Transcripts
1. Welcome to Mindfulness and Meditation: Mindfulness meditation
is a proven path to inner peace and
mental clarity, helping you navigate through life's challenges
with calm and focus. Sounds too good to be true? Well, hopefully, in this course, we can break down the basics for you so
that you can start to enjoy the benefits of this
transformative practice ASAP. But before we get started, just what is mindfulness? Mindfulness is being present
in the moment, having clearness and awareness. It's being able to have non judgmental observations
of your surroundings, your life, work, your
personal life, relationships. And it can help you to
reduce stress and anxiety. It can improve your focus
and your concentration and even help you to regulate
your moods and emotions. That way you have less of
those emotional outbursts. Hi. I'm Romina, and I'm
a creative entrepreneur who is interested in the
pursuit of self actualization. I love helping people to reach their full potential
through personal development. I myself practice
daily meditation and have practiced mindfulness. And I've seen the
benefits for myself by seeing reduced anxiety
all the way to being more present and focused
and being able to be more grateful for every opportunity that presents itself in my life. My goal with this
course is to help you get started on your
path to mindfulness through meditation
so that you two can be more present and
enjoy life even more. Understanding
mindfulness is just as important as having a
space to be mindful in. If you're ready to get started, let's hop over to the
next lesson where we are going to create the right
environment for meditation.
2. Creating a Mindful Environment: Creating an
environment where you can be mindful or you can go to meditate is crucial for
an effective practice. You don't want to
get distracted. You don't want to be in
a space where you're uncomfortable because then it's going to be a little
bit more challenging. So how do we achieve a meditation space or a mindfulness space that is
worthy of your practice. First of all, you
want a space that's going to be quiet
and comfortable, preferably a location
that makes you feel good, and that is not going
to distract you with too many loud or irritating
or annoying sounds. And of course, you
want a place that is free from distractions, and you're probably
wondering right now, how am I supposed to escape
all of these distractions in this busy digital
world that we live in? Well, Minimizing distractions is something that doesn't have
to be impossible to do. First of all, the easy one, turn off your
electronic devices. That's your computers,
your phones, anything that beeps,
even your microwave. Sometimes the timer on
the microwave beeps, at least it is in my house. Figure out a way to minimize
all of those beeps and boops that can show
up in the middle of your practice and
tear you away from it. Tell your people,
tell the ps around you that you need
some time alone. That there's nothing wrong. You just need a little
bit of space because you're going to be doing
some mindfulness practice. You're going to be meditating. Lastly, you can set
the mood by going to a place where you absolutely know that you are not
going to be distracted. Bizard as it sounds, maybe it's your closet. Maybe maybe you have a closet or an office or a separate room, and then, something
in your house, a reading nook, So place where people know that you
aren't to be disturbed. If you have that
space, make use of it. Once you've chosen the
space for your practice, set up a routine for it. Having a consistent
schedule where you are practicing your meditation
or your mindfulness, every day can really help you to tell your brain that
it is time to chill. You can start with a few minutes every day and then scale it up. You can gradually
increase it over time as you become more comfortable
with this practice. And honestly, you
don't need an hour, 2 hours to reap the benefits of meditation
and mindfulness practice. You don't have to scale
a mountain and be alone for a month to get all
of these benefits. I myself still practice five minute meditations
almost daily. And sometimes that's all that we can afford to
do with our schedules. The important thing is to make the time and to create that
consistency so that you start getting into that flow and start to exercise
your mind and your spirit so that you
can get used to what it feels like to meditate
and be mindful every day. Another thing you
can do to create the right environment is
by using relaxing sense. You can have essential oils or incense to create this
calming atmosphere. You should do whatever feels comfortable for you
because for example, I do not have a sense of smell. So This doesn't
really work for me, but my mom swears by it. So I'm including it here
in case you're one of those people who
really loves smells, certain smells and perfumes, and if that makes you feel good, then definitely use
it in your practice. Lastly, let's talk about
the lighting in your space. Use soft ambient lighting
or natural light to enhance your tranquil and your peace setting that
you are creating here. I use this a lot, since I can't do the
whole incense thing, or the essential oils doesn't
make a difference to me. The lighting, I'm a
very visual person. And so I use this a lot. I love a soft warm
or amber light, and that can really help to
calm me down immediately. Okay, now that your
space is ready, you're in the mood, mentally,
you're getting into it. Let's break down some basic
meditation techniques to finally get you started.
