Welcome to ZenFM,
A meditation to relax and reflect positively on life.
My name is Yousef and I invite you to come on this little audio journey with me.
Today's meditation will be about being and getting in the zone,
The flow state that makes everything in life appear right how it should be.
First of all,
Sit back and relax yourself.
Find a comfortable position,
Keep your back straight,
Your head up,
Your chest open and take a deep breath.
Fill your lungs with air and then slowly exhale.
Next time follow your breath with full attention.
Travel with it,
Through your nose,
Down your throat,
To your lungs,
Into your blood and all the way back.
Do you notice how breath feels cold at your nostrils when you inhale and warm when you exhale?
Search your inner system for tension and stiffness thoroughly to make sure your complete self resides in full calmness.
Enjoy that for a few breaths.
Feel how heavy your existence weighs on the chair,
Cushion or floor.
Slowly become one with it.
Feel calm in your zone.
Do you remember when you were a kid and you were playing with your friends for hours and hours and you completely lost track of your surrounding?
Do you remember when you performed on stage the last time?
No matter if as a band,
A speaker,
A student,
Presenting some homework and it would just feel right and awesome.
Remember the last time you were surfing the Atlantic Ocean and that moment you catch the wave when time and space suddenly fade out and the experience is so rich and rewarding that nothing else seems to matter anymore.
That's when you're in the zone.
Some call this state the flow state or also the fascinating psychology of super productivity.
In psychology,
A flow state is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus,
Full involvement and enjoyment in the process of this activity.
In essence,
Flow is characterized by the complete absorption in what one does and the resulting loss in one's sense of space and time.
So that's why being in the zone requires us to be in full sync with the moment,
With the here and the now.
Can you feel yourself?
Can you feel your here and now?
Can you sense what's happening inside you right now?
What thoughts travel by in your mind?
What feelings are associated with every single one of them?
What feeling that you're afraid of?
What feelings are associated with every single one of them?
Don't even tell them to go,
Because in the moment you're aware of them,
You can't make them disappear anyway.
You can acknowledge them.
You can accept them.
Embrace them.
It's okay to feel sad.
It's okay to be afraid.
It's okay to be lonely.
Try to embrace it.
All of that has a place in you,
In your life.
And sometimes,
The best way to look at it is to become friends with these things,
These emotions that seem to kill our mojo.
Maybe they aren't.
Maybe they're good for something.
Even if they are friends,
They might lose the joy in killing our mojo at one point in time.
Take another deep breath and focus on this very moment.
Enjoy the silence in your heart.
Embrace whatever happens around you.
Become one with it.
Are you in a troubled state and you need to get it over with one way or another?
Try to make whatever hellhole you find yourself in your home.
Pay attention to all the details.
Be mindful of your own habit loop.
And that it is in your power to make any decision,
Your power to create any given moment.
A wise man once said,
Sow a thought and reap an action.
Sow an action and reap a habit.
Sow a habit and reap a character.
Sow a character and reap a destiny.
That's why being mindful of your thoughts is so important.
This is the first step,
The first step on your way into the zone.
Once you embody that,
Being mindful of your action becomes a lot easier going further.
Now think of what you need to focus on in your life.
What needs to be accomplished?
What do you want to get into the zone for?
Whatever it is,
The key lies in doing it with full attention and full commitment.
Put everything in it.
Do it as good as you possibly can.
No matter if you have to wash the dishes,
Change the tires of your car,
Run an ultra marathon or transplant a human heart.
When we do experience a non-ordinary state that gives us access to something more,
We feel it first as something less.
And that something missing is us.
Or more specifically,
The inner critic we all come with.
Our inner Woody Allen,
That nagging defeatist,
Always on voice in our heads.
We are too fat,
Too skinny,
Too smart to be working this job,
Too scared to do anything about it.
A relentless drum beat that rings in our ears.
Altered states,
As being in the zone is also called,
Can silence the nag.
They act as an off switch.
In these states,
We are no longer trapped by our neurotic selves.
Because the prefrontal cortex,
The very part of the brain generating that self,
Is no longer open for business.
That said,
I would like to slowly draw your attention back to the chair you are sitting in.
The weight you are surrendering to that chair.
And the beautiful world that is waiting for you out there,
No matter what zone you are planning to hang out in.
Take a few deep breaths.
Prepare your feet and hands to slowly move.
Before you let your body take control,
And just move how you feel like right now.
Stretch everything you have for a bit.
Everything.
And when you feel like it,
Open your eyes and take a final deep breath.
Thank you very much for joining this little audio journey with me.
And welcome back.
I wish you a beautiful day.
