Health Journal Online

Tag: Podcast

Filling the Body With Light: 12 Minute Meditation
Vidyamala Burch guides us through a calming body scan meditation that focuses on bringing light and ease into the body.
This guided body scan for filling the body with light invites you to imagine a soft, soothing sensation radiating throughout your body, helping to ease any tension and cultivate a sense of relaxation. As you move through this meditation, you’ll have the opportunity to release stress and connect deeply with a feeling of inner peace, bringing lightness into your body and mind.

A Guided Meditation for Filling the Body with Light
1. Begin by lying down. If this is uncomfortable for any reason, then of course, adopt another posture.
2. Allow your awareness to settle down into the body. Take a deep breath in and then on the outbreath, give the weight up to gravity. Drop awareness into the points of contact between the body and the surface it’s resting upon.
3. Allow the breathing to settle and to find its own natural rhythm. Sense the swelling on the in breath and subsiding on the out breath in the whole body.
4. Let your awareness flow down through the body, down through the legs all the way into the toes, feeling any sensations in the toes. If you can’t feel anything for any reason, that’s fine. Just see if you can be aware of the toes of inhabiting the toes with awareness.
5. Imagine that the toes are filled with light, with spaciousness, with ease. Let the sense flow down into the feet, the tops, the ankles. Imagine the feet drenched in light, drenched in radiance, drenched and open in their softness.
6. Next, allow the sense to pour up through the ankles into the lower legs. Let this quality of light of radiance overflow and pour into the knees, filling into the shape of the knees, whatever position they’re in. Visualize it pulling up and saturating the thighs, the big muscles of the thighs, the bones, the thighs full of this radiant awareness.
7. If you’ve got any discomfort anywhere in the legs of the feet, see if it can be soothed and softened by this quality of light and radiance. Next, envision it pouring up through the hips and the buttocks. Let the buttocks be soft, whether you’re lying down or sitting. Full of life, full of radiance.
8. Next, allow this quality to pour up and to fill the abdomen, the belly. Feel it deep inside the body, noticing the way the abdomen swells a little bit on the end breath and subsides on the outbreath, being careful not to force or strain, letting this be the natural breath with receptive awareness. Now allow this quality of light to pour up into the whole chest area, the ribs and the lungs filled with the rhythm of breathing.
9. Feel the breath expanding the face on the in breath and subsiding the face on the outbreath. Be aware of the whole front of the torso, the abdomen and the chest full of light. Allow awareness to rest in the rhythm of breathing. Expanding. Subsiding. Expanding. Subsiding.
10. Now allow your awareness to flow all the way down to the buttocks and the back of the body. Let this quality of light pour up into the lower back. Can you feel breathing expressing itself in the lower back in any way? Perhaps an expanding and a subsiding. Maybe the angle or the shape is changing a little bit with each in and out breath. If there’s any discomfort, see if you can let it be soothed and softened by this quality of light, radiance, and the rhythm of breathing.
11. Now imagine this quality pouring up through the whole back of the body, the middle back and the upper back, the length of the spine, the breadth of the back. Notice the rhythm of breathing, expressing itself in the whole back of the body. Opening, subsiding, opening, subsiding, filling the whole torso, the front, the back, the sides, the inside, the surface. Feel the soothing, gentle lights and the rhythm of breathing and the whole torso soothing any hard edges, softening any contraction.
12. Let this quality pour through the shoulders, all the way down to the very tips of the fingers. Envision the shoulders, the arms, the hands, the fingers all becoming drenched and saturated and light. Feel the gentle, soothing quality, letting the hands rest in gravity. Let the shoulders fall away from the midline of the body as the arms rest in gravity.
13. Now allow your awareness to flow up into the neck and the head. If you’re lying down, make sure you’re giving the weight of the head up to the pillow with the cushion fully. If you’re sitting, have the head poised on the top of the neck as best you can. Allow this quality of light and radiance to completely saturate the whole head, even the brain. Even the brain can rest in this quality of brightness! Feel it moving through your whole face: forehead, eyes, cheeks, nose, lips, jaw, tongue, mouth. Imagine them all full of softness, full of light.
14. Finally, let’s expand awareness to the whole body: the legs, the torso, the arms, neck, head, face. Rest your awareness very deeply inside this quality of the whole body being filled with light, filled with ease, or the possibility of ease, and breathing. Any hard edges, any contraction soothed and eased by breath by light, by this quality of resting here moment by moment.
15. As we begin to prepare to bring this meditation to a close, see how it feels to form an intention to take this quality with you into your day, if you’re doing this during the day, or into your sleep, if you’re doing it in the evening. This quality of rest is light, brightness, and softness. When it comes time to move, do it gently and carefully as you prepare to engage with whatever you’re going to do next. Thank you so much for practicing with me today.
Source link
September 26, 2024
12 Minute Meditation for Noticing What’s Present and What Isn’t
Explore this mediation inspired by the Japanese concept of ma, which refers to “the spaces between everything.”
Today’s practice offers a unique approach to training our attention and invites us to explore the empty spaces that exist all around us and inside us.

