Transcripts
1. Introduction : Hi, thanks so much
for stopping by. I'm guessing that
you're here because you're curious about meditation, mindfulness, or
simply finding ways to help you alleviate
stress in your life. I have good news and bad news. The bad news first, bad news is we can't eliminate stress
and challenges in life, so much of that is
outside of our control. However, the good news is, is that by practicing
meditation and mindfulness, you will be able to meet
your stress a little bit easier and maybe shift your
relationship to it slightly. My name is Dr.
Theresa Bren Skaar. I found meditation
and mindfulness when I was in my first year of
my grad school program. I was not handling stress well. I had reverted to every
single one of my bad habits to try and alleviate and relate to the stress
that I found myself in. I was also an older
adult student, so I was not in the habit
of being back in school. A friend of mine had
recommended and had suggested, hey, what about meditation? I was like, I will try anything, and so I did. I took a mindfulness-based
stress reduction course. It's an eight-week course
and I loved it so much. Again, it didn't take away
the stress in my life, but it did help me meet that stress just a
little bit easier. I wasn't relying on my old habits in
order to meet stress, so this was a much
healthier option for me. I loved it so much that I became trained in mindfulness-based
stress reduction. So I am a meditation and
mindfulness instructor. I'm so happy that you're here. The projects and
practices that we'll be doing in this class
are perfect for beginners or really anyone
looking to come back to a meditation practice or simply have exercises that you
can do in your daily life. You'll be able to complete journal prompts
after each lesson, which will help you
track your progress. Dive in, join me for the
next five days so that you too can learn to meet your
stress a little bit easier. See you in the next lesson. Thank you. [MUSIC]
2. Class Project: [MUSIC] Thanks so
much for coming back. Today I'm going to be
talking to you a bit about the project
for this class. The way that this
class is set up is that each day there will be a lesson talking about a particular aspect of bringing meditation and
mindfulness into your life. After you listen to
the lesson and do the practice that's
included in each lesson, the invitation is to immediately
do the journal prompt, and there'll be a specific
journal prompt for each day. You can answer this in any way that makes
you the happiest. You can use pen and paper. You can digitally
record your responses. You could even get as
creative as you'd like. You can draw them out
using colored pencils or paints, using your iPad, whatever medium makes
sense to you and actually makes you happy to
engage with the question. That's the one for you. Then what you can do is upload your response to each day
into the project gallery. This not only helps you stand track or get feedback if you have any
questions on the lesson, but it also helps create
community and connection with your fellow learners because this is how we learn
and grow together. So please upload your responses. We can't wait to see
what you create. Thank you. [MUSIC]
3. Meditation Basics: Thank you so much
for coming back. In this lesson, I'll be talking about the basics of meditation. A definition that I like is from Jon
Kabat-Zinn and it is; paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment
non-judgmentally. There's a lot to unpack
with that statement, but a couple of things
is it is paying attention on purpose
in the present moment. So often we're in future
thoughts or past thoughts, and we're not actually
in this moment. We're not used to being in the moment and it is a practice, and that's why we call it
a practice, not a perfect, so you come back to
the present moment. We'll be going through
this in all of the other lessons
in ways that you can bring this into
your own life. Now, when you think about meditating or
beginning of practice, I'd like you to think
about a place and a time that makes
sense for you to slow down and do these lessons with me and come into
the present moment. Hopefully, finding
a place that you won't be likely to
be interrupted. Again, you might
have seen pictures where people are meditating in a lotus position and they're on top of a mountain and
those look beautiful. But trust me, you do not have to have the perfect
place to meditate. Any place that you
are, you can meditate. Body postures in
meditation can be sitting, I like sitting in this
chair, for instance. You could also do
meditations lying down, walking, or even eating. Those would be in the formal meditation practice because you are sitting
down intentionally, laying, or walking to do this invitation
to the present moment, paying attention on purpose
in a particular way. I had just mentioned
formal practice. There's formal practice
and informal practice. Informal practice can be
anything in your daily life. You can invite mindfulness
to daily chores, daily activities;
brushing your teeth, washing the dishes,
folding clothes. What happens when
we're not doing mundane and regular things
is that we're often running, we're thinking about
what's next on the agenda, or we might be ruminating, or thinking about what
happened yesterday, or even 10 years ago. But what we're doing
with mindfulness is inviting attention into
the present moment. If you're folding clothes, you might pay attention to the warmth if they're
still warm from the dryer, or maybe while you're
washing dishes, you can notice the
