Intermediate High Level Focus Meditation: Uncover Greatness

In this hour long intermediate practice, we'll build on the skills from the Beginner High Level Focus & Awareness track, taking it to a new level of rhythm and depth. This extra silence, sparser instruction and more challenging verbal prompts will allow you to enter a deep, stable state of versatile awareness and totally locked in focus that will stay resilient and last all day. If you complete the track successfully, you will feel an incredible sense of transformation and accomplishment. Enjoy!

Transcript

Hey,

It's Cyrus.

Welcome to this hour-long intermediate meditation practice.

If you're here,

I'm assuming you've already done the beginner deep focus and awareness track,

Or you at least have a pretty good grasp of basic mental skills and you're ready to dive right in.

And the hour here is the key to give yourself enough time to get into a deep rhythm where you'll drop into a state of deep focus and awareness and be able to stabilize that in a way that will carry over consistently to your day,

Keeping you relaxed,

Focused,

Aware,

And present in a variety of situations,

Even challenging ones.

So let's go.

Putting your phone on Do Not Disturb and eliminating any other distractions in your environment.

Grab a chair with good back support.

Make sure there's a spot in front of you that you can rest your eyes on.

And go ahead and sit upright in that chair with your lower back scooched,

Your spine straight,

Your neck straight,

Your hands in your lap,

Your feet on the floor,

And your eyes rested comfortably on the spot in front of you,

Straight down the center of your line of vision.

And let's hop right into it.

Starting off by breathing in deep through the nose into the belly.

And releasing out through the mouth.

Breathing 10 percent deeper this time into the nose.

And releasing tension out through the mouth.

Going in through the nose again,

Starting to track the flow of breath as you go in.

And following the flow of the breath as you release.

Let's hit two breath holds now.

Breathing in through the nose and holding the breath at the top.

Feeling your body as you hold.

And gently releasing.

Last one,

Really committing to this breath,

Breathing into every part of the body at once.

Holding at the top,

Strong and calm,

Feeling your body and the room around you at the same time as you hold.

And gently,

Slowly releasing.

Go ahead and allow your eyes to close briefly before we get started.

And with your eyes closed,

Take a moment to connect to what's important to you today.

What excites you?

What do you want to show up for?

What do you want to be fully and unwaveringly present for today?

And as you connect to that,

Allow yourself to feel the energy of that connection in your body.

And as we head into this fun,

Challenging mental workout together,

Allow that energy,

That motivation to be your North Star.

When you're having difficulties or your mind wants to drift,

Allow that energy to bring you back.

And when you feel like you're really in a groove,

You're really flowing,

Hold that energy in your awareness to keep you sharp.

Finally,

Before we get started,

Just take a mental inventory of things that have been on your mind recently that might distract you during the session.

And now resolve that if those or any other thoughts come up in the session that distract you,

You're going to put them down and simply drop them over and over again until the session is over.

We want to give ourselves permission to clear the space,

To focus on the task at hand,

And simply leave these distractions in the background where they can be dealt with from a clearer place after the session.

So take a moment to commit to that utmost mental vigilance and diligence now.

And now when you feel ready,

Open your eyes,

Allow your eyes to lock onto your spot,

Scan your body,

And if you feel good where you're at,

Just maintain your position.

But if there are any final physical adjustments you need to make,

Go ahead and make them now calmly and precisely.

And now that you've paid attention to details and gotten your body in a position of balanced,

Relaxed alertness,

Take a moment to commit to that stillness in your mind with a strong determination.

Knowing that if you need to move for some urgent reason,

Of course do so.

But if you have an itch,

Aim not to scratch it.

If you're restless,

Aim not to fidget.

Just use your breath and your determination to maintain your stillness.

And holding yourself accountable to that stillness will take this practice to another level and give you even more benefits as it guides you naturally and automatically into a deeper state of focus and stillness that is simply not readily achievable if we move or fidget needlessly.

So now that you've committed in your mind to that,

Notice how it feels to be still.

And relax into that challenge.

Allow any tension to melt away.

And with that sense of commitment,

Allow yourself to feel that calm stillness in your physical body.

Feeling the potential of being able to move,

But having fun with the challenge of moment to moment stillness.

And now noticing the feet touching the floor.

Feeling the magnetic energy of the soles making contact with the floor.

And now rising up like freshly baked bread to your hands,

Feeling the energy expanding in your hands.

