Start Meditating - Your Introduction to Meditation

 

Meditation has the power to ground you, relax you, get you more clear with yourself, your life, and your future. There are also a ton more heath benefits than these.

 

In this episode I introduce you to meditation and when you're ready, I've also added a free guided meditation below where I personally guide you through the same meditation I do everyday.

 

Full audio and transcript below. Lmk your thoughts and questions!

 

 

 

 

Intro to Meditation

 

(0:02 - 3:37)

So you've been thinking about meditation. You've wanted to get into meditation. You want to start meditating.

You've been feeling all kinds of different things in your life. You feel that it will help, help you relax, ground you, provide clarity, guidance, insights, all kinds of things. You've been hearing about it.

You haven't necessarily done it. Maybe you have, and you still find your way here, curious about my takes on meditation, how I meditate, my thoughts on practice, tips, all this good stuff. So in this episode, I'm going to dive into that.

Many of you ask me about meditation regularly. Um, for those that have known me a while, you've seen the transformation of me and my life and my journey over the past, you know, 10 plus years and my deep, I guess, reverence and connection to these kinds of energies and, and practices and rituals and how I kind of vibe and how I live and how I roll. And it's really one of the things most people say when they meet me is they say, or at least comment on how chill I am.

And that in itself is not really the goal, but it's a byproduct of the work. And so it's a function of comfort, I would suggest. And it's a good thing.

I appreciate that that's my resonance, uh, that people pick up on when they're with me, because I am relaxed and centered and flowing and connected and all of these sorts of things. I am not always that, you know, I'm no better than anyone else. I'm not better than you and, and, and so on and such.

I just do this work to make myself better in the various ways that I feel I need. And I experience different forms of stress and anxiety and discomfort on my journey, um, just like the next person. But there's a point for me where that was really not enjoyable and they're not super enjoyable states, right.

Um, but where it was feeling like it was pretty acute, you know, uh, the way my lifestyle was, was not super comfortable. I didn't feel centered and grounded. I felt stressed, right.

I felt anxious. I felt under pressure in various ways. Is that pressure from other sources, maybe in part, but is that self-inflicted pressures, you know, is a, um, kind of self-recognized pressures that, that, um, I'm creating for myself or I was creating for myself that could be that also.

(3:39 - 4:34)

Um, but what's most important and what was essential for me was to make the conscious shift to say, you know, I need to change my lifestyle and living a, just purely adrenaline filled, tense, stressed, anxious lifestyle. Like it has a shelf life, you know, uh, you can run out of the adrenaline, you can run out of the, the energy to sustain that state. And while it may be super productive for you for a period of time in that state, it over time, uh, may wear you down.

(4:35 - 5:31)

And for me, it was doing that. And so there were a lot of lifestyle changes for me and I can get into the full kind of lifestyle transformation stuff. Uh, another time I've touched on it a couple episodes already.

Um, but to really get into, uh, you know, how to change your life on, on the, on the macro, you know, on the, on the 360 degree level. But a big part of that is your relationship with yourself, irrespective of which of those elements or areas of your life or, um, um, tools that, you know, I can speak to about that. And a major, major one in this is meditation.

(5:33 - 7:10)

And why is that? Well, meditation is what it's just, it's a form of, um, finding stillness, right? It's a form of grounding. It's a form of visualizing. Um, it's a, it's a tool for relaxing and in life it's more, but it's also those things, you know, at least.

And in life we can get pulled away from ourselves by the parties around us, the people who influence us, that try and persuade us, that, you know, pull us in different directions or push us in different directions. The social stressors of, of, you know, relationships or finance, you know, career, uh, environmental challenges, all kinds of different things that we may be experiencing. And in that, uh, we can look at it and, um, we can consider that, uh, you know, as people just kind of walk by and talk as I'm recording, it's pulling my attention, but it's not a great example in that things can pull you out of your center of focus.

(7:11 - 7:53)

And they can pull you out of the center of, uh, where you're at and what you're doing and your, um, uh, attention towards your goals and things you need to do and achieve to, to grow, to move your life forward, to, um, you know, achieve your goals, a whole bunch of things. So meditation is a, is a name for the practice that serves as a, a, um, conduit to improving your relationship with yourself, I would suggest. And we do this by finding stillness.

(7:54 - 8:30)

We do this by, uh, working through the breath. We do this by working through, uh, the third eye, right? The mind and what we call the third eye. The third eye generally is a place that people suggest is kind of like the source of visualization, the tool of visualization, the kind of the conduit to the forms of higher consciousness that are associated with meditation.

