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Explore the science of meditation and follow a guided breath practice to cultivate presence and self-control.

Stress & Anxiety

Stress

Mindfulness Meditation

Lectures

Buddhism

Mindfulness

Traditions

English

Mindfulness meditation can be defined simply as present moment awareness with non-attachment. Simple . . . but not easy! While mindfulness meditation takes practice to cultivate this ability to remain present, it is absolutely attainable for anyone and is a practice that everyone can benefit from.

This is a talk and practice on Mindfulness. Mindfulness meditation can be defined simply as present moment awareness with non-attachment. It takes practice to cultivate this ability to remain present, but it is attainable for anyone and is a practice that everyone can benefit from.

"Why Meditate?" – Talk with Guided Practice

 Hi, I'm Eric with the Awake Mindful Living Community, and we're here to talk about mindfulness meditation today. Before we jump in, just want to give you a little background. I've been practicing for over 20 years, and meditation has made a huge difference in my life. It's helped me to wake up to my life. I notice my kids more. I notice my wife more. I'm more efficient at my job. I can just really show up in my life, and that's taken a fair amount of effort. But I'll tell you, over 20 years of all the practices I've learned, we always come back to this one. This is mindfulness meditation, and today we're just going to work with the breath. And it sounds so basic and so foundational, but this is a practice that if you're not already using it, you should plan to use for the rest of your spiritual journey. It is home base. Today, we're going to learn about mindfulness meditation, but what I want to share with you is why you want to meditate, because it's going to be hard to get up and meditate every morning. Sometimes it's the last thing you want to do. You just want to jump into your day. So it's really important to know why you're going to practice meditation each morning. So to get up and meditate every day, you're going to have to think of why you're doing it. There's so many scientifically proven benefits of meditation. A big one is simply stress reduction. You don't want to be stressed, so I'm going to meditate each morning. It reduces depression and anxiety. It increases your brain function. It boosts your immune system. It boosts your self-control. You ever try to keep a diet or something that you're committed to in your life? If you can't keep your mind where you want it to be and you can't stay settled, you're just not going to stick to it. So meditation really helps to boost your self-control. It'll help you to maintain an overall healthy lifestyle. It just keeps you looking and feeling younger. Decreases pain and inflammation. It increases your positive emotions. It'll increase your compassion so that you can really care about others, because when you know how you suffer inside, when you know how it feels to be stressed and anxious, and then you know how good it feels to be free of that, you can just share that with others. You don't want to see them unhappy. You want to see them relaxed, peaceful, and at ease, just like you are thanks to your meditation practice. But those are just the scientific side effects of meditation. The deeper reason that you want to meditate is that you're missing out on your life without it. How many times have you barely been there for a conversation with a loved one? How often have you just had tension in your body, and it just gets worse throughout your day? You just get busier and busier, and it never goes away, and then at night you're just exhausted. What if you knew how to come back to your body and breathe and relax? Wouldn't it be cool to show up in those conversations with your husband or wife? Or to really be there for your kids, and not off on your cell phone or a million miles away? So that's what mindfulness is all about. The practice makes you wiser as well. It puts you in the driver's seat of your life. When you think about it, do you really know where your thoughts come from? They just kind of come up from nowhere, but where they're coming from is from your past. And do you really want your past to dictate your future, or do you want to be tuned in and create your future? So meditation puts you in the driver's seat of your life. You get to make the decisions, because you're not caught in storylines and dramas and off in la-la land. You're really here, and you can create the direction you want in your own life with meditation. Grab a cushion, put it under your butt, and make sure that your knees are below your hips. Put a meaningful object in front of you. It doesn't have to be some fancy shrine, but if Jesus works for you, or Buddha, or just someone that's really inspired you in your life, maybe put a little picture up in front of you. I encourage you to practice first thing in the morning. And I'm talking first thing. You wake up, use the restroom, don't even make that cup of coffee. Get right to