Now challenge yourself with a diligent,

Balanced,

Relaxed concentration to feel your hands and your feet at the same time.

Feel,

Don't think.

And now balancing these two individual spotlights,

One on the hands,

One on the feet,

Enjoying that balancing act.

Now let go of the hands and feet in your awareness.

Simply allow them to do their hand and feet things in the background.

And take those two spotlights that you just had on your hands and feet and put them on each nostril.

One spotlight on each nostril,

That great level of specificity and detail as you feel the cool of the breath on the way in and the warmth on the way out.

Try not to exaggerate the breath and simply allow it to flow to you.

If there's a pause,

Notice the pause like a cat waiting for a mouse at the mouse hole to poke its head out,

Watching the breath go in,

Out and the pause.

Tracking it one step at a time.

The pause of the breath like the pause of the cat,

Vigilantly waiting for the little mouse breath to poke its head out,

Lying in wait with that vigilant,

Detailed attention.

In,

Out,

Pause as it comes to you.

Becoming quietly obsessed and fascinated with the details of the breath,

Does the air feel coarse?

Does it feel thin?

Notice the little sensations and details at each step.

Now without rushing,

Challenging yourself to raise your concentration and stay with the breath in,

Out and pause for a few consecutive breaths in a row without drifting,

Aiming to stay locked in on each step without rushing.

Not knowing what's in balance,

Deeper breathing,

Standing reinventing your strength.

There we go.

We can feel the concentration muscles warming up.

Let's build on that.

And as we shift into the emotions,

Let's take a brief pause to get our alertness going and remember to use the following breath whenever drowsiness arises for the rest of the session.

Right now we're just going to use it to maximize our alertness.

We're going to go two seconds in,

One second out for five to 10 breaths in a row.

It's going to sound like this.

Getting five to 10 of those in a row.

Right now,

As you hear my voice,

Breathing in and then sharp out,

Feeling the adrenaline start to flow,

That positive alertness,

Waking the body up,

Getting you super focused,

Awake,

Alert,

Locked in.

And now settling down and allowing your breath to return to normal and turning your attention smoothly to the emotions.

Notice and be honest with yourself about how you feel and have been feeling.

Allow whatever emotions that want to come up and be processed to be processed so that we can create more space to create more flow.

So just starting to notice anything that we've pushed off to the side that we can allow to come up as long as it feels safe to feel that.

Letting go of any fear of getting stuck in the emotion and simply trusting that as we feel it,

We'll actually be able to move it through more smoothly to create space for new emotions,

Fresh emotions to flow through.

But for now,

For a few moments,

Let's just start to notice that feeling.

To consciously shift into allowing it,

Not trying to change it or escape it in any way.

As any stories or thoughts related to the emotion come up,

Acknowledge it,

But then just let it go and ignore it and focus on the emotions and the sensations in the body primarily.

Feeling that internal surrender to the feeling,

Completely feeling it,

Completely being present to it.

Noticing it as just a feeling,

As you feel it fully and courageously for a few more moments.

And now set the intention to let go of whatever part of that energy is not serving you.

And with that clear intention set in your mind,

Start to take some deep breaths and on each exhalation,

Just let as much of that energy go as you're able to.

Taking deep breaths now as gently or vigorously as you feel,

Don't hold back,

Let that energy move out and through the body like a lightning storm that's moving in reverse upwards back into the clouds,

Releasing that energy.

Now with each vigorous exhalation.

And as you let go of some of this energy,

If some of it stays,

Remember that's normal and okay,

And as long as we stay in our rhythm,

That energy will tend to lift and shift in its own time.

But for now,

Start to welcome in any lightness,

Any flow,

Any ease and good vibes and relaxation that you feel,

Just allowing it to make its way through,

To start to replace the stale energy with this new fresh sense of ease.

And with that less pressurized,

Open,

Spacious feeling in the body,

Start to turn the attention to watching the thoughts.

Allow each thought to come up,

But don't identify with it.

Don't be tempted by it.

Simply maintain your separation so we can maintain the rhythm of our mental focus and allow each thought to bubble up and let it go before the sentence even finishes.

Let the next one come up,

Recognize it,

Let it go.

And that rhythm of watching and consciously letting go of each thought.

Remember the process of how the thought creates an emotion,

Creates a reaction in the body,

But don't get caught up in it.