(8:31 - 19:53)

IE when your eyes are closed and you see things, you visualize, you're visualizing generally in this place. Think of it almost like a, um, a movie screen within the mind's eye, but it feels like it's in this place, just kind of in front of, uh, the middle between your eyes and just a little bit higher in the brow and then, um, forward, say a few inches is where this projection, you know, screen of sorts seems and feels to be. So it's referred to as the third eye.

I'll go deeper into the third eye, but I'm going to keep this, you know, simple for the moment. And so, um, you know, it's through the breath, it's through the relaxation of the body, it's through all these things that we settle. And it comes with the premise that we are creators of our universe.

I am the creator of my universe. You are the creator of your universe. And from this place, from the center we create, but we need to be centered and we need to find that center, uh, to create consciously what we want in our lives.

And when we're not centered, well, we're what? We're off beat, we're off center. And you can tell as you walk around the world who is and who isn't, right? Many people are deep-rooted, they're good sense of self, they're strong presence, uh, clear focus, they are centered. Um, others are not.

They feel the world's coming at them, they're victims of circumstance, uh, life's hard, everything's stressful, uh, you know, uh, this is more of a victim mindset in all of this. And they're a bit off-centered, so they're very, they're stressed because they're trying to find the stream, they're swimming upstream or their stream is dried up where they just, what they need to do is find the flow of the river, really. Um, oversimplifying a bit, but generally.

So to, to get clear on this stuff, we meditate and instead of doing things, we find some stillness and we get clear on what's going on. You know, we sit with what's going on and we explore it, um, we set some intentions about it, we make some choices around it. It's just a space where we can do this for ourselves.

It's a gift to ourselves to do it. And it doesn't matter what's going on. There's the great adage that I love, it says you should meditate for 20 minutes a day unless you don't have time, then you should meditate for an hour.

Everything that's going on around you is a reflection of you. So we can consider that, uh, as a suggestion. And so it doesn't matter how much is going on around you.

The more you're pulled into that, the less you're back, or at least they're pulled to your center, at least still in your center and settled in your space and grounded, then the more you're going to get pulled into that, the more stressful you can become. So when we're doing things and things are moving around us, we need to be able to find that place of stillness to come back to ourselves and adjust if need be, reflect on what's occurring if appropriate, uh, set some new intentions, the whole thing, just to relax your body, take a break, uh, to ground and in higher stress environments, circumstances is a very important tool and it's free, you know, generally, uh, the practice is yours, you know, you may do a guided meditation or a few to get started and comfortable and feel intuitive and becomes your practice. And then you study different kinds of ways or means or, or people's different, uh, types of meditations and you can do whatever feels appropriate for you, but at least you have this place and, you know, it gives you this, it gives you this space where you can adjust if need be.

And so this is where we start with meditation. So for me, I started with Deepak Chopra, like 10 plus years ago, and he has 15 minute meditations, um, that, uh, were pretty good. And he guides with his voice and kind of just walks you through it.

Right. And those were, those are good to get you started because many of us aren't used to the stillness. We haven't actually stopped to connect to a breath and just be not in a conscious way.

Right. So, um, you know, initially shorter meditation is fine. Just some meditation is good, but you'll get to a point where, you know, you'll naturally meditate for half an hour or an hour and you're just sitting in it.

And some people say, you know, I fall asleep when I meditate. That's okay. You know, if you're tired, you're tired.

Like let yourself relax, let your body rest. There'll be a time when you won't. You can sit up, lie down.

You can meditate when you're standing. Uh, there are different forms of activity that are meditative, like yoga, like running, riding a bike. Uh, people find meditation in many sorts of different activities, walking, a favorite of mine.

I drop into meditative states all the time because I'm just receiving, you know, I'm grounded and you're receiving. And then I'm chilling in that and just letting what comes through as inspiration come through to me. So there's different types of meditations.

There's different ways to meditate. Um, there's different, you know, um, goals, outcomes of your meditation, but you have this tool. And the primary first, um, reason for you to have for meditation should be to just relax as a way that in stressful environments, you can take a beat, you can take a breath, you can come home to yourself and just relax.

Once you're relaxed, then you can find kind of the next leg of your meditation, which is then doing some work and working, you know, on yourself, uh, from the relaxed state. But you can't do that in this capacity with this tool without yourself being relaxed to get started. So to do that, some tips for your first meditative experience, or even if you're already into it to help define it.