3. Basic Meditation Techniques: Meditation is one of
the simplest ways to get started living
a more mindful life. This isn't the only way to get started in your
mindfulness journey, but it can definitely
help you to kickstart it, which is why we are incorporating
it into this course. If you've never done
meditation before or you're not sure if you're
really that good at it, it's actually simpler
than you think. In this lesson, we're
going to break down the five different
meditation techniques to get you in the know. These aren't the only
meditation techniques that there are out there. But We want to get started
with a few of them, and these are some of the core
foundations of meditation. Focused attention meditation. This encompasses concentrating
on a single point. You've probably heard
of people saying, focus on your breath. Well, there's a little
bit more to that because some people
focus on the third eye, some people focus on
their fingers touching. And there's other ways
of doing it as well. You can pick a point in the room and focus
on that and let your eyes get a little heavy and keep
focusing on the point. Whenever your mind
starts to wander, you gently bring it back to
whatever your focus point is. Something that
really works for me is using the imagery of a creek. I imagine a creek
flowing in front of me, and there is a leaf that
floats down the creek. Whenever a leaf appears, I manifest that as a physical representation of whatever thoughts
are creeping in. That way, when I see the leaf, it's the thought that
just popped into my head and is trying to distract
me from my meditation, and I let the leaf keep floating by because the creek is
not going to stop flowing. Things like this can help you with focused
attention meditation. The second technique is
body scan meditation. In this technique, you are progressively relaxing
each part of your body. We're going to dive
into this and use it as a small example in the next
lesson. Stay tuned for that. During this body
scan meditation, you notice any tension in each body part and any
discomfort that you might have. Then you start to release it and relax that
specific body part. And you go down
your entire body. Now, this is really
great for sleep or just any meditation
that you want to do because physically relaxing your body helps you to
mentally relax as well. The third one is
breathing exercises, and this one is probably the most popular one
and the one that you probably think about when
you think about meditation. These deep breathing techniques can help to calm your mind. There are a few different ones. There's like box breathing, diaphragmatic, and alternate nostril
breathing, et cetera. I'm not going to go
into each one of the breathing techniques
for this course because this is an
introductory course, but I want you to
know that this is just the beginning
because there's so much more depth to this. In general, just so you get an idea with
breathing exercises, you practice inhaling
deeply and exhaling slowly. The exhaling is
the important part because we're so used to
breathing out very quickly. Especially when we're feeling stressed or anxious
or frustrated. It's the sigh, the exhaling of the frustrations
that we hold inside. It's very important when you are practicing these
breathing techniques because I'm sure that you're going to venture
off out of this course and start looking up some of
these breathing exercises. It's very important
that you keep in mind that you need to breathe out very
slowly, gradually, let it out so that you feel every little bit of breath
escaping your body. Next one is a nice one because
it involves other people, and that's the loving
kindness meditation. It involves sending
positive thoughts and well wishes to
yourself and to others. You can repeat things to yourself like saying,
may I be happy? May I be healthy? May I be calm? Whatever phrase that you choose, you can say this to yourself and you also say that
to other people. You can focus on
somebody specific, or if you're out in public, you can even pick somebody at random and send
them those thoughts. You can say, may they be
happy, My they be healthy? It helps to bring this
positive energy and love and acceptance
into your mind and your body can really
help you to relax. It's a lovely practice to have. The last technique is
mantra meditation. Similar to the previous one, you repeat a word or a phrase, which is your mantra, and you silently repeat it
or you can even do it aloud. This helps you to maintain
focus and calm your mind. So like what I was saying in the focused attention meditation where you pick a physical
thing or an imagery. You use the word or the
phrase as your focus point. Some examples of this might
be things like peace. I am calm, which is the symbol for consciousness
or the essence of reality. You can read more about that on your time off this course. Another example is I
am present or let go. You would repeat these
phrases over and over again. You would repeat the one
phrase that you choose. You choose whatever
phrase or word is meaningful for you in your
season that you are in. Whatever resonates with you and what you need
in that moment. It could be let go, where you just keep
repeating. Let go. Et go. And you do that for your duration
of your practice. Now that you have some
simple meditation practices, I think that you might be ready for a guided meditation session. So I will see you in the
next lesson for that. Get your space ready,
get mentally prepared, make sure that you are in an environment where you can
dive into this next lesson, where we are going to
do a little meditation.
