,

The heart chakra,

Which is in the center of the chest is open and you're feeling open-hearted.

Your mind may go off to think.

Your mind may go to the body and feel unhappy or uncomfortable about something in the body.

Just notice that.

And then revert back to this happy,

Beautiful feeling,

This memory.

This is an appropriate mindset,

An appropriate attitude when we begin our practice.

A lot of us will make the mistake of practicing meditation when we're unhappy.

We think that we're unhappy so I'm going to go meditate and make it better.

And then we find that our meditation practice is wrapped with unhappiness,

Worries,

Anxieties,

Fears,

Doubts,

All sorts of things that aren't allowing us to feel at ease in our own skin.

So this is one way that we can set ourselves up for success in our practice.

Just taking another moment here to really remember that beautiful feeling in the center of the heart.

Taking a deep breath.

And with the exhale,

Releasing out anything that we needed to remember or plan for or anything that's following us from last year.

So last year is done,

Feeling that we're starting a fresh page,

A blank canvas.

We're taking one step forward.

Whether it's a big step or a baby step doesn't matter.

We're moving into a new year with new energy,

Breathing that into the center of the heart.

That sense of positivity and that sense of newness and on the exhale,

Releasing anything that we may be holding on from last year.

Know that we've learned our lessons.

Know that we have said and done whatever we've said and done.

Our karma from last year is our karma from last year and there's nothing that we can do to change that now.

What's done is done.

What we can do is move forward from this moment on and pledge to ourselves in our hearts that we will create more opportunity for this happy feeling.

More experiences,

More kindness,

More gentleness,

More success.

So take a few moments just now and allow yourself to feel the truth of that.

We don't need to write down our intentions or our resolutions on a piece of paper.

We already have a sense of what we want.

Often it's not the accomplishments and it's not the acquisition of things.

It's not that milestone or that achievement.

It's the feeling that we're looking for.

Why wait?

Let that feeling be here now.

Take a few last breaths right into the center of the heart.

Feeling that sense of a blank canvas,

A fresh page,

That sense of newness,

That sense of opportunity,

That sense of possibility.

All of this is here for all of us right now.

Allow a smile on your face.

There's nothing that says you can't smile while you meditate.

You can also allow a sense of excitement.

Taking a couple of last breaths.

I invite you to continue to practice after our recording is over.

If you only have the required amount of time that we've set aside today,

Then I invite you to bring your hands,

Palms together,

Thumbs up to the chest.

Whatever it is that you wish for yourself,

Whatever it is that you have as your intention,

Your resolution,

Your goal,

May it be filled with success.

May it be fueled by an open heart.

May it be fueled by a sense of joy and a sense of possibility.

May we all be happy.

May we all be healthy.

May we all be peaceful and free from suffering.

May all beings be happy,

Healthy,

Peaceful,

And free from suffering.

And may all beings,

Each and every last living thing,

May all beings,

Near or far,

Big or small,

Seen or unseen,

Known or unknown,

May all beings share and benefit from the merits of our practice.

Thank you and namaste.

And I'm looking forward to being with you again tomorrow.

Reviews

Good way to start out the New Year. A nice and quick meditation. Lovely voice 😊

Lovely, thank you! 🙏🏻💜✨😊

Beautiful.. clear, calming, and timely. She has a Very healing voice and cadence. Loved it💝

A great and lovely practice to start the year! Looking forward to each day of these series. Thank you, Salima!

Very nice looking forward to tomorrow

A good series to start to year.
Much thanks 👍

Looking forward to the rest of the series.

Namaste and Happy New Year ☮️

Upgrading my practice is exactly my new year's goal. Very excited and looking forward to all the days. Thank you so much for your guidance. 🙏💖