foaming of the soap and cleaning the dishes in
whatever way that you are, and feeling the water and
warmth on your hands. It's just a way of
bringing your attention to the present moment
over and over again. These are the basics and I hope that you'll join me for
the next lessons to learn more specifics on how to bring these practices
into your daily life. Thank you. [MUSIC]
4. Day One: Just Breathe: Hi, welcome to day 1. I'm so glad that you're here. In this lesson, I'll be talking a
bit about breathing. [LAUGHTER] You might think, "Well that's weird,
I'm always breathing." Yes, we're breathing 24/7, but often we don't
pay attention to the breath unless there's
some challenge or difficulty. The breath is a great
anchor of attention because it is always
in the present moment. You can never be in a future
breath or in a past breath. My grandma used to talk about, "Terry count to 10," if I was
feeling heated or agitated. There's some wisdom in that
because the counting to 10 actually helps you
pause and become present. So I'm not going to
say count to 10, but I am going to invite you to pay attention to your
breath on purpose. What that feels like is
actually paying attention to the direct physical sensations
of the body breathing, breathing in, knowing
you're breathing in, breathing out, knowing your
breathing out and guess what? The mind's going to wander. That's not a problem. That is perfectly normal so you do not have
to get worried about that when we practice together or when you
practice on your own. It's part of what the mind does. Often people avoid or resist meditation
because they think, "I can't clear my mind"
or "I don't know, my mind is too busy." It's not about
clearing the mind. So this first object of
attention, the breath, which is always with us, it's such a good friend. It's here in the present moment, helping bring the attention from the future, from the past. If there's any stress arising, you can pause and take a few mindful
breaths and that will help regulate your nervous
system in a beautiful way. With that, are you
ready to practice? Finding a position
that feels supportive, yet comfortable, where you
can be alert, yet at ease. There isn't anything
magical about the position. Again, it's just inviting some stillness into the
moment so you can pay attention in a particular way on purpose and non-judgmentally. Remember that key,
non-judgmentally. Finding that position, making any adjustments necessary to
your posture or your seat. You can close the eyes
or lower the gaze. That helps tell the body and the mind that you're turning your attention inward
for this moment. So closing the eyes or
lowering the gaze and just taking a moment to settle into the
position that you're in. Maybe finding the points of contact and noticing where you're sitting, how
you're sitting. You might even notice
air temperature. As you feel ready, narrowing the attention to the experience of
the body breathing, feeling the inhale
and the exhale. You might notice where you
feel the breath most easily. Paying attention to feel the breath is most easily
at the tip of the nose. Perhaps it's at the back of the throat or you might feel the breath
lower in the body, in the torso, either in the rise and fall of the chest or the expansion
and contraction of the belly. Wherever you feel the breath, that's the present moment. Just paying attention to the direct felt sensations
of the body breathing. You're not trying
to make anything happen or change anything, just noticing what's
here and again, when the mind wanders,
not a problem, just inviting it back to
this breath and this moment. As you feel ready, opening the eyes if
they've been closed. How was that for you? This can happen at any point. You don't even need
to sit fancifully, but if you do notice some
agitation or frustration, maybe you're in a meeting, maybe you're working
on a project that's making some tension in the body, you can always pause and bring the mind back to the
breath again and again. I will have some
resources listed on different breath techniques but the basic one is breathing
knowing that you're breathing. I'm so glad that you were here and I'd like you to practice that
throughout the day. Doing a few mindful
breaths and just bringing yourself to the present
moment without judgment. See you in the next lesson. Thanks for being here. [MUSIC]
5. Day Two: Checking in with the Body: Hi. Welcome back. Today, we'll be focusing on another
anchor of attention to bring that mindfulness
into your life in a more regular way
to support you in alleviating stress or at least meeting it
differently in your life, however, it shows up. Today's anchor of
attention is the body. Why is that a good
anchor of attention? Much like the breath, your body can't be in
the future or the past, so it's always in
the present moment. One of my favorite authors,
Elizabeth Gilbert, talks about where
basically brains and jars moving
around on sticks. That's how little
attention we often pay to the rest of our
physical experience. In this practice using the body, you're actually bringing
the attention to direct felt sensations
in the body. Sometimes the body
can be challenging. There may be pain or difficulty, challenges with your perception of the container that you're in, and so the invitation
really is to invite a sense of curiosity and friendliness. Again, that favorite
word of mine, non-judgment, and that can
be really difficult to do. It is a practice
you're not going to maybe be perfect
on the first one. Heck, I've been
meditating for years and I often have
