The core practice that I suggest everyone does is mindfulness.
Mindfulness teaches us the ability to become aware of where our mind is at any moment.
And bring it back to a point of focus.
Your mind wanders,
You bring it back.
The traditional anchor for mindfulness is the breath at the nose.
Draw your attention to the nose,
The sensations of the nose.
And you focus it for the duration of the session.
Your mind wanders,
You bring it back.
The goal is not to empty the mind.
The goal is not to have no thoughts.
The goal is simply to be aware.
And return.
So you're training two things.
Awareness of where the mind is.
And secondarily,
Your training focus.
And over time with practice.
That's what you get.
When you notice your mind wandering,
There's this temptation to sort of go,
Oh,
I failed.
The fact that you've noticed the wandering is the meditation.
That is what we want.
We want to know that the mind has wandered.
Because prior to doing mindfulness meditation,
Your mind will be wandering without your awareness.
What wins first?
Focus second.
The definition of mindfulness is the awareness that arises from purposely paying non-judgmental attention to the present moment.
That's the key,
Non-judgmental attention.
On judgmental awareness.
You can choose your meditation object to be anything you like.
Sensations of the breath of the nose,
What you can see,
Hear,
Feel,
Taste and smell,
Or internal things.
We've done aspects of mind space witnessing where we go inside the mind using thoughts,
Memories.
Future-focused feelings.
A variety of different mental constructs as the Malthemus Anchor.
But that's a little bit more advanced.
If you find the breath a little bit confronting or overwhelming.
Choose something else.
You can also practice mindfulness when doing activities,
For example washing the dishes.
You're just there,
Feeling the sensations,
Watching the process.
The final thing on mindfulness is,
And on all meditation is,
Is that we're not meditating to get better at meditation.
The best meditation you have is the one that you're having.
He minds tumultuous lots of thoughts.
That's okay.
Your mind's focused and calm,
That is also equally okay.
We meditate on the meditation mat.
To benefit at loss.
Impacts are profound and far-reaching.
But the most basic is.
In your everyday life.
An emotion threatens to overwhelm you.
Thank you for watching.
See you next time.
Mindfulness will help you to become aware.
It's like you've lost focus where you were and now those thoughts are coming,
Those feelings are coming.
It gives you a breath,
Gives you a choice to be able to go,
Oh,
OK,
I don't need to fall into those old patterns of behavior.
I can go back to what I'm doing.
Practice daily.
So that we benefit in our life.
Onto breathwork.
Our mind and our body are deeply connected.
If you calm down the body,
The mind will follow.
Calm down the mind,
The body will follow.
The breath is one of the simplest and most accessible things that we can tweak.
It is.
Involuntary,
As in it just happens,
But it's also voluntary.
If we slow down the breath.
We will come.
The simple principles of breathwork are in through the nose,
Low into the belly and slow.
If you want to use the breath to calm the body.
The out breath longer than the in breath.
Give it a try now,
A slow breath in and a longer release.
There are plenty of counts and other practices and approaches to breath work.
And that's great,
They work for you,
Use them.
But just remember that you may have to change the speed to a bit faster or a bit slower.
But if you hold to the principles,
Nose low and slow.
It'll help relax.
You can add to breathwork practices by relaxing the body.
Adding a physiological sigh that is like a sighing out breath Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Closed eyes or a fixed point of focus helps.
Foster sensations or feelings of gratitude to a person,
Pet,
Plant or place.
It's impacting your feelings.
You can also use the mantra I am here now.
And this moment is safe.
As you're feeling what is arising.
Noticing what is arising visually and listening grinding yourself in the present moment basic principles of breath is nose,
Blow and slug.
We also looked at a practice that I call intuitive guidance.
This takes components of the HUD space witnessing,
HUD space expansion.
But the basic premise is that we connect to the self.
But cool.
Us,
The part of us that is connected to the divine,
The heart space A lot of different traditions and practices hold that this space exists.
It's called by many different names.
But it has a number of.
Capacities,
Components,
And fuels a certain way.
Compassionate,
It's curious,
It's courageous.
Clarity.
It's creative,
It's connected,
It's calm and it's confident.
Accepting.
Open and expansive.
I place this space in the heart space but really it is for you.
From that place we can connect to.
Different aspects of ourselves.
Could frame this as different parts in children aspects of the shadow Whatever you like.
But we hold that the body keeps the skull.
Things happened in the past.
And we held on to it.
Not intentionally,
But as a way to survive.
Who are in a state of fight,
Flight,
Freeze,
Thaw,
Fantasy.
We did that because it was necessary.
Because it worked,
Our body holds on and keeps doing those things.
Remaining in flight,
Flight frees form of fantasy.
Hung up in thinking patterns,
Behavioral responses.
So we connect to the self.
Through intuitive guidance.
Throughout space expansion.
Your self connection.
When we basically say hey.
It's okay.
You are safe.
I accept you and invite you to release.
