- I feel like I hear it everyday,
"Kati, you should meditate,
"it'll change your life,
"it'll help you feel so much better."
I even recently have had friends and family
telling me that they are starting to do it
and I should do it to,
so I'm getting it I feel like from all angles.
And I know,
I know I should,
I mean, let's be honest.
I've known for years just how beneficial meditation is.
If you don't remember,
I sat down with Suze at Unplugged Meditation
two years ago or so to learn about it.
She was telling me why it works
and why it helps,
and it was cool.
- Meditation is a dance,
it's a dance between thinking
and redirecting your brain to that single point of awareness
like your breath.
So the way it works is there's three things
that happen in every meditation.
One is you kind of bring your awareness to the breath
or a word or a smell, some breathing,
then I let my mind go
and I'm just kinda here and it's now,
and it feels good and I'm actually not thinking.
And then (clicks) my mind wanders,
what am I doing for dinner tonight?
Or something random.
Then I think to myself,
oh, I'm not meditating anymore,
so I bring it back.
Breathe, let it go, mind wanders,
bring it back.
And I keep doing this because meditation's like a bicep curl
for the brain.
The more you are aware of your thoughts
and choose to redirect them
to that single point of awareness,
you actually build your prefrontal cortex.
- Oh, interesting.
- So this actually builds the gray matter of your brain.
Wandering mind and actively choosing to redirect it
is that bicep curl for the brain,
and the prefrontal cortex is where focus, memory,
compassion, executive decision making are.
- It's like our control center,
I've always thought
it's really how we choose to live our life,
all happens here.
- Right, and the best part about it
is it shrinks your amygdala, which is--
- Oh, it's your fire alarm.
- Exactly, stress and anxiety,
so that gets smaller.
- That yes, I should and I will meditate
for at least 10 minutes a day.
So easy, she even gave me access to their app,
and I was like, awesome,
I can totally do this.
But I didn't,
and I finished the interview,
went about my day and life as if it never happened,
as if I never learned about it.
I mean, changing is hard
and I wasn't really ready to start,
and there's always an easy or obvious reason to put it off.
I'm too busy,
I'm too tired,
I'm too something.
And so, yeah.
Every time I tried to do it myself,
I just can't,
my monkey mind,
yes, I called it a monkey mind
because it swings from thought to thought
without any pause in between.
It's kinda like a monkey swinging in the trees.
Anyways, it pulls me in a million directions
and I forget to focus on the one thing
that I'm supposed to be focusing on, my breath.
Oops, I just forgot about it again,
see how that goes?
And that's why I want to take you along
on my journey to meditation.
A beginners guide,
like a super, super, duper beginner.
So let's just get right into it.
Okay, let's do this,
we can do this.
This will be comfortable,
I love my bed,
oh my God,
this is so comfortable.
Focus on the breathing,
in and out.
This is so relaxing,
oh my God,
I'm gonna fall asleep,
I better sit up.
Oh, okay, okay,
we can do this,
look at us, we're meditating,
We're doing this,
it's so good for us,
oh my God.
We are so into wellness right now,
oh, that's not comfortable,
oh, too far back.
Wait, okay, hmm,
let me see.
I can do this.
Relax, just focus on your breath,
ugh, damn it,
this isn't working either.
Okay, let's try some place else,
let me stretch it,
oh, stretch it out, ah, yep.
Okay, okay, we're gonna lay on my yoga mat,
I can do this.
This is usually really comfortable,
I've been Savasaning forever.
Ugh, stretch it out, out, okay.
Let's try this again.
Just in through your nose,
nope, wait, don't wanna sleep.
Shit, okay, we're doing this all wrong,
we can sit cross legged, no Savasana.
Okay, let's just get kinda comfortable,
here we go.
Now my hair's to clingy, ugh, okay.
Just breathe, I can feel my butt bones
going into that yoga mat,
it's just not very comfortable.
Let me get readjusted here.
I feel like I'm leaning forward,
maybe, I don't know if this is comfortable.
My ankle's digging into my leg.
Oh, this isn't gonna work,
let's try some place else.
Let's not give up,
we got this.
Okay, my couch,
one of my favorite lounge places.
We can get comfortable here,
yep, yep, get that lumbar support,
lean all the way back.
Here we go,
shoulders down and back.
Let's start to breathe,
oh, let's get my pillow,
I love this cuddle pillow.
Here we go.
It's so soothing, so fuzzy.
Okay, now we can breathe,
we can do this.
I can definitely,
I'm meditating, look at me.
In through my nose,
out through my nose.
Did I get the groceries?
Don't think about that Kati,
back to the breath.
In through your nose,
out through your nose,
just feel the breath on the edges of your nose.
I feel like I should probably sweep the floor,
stop thinking about that.
Back to the breath.
In through your nose,
out through your nose.
This does feel pretty good,
I should do this more often.
I should do a lot of things more often,
back to the breath, Kati.
In through your nose,
out through your nose,
you can feel your weight into the back of the couch
and your butt into the bottom of your couch.
It feels so good.
Breathing in through your nose,
out through your nose.
In through your nose,
out through your nose.
Reminds me of this time I was in Costa Rica
floating in the water where my ears were below the water,
it felt so good, so relaxing.
Back to that breath, Kati,
let's not get distracted.
In through our nose,
out through our nose.
Breathing steady, ugh,
I got a tickle,
I hate that, ugh, okay.
We can still get back into this,
we got this, we're meditating.
Breathing in through our nose,
out through our nose.
Look at us,
so relaxed, you feel all the weight
off of your neck and shoulders,
we just focus on that breath.
Can feel it brush across the top of my lip,
in through my nose
and out through my nose.
I guess I did it,
I didn't think I could.
My brain runs a million miles a minute, you guys,
but I swear to God,
I feel so much better.
My shoulders are relaxed,
look at me.
If I can do it,
I know that you can do it.
Just keep bringing it back to your breath,
ugh, my neck even feels better,
oh my God.
It's like I'm a brand new woman.
Now you give it a try,
I think you can do it too.
(upbeat music)