Meditation Workshop For Beginners

Come meditate with your boy! In this energetic workshop I discuss the benefits of meditation, guide you through 3 different techniques, and talk about how to build a sustainable practice of your own. Let's have fun!

Transcript

What is going on,

You legend?

Now,

I'd like to open up this meditation workshop with a little bit of gratitude.

I really appreciate you.

From the bottom of my heart,

I'm saying this.

Time is a non-renewable resource and you do not get that back,

Right?

You could be with anyone doing anything,

Anywhere right now,

But you decided to be here with your boy,

Going inward and just meditating.

And I really hope that I'm able to give back to you with this workshop as much as you're giving back to me right now with your just attention.

So thank you.

Who am I?

Who's this guy on the other line that you're listening to?

My name is Soji James.

I'm a strength and conditioning coach and now a meditation teacher.

And I'm a kid from the projects in the Bronx.

I was introduced to meditation back when I was 14 and I came from an environment of a lot of hopelessness,

A lot of violence,

A lot of limited options.

And my mom introducing me to meditation was amazing for me.

And I'm not gonna say I took it,

I turned into like the Dalai Lama himself at that time,

But it just really began to give me some aspect or understanding of what control felt like.

I began to practice pretty consistently in college and after college,

It's become,

I'm in the health and fitness field,

It's really become a massive part of my existence.

When I don't meditate,

I feel like a different human.

And it's just really allowed me to show up as a better husband,

A better father,

A better coach.

And that will get into benefits,

Right?

How this can help you.

Benefits include managing stress and anxiety levels.

Stress is something that we're all gonna experience at some point,

But some of us are gonna be better able and prepared to deal with it than others.

So it's amazing for helping you manage that.

You can be a better listener.

I know we've all been in a situation where maybe you're sitting across the table from a friend and they're telling you a story and you're just sitting there and you're listening for maybe five,

10 minutes.

And eventually they say,

You agree?

And you have absolutely zero clue what they said to you.

We've all been there,

Right?

No guilt,

No judgment.

But it really allows you to be present and an active listener.

They said that one of the biggest gifts you can give someone is the gift of attention.

And this just amplifies that tenfold for all of us.

It allows you to be a better communicator.

It allows you to manage your emotions better and improve your self-awareness.

So this meditation,

It's extremely powerful and I really hope it's something that even in small doses,

You can begin to implement in your life on a day-in-day-out basis because you deserve it.

And by you just fulfilling your cup,

Or filling your cup rather,

You're gonna get out into the world and make the world a better place.

So I wanna begin by just even talking about body positioning here.

I wanna say that I really think it's important to be comfortable when you're meditating.

A lot of these benefits that I talked about just now,

We get them from being consistent.

So if you feel like you're gonna be in a position where you're not gonna be comfortable,

Chances are you probably won't meditate very frequently.

So I'm gonna give you guidelines,

But I really want you to make this meditation your own.

That's really important.

So if I'm sitting on a chair or a couch,

Ideally you wanna shift towards the edge of that couch and you want your back to be nice and straight.

And I don't want you to be straight like a soldier,

But I also don't want you to be falling over like an origami folding,

Right?

I want you to be,

Think of your spine as a stack of coins,

But make those coins dollar quarters because you are extremely valuable and you are amazing.

Your chin,

I don't want it tilted down towards the ground.

I also don't want it looking up towards the ceiling,

Right?

It's gonna be nice and neutral.

Your palms,

You can rest them down on your thighs.

You can envelope them in one another.

Once again,

It's what's comfortable for you.

I want you to root those feet into the ground,

Right?

If you're sitting in a chair,

Just let those feet fall flat on the floor.

Try not to cross them over one another because that could just lead to feelings of pins and needles and that kind of sensation later.

And I really want you to be comfortable and enjoy this experience.

But as I said earlier,

Make this your own,

All right?

If you're somebody who prefers to lay down,

That's gonna get you to meditate a little bit more,

You know,

By all means,

Get out and make that happen.

In terms of your eyes,

I want you to,

You know,

I'm gonna,

You have the options here.

You can either close your eyes or you have the option of,

You know,

Gently find your gaze two or three feet on the floor in front of you.

I always want you comfortable and I always want you in control of your meditation.

And if you're ready,

We're gonna get this thing started and we're gonna go into the wonderful world of you.

Now,

I want you to begin by focusing your attention on the air as it goes in through your nostrils.