your meditation cushion, because you know once your mind gets going, you're not going to sit. So get to your meditation cushion first thing in the morning. Everyone asks me how long should I meditate. You know, ideally you're going to meditate long enough until you feel peaceful, calm, and at ease, so that you go out into the world and be in control of your life, and not bring stress and anxiety into the world, but bring peace into the world. But if that is 10 minutes is all you have, 20 minutes, then that's what you do. What I want to see happen is for you to have a daily practice. I'd rather you sit for 10 minutes every day than for sit for half an hour once a week. So don't worry about the time too much. What I want you to do is once you do pick a time, stick to it. So say it's 10 minutes. What I want you to do is grab a timer. It could be your phone. Put your phone on silent mode, airplane mode. Set a timer. Put it behind you where you can't see it, and you're not going to be inclined to touch it. I don't want you checking in and throughout your meditation to see where you're at. Put that timer there and forget about it. And that's about it for your daily practice. You want to be in a quiet place where no one's going to disturb you. You set the timer, put it behind you, and now it's time to get into your meditation posture. There's four positions that you can meditate in. You can meditate while you're seated, standing, lying down, but keep those eyes open so you don't fall asleep and don't practice on your bed or you'll definitely fall asleep and sitting. But what we're going to talk about today is mostly seated posture. So for your seated posture, spine is straight. You can imagine a stack of golden coins or maybe a golden thread that's pulled through your spine and it pulls you nice and straight. And then you gently tuck your chin. Your arms or your shoulders are not too far forward, not too far back. You can rest your hands on your knees or you can use this posture here where you rest your right palm and your left. Thumbs are gently touching, just a few finger widths below your navel. Your gaze goes slightly down, three to five feet in front of you. And your eyes can be slightly opened or just gently closed all the way. Your shoulders are not too far forward, not too far back. And you want a little bit of air under your armpits so that it helps to keep you more alert and awake. So now we're ready to jump into what I hope will become your daily mindfulness meditation practice. You know the posture, but now you just have to know what you're doing during the actual practice. So I'm going to give you two analogies for the practice. The first one is that you're on the bank of a river. The thoughts are the river flowing past. Usually you're in that river. You're caught by every thought and sensation and movement of your mind. But this time during this practice, I want you to sit on that river bank and I want you to watch the thoughts go by. But what's going to happen is you're going to get pulled into that river again and again. And be nice to yourself. When you get pulled into that river, all I want you to do is say to yourself, thinking, or maybe not now, not now. Or even thank you, thank you. And just return to the river bank edge. So I want you to keep coming back again and again. A lot of people think they're not meditating properly because they're having thoughts. Thoughts are normal. But what you're going to do is when you get caught in the thoughts, I want you to come back again and again. I'm going to give you one more analogy to help out. Imagine a clear, crystal clear blue sky. That's your true nature. The thoughts are like the clouds. So the clouds move in through your awareness. Sometimes those clouds can get pretty heavy as you know. But what I want you to do is just let those thoughts go on by. They're not a problem. So let the clouds go right through that crystal clear blue sky of your mind. Let's return to the posture that we talked about earlier in the video. Find yourself in that comfortable, upright posture, whether it's in a chair or whether you're seated in a meditation posture. And I want you to gently close your eyes. And I'm going to practice with you. But I'm going to guide you through this next 10 minutes together. As always, we want to start with a few deep breaths. We're breathing in and out through the nose. I want you to imagine like your body is a tank. And there's three sections to that tank. One in the belly, one in the chest, and one at the upper chest or up by your shoulders. What you're doing is you're filling up that vessel from bottom to top. It's okay at this point to intentionally make the breath a long breath. I want you to feel the difference between the in-breath and the out-breath. Feel how the in-breath is expanding your shoulders up and out. And then feel the exhale as your belly sinks back down. And here you are enjoying a nice, deep, full inhale and exhale. Next I want you to allow the breath to return to normal, no longer controlling the breath. Just breathing naturally. And what's