For instance, we might think of the space between the plants in the garden, or between the notes in a song. It can also be emotional space, like the silences in a conversation. Or the little gaps between our thoughts and emotions.

Often, we don’t even notice these empty spaces—but bringing our awareness to them can reveal new meaning and beauty. By exploring the space in-between through this mindfulness practice, we also enhance our creativity, noticing skills, and awareness.

A Guided Meditation for Noticing What’s Present and What Isn’t
1. This practice is inspired by the Japanese notion of Ma, the idea of examining that space that exists between everything that’s not actually empty, but is full of potential.
2. Start by finding a comfortable posture. When you’re ready, you can simply begin to lower or close your eyes, whichever is most comfortable for you.
3. Now, bring awareness to your breath. Watch and feel the rise and fall of the inhale and exhale. Then, tune also to the spaces between. What is the moment when the exhale finishes before it turns into the inhale? Or the inhale turns into the exhale? Allow your awareness to rest in the stillness between your breaths.
4. Next, turn your attention to your heartbeat, your pulse. See if you can find that in your body, the sensations or sounds of your heartbeat, and the spaces between each heartbeat.
5. Whether you’re sitting or laying down, notice now spaces where your body makes contact with the world. What’s behind or underneath you? Feel where your skin makes contact with your clothing, and tune your awareness to these sensations and the spaces between.
6. Scanning through your body, notice sensations as you might in a body scan, deeper in your body. See if you can pick up on the spaces between, where you notice almost no sensation, or between sensations in space or in time.
7. Shifting to your other senses now, just listen and notice the sounds around you. Near or far, left or right. Notice all the sounds, and the sounds even within sounds, as well as the spaces and the silences between the sounds. Tune into smells and tastes as you breathe, noticing where these land and the spaces between.
8. Allow your eyes to open and be aware of when they go from closed to open. Holding your eyes steady, just notice what you see around you and within your field of vision. Furniture or other objects in the space around you. The shapes of all the objects in your field of vision, as well as shapes and sizes of the spaces in between. Beyond the objects, see the walls, the corners where walls come together. Rooms and the spaces between them. Is there perhaps something new you’ve never noticed before? When does light become shadow? Colors and hues—when does one color become the next? Continue to notice these and other spaces between in the physical space around you.
9. You can also explore your own mind, your own experience of the space between thoughts, emotions, memories in your mind. Rest there when you find it. Explore what’s happening, what could be happening, the potential in all of these spaces between. Continue here for the next few moments.
10. As you continue with the rest of your day, keep staying attuned to spaces between. Between inside and outside. The shapes between the clouds or the stars in the night sky. The lull between the waves of the ocean. Stillness between the raindrops. Space between you and other people, physical and emotional. Between a joke and a laugh, a question and an answer. Between waking and opening your eyes. Continue to seek out, explore, and rest in all of these spaces between and see if your perspective doesn’t slowly begin to shift on the world around you, and the world inside of you.
Never Miss a Meditation

Enter your email below to get new podcast episodes delivered straight to your inbox! You’ll also get insights from expert mindfulness teachers and exclusive deals on Mindful Shop products, events, and more.
Source link
September 14, 2024
A 12-Minute Meditation to Connect with What Matters Most to You
This week, Carley Hauck invites us to look within ourselves to affirm what it is that we love most, and to align with our values.
By connecting with our heart and remembering who and what we love, we also get to connect with our inner caring, protective instinct. This compassionate part of ourselves provides the motivation to choose beneficial actions, not just one time but over the days, weeks, and months of our lives.