We get curious and we listen and feel deeply.
Approaching and accepting it all with an attitude of compassionate curiosity and calm confidence.
But also just highlighting that this process is highly intuitive.
I will offer a framework or a suggestion or an approach,
But you know you're in a space.
You know what you need.
You know the best course of action and I encourage you to have the confidence and agency to explore in your own way what works for you,
As long as it's aligned with the self.
You may feel an offer,
You may receive,
You may get visualizations that you want to explore and evolve and resolve.
Lots of different processes bit over time.
Eventually.
As parts of us reintegrate and release.
And the healing is profound.
On this topic.
Is that emotions and sensations are messages.
Parts of the body are holding on to something,
Saying hey I'm doing this job for you and it manifests as feelings in the body,
Pains.
Chronic issues and illnesses and injuries.
Niggling sensations.
The center.
I follow the biopsychosocial-spiritual model of health.
Biology.
Physical body.
Diet.
The exercise,
The sleep.
The medications if needed.
The daily practices psychology,
Our thinking processes,
Our work with a therapist.
The way that we approach the world itself.
Social.
Connection groups.
Our interactions with the world.
The spiritual practice.
A connection to something beyond your meaning,
I encourage you to explore and connect and work on all of those aspects.
The final thing I would like to highlight is the three-step approach to healing that I've touched upon.
Across a variety of different sessions.
Awareness.
Acceptance.
Action.
If you look at all of the different spiritual traditions.
Psychology or cancelling theories.
And just different approaches to self-improvement and try and categorize them into broad strokes,
Principles.
In my mind you get awareness,
Acceptance,
Action.
We must first be aware of what is arising.
We're not aware.
How could we take anything or do anything?
Awareness of the self of the other of the world.
We must accept it.
This is reality as it is for what it is right now.
We do not have to approve it,
But we do have to accept it.
And then we can take value aligned action.
Action towards our goals,
Our dreams.
Whatever it is that we are pursuing.
Trying to accomplish.
And we swing back too.
Awareness.
Could have changed something.
The good thing is,
Is that all three steps are awareness,
Acceptance,
Action.
Practice of mindfulness meditation,
It's all of those.
Choose an anchor.
Focus your attention upon it,
Your mind will want to bring it back.
That is your practice of awareness.
Of deep acceptance and it is action that will profoundly transform your life,
Which is why the core of what I do is based on a foundation of mindfulness.
Final edition is this.
Everything that we are doing together,
Every practice that I offer,
And indeed everything you will come across in life that you see other people doing.
What can you read?
Every spiritual practice or skill,
It's all a skill.
It's all something that you can acquire with effort.
With repetition,
With turning up.
Mindfulness meditation is a skill.
Intuitive guidance,
A self healing is a skill.
Habit building itself is a skill.
Breathwork for calm is a skill.
Responding to overwhelm and panic attacks in a way that works for you is a skill.
It's all a skill.
What that means is,
Is that you may not be good at it starting off,
And indeed,
Most skills you won't be.
Pick any hobby that you've explored down any amount of time.
Pick any hobby that you've explored down any amount of time and you will notice that at the start you were not good,
If you applied your attention and focus because you were interested in it,
You started learning the basics,
You kept going,
You learnt the overall principles and then you attain mastery.
The same is true for meditation.
The same is true for self-healing.
The same is true for all of this.
So I'm going to highlight that then.
Everything we are doing here is a skill,
Which means that if you practice daily,
You'll improve.
If you practice daily with the attitude of a beginner's mind.
I.
E.
That you don't know it fully.
That there's always more to learn,
That you can learn through practices and approaches that I offer,
That other teachers offer,
But also that you find and explore within yourself.
I halt the idea of blending.
Science,
Spirituality,
And self.
There are plenty of scientific techniques and approaches to healing,
And they were.
There are plenty of spiritual traditions and approaches to healing,
That were.
And there are approaches that work uniquely for me.
Blend all three together.
As a skill set.
And we heal.
The healing is through you.
Your application,
Your dedication.
You're returning.
Just keep turning up.
But do so in a way that allows you to learn.
Going,
Okay,
This is where I'm at,
But there's a little bit more,
There's a little bit of nuance,
There's a little bit of growth down all of these different paths,
And you'll forever be discovering more and deeper.
And you will get better and better and better at each practice,
And you'll discover more to explore as well.
It is a continual journey.
The destination,
If there is such a thing.
May or may not exist i don't know i'm agnostic to the approach or the concept of enlightenment of pure inner peace.
The journey towards that goal.
Is itself,
Like that is the thing.
A more regulated nervous system.
Improved functionality.
Feeling of appreciation for the present moment.
The ability to be and live and exist in this world as I am,
As fully and totally and completely.
That's my goal.
Reintegration of past traumas and healing.
Full sense of self.
That's my goal.
If at some stage there is some sort of final destination.
If not also great because the path itself is beautiful.