very helpful here is to bring a slight smile to your face. Just turn the corners of those lips up a little bit. And just think, may I be happy, may I be well, may I be safe, may I be peaceful and at ease. You can even repeat to yourself after me. May I be happy, may I be well, may I be safe, may I be peaceful and at ease. And I want you to feel that in your body, like you really love yourself, like you're proud of yourself for taking this time to care for yourself. And just take a couple of breaths and feel into that loving kindness. So now that you've practiced loving kindness for yourself, let's bring it out to those that you love in the world. Let's also bring it out to strangers, animals, humans, people all over the world. And just repeat to yourself after me, may you be happy, may you be well, may you be safe, may you be peaceful and at ease. And bring that little smile to your face. And see if you can feel that in every cell of your body. You truly want everyone to be happy and it actually affects you too as well because you want to be happy. It's common to have your mind moving very quickly first thing in the morning. So what I want you to do is practice four, three, five breathing. You're going to breathe in for a count of four, hold for three, exhale for five. I'll count the first one for you. So breathing in one, two, three, four, hold for three, one, two, three, exhale for five, one, two, three, four, five. I'm going to be quiet for a few and you do that on your own. Breathing in for four, hold for three, exhale for five. And when you're ready, you can allow the breath to return back to normal. Now all I want you to do is simply watch your breath moving in and out of the body. When you get pulled away, which is totally normal, as soon as you catch yourself, I want you to gently say, thinking, thinking, and return to the awareness of the breath moving in and out of the body. Now it's totally normal that you already got pulled away by thoughts, storylines, and dramas. Just a reminder, the instruction is when you get pulled away by thoughts, simply say thinking, thinking, and return to the awareness of the breath. If you have to come back a million times in this one session, that's perfectly fine. And I want to give you a few more ways to drop into your practice. It's normal in the beginning to have your mind racing and not wanting to be still. So what we can do now is tune into our belly. You can even place your hand on your belly. And as you breathe in, notice how your abdomen rises. And as you breathe out, notice how your abdomen falls. And all I want you to do is note rising on the inhale, falling on the exhale. So I'll be quiet for a few moments so that you can do this practice on your own. Breathing in rising, breathing out falling. Just noting gently to yourself. And when you're ready, come on back to home base. No longer controlling the breathing. And home base is always just conscious of the breath moving in and out. And as always, your job is to come back. When you get pulled away by thoughts, simply say thinking, thinking, and come on back. It's like you got pulled into the river of thoughts. You got pulled around a little bit. But now it's time to climb on back out, shake off that water, and sit back on the edge of that river bank. Coming back to awareness of the breath moving in and out of the body. And now we're going to tune into the senses. This is a great way to further tune in. And what I want you to do is just notice the tingling sensation in your toes. I know it sounds strange, but have you ever noticed what it feels like to have toes? Are they tingling? Warm? Cold? Really feel your toes. And then tune into your feet. Move up to the calves. If you're in seated posture, what's it feel like to have your calves pushed down into the earth? Move up to your thighs, breathing in, breathing out, aware of your thighs. Move up to your bottom. What's it feel like for your bottom to be pushed into the earth, into your cushion? Feel that weight and stability. If there's something in your posture that feels uncomfortable or unsettled, don't worry about that. Tune into what does feel settled and does feel solid. Filled like a mountain, but a moving mountain as the breath moves in and out. Let's move up to your belly. This is a really juicy one. Tune into the rising and falling of your belly. A lot of times we hold our belly in. You're here in the privacy of your own practice. Just let it hang out. Hang forward and down. Breathing in, breathing out, aware of the belly rising and falling. Bring your awareness to your back body. What's the back feel like as the breath moves in and out? You don't just feel the breath in your chest. You can feel it in your back body too. Can you feel your shoulders expanding up and out and then back down? Feel your arms, feel your hands, feel the heat of your hands above your knees or your palms together. Move up to your shoulders, your neck. Now breathe in and out, aware of your skull, of your face. It's so common to have some tension around the eyes and the jaw. On an exhale, see if you can