challenges with this, but it is a practice
and I keep coming back. The more that I do, I have been able to actually make friends with my
body and befriend this container that I'm in
in a way that is so much more useful than a lot of the judgment that I used to
pile on myself in the past. That's why the body is a
great anchor of attention, and I'd like to invite you to do a small
practice with me now, checking in with the body and seeing what that might
be like for you. Again, posting your results
at the end and asking me any questions I'm here to support you in
whatever way possible. We'll begin our practice. Again, finding a
position where you can feel at ease yet alert, and you can do this lying down
or sitting, walking even. I'll be sitting in my
favorite meditation chair. Finding a position
that feels comfortable where you can be
at ease yet alert, lowering the gaze or closing the eyes and taking a
couple of mindful breaths, breathing in through the nose, expanding the valley and
out through the mouth. Maybe doing that a
couple of more times. Deep breath in and exhale. [BACKGROUND] One more time. Deep breath in
[BACKGROUND] and exhale, [BACKGROUND] letting
your breath return to its normal natural
rhythm and taking some time now to
investigate the body. Maybe checking in, how's the body in this moment? Maybe noticing if there's
restlessness or fatigue. Perhaps noticing
air temperature, heat, or coolness, and you might even
notice some tension or tightness and seeing if on an exhale you can invite
those areas to soften. No worries if they don't want
to do that in this moment. The body speaks to us in
the language of sensation. Right now you're just turning
your attention inward, checking in saying hey
to this container, what's here right now, what physical
sensations are here, and inviting a sense
of investigation or curiosity to the
experience in the body. Maybe even inviting a sense of friendliness to
whatever experience or sensation is arising. Maybe even imagining a dear
friend or a loved one saying, "Oh, I have this sensation. Would you beat them up or
judge them?" Likely not. Seeing if you can invite a friendly quality to
the body in this moment. Simply noticing what's here. As the mind wanders, it's what the mind
does. No worries. Coming back to the physical
sensations that are here in the body in this moment. If it's in your practice, maybe even thinking the
body for all that it does for you on the daily basis, allowing you to experience
the world around you. As you feel ready, maybe inviting some
movement to the body, wiggling the fingers and toes, or taking a stretch and opening the eyes if
they've been closed. How is the body? [LAUGHTER] Again,
please feel free to ask me any questions or let
me know how this was for you. Take some time after this to respond to the
journal prompt. This could be a fun one
to draw if you're so inclined or else write out your answers in whatever
way makes you happy. I'm so glad that you're
here and thank you so much for practicing with me and I'll see you
on the next one. [MUSIC]
6. Day Three: Investigating Sound: Welcome back Day 3. Today we'll be looking at another anchor of
attention, which is sound. That might again seem odd. Sounds come and go in and
out of our awareness. But in this practice and using sound as an
anchor of attention, you're paying attention
to sounds as they arise, come into your awareness, and as they dissipate
without labeling, naming, or getting caught up
in the story or what it is. One of my favorite examples when I started practicing this, so we have neighbor dogs
that are quite vocal. [LAUGHTER] When I would hear them barking
during a practice, I would get mad about it. What I realized, I wasn't just listening to the sound
of dogs barking, I was actually judging
the owners of the dogs, judging the barking, and so it really was about what was happening in the mind. It wasn't just
listening to sounds as they arose in my awareness. You might find that as well. You might hear sounds
that you think are pleasant or maybe they're unpleasant and they
could be neutral. So this practice is
simply doing that. You're not trying to
make anything happen, you're just seeing what's here. We'll practice this together. Finding a position that feels supportive where you
can be at ease yet alert, lowering the gaze, or closing the eyes. Again, this helps the
attention turn inward. We take in a lot of
stimulus through the eyes. For this practice, taking
a couple of breaths, allowing yourself to arrive
and settle in this moment, just pausing, maybe checking in with
the breath and the body, just to arrive and settle, feeling the body breathing, noticing where the
body is making contact with the
surface here on. Now expanding the
awareness to sound. Sounds could be in the body. Maybe there's sounds of tummy rumbling with hunger or
maybe even digestion. It could be sounds in
the room that you're in. You're not trying to strain
or make anything happen here. Just simply noticing what's here already in the
present moment. You can never be in a future
sound or in a past sound. There may be sounds outside
of your environment. Notice if you can just allow the sound to come
into your awareness without getting caught up in a story or even naming
what's happening. Just allowing sound to come into your experience in this moment. As you feel ready, letting go of the practice
of listening for sound. Maybe inviting some
movement to the body, taking a stretch, and opening the eyes if
they've been closed. That's practicing with sound. Again, we're using