This beautiful practice offers the start of a journey toward living our compassionate values in a deeper way, serving both ourselves and others in the process. We ask: When I love what I love, how might that support the greater good?

A Guided Meditation to Connect with What Matters Most to You
1. Begin by sitting comfortably. Notice your feet on the floor, and sit up tall, yet in a gentle posture. Bring your shoulders back and down, moving your neck side to side so that you can really allow yourself to let go of tension, or tightness, and come back into the body.
2. Breathe gently in and out of your heart. If it feels comfortable for you, you can place a hand on your heart. Or simply just notice the sensation of energy around your heart as you breathe in, as you breathe out.
3. Feeling this connection to your heart, start to name silently to yourself things that you love. It might sound like this: I love, I love, I love. Notice what flows easily when you think of things that you love. Continue this process, noticing all the things that arise and pass.
4. Out of all of these things that you love, what do you love so deeply that you would fight to protect it? There may be many things, but for this exercise right now, just choose one. Notice how that answer feels in your body. Is there this strong inner knowing, and where does that live in your body? Maybe it’s in your heart. Or your belly. Or your hands. Or your feet. Or it could even just be this coursing all through your body, this very strong sense of, “Yes, this is what really matters to me.”
5. Now begin to feel these physical sensations extend outwards into love and compassion, with your commitment to protect what you love. See if you can feel that energy extending out from your body, almost as if there is a light that is emanating from this commitment, the deeper knowing.
6. Now, how could you align greater action around what you love in your life? Take a moment and notice what arises, letting go of any judgmentsHow could I put more action into my life around what I really love?
7. Now allow yourself to envision: What does this look like to engage in this action on a monthly basis? A weekly basis? This isn’t some extra thing on your to do list. This is coming from a deeper sense of what matters, a deeper sense of motivation. What can you commit to today as your first step? How might you loving what you love support the greater good? How does this benefit others?
8. As the first step towards aligning and acting on your heartfelt commitment, it is important to name what your commitment is. Try saying, “I am committing to…” and see what arises. Think of it on a monthly basis, a weekly basis, a daily basis. What action steps are you committing to that align with this deeper truth of what really matters?
9. Now, I invite you to share these commitments with two other people in your life. Who are these people? Notice who comes to mind that you feel excited to share this with. When we are witnessed in our commitments, we have a sense of support and accountability to follow through on our actions.
10. Open your eyes when you feel ready. Start to wiggle fingers and toes, doing some movement in your chair. Before moving into your next activity, take a couple of minutes, maybe even ten, and write down what arose in this exercise. What are you committing to? What action steps are you taking? Who are you sharing your commitments with? Be the light and shine the light.
Never Miss a Meditation

Enter your email below to get new podcast episodes delivered straight to your inbox! You’ll also get insights from expert mindfulness teachers and exclusive deals on Mindful Shop products, events, and more.
Source link
September 12, 2024
Encourage Deep Breathing With A Guided Meditation
Explore this introduction to belly breathing to help you relax and reduce stress.
What is Belly Breathing?

Encourage deep breathing with belly breathing, you simply take long, conscious breaths. Ideally you breathe in for a count of three and breathe out for a count of five. Repeating this cycle will trigger the relaxation response—it’s the opposite of the fight-or-flight stress response in that you engage the nervous system to tell your body to relax and your mind to be at ease.

Two Basic Belly Breathing Tips

1. Breathe deeply. When you breathe deeply, your diaphragm at the base of your lungs pushes your belly out. This is belly breathing and is a natural way to breathe—you can see babies doing it.

2. As you exhale, gently press on your belly. As you breathe in, encourage your belly to expand, and as you breathe out, allow your belly to contract. You could even gently push your belly in with your hand when you breathe out to help you to do this, if it doesn’t come naturally to you.

