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How to Meditate: Meditation 101 for Beginners

10 Science-Backed Benefits of Meditation

What is Meditation?

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Cultivating Joy & Gratitude

Melli O'Brien

00:00

00:00

Meditation

4.6

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Cultivating Joy & Gratitude

We explore the importance of intentional living, of waking up out of autopilot and ‘taking the steering wheel’ of our attention again.

So just settling into your meditation

posture for today's practice.

Allowing the eyes to lightly close.

And as a support to arriving here

and now a little more fully, just

taking three deep, slow, full breaths.

So breathing in.

And breathing out.

Two more breaths like

that in your own time.

And at the end of the next exhale, just

relaxing any control of the breath.

And let the breath settle

into its own natural rhythm.

And now inviting you to begin

paying attention to anything

that's pleasant or enjoyable in

your present moment experience.

So really keeping a focus

grounded in your immediate senses.

So maybe you can notice

something like that your body

is warm and that's pleasant.

Maybe your belly is soft

and that's pleasant.

Maybe there's pleasant sounds around you.

So scanning through your present

moment experience in this way and

being attentive to both the very

subtle pleasant experiences, as

well as those that are more obvious.

You might notice things like the

touch of fabric against skin.

Maybe the texture feels good.

Or, maybe there's an absence

of hunger and that's pleasant.

So just keep scanning your experience.

Enjoying, appreciating, and dwelling in

anything that's here that's pleasant.

And if you find it difficult to

find anything pleasant, there's no

need to worry or judge yourself.

Just bringing a kind and accepting

awareness to whatever's happening for you.

And if the mind wanders off,

just gently guiding it back.

So appreciating and enjoying

everything that's here that's pleasant.

And we can have such a strong tendency to

overlook what we already have in search

of something different or something more.

And we can be so prone to rushing through

our moments instead of really living them.

And we can also fixate on our problems

and difficulties and miss the beauty

of what's right in front of our eyes.

So by cultivating this ability to

pay attention to the pleasant aspects

of our lives, we can have a richer,

fuller and more meaningful life,

even if we're also living with pain

illness or difficulty of some kind.

So today, see if you can take

this appreciative awareness, this

habit of noticing the good, the

pleasant and the enjoyable things

with you into the rest of your day.

So as the practice now draws to a

close, just taking a deep breath in.

And as you breathe out, beginning

to wriggle fingers and toes.

And notice how your mind and body feel

after taking this time for meditation.

And when you're ready, opening the eyes.

Similar to this

Awakening Out of Autopilot ModeMeditation by Melli O'Brien
Melli O'Brien

Awakening Out of Autopilot Mode

Meditation · 5-20 mins4.6

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