anchors of attention that are here in the
present moment and it's a practice and you can pay attention to when you hear
sounds throughout the day. You might even notice like, oh, I like that, I don't like that. Or is it just in my awareness? Maybe some of the suffering
with sounds much like my neighbor dog experience might be your thoughts or judgments about
what's happening. I'm so glad that you were here. Make sure to answer
today's journal prompt and upload it to the
project gallery. I can't wait to hear about
how this practice was for you and how you might
use it in the future. Thank you so much for being here and I' see in the next one. [MUSIC]
7. Day Four: Observing Thoughts & Emotions: Hi, welcome, thanks
for coming back for another practice of coming back to the present moment
using what's already here. Today's practice, we'll be focusing on thoughts
and emotions. It can be interesting to
use this as a practice. Sometimes students will say that as soon as they focus on their thoughts,
there are no thoughts. [LAUGHTER] Which is very
different from maybe some of the other experiences you've
had in the earlier lessons. When you're focusing on
thoughts and emotions, one of my favorite
ways to think about it is to think about
myself on a riverbank, and you can imagine
that as you're standing on the river bank that maybe leaves or sticks or some
debris might float in front of you and so you might look downriver and you might
see something coming, and then here it is
in front of you, you're aware I can identify it. It's a leaf, is a
branch, some debris. Then it goes out of your
field of awareness. What you're not doing
is getting in the river and following after that leaf or that stick or that
piece of debris, but that's what we often do with our thoughts and emotions, and you might even think about your own experience in this way. You might have a
thought and it might be a particularly sticky one or it might be rehashing an argument that you
had at some point, planning something
out about the future, and that isn't really in the present moment because
then that's when you're getting in the river and
chasing after those thoughts, and they're just in
your experience. So this practice
is to go inward, and what's great about this is if you stick
with it, and again, these are sharp practices, but if you stick with it, you'll start noticing some
habit patterns of the mind. Not all thoughts are original thoughts and you might catch yourself going like, how many times have I thought about the fact that I need
to get gas in the car? That's one of mine.
At some point, it might be helpful to say, is this thought useful? Because you might have
already thought about it, but then you find yourself
in that habit loop. This is simply a
practice to identify and start to notice the habit
patterns of the mind. You might even notice
if the mind is particularly turned
up and agitated, that could be an indicator
that may be a longer practice or a practice is
warranted in your day. With that, let's
practice this together. As in the other lessons, always finding a
position that feels supportive where you can
be alert yet at ease, and lowering the gaze
or closing the eyes. Taking a couple of
breaths and allowing yourself to arrive and
settle in this moment. Maybe noticing
where you're making contact with the
surface that you're on. Now turning your attention
towards thoughts and emotions. Again, not trying to force anything or make
anything happen. Maybe even imagining that the
thoughts are like a river, or maybe the leaves
on the river. Just watching as a
thought comes into your awareness is here
and then moves on. You're not trained to change anything or make
anything different. Simply observing what's here. How is the mind in this moment, how are the emotions? Another way to check and to invite attention
to this moment, just as it is. You might notice that you
have some thoughts or judgments about the
thoughts, and that's okay. Simply noticing
that and inviting a curiosity or a sense of
investigation to the mind, to the emotions, and just to see what's
here, moment-to-moment. Letting go of that focus and inviting some
movement to the body. Maybe wiggling fingers and
toes or taking a stretch, and opening the eyes if
they've been closed. With this practice, you might, as I said earlier, find that you're thinking similar thoughts
multiple times in a day, and you might be able
to start seeing and inviting this curiosity to your own experience of the mind. Seeing what's here. [LAUGHTER] You don't have to do everything that the
mind tells you to do. We can get really caught up. We have these amazing minds and I just want to finish with this planning and thinking about the future and remembering
things about the past. It is the gift of our
big, beautiful brains. The challenge becomes when we
get stuck in either one of those and that we're missing out in the moments of our life. This is a practice and I'm
so glad that you were here. There'll be a journal prompt
for you to respond to. Can't wait to see your
answers and as always, please don't hesitate to reach out with any questions
that you might have. Thank you so much
for your practice. See you in the next one. [MUSIC]
8. Day Five: Putting it all Together: Hi, welcome back. Day 5. We're going to put all of these objects of
attention together. This just means opening to
the present moment as it is. In the first lesson, there was the focus on the
breath, second lesson, focus on the body, third lesson, sounds, fourth was
thoughts and emotions. For today, you're going to just see what arises
