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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:
Hi, and welcome to Day Two of our
seven day Meditation Challenge.
My name's Melli O'Brien and I'm so excited
to be joining with Cory Muscara and the
thousands of you who are coming together
as part of the Mindfulness.com community.
And a big part of Mindfulness.com always
has been feeling the power and the
connection that comes from being part
of a caring community like this one.
Well, so I hope you enjoyed
exploring with Cory yesterday,
the what if to what is practice?
It's one of my favorites.
Today I'm going to offer you some
insights about healing negative emotions
through mindfulness and self-compassion.
So when we're going to do and
stressful times in life, like most
of us are right now, some pretty
uncomfortable emotions tend to arise.
Now our usual response to these emotions
is that we want them to go away.
That's quite natural.
But so we often start to struggle
against the emotion by going
into our heads and thinking about
the problem over and over again.
So we ruminate about it.
We worry about it.
We try to fix it and figure it out.
We might even try suppressing the feelings
or ignoring them and just soldiering on.
But with that strategy, in
time, those emotions do tend
to come to the surface again.
So we tend to apply a lot of mental effort
in these ways, kind of trying to a force
the difficult emotions to go away quickly.
But when we're going through really
hard times, it's actually really
natural to feel these kinds of emotions.
And fighting them or pushing them
down doesn't make them move on faster.
When we experienced painful or
difficult emotions, it's best
actually not to go into your head and
ruminate and overthink the situation.
In fact, the research shows
that this habit of overthinking
actually tends to prolong difficult
feelings and make them bigger.
So that's not what we want.
Instead what we can do is use
self-compassion to kind of create a
comforting and healing inner environment
in which those emotions can come to
the surface where they can be felt and
acknowledged, where they can be met
with kindness, patience, compassion,
and understanding, and they're allowed
to unfold and heal in their own time.
So we really just create this container
and then we entrust the passage
of time to take care of the rest.
And it could be moments, it
could be days, it could be
years before the emotion passes.
So we really just genuinely
have to fully let go of our
agendas to change the emotion.
And instead of fighting with the emotion,
we switch the focus to caring for them.
And if you think about this new
attitude, it's such a kindness towards
ourselves because instead of fighting
with ourselves in the midst of a
difficult time, we're waging peace
with ourselves in the middle of it all.
So as you traverse these difficult
times we're in, just remembering it's
pretty natural that difficult emotions
are going to arise from time to time.
And when they do, seeing if you can
remember, instead of overthinking with
them or struggling with them, just make
your sole task creating this compassionate
container of awareness, allowing the
emotion to arise and unfold, and when
the time is right, letting it dissolve.
Today, I'm going to guide you through
a self-compassion meditation where you
can practice this skill and then take it
forward with you into the days to come.
So thank you for your practice
and your presence here with us.
And now let's settle in
for today's meditation.
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Vidyamala’s tips on catching anger as it’s happening or about to happen are great - clear, practical, and doable.
- Vicoir
The little talks before the meditations are priceless. It's like I've found my peeps. The topics, the quotes, the goals—it all makes so much sense to me, things I want to be thinking and learning about. Most importantly, the meditations are kindness-centered, which I love. It feels like a new way to approach meditation.
- Lauren
Incredible, easy to navigate app. I would highly recommend this app to anyone who wishes to reduce stress and anxiety or simply as an aid to improve overall mental health.
- Kirtus
I love how the app gives me pointers to new things to explore.
- Lydia
So calm and soothing. I love the new bundle with Kelly Boys, she’s brilliant!
- EJ
Better than Headspace. I've had the paid version of both apps, and I must say I enjoy this one better.
- Gina, Plus+ Member
Vidyamala’s tips on catching anger as it’s happening or about to happen are great - clear, practical, and doable.
- Vicoir
The little talks before the meditations are priceless. It's like I've found my peeps. The topics, the quotes, the goals—it all makes so much sense to me, things I want to be thinking and learning about. Most importantly, the meditations are kindness-centered, which I love. It feels like a new way to approach meditation.
- Lauren
Incredible, easy to navigate app. I would highly recommend this app to anyone who wishes to reduce stress and anxiety or simply as an aid to improve overall mental health.
- Kirtus
I love how the app gives me pointers to new things to explore.
- Lydia
So calm and soothing. I love the new bundle with Kelly Boys, she’s brilliant!
- EJ
Better than Headspace. I've had the paid version of both apps, and I must say I enjoy this one better.
- Gina, Plus+ Member
Vidyamala’s tips on catching anger as it’s happening or about to happen are great - clear, practical, and doable.
- Vicoir
The little talks before the meditations are priceless. It's like I've found my peeps. The topics, the quotes, the goals—it all makes so much sense to me, things I want to be thinking and learning about. Most importantly, the meditations are kindness-centered, which I love. It feels like a new way to approach meditation.
- Lauren
Incredible, easy to navigate app. I would highly recommend this app to anyone who wishes to reduce stress and anxiety or simply as an aid to improve overall mental health.
- Kirtus
I love how the app gives me pointers to new things to explore.
- Lydia
So calm and soothing. I love the new bundle with Kelly Boys, she’s brilliant!
- EJ
Better than Headspace. I've had the paid version of both apps, and I must say I enjoy this one better.
- Gina, Plus+ Member
I am very new to meditation, and am so happy that my first introduction to it has been through this app
The first session was fantastic. I feel safe. And supported. Almost like having someone helping me through my difficult time. I’m very grateful for this app.
- Babi
You get a lot of useful tips for handling stress and anxiety in 'real life'.
- Joy
Highly recommend.
- Humanfrst
Kelly Boys is hands down the best. Everytime I click on one of her guided meditations I get excited for the calmness that lies ahead.
-
I am very new to meditation, and am so happy that my first introduction to it has been through this app
The first session was fantastic. I feel safe. And supported. Almost like having someone helping me through my difficult time. I’m very grateful for this app.
- Babi
You get a lot of useful tips for handling stress and anxiety in 'real life'.
- Joy
Highly recommend.
- Humanfrst
Kelly Boys is hands down the best. Everytime I click on one of her guided meditations I get excited for the calmness that lies ahead.
-
I am very new to meditation, and am so happy that my first introduction to it has been through this app
The first session was fantastic. I feel safe. And supported. Almost like having someone helping me through my difficult time. I’m very grateful for this app.
- Babi
You get a lot of useful tips for handling stress and anxiety in 'real life'.
- Joy
Highly recommend.
- Humanfrst
Kelly Boys is hands down the best. Everytime I click on one of her guided meditations I get excited for the calmness that lies ahead.
-
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