Guided Meditation

Observe your life for one whole minute. What difference does your being there make?

Interesting, isn’t it.

If you’ve never tried it before, the results might have surprised you.

As a yoga and meditation teacher I have found that while students enjoy learning how to meditate and experiencing the wonderful benefits, what is more challenging is releasing the “stuff” that prevents complete joy and bliss from manifesting. Sure, there is a sense of peace, but there are other even more wonderful experiences that will happen, if room is made for them. The “stuff” that I’m referring to here is different from one person to another but it acts like a pile of boxes that are stacked in front of a closed door. Once they are removed, meditation unlocks the door and then you have the choice to open it and enter.

Give yourself permission to evolve and change

How do you value yourself?
Prioritizing your life lets you see where you put your own needs and then do something about it.

With meditation, there’s no room for you and your excess thoughts. If you allow thoughts to enter and then follow them, that’s when you find that you’re not experiencing the bliss that you know is there, inside.
If you are new to meditation, thoughts WILL intrude. But hold onto either an affirmation, a mantra, or the image of a light in order to use them like a shield to protect you from unwanted thoughts.
Like all practices, once it becomes a regular habit, you become better at it and can enter it with ease.

Building confidence relies on thinking you are worth it and by acting upon it. In the opening question at the start of this posting, what was your mind drawn to?
If it was an event or attribute that made you feel happy, then that’s good. If, however, you found that you were drawn to past mistakes, then it becomes necessary to stop judging yourself, or others, and look at ways to create a mind-shift.
There are two inner voices, or thoughts, that can form in your mind; one is always wrong. These mistaken and erroneous thoughts are formed by habit, just as thinking positively about yourself and the world in general develop through continued practice.

You CAN change your mind and not cling to past opinions if you know or find them to be wrong.
It is never too late to begin meditation, nor is it too late to change your mind. Just because you are walking down a certain path doesn't mean that you need to follow it all the way to the end. It’s hard to take a different path, leaving what you knew, but you can make a mental (or physical if that’s what you want) break from what’s preventing you from making different choices. Sometimes all it takes is a word from someone, an inspiring book you have read, or a strong internal feeling that arises from meditation to spur you to make a positive difference in your life.

Researchers have conducted sensory meditation studies and have found that mental characteristics that were previously regarded as fixed and unchangeable can in fact be altered by mental training such as meditation.

The brain has an ability called Neuroplasticity, in which new pathways (thought patterns) and new brain cells can form.
You’re not stuck with your current way of thinking, unless you choose to.

Additional studies have also found that electrical activity is in fact heightened during meditation in an area of the brain called the left prefrontal cortex, which is situated just behind the forehead. Scientists have associated activity in this region with positive emotions, as opposed to the right prefrontal cortex, which is associated with negative responses in an individual’s feelings and emotions.

Out With The Old, In The New
Few people can honestly say that they know what they should do with their life. They wander and drift having some moments of clarity, only to find that what they are doing loses its momentum.

Meditation trains the mind to maintain single-pointed focus. This promotes greater awareness of what is empowering and what is detracting you from living your best life and having fun while you do it.

I’ve always found it useful to make a list of my goals and intentions. I encourage you to do likewise; otherwise before you know it every good thing that presents itself will seem like the right thing. After all, when making a meal, you don’t add every healthy item to the recipe. You are selective to ensure that the food turns out just as you want it to.

Meditation is one of the simplest methods to help you look deep within and determine what will actually make you happy. Then the steps that you need to take and live by in order to attain it fall into place with ease.

Life is a wonderful gift and meditation helps to sweep away confusion and reveal a clear path free from obstacles.

Guided Meditation

Surroundings
As always before you begin your meditation practice, ensure that you find a quiet place with no distractions such as the telephone and that your clothes are comfortable. Your chosen place for meditation can be either indoors or outdoors but ensure that the temperature is not too hot or cold.
Try to develop a habit of meditating in the same place. Then once you are ane to enter into meditation with ease, you will find that you gravitate to meditation easily and oblivious to potential disruptions.

Sit as comfortably as you can, with the spine lengthened.
Close your eyes, and use the power of the breath to relax the body and mind
Follow the breath from the tip of the nose to the base of the lung
Follow the breath all the way out again.
Don’t rush this process
Continue following the breath until you feel completely relaxed

Allow the exhalation to become twice as deep as the inhalation.
Continue to notice the rate and rhythm of the breath.
Maintain attention only on your steady and even breath

With each breath, release your thoughts. Do not follow them or struggle with them.
Acknowledge they are there and allow them to drift by.
If you are visual, you can see the thoughts as images of clouds and let them drift away against the backdrop of a blue sky.

Return to the flow of the breath

With the breath gentle and flowing, notice the stillness within you. Focus on the space between each breath.
Thoughts lessen.
Stay with the deep, rhythmic breath
Enter into the space between each breath

NOTE: Even if this stillness lasts for a few seconds, you have been meditating and with practice the stillness lasts longer. When you come aware that you are experiencing stillness, it occurs with a thought such as “I am experiencing stillness.” Release that thought and return to the breath and then the stillness.

Feel the expansive abundance of the stillness
Feel the oneness with peace

When you are complete, allow the eyes to slowly open.
Notice how you feel and the state of your mind.

Know that you can return to this state of mind, simply by returning to observing the rhythmic flow of the breath.

Action
Developing awareness in all situations, including your own feelings and reactions, enables you to take control of what you think and therefore do. It’s up to you to determine what kind of reaction, and ultimately reality, you are going to create.

Keep a journal where you can write down your experiences and any goals or aspirations that arise.

Focus on the present and carry peace and joy around inside you. You will eliminate feelings of irritation and anxiety and live a healthier, happier life not only when times are going well, but especially when they are tough because you have the resources now to draw on the happiness and bliss that flows within.

Meditation is a great teacher and you have the resources within you to have a truly amazing life. It is YOU who has the ability to empower yourself and take the first steps to move forward on your life’s purpose, rather than standing still.
You are a remarkable individual with untapped possibilities and you CAN have amazing success with all of your endeavors.

Observe Your Life
Next time you observe your life for one minute, what is it like this time?