Check Your Stress Levels with This Belly Breathing Practice

If the hand on your chest is moving but not your belly, you’re breathing in a shallow way.
1. Begin by finding a quiet place to sit or lie down. If practicing for the first time, lying down may make it easier for you to understand what barely breathing actually feels like. Remember that belly breathing is a natural way of breathing. If you look at a baby or young child, you’ll see that their belly seems to naturally expand and contract slowly and smoothly as they breathe in and out.
2. Once you’re settled and comfortable, place one palm gently around the area of your navel and the other palm on your chest. Continue to breathe normally, and just watch the movements of your hands. Does the hand on your belly move as you breathe in and out? And what about the hand on your chest? Which one moves the most, the hand on your belly or the hand on your chest?
3. If the hand on your chest is moving but not your belly, you’re breathing in a shallow way. By learning belly breathing, you’re likely to feel more relaxed and have more energy, and your body will be fed with more fresh oxygen
4. Keeping your hands on your belly and chest, begin by imagining there’s a balloon in your belly. When you breathe in, you’re inflating that balloon and when you breathe out, that balloon deflates. Now breathe in so that you fill the imaginary balloon in your belly as much as possible.
5. Hold your breath for about two seconds. And then breathe out slowly and smoothly as you can, using your mouth as if you’re blowing through a straw. Now let your breath be normal and natural again.
6. Notice how you feel. That was one belly breath. It was more exaggerated than an actual belly breath, but this technique helps to engage your relaxation response, making you counteract your feelings of stress. Just one breath in this way can help me to find some relaxation when you’re feeling tense, and you can do it at any time, wherever you are.
7. Now you can experiment with counting as you do belly breath. If you want, on your next breath, breathe deeply and smoothly, expanding your belly as you slowly count to four. One, two, three, four. Hold for a count to one, two.
8. And now slowly exhale to count six. One, two, three, four, five, six. And now breathe as you normally do. Notice how you feel this time, by extending the amount of time you breathe out compared to breathing in.
9. Encourage your body to relax and your mind to calm. Your breath has a direct link to the systems in your body that make you feel relaxed. By doing belly breaths you send signals to your body that it is safe for you to feel relaxed and at ease. Your blood pressure goes down, your muscles relax and you can think in a more creative and holistic way. You can enhance the experience by bringing the attitudes of kindfulness into the experience, by really feeling the sensations of your breathing.
10. Let the warmth of your hand against your belly represent a friendly, caring support. Allow yourself permission to be kind to yourself and not force anything too much.
11. Now when you’re ready, try counting four belly breaths in a row. One, two, three, four hold one, two.
12. And breathe out. Two, three, four, five, six, rest one, two. Belly breath in. One, two, three, four, hold one, two and breathe out again. Two, three, four, five, six.
13. Do the last two belly breaths on your own, using a pace that feels right for you. Notice how you feel now, consider how relaxed you feel. Are you more or less relaxed than when you started? If you’re less relaxed, don’t worry about it too much. You’re just starting to learn this new technique.
Use a few belly breaths any time you feel excessively stressed, to make you feel more calm and relaxed. You can even practice some belly breaths before you begin the meditation, to give you a nice relaxing start.

This article was adapted from Shamash Alidina. View the original article.
Source link
September 2, 2024
Embracing Our Neurodiversity: 12 Minute Meditation
This week, Sue Hutton guides us in a unique breathing practice designed to foster awareness of our senses, honoring our neurodiversity while strengthening our mindfulness practice.
We live in a neurologically-diverse world. We are all wired with unique minds and bodies, and each of us has a unique sensory constitution. For instance, someone who experiences sensory overwhelm when they pay attention to direct sensations inside the body may find a body scan practice overwhelming instead of centering. Similarly, someone who is blind isn’t going to use physical vision as a meditation tool. But there are ways to practice mindfulness and embrace our neurodiversity at the same time.

Breath practice, often considered a simple tool for calming the mind, can be a more complex and nuanced experience for many neurodivergent meditators. For some, paying close attention to the rise and fall of the breath can bring about feelings of discomfort or even anxiety, as thoughts about the breath’s role in sustaining life may become all-consuming rather than calming.

This practice is about finding the right approach for you and honoring our neurodiversity. We will cover different ways to engage with the breath that accommodate our diverse sensory needs, offering alternatives that can help each of us find a sense of calm and ease. Whether it’s focusing on the sensation of air moving in and out of your nostrils, the sound of your breath, or even the rhythm of your breath as you feel it in different parts of your body, there are multiple pathways to mindful breathing.