Um, there's never going to be a perfectly quiet place. We can find quieter places than others, of course, but even the most quiet places in the world are still alive. They're still active.

I remember once upon a time when I was hiking through the desert, when we got stuck in the middle of the desert, I told that story a few episodes ago. And, um, we're hiking out. And the thing that struck me is like your vision of the desert is it's just like dead lands, right? There's nothing in the desert.

It's dry. There's nothing there, but you have this vibrance in it. And these massive, massive cactus that are like 12, 15 feet tall are huge and other stuff.

There's, there's life in the desert. Everything was vibrating. It was still alive.

You know what I mean? So when it pertains to meditation, the concept of you need to go somewhere quiet to meditate is probably helpful initially, right? But the goal is that you can meditate anywhere so that you develop the strength where, uh, where dropping into yourself, it doesn't matter where you are. You don't care what other people think. It's all, they're all just reflections and, and you can find your, uh, center, your place, no matter what.

So now like for me, I can meditate in the middle of a concert. I can meditate in the middle of the mall or a large event, uh, on the street. I can meditate anywhere.

I like nice places to meditate, like near a waterfall, you know, um, on a couch and, you know, in my bed or similar, uh, with nice soft music. There's like shocker tuning music. You can listen to is all kinds of stuff on YouTube.

You can check that out also, um, meditation music, um, you know, by the beach, by the water, all this kind of stuff. So there are more, you know, conducive places that support, you know, meditative energies, but the goal here is that you need to a place where you can drop in anywhere that you can find your center, despite the noise, despite whatever's going on around you. I talk about this a lot.

(19:54 - 22:05)

And, uh, my sense is that there's a book coming for me on this whole talk about topic. Cause it's like a kind of a big one. And the theme keeps recurring coming up and people, you know, have commenting, asking me a lot of questions about it.

So we'll see. But, um, this concept of being the eye of the storm, everything around you is like a, is, is energy, you know, and it's just swirling and spiraling around you and you're the center within it. You have to be able to find that.

And it doesn't matter how much of that energy swirls around you, but what's cool about meditation is that you will find that and you will become very comfortable with yourself, you know? And if you feel that way, you'll just be able to relax your body and catch your breath and get clear and present and just relax. It's such an important, uh, tool for wellness to have. And it's just like anything else.

You build the muscle and, um, and you get better at it, right? You improve upon it and, um, and, uh, you'll be able to do more with it. Right. And that's where you'll be able to expand into these other areas of, of meditation into the other, um, kind of intentions of meditation of manifestation and, um, and healing and all kinds of different things that once you hit that state, you'll be able to expand into.

So, so we can go anywhere, but the first thing is somewhere comfortable, somewhere you feel comfortable. You initially don't feel self-conscious, uh, for long. You won't feel self-conscious about it at all.

Like who cares when anyone else thinks if you're sitting there meditating, um, you'll also feel comfortable. Like when people see people meditating, they don't tend to bother them. Um, you know, because people get it, they understand that, but just find somewhere comfortable could be by the water, could be your couch, whatever.

(22:07 - 23:00)

Second thing is you're going to, you know, be relaxing your body. So you want to be in comfortable clothes. You want to just chill out.

You don't want a bunch of distraction and noise around you initially, you know, um, you know, tell the kids you need a couple minutes or tell your partner you need a couple minutes away from the kids to, to do this. Uh, you know, um, find your space, right? Um, when you have your space, you're comfortable. You just move your body just a little bit, kind of relax it and just chill out.

Take a couple deep breaths, you know, and you just settle in. And from there, you know, the best thing for your hands, for instance, is palms up. So when we kick our palms down, I find people tend to clench.

(23:01 - 23:34)

I know it's something that I noticed that I've done. And then I do, I do it of course, less now that I'm aware of it, but you know, when evaluating kind of monitoring, measuring my own behaviors, when my hands are down, um, I'm clenching more. So palms up and open your palms and hold them open more of a receiving state.

It'll relax your arms. It'll help you stay relaxed. And just remember as you, as you meditate, there's no rush.

(23:36 - 29:51)

Don't worry about the time you'll meditate for as long as, as you need as required as feels right. And everything's through the breath. So if you feel uncomfortable in the breath, there's a couple kinds of breath, uh, work, but one that works really well, at least if you're feeling anxious is, um, connected breath.

So what it is, is you breathe in. So it's a full breath in. And instead of pausing, when you get to the top, you go all the way in and without stopping, you then go all the way out.