We're gonna begin by focusing on mindfulness of our breathing body.

Now,

This is an amazing technique to begin to cultivate focus and awareness of our brain.

So I want you to focus on breathing naturally.

So you're not gonna breathe actually quick.

You're not gonna slow your breath down.

You're not gonna hold it.

You're just gonna be as natural and normal as possible here.

And I really want you to bring a childlike awareness to the sensations that are occurring at your nostrils.

And maybe you haven't taken the time to just really be present with something like this before.

So maybe you're noticing the cool air as it's coming in through your nose.

Maybe you're noticing it's a little bit warmer upon its exit.

Maybe you're noticing a tingling sensation as it comes through your nose.

I just want you to follow that in and out at your own pace.

I want you to be a mad scientist and just be extremely curious right now.

And if you're feeling sick or you prefer not to breathe through your nose or focus your attention there,

You have the option of also focusing your attention on your stomach,

Right?

So maybe you put your hands on your belly and you just focus on the rising and falling with each incoming and outgoing breath.

Rapper Rick Ross says,

Forget yesterday,

Live for today.

And tomorrow will take care of itself.

So many of us are so stressed out and filled with so much guilt over a past that we can no longer affect.

Or we're filled with so much angst from a future that hasn't happened yet.

And the truth is,

What we do in the present,

What we do in the here and now is what will create our future.

And that's the beauty of each individual breath that we take.

It firmly roots us in the present.

With each inhale and each exhale,

The passing moment can no longer be retrieved.

And there's so much joy and beauty in the present if we allow it to be visualized.

And if your mind starts to wander,

Give that gift of attention to yourself and return your focus to your breath.

Return,

Return.

And now let's turn our attention inward to the thoughts in our mind.

Upon me saying that,

What was the first thought to come to your mind?

I want you to make the choice to embrace that thought like an old friend and simply allow it to go on its way.

No judgment,

No attachment.

In the next moment,

What was the next thought to appear?

Now I play college basketball,

So I like to look at a lot of things in sports terminology.

I really want you to imagine yourself on the sideline of a basketball game where you have no horse in the race.

You don't care whichever team that wins.

No athlete is messing up your parlay.

You're just a casual observer of these thoughts as they pass.

And with each thought that passes,

As we disattach,

We understand that we are not our thoughts and our thoughts are not us.

Let it pass.

Smile at the thoughts,

Wave at them,

And let them go about their way.

None of them are good,

None of them are bad.

We constantly label things in our lives,

And thus we feel certain ways about certain situations.

But if we can learn to detach from this normal human habit,

Then we can gain a lot more control over our inner world,

And it will allow us to go into our outer world and be more effective and be calmer and be more peaceful.

Just smile at that thought,

And don't jump on the train and ride it to Grand Central.

Just wave at the conductor and tell them to have a great day.

Now I want you to turn your attention to how you're feeling right now emotionally.

Maybe it's the start of your week and you had an amazing weekend,

Or you had a casual weekend,

But you feel unprepared for this week.

So maybe you're feeling angst,

Maybe you're feeling overwhelmed,

Maybe you're feeling a little fear,

Or maybe in the juxtaposition of that,

You're feeling fired up to get out into the world and dominate,

You're feeling excited to share your gifts with those who you come in contact with.

You're feeling determined.

None of these situations or feelings are good or bad,

They just are.

I want you to examine these feelings without judgment,

Just allow them to exist.

Just like we are not our thoughts,

We are also not our emotions,

And they do not define us.

For me,

Meditation has done an amazing job of instilling the gift of the gap for me.

So usually,

And we've all been in this situation where somebody rubbed us in the wrong way,

Or we felt disrespected or angry,

And our immediate impulse was to lash out the person with a negative reaction.

Well,

Meditation allows us to increase our levels of self-awareness and be present when these feelings and emotions arise,

And make a decision that we agree with,

Make a decision that is more acceptable to us,

As opposed to just being carried by these impulses.

Further proof that we are not our emotions,

We are not our thoughts,

We are just us.

The rap of the Notorious B.

I.

G.

Says that in order to change the world,

We have to change ourselves first.

And this is exactly what meditation and being more mindful does for us.

We literally look at our thoughts,

Our feelings,

And sensations in a different way.

We look at ourselves in a different way.

We interact and think of others in a different way.

Now,

You've been spending some time in the inner world.

I want you to direct your attention to the sounds and the immediate environment around you.