A Guided Meditation for Embracing Neurodiversity Through Breath Awareness
1. We all benefit from learning different ways of meditating on the breath. So let’s try out three different ways of feeling the breath in the body, and you can determine which one works best for you.
2. Remember, you don’t need to push yourself to experience anything that’s overwhelming. If there’s any kind of sense experience you have that is particularly uncomfortable, just take a break and you can come to another way of practicing the breath.
3. Come into a posture that’s comfortable for you. Bring yourself to a spirit of alertness and energy to help you concentrate. At the same time, give yourself permission to relax and soften.
4. The first practice I’d like to try is sound breathing. Some people really find this more comforting than focusing on the feelings of the breath inside the body.
5. To practice sound breathing, hold a hand up in front of your mouth and just exhale on the palm of your hand. You’ll notice you have to increase the exhalation a little bit, so there’s enough volume to hear the breath and to feel it on the palm of your hand. Once again, exhale on the palm of your hand and listen. Now continue to breathe in and out, but with the mouth closed. Keep the same volume, so there’s enough sound to allow the breath itself to be an anchor through the sound. Breathing in and out, focus on the sound of your breath through your nose. Relax the body on the outbreath in a way that’s comfortable for you, focusing on the sound.
6. Next, we’ll try a kinesthetic way of experiencing the breath that I call “lotus breathing.” Take one hand or two hands, whatever’s available for you, and allow the fingers to come to a close, just touching each other. Then, open the hand up again, like a flower opening in the day and then closing again, with the fingers coming back together again. Breathing in, the hands open, breathing out, hands close. Try that for a few moments and see how closely you can synchronize the rhythm of your breath with that gentle movement of your hand.
7. Lastly, let’s try a movement-focused breath. Place a hand on the belly and a hand on the chest. Allow yourself to soften. You’ll feel that nice, compassionate warmth of the hands resting on the body.
8. You can notice this from the outside, if that’s comfortable—feeling how the hands rise up when you breathe in. And as you exhale, the hands rest back down with the belly in the chest.
9. Alternatively, you can choose to pay attention to the mechanism inside the body of the belly rising and falling. So breathing in, notice the feeling wherever it’s comfortable for you, of the rising and the falling on the exhalation. Then, fully let go on the outbreath. Give yourself permission to release and soften and relax every time you breathe out.
10. Now try experiencing the breath with the anchor that works best for you. Experiment with which tool you prefer, or combine them if you want. Remember, you’re the boss of your meditation. As long as you’re bringing your full awareness to the experience and you keep guiding yourself back to the present moment, you have the freedom to connect with the breath in the way that it works for you.
11. Remember, make your breath your own when you do the practices. Be gentle. Be compassionate with yourself. You are perfect as you are and finding the tools that help you to come into the present moment. The best is your own personal journey.
Source link
August 23, 2024
A 12-Minute Meditation for Nurturing Your Heart

About the author

Jonathan Fisher

Dr. Jonathan Fisher is a cardiologist who focuses on healing the heart in the broadest sense, encompassing both the physical and emotional aspects of cardiac care. Educated at Harvard and Mt. Sinai, he is a mindfulness meditation teacher and organizational well-being leader. Reflecting on his journey, he shares, “I took care of 20,000 other hearts before taking care of my own.” His experience with anxiety and burnout has transformed his approach to health. Dr. Fisher has designed programs for an organization with 38,000 team members, reducing stress and enhancing well-being. He has delivered keynotes, workshops, and retreats for organizations globally across various industries. His efforts in addressing burnout in healthcare have garnered international attention, including co-founding the Ending Clinician Burnout Global Community and organizing the world’s first global summit dedicated to ending clinician burnout, with over a thousand participants from 43 countries. Named on Charlotte Magazine’s “Best Doctors” list, he is a regular contributor to Mindful.org. He resides in Charlotte, North Carolina, with his wife, three children, and two doodles. His mission is to help others ‘train the mind and heal the heart.’ His best-selling first book, Just One Heart: A Cardiologist’s Guide to Healing, Health, and Happiness, is about harnessing the power of the mind-heart connection.

