hello from beautiful British Columbia
Canada and today I'm going to share
something with you a few years ago I was
going through a very difficult period in
my life and in a moment of quiet
desperation I decided to register for a
six-week meditation course to help me
cope with some of the anxiety and some
of the emotions that I was experiencing
after that I was eager to learn more so
I also registered for a 2-day silent
meditation retreat and the things that I
learned from the course and from the
retreat have had such a profound impact
on my life and these are things I want
to share with you today now as a
disclaimer I am NOT a meditation guru or
expert and it's also not in my
philosophy to do things in a way that
feels strict or extreme so I'm just
gonna encourage you to do what feels
good and I love the yogi who taught our
course because he shared a very similar
philosophy he was always just
encouraging us to do our best because
essentially he didn't want to scare us
away from all of the benefits of
mindfulness and meditation now also keep
in mind that I am packing six weeks of
information into three very short videos
so I'm also going to encourage you to
take the time after each video to really
relish in the moments I've also split it
up into three videos to give you the
opportunity to practice each of the
steps before you delve into learning
some new ones now in case you're
wondering the type of meditation that I
learned is called the pasado meditation
but possum adjust means insight or
awareness or mindfulness but I'll
explain this more as we get into it for
now just enjoy it as the guided
meditation that it is I hope that you
find this as useful as I did to learn
now let's get started
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all right so begin by finding a
comfortable seat some Yogi's say it
matters how you cross your legs
but because we're beginners let's just
find any seat that feels comfortable and
that puts you at ease
place your hands either on your knees or
in your lap whichever you prefer I like
to place one hand on top of the other
palms facing upward in my lap where the
thumbs touching aligned with my nose but
again we're beginners so just do what
feels good if you have some kind of
injury do what you need to do to find
support this might mean propping up your
back sitting in a chair supporting your
knees with a pillow or keeping your legs
straight ultimately you know what feels
best for your body and if you have no
injuries try to find a seated upright
cross-legged position that feels most
comfortable once you find a comfortable
seat you want to sit up straight but you
also don't want to forcefully elongate
that just doesn't feel natural and
you'll get tired very quickly you also
want to make sure you're not rounding
through your neck so just press your
chin back a little bit and now close
your eyes and find some column
[Music]
once you've found a grounding position
will aim to hold it so through the
meditation process we don't want to
fidget or move this can be the hardest
part but it gets easier with practice
now if you're new to meditation you may
find that after a few minutes your leg
might go numb fall asleep or start to
tingle ideally you want to ride this
feeling out but if you really can't and
you feel you need to move will cover the
techniques on how to go about doing this
in a mindful way in the third video of
this series for now just find a
comfortable seat and hand positioning
and hold it finally tuned in to the
sensations
[Music]
it all comes down to the breath take a
moment to tune into your natural
breathing rhythm you don't need to take
longer inhales or more forceful exhales
just breathe as you normally would in
and out through your nose into your
belly now usually when we're unconscious
of the breath we breathe into the chest
which is more often how one breathes
went in the fight-or-flight response
breathing into the belly sends
relaxation signals to the mind and
mimics the breath when we are at rest
like when we're sleeping have you ever
watched a baby breathing the belly
visibly rises and falls breathing into
the belly also helps to gently massage
the internal organs and helps us become
more aware of the sensations in the
abdomen
the beauty of a pasta is that it allows
for a moment-to-moment investigation of
the mind-body process through a calm
open and compassionate awareness we
learned to observe our experience from a
place of spacious stillness which
enables us to experience clarity and
insight into the nature of who we are so
now we become aware of the breath when
breathing in you feel that your abdomen
is rising and when you exhale you feel
your abdomen is dropping now all I want
you to do is label this breathing so as
you inhale you say silently to yourself
in your mind rising rising rising and as
you exhale you say silently to yourself
in your mind falling falling falling
simply describing the rising and falling
motion of the belly as it happens
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so you continue rising rising rising and
falling falling falling remember I said
that it always comes down to the breath
so if your mind has wandered for a
little bit and you become aware of it
simply bring that awareness back to the
breath continuously labeling it rising
rising rising falling falling falling
[Music]
all right so I'm gonna pause it there so
we have a brief moment to recap in this
video we've really just learned the
basics which is essentially to find a
comfortable seat and to remember to
always return to the breath labeling it
as the abdomen rises and as it falls
pretty simple right another question is
what do you do if certain sensations or
emotions arise or if certain thoughts
enter into the mind while you're
meditating this is something we're going
to dive into in the next video so stay
tuned for that one all right I'm gonna
sign off now as my teacher always did by
saying meta always meta just means in
loving kindness and directing
well-wishes towards other people so
we're gonna say together now are you
ready
meta always
[Music]