just release whatever you're holding onto. It's okay if it's audible. Breathe in. You can even take a few breaths in and out through the mouth. In through the nose, out through the mouth. And now bring awareness to the entire body from head to toe. Feel that same tingling you felt in your toes all around your body. Feel three inches out from your body. Now go ahead and feel three inches in. Can you maybe even feel your heart beating a little bit? And as always, we return to home base. You completed a body scan. So come on back to the breath. It's almost too simple. You might miss it. Enjoy all the sensations of that breath. Breathing in, breathing out. I'll be quiet for a few moments. And just remember the instruction. Just noticing the texture of your breath, the sensation of the breath. Let's talk about what you're going to be aware of right now. I know the thoughts seem so interesting, so you actually have to get interested in the breath. So tune into the length of the breath. A short breath just goes to your upper chest. A medium breath goes down to about the solar plexus. And a long breath goes down to the belly. And I don't want you to change anything. Just tune in and note the length of the breath. You can note breathing in medium, breathing out medium. So go ahead. I'll be quiet for a few moments and just tune into the length of the breath. If you get pulled away by thoughts, as always, come on back. Thinking thinking. Breathing in, breathing out, noticing the length of the breath and not trying to change it. And now we'll make a slight change. The breath conditions the body. You may have noticed this one a friend says, calm down, take a deep breath. It's true. To calm your body and mind, you do want a nice long breath, a nice cool breath, and a very fine breath versus a choppy breath. So allow the breath to get a little bit longer. You're not forcing the breath. Just allow it to go where it wants to go. Breathing in, breathing out, allowing the breath to become longer. If there's any background noise in your house, that's not a problem. You can just note to yourself, hearing, hearing, don't have to follow it. Bring it right into your practice. It's almost impossible to have a completely quiet place. Breathing in, breathing out, allowing the breath to become longer. Allow the breath to become a bit finer. And allow the breath to become a little bit cooler. Maybe the pause between breaths wants to get a little bit longer. And don't forget as you're here, breathing in, breathing out, keep that small smile on your face. Since the body and mind are interdependent, you want to let your body know everything's okay and a smile is a great way to do that. It's letting your mind and body know you want to be here. Breathing in, breathing out, and here you find yourself, solid like a mountain, at ease like a sleeping child, but still alert like a sentinel or guard for the mind. You want to stay in tune with the breath, but you don't want to try too hard because that can just bring up anxiety. But you also don't want to zone out and fall asleep either. So you're trying to find that middle ground, not too tight, not too loose, at ease, but still alert. At this point, if you wanted to sit longer, you could pause this video and you could sit as long as you like, simply being aware of the breath moving in and out of the body. Every time you get pulled away, say thinking, thinking, not now, not now, something like that to yourself and come on back. So we're almost to the end of our session. You're doing a great job. I want you to finish strong. This is important so that you'll want to come back and sit again tomorrow. So really put in a little bit more effort right here near the end. If you're pulled away by thoughts, storylines, and dramas, what you're doing later today or what happened yesterday, put a little more effort in at the end. Bring that smile to your face. You want to finish on a really good note, and then you'll come back tomorrow. Breathing in, breathing out, come on back. And with that sense of loving kindness for yourself and all beings, with a sense that you've done something good for yourself to start your day right. In a moment, you'll hear the sound of a bell. And instead of saying to yourself, oh, it's over. I can get into the busyness of my life. I want you to hear the sound of the bell. I want you to hear the sound of the bell from start to finish. And simply note to yourself, hearing, hearing. I almost want you to feel what it feels like to hear. See how long you can hear the bell. And then to end your session, place your hands in Anjali Mudra in front of your chest. You can leave a little space between your palms, and you can imagine there's a beautiful gem there. And that's symbolic of your perfect nature. Sometimes you get a little dust on that gem. But what you just did is wipe that dust off. And now you can see your perfect limitless nature. And you're ready to go interact with friends and family and coworkers for your day. You gently bow forward. And you think, may my practice benefit me and all beings. Namaste.