Source link

August 11, 2024
A 12-Minute Meditation for Being with the Ever-Changing World
Men Talking Mindfulness co-host Will Schneider guides listeners to release distractions and rest attention on breathing in and out, so we can bring our minds fully into the present moment.
By tuning in to our body and mind, where we observe the nature of the ever-changing world, we can develop greater awareness of the shifts occurring around us and within us. Change can be difficult or painful, and often we yearn for things to be otherwise. This meditation helps us open to the idea that life can be easier when we flow with the currents of change. By choosing to simply be a witness to whatever is happening in this moment, we’re able to be there for ourselves without judgment, learning to meet life exactly the way it is.

In this meditation, we’re going to start with concentrating on the breath. With this preparation, we shift our attention and notice what we can hear, see, and other sensory information coming to us, awakening our natural curiosity.

A Guided Meditation for Being With the Ever-Changing World
1. Begin by sitting comfortably. Find your seat or take a few moments and bring some movement into your body. Get the breath moving in your body a little bit. If you’ve been sitting all day, after you feel a little bit more awake and alive, then come back, press play, and let’s continue.
2. Begin to find your breath. Settle into a nice and easy, deep breath. Make the breath a little bit bigger. Inhale really big. Let it go. And a few more like that, taking in deep, wide, broad breaths and letting it go. Do a couple more. Breathing this way is a great way to start calming down the mind and the body so we are present in this moment.
3. Let’s do a few rounds of the box breath. Inhale through the nose for five seconds. Hold that breath for a count of five. Then exhale for a count of five. Then stay empty for a count of five. And then repeat. After a few rounds of box breath, come back to your normal pace of breathing.
4. Let’s consider the role of accepting impermanence in our daily practice. The one thing that is constant in this physical world is change, also known as impermanence. We can use this constant to develop greater awareness. Everything is changing all the time, and life is easier when we flow with it instead of fighting the current and living with the delusion of control, or yearning for an experience of how the world should be. These efforts are futile. It’s a waste of energy and time. When we learn and practice detaching from our ego’s idea of how the world should be, we stop suffering and our emotional turmoil on the inside starts to dissolve.
5. From this more calm place, for the next few moments, listen for sound. We’re simply listening for sound in the environment as it is. Not trying to change it. Not trying to figure it out. Not criticizing it. Just being with everything, with what is. If you hear voices or traffic or birds, depending where you are, notice how sound appears and then it’s gone. Then maybe there’s a moment of silence, which still contains sound in some way, and then something else appears. And then it goes away. Simply listening for sound.
6. If you find yourself getting lost in thoughts, that’s okay. Just take a few breaths to bring your attention back to the body.
7. Next, let’s take that awareness and go inside the body. Start to feel your heartbeat in your chest. If it’s helpful, you can bring one of your hands and put it across your heart and just feel your heartbeat. Be with that as it is, and notice even the little fluctuations if you can. Notice the change or the variability in the heart. Sit there and just be with it. Just observe. Just be the witness. Orient your energy and your awareness to your heart.
8. Now, let’s take our attention a little further. Maybe you can feel your pulse somewhere else in your body, like in your shoulder, armpit, or down in your forearms, or maybe in your pelvis or down in your legs. See if you can pick up that same pulse, that same kind of pattern flowing through your body, through your limbs, through your torso, through your pelvis. Just be curious.
9. Then drop your awareness into your hands. Either the right and left, you choose, or both at the same time. Notice if there are physical sensations in your palms or the back of your hands. Are they cold or warm or dry or sweaty or moist? Can you feel the pulse down in your palms? Again, just noticing. Just being with, just being aware.
10. Then drop down into your pelvis. See if you can feel the weight of your sit bones in the chair. Maybe there’s a little bit more on the left, or a little more on the right side of your hips. Then just slowly start to scan from the base of the spine, gently all the way through to the crown of the head. Maybe there’s some stiffness in your back. Let it be. You can feel the breath in your body as you work your way up the spine. You can come back, and feel the heartbeat in your chest.
11. Then come back to that breath. Take a moment of gratitude for showing up for your practice today and putting in the work. Maybe there’s one thing you can take away with you from this meditation and bring it into your day. Roll your head a little bit side to side and slowly make your way back. Come back tomorrow and do this practice again.
Source link
August 7, 2024