Simply allow yourself to drop each thought as it arises and then drop the next one and so on and so forth.

As you watch and let go of each thought,

Start to become curious in a meta sense about the nature of the mind.

Take this as an opportunity to gain some insight.

What do the thoughts go to?

What are the patterns of thought?

What emotions are driving these thoughts?

Just notice without judgment.

Imagine how staying calm and steady but turning up the concentration muscle and aiming to watch and let go of every single thought that goes through your mind for the next few moments without letting a single thought get past you unwatched.

Seeming into that cat watching the mousehole energy again as you watch and let go of every thought with consistency.

Great work,

You've created some separation between your awareness and your thoughts.

Now let's take a moment to accept all the thoughts unconditionally practicing that non-judgmental acceptance.

And now moving that more separate track of thoughts into the background,

Turning the volume all the way down on it and moving that track of awareness into the foreground,

That energy of awake,

Alive,

Aware presence.

Moving that into the front,

Starting to increase that going forward as we make up our minds to drop the thoughts instantly as soon as we notice them from this point in the session going forward.

Not resisting them but not indulging them either.

Taking a moment now to mentally shift gears into that state of dropping thoughts automatically and consciously to maximize your mental training and flow state.

Feel free to take a deep breath if you want to as we start to drop into the body now,

Dropping into the chest,

Feeling the sensations of energy in the chest.

Starting to tune in and seeing if you can feel the heart beating.

Don't think about it,

Just tune in with a fine concentration and see if you can feel the heartbeat.

Dropping straight down with that same level of detail and concentration into the stomach.

Are there sensations of hunger,

Fullness,

Or anywhere on that spectrum?

Imagine feeling the details in the stomach.

See if you can feel and dive deeper and find a deeper layer of stomach energy.

Dropping thoughts as they arise and dropping now into the pelvic floor,

Concentrated on that area.

Allow the pelvic floor to gently drop any tension and allow the chest and stomach to subtly open and soften.

Staying alert and awake,

Using your breath of in two seconds and out one as many times as needed to cut through drowsiness when it arises,

Keeping the mind alert in that way as the body relaxes and we drop down into the hamstrings,

Touching the chair.

Moving smoothly like a spotlight in a rhythm to the calves.

Moving back up,

Perhaps unexpectedly,

To the quads,

Feeling the quads.

Doing the cha-cha slide forward to the knees and down into the shins.

Feel all the details of the muscles and sensations in the feet now.

Then you feel the toes,

The balls of the feet,

The arches,

And the heels,

The individual components of the architecture in the feet.

Using both feet as a whole now,

Two glowing orbs of energy.

And rising up to feel the legs and feet at the same time.

And to your hands and arms at the same time so you're feeling all four limbs at once,

Like an octopus that's only half self-aware.

Isolating your attention on all four limbs,

Feeling the vibrations and sensations moment to moment as you drop distractions and thoughts.

And allowing the microfibers of the muscles in the legs to unclench and release.

Using the arms to simply relax and do nothing,

Keeping the stillness intact with determination as we move to the back,

Feeling the entire back like a water wall,

Sensations cascading down from top to bottom.

Taking a gentle breath and allowing that to expand the back opening with the subtle breath.

And now move to the neck and shoulders smoothly,

Feeling the neck and shoulders as one unit.

Seeing their triangular formation,

Illuminati confirmed,

Perhaps,

Perhaps not,

Allowing the neck and shoulders to simply release any tension and soften.

And rising up to the top of the head with your attention now,

Feeling the top of the head,

A marionette string pulling our energy upwards towards the sky,

Keeping our posture alive and alert.

Going into the forehead now with the attention,

Smoothly to the eyebrows,

Dropping thoughts,

Feeling the details of the face as we move to the bridge of the nose,

Feeling the breath go in the right nostril and concentrating on the left nostril as you exhale.

Feeling the sensations in the upper lip,

The top of your tongue,

The root of your tongue,

The bottom of your tongue,

The tip of the tongue,

The bottom lip,

The right ear,

The left ear.

Feeling your attention smooth,

Agile,

Clear,

Building on that as we allow the whole face to relax,

Keeping your eyes open on your spot,

Your body upright and still and allowing everything to relax in the body as the mind stays razor sharp.