4. 5-Minute Guided Meditation Session: Fore we get started
with the meditation, here are a few things
to keep in mind, whether you're a beginner or you have done
meditation a few times. Be patient with yourself. Focus on the process
not the perfection. There is no right or
wrong way to do this. It's all about how you feel
and how comfortable you feel, and whether you are allowing
calm to be in your system. Remember that it's normal for thoughts to wander in and
to creep in. It's natural. We have a lot of
thoughts in our minds. Just come back to
focusing on my voice. I'm going to guide
you through this. So whenever your thoughts
start to trail away, then just come back to my voice. Goal isn't to stop
thinking completely. That's a challenging task. Nobody's asking that of you. Instead, don't focus on the
thoughts that do come in. Just let them slide by
whenever they pop up. It's totally normal,
and it's fine. I am also going to
do the meditation along with you so that
you are not alone. I'm going to set up my space, get the lighting, and
then we can get started. So make sure that you have
your space set up as well. Find a comfortable position, either sitting or lying down. You can cross your legs if you want or keep your
feet on the ground. Close your eyes and
take a deep breath in then slowly exhale. L et your body relax
with each breath. Focus on your breath. Noticing its natural rhythm. Inhale deeply through your nose. Hold briefly, then exhale
slowly your mouth. Let your breath guide
you into calmness. Starting at the
top of your head, scan down your body. Notice tension and let
it go with each exhale. Move through your body, remembering to relax as you go, relax your face, your neck, your shoulders. If your mind begins to wander, gently bring it back
to your breath. Remember to listen to my voice. Feel the cool air entering your nose and the warm
air leaving your mouth. Continue to relax your body
with your arms, your chest, your abdomen, your hips, your legs, and
finally your feet. Appreciate this time
for relaxation. When you're ready, slowly
bring your awareness back. Wiggle your fingers
and your toes, stretch, if you need
to and open your eyes. Carry this calmness with
you through your day. Great job. I hope
that you feel more present and more calm,
a little bit relaxed. Take a moment to enjoy that feeling before you hop
over to the next lesson. Let's not rush through this. The next lesson,
we're going to be talking about some
ways that you can incorporate mindfulness
into your daily life before we wrap up
this whole course. But remember, take
a second to enjoy where you're at right now before I see you in the next lesson.
5. Incorporating Mindfulness into Daily Life: Welcome back. Let's explore some ways
that you can integrate mindfulness into various
aspects of your daily routine. We'll start off with
mindful eating. I bet you didn't think that we were going to talk about
food in this course, but here we are. Some ways that you can
integrate mindfulness into your eating is by eating slowly. Savor each bite. It's surprising how people can just eat so fast, enjoy it. This is a time where you can
be mindful and be present, and you don't have to work, you don't have to worry about relationships or
people or chores. You can just eat. It is the perfect time
to practice mindfulness. If you want to go even
deeper with this practice, pay attention to the flavors and the textures and the smell of
your food if you can smell. Unfortunately, for me,
that is an aspect of the eating that I cannot enjoy. But I am happy that you can. Another way that you can
incorporate mindfulness into your everyday life is by
practicing mindful walking. Whenever you go for
a walk or maybe go for a walk intentionally
with this in mind. Notice the sensation of every step that you
take on the ground. If you're just outside, if you're just strolling
around maybe even in the car, just observe the environment
that is around you. The sound, the lighting, and if there's winds, maybe what it feels
like on your skin, on your face, in your hair. Really think about all
of the details all of the aspects of being where
you are at that time. This goes into the next one, which is mindful listening. Stop everything
that you are doing. Even if you want, put this
course on pause for a second, and then come back because I got more things to discuss
in this last lecture. Just go somewhere where you can sit for a few minutes
and just listen. You only listen and fully focus
on the sounds around you. Do you hear birds? Is there construction? Are there people walking around
and laughing in the area? Do you hear a dog barking? Are there leaves
rustling in the wind? Pay attention to all of it. And practice being non judgmental
of these observations. It's not about
what is irritating you or what is bothering you, but rather acknowledging
the fact that these sounds are happening around you
and letting them exist. Another way to
practice this with people is by engaging in active listening
during conversations. Not thinking about how you
are going to respond to the person while
they are talking to you, but really listen. Turn off that inner
conversation, those voices in your head that are already coming
up with a response, turn those off,
and really try to listen to the person
who is talking to you. Another way of
incorporating this is also through mindful journaling. I'm sure that you've heard about all the great things
of journaling. And you can set
aside a few minutes. This doesn't have
to be another task on your list or another
tore that you need to do. Just set aside a few
minutes each day where you can write down your
thoughts and your feelings. And you could just
let it all spill out. There's no grammar,
there's no spell check. Who cares? It just letting
it flow out of you. When you're done, just
reflect on your experiences. And remember, this isn't
about judging yourself or criticizing anything that you've done in the day or any
emotions that you've felt. It's just about thinking and observing and recording,
just letting it out. By integrating these
mindfulness practices, your daily life will hopefully
be that much more awesome. And before we wrap
up this course, let's discuss your homework. I have a little project
that I want you to do. Yes, there is homework. For this course,
I would like for you to practice a five
minute meditation. Every day for one week. You can find a guided
one online if you want, or you can do the one that we
did earlier in this class. When you do your meditations, I want you to write
down your thoughts and your feelings
regarding your experience, and then I want you
to share it with me. This is just the beginning Thank you so much for
taking this course and remember to appreciate
each and every moment with calm and gratitude and let
inner peace guide your way.
Romina, Creative Entrepreneur