moment to moment. Oftentimes you might have a physical sensation which then leads to a thought,
emotion, or judgment. [LAUGHTER] You
might have feelings about the sensation in the body. Going back to the
original definition, paying attention to
these things on purpose, non-judgmentally. If a thought or
emotion arises about something that feels unpleasant
or difficult in the body, it's not getting in and
trying to figure it out or go down the route of storytelling because we
can get caught up in that. I have a pain in my
knee and then I can get overwhelmingly concerned at what the rest of my life is
going to be [LAUGHTER]. Not just in this moment, but when I really slow down and focus on just the
attention and notice that a lot of the agitation is coming from my worry
about the future, then the sensation is
just the sensation. It's an invitation to practice
with whatever is here. Notice the inner
play between those, you might have a thought
or emotion and it might cause a physical
reaction in the body. So often, if something
happens and you might have a thought that
makes an emotion arise, you could feel like that
tension or tightness in the throat or a
constriction in the chest, or some feeling in the tummy. This is just about
noticing what's here and learning to recognize the inner play of all
of these anchors of attention and seeing what
arises moment to moment. Let's practice that together. By now you're used
to this finding a position that
feels supportive, where you can be at ease yet alert and closing the eyes
or lowering the gaze. Take some time to focus just for a moment on the
body breathing, feeling the inhale
and the exhale. Moving the attention from
the breath to the body, noticing points of contact. Maybe noticing
where you're being supported by whatever
surface that you're on. You might notice
air temperature, sense of coolness, or heat. Just allowing yourself to
come into the present moment, paying attention to the body. Now shifting the
attention to sound. Maybe there's sounds
internally in the body or perhaps there's sounds in the
room that you're in. Not trying to strain or
force anything to happen, just noticing sounds
as they arise in your awareness and
then moving on. Now checking in with the mind, the thoughts and emotions. How's the mind today? Maybe there's a sense of
calmness or spaciousness or perhaps there's tension
and irritation or worry. You're not trying
to change anything, but just notice what's here and the state of
the mind in this moment. Now opening to the
present moment and this could be resting
the attention in the breath. You could pay attention to
sensations in the body, sounds, thoughts, or emotions. Just coming back again and
again to the present moment, just as it is noticing what's
here and your mind might flip from one thing to the next in these anchors
of attention. I'm just noticing that with an investigative or
quality of curiosity, what's here right now
in the present moment? Narrowing the attention now back to the experience of
the body breathing, feeling the inhale
and the exhale. Maybe wiggling their
fingers and toes or taking a stretch and allowing the eyes to open if
they've been closed. This practice is
simply about using all of the anchors of attention
[LAUGHTER] because they're all here in
the present moment. You might even notice you
have a preference for one or the other. That's great. That's good information to
have as you continue to expand and [MUSIC] explore the world of meditation
and mindfulness. I'm so glad you
that you were here today and I'm so grateful
for your practice. Please join me for our
conclusion video and don't forget to answer
the journal prompts, and I'll see you next time. Thank you. [MUSIC]
9. Thank you & Final Thoughts: Hi, we did it. [LAUGHTER] Thank you
for spending this week with me and investigating these techniques
to help you with inviting meditation and
mindfulness into your life. These are simple practices, yet as often get said,
simple, not easy. They are practices, so you've had a taste of
them and that is so great. I look forward to seeing
your final project. The final project is
really for you to look at how it was to spend
time this week for you, dedicating time for you to look at these practices
and to try something new. You can do your project in whatever way it makes you happy. [LAUGHTER] It can be digital, it can be mixed media, it can be analog, writing it out by hand, or typing it out, drawing, using any
way to express how it was or how
it felt for you to engage with these
practices this week. It is a practice, it is not a perfect
as a practice. We use the breath, the body, sounds,
thoughts and emotions, and then put it altogether to watch the interplay of all of these things as they happen
in the present moment. I'm so glad that you were here. I look forward to hearing any questions or
comments that you might have and you can continue this work
with me if you'd like. I offer a free meditation
weekly: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, from 7:30 AM-8:00 AM Pacific. I would love for you to
join me and in that way, it would be a chance for
you to continue practicing. It's often a lot of fun
to practice in community. It's a great group and I'd
love to see you there. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to practice with me and
to learn with me, and I am so excited to
see what you all create, and I look forward to
seeing you in meditation. Thank you so much
for being here, and be well. [MUSIC]
Theresa Bren Skaar, Meditation & Mindfulness Instructor