And then once you breath, you breathe all the way out and you you're all the way out. And then you come all the way back in. And it's, it's like a rhythm.

It's, it's like a cycle of doing that without the pause, um, in a resource that I'll share at the right time. Uh, it was referenced that, uh, and that was a great resource for me and my work that were the only species that I understand that pause in, um, the breath. So the work then here, which will pull you through the discomfort is to take that, that, um, cyclical breath.

It's called connected breath. So if you can hear me and just, I'll just do this a couple of times so you can hear it. And so that's not required to meditate.

If you could hear me doing that, but what you could pick up on was that I was breathing in until I was done. And then I was right away breathing out until I was done. And then I was right away breathing in once I was done.

And I just keep doing that. And what you also find is it like, it's, it gives you a bit of a buzz, you know, um, you also feel brings you to presence. You, you can feel the tingle in your body.

Um, it's a beautiful, it's a beautiful meditation, uh, exercise. It's a beautiful tool for your meditation. It's a beautiful breath work exercise in and of itself.

It's, uh, it's really great. So that will help you if you feel discomfort. Cause remember any of the movement is just drama.

It's just squirming and stress, it's anxiety. So just come to the breath and, and pull through that discomfort by just taking a stronger breath, right? And, and send that energy in through your breath and breathe through it. This is good exercise.

It'll help just crack you open in all the right ways if you need it, but you don't need to breathe that way in your meditation. Once you settle in, it's cool. But if you feel something come up, then you can breathe that way and it'll help keep you, keep you in it.

Um, it's not required that your eyes are closed in meditation, but it makes sense. We're visualizing, we're doing things like this. So, um, I recommend keeping your eyes closed.

It's one thing if you're in a place where there's nothing really in front of you, um, you know, just staring out of the horizon or something works too. But if there's a lot of activity in front of you, those might be distractions that, you know, kind of take you out of your zone. I'm yawning as I relax from the breath work I was just doing.

Um, but, uh, but those are like the getting started elements. Do you know what I mean? Like I said, initially somewhere quiet, comfortable to take the space for yourself. You know, you put some music on if you want with your headphones or something and just chill.

There's lots of different types of meditation, but there's no like heavy set rules in it. The first step is just to really take that space for yourself and just be with yourself. Feel into yourself, check in with yourself, see what's going on, what's coming up emotionally, all that sort of stuff.

I'll talk about it more in my guided meditation as I, uh, walk you through some of, um, those exercises, but, um, but it's really that as a starting point, right? And then from there you can open another world of meditation. You can try different types, you can do all kinds of different stuff. And I highly recommend it.

This is a great tool to have in your pocket to help you just stay grounded, clear, make, uh, you know, wise choices, not purely impulsive choices, just, you know, to flow, um, in a healthier, more sustainable way in your life. And, um, you know, bring in the things you want, figure out the things you really want, bring in the things you want. Um, and realize just so much, uh, more, you know, your life on the whole through the different ways that the meditation will benefit you both physically, mentally, spiritually, all the things.

(29:53 - 32:27)

So try that. Okay. Just as the getting started.

And that's just what I wanted to do with this episode here is just get you started with your practice. You know, you have to do this for yourself. Nobody can do meditation for you.

You can't BS your way through meditation. You can tell me this is what I want. That's what I want.

But when you sit with yourself and you're meditating and you're asking yourself and feeling to what you want, you can't lie to yourself there either. Or there also, I should say, because in meditation comes truth. So building a better relationship with yourself is coming home to yourself and dropping in with yourself to explore and consider what is your truth and to, um, expand upon it from there, make these adjustments.

So that's the invitation. That's the challenge for you is to start your meditative practice and start it today. And like I said, it can be super short.

You can just chill and breathe and meditate for five minutes. But as you start doing this, you start building this relationship with yourself. You're going to find you're going to want to do more of it.

It's going to be a beautiful thing. You're going to love it. Trust me.

And, um, it's going to just help you find your center. Stay cool. Stay chill, stay clear in any situation of your life.

That's one of the big benefits. And there's so many more. So we'll get into more later, but this gets you started.

Um, look for my guided meditation, um, in the links below. Uh, I'm creating one for you. It should be there.

And I'm going to walk you through my favorite, um, meditative, uh, practice and ritual. I feel you're going to love it. And, um, let me know what you think.

And we'll go from there until the next episode. All my other links are down there. Follow me on your favorite channels, uh, connect with me.

If you have any questions, I wish you a great day. We'll, uh, we'll chat with you soon.