Basics 3
Overcome some of the more common obstacles in meditation and learn how to apply mindfulness to your everyday life.
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So welcome back to the Headspace journey and to day 21. Now over the next 10 days, we're gonna have a look at how you can really take this greater sense of calm and clarity, this sense of awareness and actually integrate it into everyday life. I think the easiest way to think about this is of being sort of present with whatever you're doing in everyday life, rather than being distracted, actually being engaged with what's happening so often we're not, and our mind is elsewhere. So what this training does each day, when we sit down and train the mind in this way, at the same time we're actually training it and getting it ready for everyday life. So take a moment or two now just to to get comfortable either on your chair, on the floor or wherever you're sitting. Remember eyes open. We're gonna start in the same way. And when you're ready, just take in a couple of nice, big deep breaths, breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth. And with the next out breath just gently closing the eyelids. And just allowing the breath to return to its natural rhythm. As you just start to settle in to those physical sensations. Just taking a few moments to notice both the physical sensations and also any sounds around you. And as you just bring the attention back to the body now just starting to notice how the body feels, whether there's a sense of heaviness or lightness in the body of restlessness or stillness. Remember the easiest way of building up a picture of how the body feels. It's just mentally scanning down through the body. Let's take the next 20 or 30 seconds to work your way evenly down through the body. Just noticing those places of comfort and discomfort. And as you continue to scan down just getting a sense now of that underlying mood or feeling if there's anything particularly strong around at the moment. As you continue down towards the toes. And then exactly the same way as we've done before. Just taking a moment to be sure about your motivation. So knowing exactly why you're doing what you're doing right now, and just making sure that part of that motivation is at least sort of recognizing or acknowledging the impact this can have on the people around you as well as for yourself. And then if you haven't done already just starting to settle the attention on the breath now. You're settling into the natural rhythm of the breath in the body that rising and falling sensation. And just to help you maintain that focus on the breath just silently counting the breaths as they pass. If you find that it's a distraction, if you prefer then you can just stay with each breath one at a time but without counting. Whichever you find easiest. Oh, as soon as you see that the mind's being distracted in...
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About your teachers
- More about Andy
A former Buddhist monk, Andy has guided people in meditation and mindfulness for 20 years. In his mission to make these practices accessible to all, he co-created the Headspace app in 2010.
- More about Eve
Eve is a mindfulness teacher, overseeing Headspace’s meditation curriculum. She is passionate about sharing meditation to help others feel less stressed and experience more compassion in their lives.
- More about Dora
As a meditation teacher, Dora encourages others to live, breathe, and be with the fullness of their experiences. She loves meditation’s power to create community and bring clarity to people’s minds.
- More about Kessonga
Kessonga has been an acupuncturists, therapist, and meditation teacher, working to bring mindfulness to the diverse populations of the world.
- More about Rosie
Rosie Acosta has studied yoga and mindfulness for more than 20 years and taught for over a decade. Rosie’s mission is to help others overcome adversity and experience radical love.
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