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How to Meditate: Meditation 101 for Beginners
10 Science-Backed Benefits of Meditation
What is Meditation?
How to Meditate: Meditation 101 for Beginners
10 Science-Backed Benefits of Meditation
What is Meditation?
Benefits of Mindfulness: Mindful Living Can Change Your Life
Mindfulness 101: A Beginner's Guide
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Personalized support for learning how to integrate mindfulness into your life. Delivered fresh everyday by our world renowned experts. Choose meditation duration:
Hey, welcome back to
your Daily Mindfulness.
In this session, we're going
to discuss concentration.
So if I were to tell you to really
concentrate on something, to
really bring all of your attention,
all of your focus to one thing,
how would that make you feel?
Does that bring up a sense of ease
and calm or does it bring up a
sense of tension and forcefulness?
In my experience, most people associate
concentration with a forceful kind of
effort or a caffeinated, burrow your
head in your work kind of energy.
And I used to think the same exact thing.
I remember when I went to my first
meditation retreat, we were meditating
many hours per day, and I nearly burnt
myself out after the first six hours
because I was trying to concentrate so
strongly on the breath, so forceful.
But that's not actually
how concentration happens.
To develop sustainable, deep
concentration, we need to do it from
a place of calm and relaxation because
the mind naturally collects itself
when it's at ease, not when it's
frenetic, agitated and caffeinated.
That can lead to a certain kind of
concentration, but it's often short-lived
and creates more tension over time.
What we really need is
high focusm low strain.
So let's practice this right now.
As you're paying attention, as you're
looking at me on the screen, see if
you can bring your full focus and
presence, as if this were the most
important moment in the world right now.
Anytime the mind wanders, inviting it
back right into this moment, fully here.
But simultaneously, as you have this
quality of presence and concentration,
start to invite the body to relax.
Invite the jaw, to soften.
Invite the shoulders to
relax and be at ease.
Notice if the belly is tense,
maybe invite that to soften.
Still keeping full presence, full focus.
You may notice periodically that
the more you try to pay attention,
the more the body starts to grip.
And so our practices is to
collect the awareness, but
simultaneously soften the body.
High focus, low strain.
So nice job.
This is a practice that you
can take into your day-to-day.
It's especially effective
when we have a lot going on.
Maybe something at work or taking
care of our kids, or having a lot of
conversations or calls throughout the day.
As you're going through that,
see what it's like to practice
bringing full focus, full care,
attention, and concentration, but
simultaneously being completely at ease.
I think you'll find that this
is a much more sustainable way
to cultivate concentration.
So I'll talk to you in the meditation.
As always, thank you for
your practice and take care.
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