We're gonna light up the whole body from the bottom up,

Starting at the feet,

Smoothly reversing the energy up into the lower legs,

Expanding to the upper legs,

Up through the pelvic floor,

The energy moving into the stomach and lower back,

The chest and upper back,

The hands and arms,

The shoulders and neck,

And the face all the way to the top of the head.

Without missing a beat,

Feeling the breath rain down the body and feeling the body head to toe at the same time.

Notice your ability to feel every part of your body simultaneously and aim to drop thoughts instantly so that you can maintain this ability moment to moment.

Start to feel your breath not as if it's just going through the nose but breathing from the inside.

Seeking out and feeling all sensations,

Challenging ones,

Enjoyable ones,

Leaving nothing unfelt,

Facing and feeling every sensation unflinchingly,

Moment to moment,

Head to toe.

Now,

Aim to outpace your expectations and sustain a focus like you never have before.

Aim to drop thoughts instantaneously and stay with body head to toe for a few moments of unwavering focus,

Simply gently refusing to drift in your attention,

Staying head to toe to the best of your ability.

Sensing,

When the attention tries to drift and staying anchored on the body head to toe for another moment.

Now,

With that greater stability of awareness on the body,

Start to feel the air on your skin,

The temperature,

The little sensations dancing on the surface of the skin,

Any tingling,

Vibration,

Expanding and feeling the points of contact of fabric on your skin,

The details of the clothing.

Start to feel your butt on the chair and your feet on the floor and feel those two points like magnets grounding you to the earth,

Feeling that solid,

Grounded energy increasing as you concentrate.

And now being Jack on the beanstalk,

Climbing into the stratosphere,

Releasing all the tension in our muscles as we shift to feel the opposite sensation of lightness,

Starting to float higher and higher with each breath,

Becoming weightless like the space around us.

And now allowing yourself to float effortlessly and feel grounded at the same time,

Not thinking,

Simply sensing both energies.

Feeling the beanstalk planted in the earth and Jack in the clouds all at once.

Now starting to take in all the sounds around you near and far,

This complex cornucopia,

This auditory buffet bathing in it as you feel your body.

Feeling your body vibing off the sounds,

Becoming one with them as they shift and change moment Now,

Maintaining eye contact with your spot so much as it's possible to maintain eye contact with an inanimate object and starting to notice the objects around you in your field of vision.

And the shadows and shapes and light around the objects.

Expanding smoothly to the corners,

The edges of your vision stretching to panorama view.

And now effortlessly receiving the entire field of vision,

Allowing your brain to fill in the blanks and notice everything in your field of view at once.

And the details of your body and the details of the field of vision at once now.

Embracing the intensity of your presence as we head into these final layers,

Starting to notice the four walls of the room,

Your body's position in the room,

Sensing all the objects in the room around you.

And now feeling your body and the room as one,

Like the room is an extension of your body.

Feel the room just like you felt your body.

Don't think,

Just feel and pay attention directly.

At this point,

Noticing your ability to drop thoughts as soon as you notice them even starting to form with a lightning quickness.

And maintaining your attention on body and room moment to moment as a consequence of you flexing that ability.

Noticing yourself ducking and weaving past distractions and thoughts in real time,

As you simply maintain body and room as one field of energy and awareness moment to moment.

And now feeling your body and the room as one.

Again,

Challenging yourself to sustain a level of continuity of awareness and focus like you never have before.

Dropping thoughts instantly and staying with body and room moment to moment with an unwavering focus for a few moments now.

And now feeling your body and the room as one.

Calm,

But intense,

Enjoying the challenge.

And now starting to completely let go of the past and future.

Reclaiming all of your focus for this final layer as we become completely present and expand past the room out into space.

No limits,

Expanding the awareness like a bubble,

Feeling our way into it,

Body and space as one.

Realizing yourself as way bigger than your body,

Your consciousness having expanded,

And now feeling your body as one.

Staying and letting go of thoughts instantly and staying with body and space as one moment to moment.

Allowing ourselves to surrender to the feeling of oneness of the body melting into the space and becoming invisible.

Allowing ourselves to surrender to the feeling of oneness of the body.

Holding your attention delicately but intensely moment to moment this vast continuous awareness,

Body and space as one.

Allowing ourselves to surrender to the feeling of oneness of the body.

Sticking with it and maintaining your balance.

Allowing ourselves to surrender to the feeling of oneness of the body.

Now,

Challenge yourself to allow the breath to come to you as slowly as it wants to.