And as we explore this space with this childlike curiosity,

Maybe you're hearing a sound machine go off in the background,

Or the humming of a refrigerator,

Or a neighbor playing the new Drake song next door.

As the sounds approach your ears,

I want you to treat them as the soundtrack of your life.

I want you to observe them without judgment,

Without labels,

They just are.

A meditation can open us up to a world of beauty around us,

If we just will allow it.

The Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh says the present moment is filled with joy and happiness.

If you are attentive,

You will see it.

In this case,

You will hear it.

So many times we walk through life without the understanding that life is precious.

And at each moment,

There is a miracle happening in front of us.

So I want you to go even deeper on the sounds and the environment around you.

Maybe as you focus in,

You hear a car passing in the distance.

I live in a college town,

So I hear a rugby party next door.

But for you,

Who knows what it could be.

Embrace it.

And now I want you to focus that attention back into your breath and combine it with the sounds around you.

So as you focus in on each individual inhale and exhale,

You're also tapping into the beauty that the environment has around you in the form of sound.

Allow the soundtrack of your life and the beauty of your breath to wash over you right now.

The more mindful you can be of these small things,

The more mindful you could be in your life,

The more beauty you can deserve,

The more happiness you can feel on a day in,

Day out basis.

This meditation stuff is really powerful.

Smile,

Breathe,

And go slowly.

That's what the Buddhist monk,

Dignan,

Says.

The more we can breathe and just be,

The more we experience the miracles that are around us instead of letting life pass us by.

And with that,

I want you to begin to come back into the space around you.

Maybe if you're sitting in a chair,

You're beginning to feel the weight of your butt sink into that seat.

Maybe you're feeling the cold ground grasp the bottom of your feet.

You're taking your final deep inhales and exhales.

Maybe you're beginning to roll those shoulders back and forth,

Turn side to side,

Loosen up your neck.

I want you to begin wiggling your fingers and your toes.

And at the sound of the bell,

I want you to gently open your eyes.

Thank you so much once again.

I'm extremely grateful for the time you have spent here with me.

You could be anywhere,

But you decided to spend this valuable,

Non-renewable resource with your boy over here.

So from my heart to yours,

I love and appreciate you.

And I like to just open up the floor for a little bit of a discussion.

For you personally,

Which was your favorite and just maybe most calming meditation technique that we went through today?

Was it mindfulness of the breathing body?

Was it mindfulness of thoughts and emotions?

Or was it the mindfulness of sound?

Which of those resonated with you most?

And that's the beauty of meditation,

Right?

There's so many different styles.

There's something out there for everybody.

And finding what personally motivates and inspires you is a great way to build a consistent practice.

Because that's the thing about this stuff.

If we want to see those benefits of,

We want to be less stressed,

We want to feel less anxious.

We want to feel less anxious,

Definitely.

We want to be better listeners,

Communicators.

We want to improve our memory and our focus and be more mindful.

We have to try and do this on a continuous basis.

And I was just reading a couple studies that even said that they were exposing control groups who had never meditated before.

And they saw that even as low as eight to 15 minutes at an eight-week continuous pace and consistent pace showed massive dividends in terms of reducing feelings of stress,

Anxiety,

And improving memory and concentration.

So you don't need to drop everything and move to the East and live in a mountain and give away all your clothes and wear a robe to experience these benefits.

You don't have to go bald by any means either.

If you are,

That's cool.

I'm bald myself.

So just love to my bald people out there.

I love you.

But my point is that finding ways to do this consistently really will allow you to experience the benefits of this.

And I really want this for you.

I think meditation could be a game changer in your life.

So what I firmly recommend to people is,

Start small,

Right?

If you're someone who hasn't meditated at all right now,

Maybe even finding five to eight minutes to throw into your schedule.

You're much more likely to see the benefits if you do this consistently,

As opposed to if you do it inconsistently and you meditate for long periods of time.

So what are some ways that we can begin to already plug these small slots of meditation into your schedule and begin to increase them from as time goes on?

How could we maybe stack meditation onto a habit that you're already doing consistently?

All right?

And how can we make this process your own?

A lot of times I feel like people have an image of what they think meditation should be and what it should look like.

But I really encourage you to make it your own and find your own path.

It could really be a game changer for you.

So I love you,

I appreciate you.

Thank you so much for giving me your time and I hope we can connect again soon,

Whether on the mat or off the mat.

Have an awesome rest of your week.

Sending you much love.