Allow your body to be as calm and relaxed as it can be,

But still maintain the intensity to stay with body and space at the same time.

Clean out that balance now of the breath coming to you relaxed but still intense enough to the feeling of oneness of the body.

Allowing yourself to surrender to the feeling of oneness of the body.

And as we find our flow and head into this final stretch of silence,

Let's really enjoy every moment,

Staying balanced with no expectations,

Staying with the flow,

Merging with it,

Dodging past distractions instantaneously,

And staying in that rhythm for this final stretch of unwavering focus on body and space as one,

Having fun with the challenge,

Moments to moments.

Allowing yourself to surrender to the feeling of oneness of the body.

Allowing yourself to surrender to the feeling of oneness of the body.

Allowing yourself to surrender to the feeling of oneness of the body.

Allowing yourself to surrender to the feeling of oneness of the body.

Incredible work.

Take a moment to give yourself credit as you close your eyes for a brief visualization to cap off the session.

Now with your eyes closed,

Feel how your attention is durable,

Resilient,

Flexible,

Continuous,

And all of that and the amazing vibes that come along with it are going to stick with you consistently throughout your day.

So let's really cement that now.

Allowing yourself to relax,

Letting go of any noticeable muscular tension.

Letting your breath come to you as slowly as it wants to.

Letting your heart beat start to slow down naturally.

And from this deep place,

Take a moment to connect to the energy and version of yourself that you want to embody today.

See yourself moving through the day,

Through situations,

Conversations,

In this energy,

And as you see it,

Feel it now in your body like it's already real.

Imagine and feel that when things come up internally or externally that are negative or distracting,

You simply notice them,

Allow them to pass by,

And stay rooted and grounded in this positive energy and version of yourself.

Feeling that and feeling that.

See yourself creating and attracting the situations,

Energies,

And things in your life that you want effortlessly.

And finally,

See yourself calm and doing one thing at a time throughout your day.

See that when you get distracted or start to multitask or speed up,

You simply come back to this centered place with your presence and focus on the one thing in front of you.

Seeing that and feeling that now.

And remember,

If you simply make that mental priority throughout your day to come back to the one thing in front of you in a calm and focused way,

You'll carry all the work that you've done in this session into your day and begin to enter that rhythm of effortless awareness,

Relaxation,

Focus,

And flow state consistently throughout your day.

When you feel ready,

Gently open your eyes and slowly,

Steadily come back into your body and one thing at a time.

Staying with your attention on what's right in front of you,

Not worrying about the past or future,

Allowing yourself to maintain the effortless rhythm of focus and awareness throughout your day and translate it deliberately and smoothly.

I challenge you to come back to this track every day for one week and incorporate the habit of one hour a day meditation and all the incredible benefits that come along with it.

Knowing that the mind will of course generate a litany of excuses for why that doesn't feel possible but noticing the deep rhythm of focus and awareness that you created in that hour long span and entertaining the thought of how much easier,

Smoother,

Enjoyable,

And more effective every day would be if you started it with an hour of deep meditation,

Priming your mind and your emotions to stay in that state consistently every single day,

Transforming your life in a profound way.

So if you choose to take on that 7 day challenge,

My suggestion is to set a calendar reminder and an alarm at the same time every single day and if you choose to,

To simply commit to creating that hour in your schedule and carving out that time so that you can serve yourself,

Everyone,

And everything in your day even more effectively on a consistent basis.

Once you've completed that 7 day challenge,

Feel free to extend it to a 2 week challenge total and then if you complete the 2 week successfully,

Aim to extend it to a month and by the end of a month of daily hour long meditation,

You'll be in a position to incorporate that as a solid,

Consistent,

Automatic habit in your life and you'll notice so many incredible benefits by that point that you'll likely feel inspired and motivated to maintain the habit going forward.

So great work today.

I encourage you to keep it going.

Feel free to follow me,

To make a donation,

To comment,

Like,

Ask a question anytime and I hope you have an amazing day.

Reviews

A really good exercise in right concentration. Thanks. I will do the challenge. After three decades of practice, I still need to improve focus on the now. Thank you.

Challengin, but for focus and flow, this is the place to go 😊

This was an incredible experience! Quite challenging too, but the feeling the last 15 minutes incomparable to anything. Thank you!

Thanks for directing me to this meditation. It was a deep experience 🙏🙏🙏