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How to Meditate: Meditation 101 for Beginners

10 Science-Backed Benefits of Meditation

What is Meditation?

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Mindfulness With Mental Noting

Melli O'Brien

00:00

00:00

Meditation

1.7

Duration

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Mindfulness With Mental Noting

Learn how the technique of mental noting unwinds anxiety, reduces our reactivity and anchors us in our calm center.

So just taking a moment to get comfortable

and settle in here for this meditation.

When you're ready, if you care to, just

allowing your eyes to lightly close.

And now just inviting you to take three

deep, slow, full breaths as a way of

arriving here a little more fully.

So breathing in.

And breathing out.

And two more breaths in the same way.

And then with each exhale, can you get a

sense of allowing any tension or tightness

in the body to soften a little and let go.

And then on the next exhale, just letting

your breath return to its own natural

rhythm and pace as you just continue

now to be attentive to the breath.

Just resting the mind on the

movement of the breath in the body.

And as you follow the breath, if at

some point you get lost in thought

or distracted by something, in that

moment, just really tuning into what

it was that caught your attention.

Was it a sound?

Or a thought?

Or perhaps a feeling?

So each time you're drawn by a

distraction, just mentally noting it.

So if there's sadness, you might

mentally note, Oh, here's sadness.

If there's anxiety, you

mentally note, Oh anxiety.

Or if you prefer to keep it even

simpler, you can just note, ah, feeling.

If you get lost in thought,

just mentally note, thinking.

And after you've mentally noted

thing, you just let go of distracted

you and return your attention

to the feeling of the breathing.

And so you don't have to note every

single thought and feeling that arises,

just the ones that distract you and

pull you out of the present moment.

And as this practice begins to draw to

a close, just taking a deep breath in.

And then letting it go.

Begin to wriggle fingers and toes.

And when you're ready,

you can open the eyes.

And throughout the rest of the

day, you can take this practice

of mental noting with you.

The more you note your thoughts

and emotions, the less vacant hook

you and draw you into reactivity.

With continued practice, mental

noting can become second nature

and can act as an anchor to your

calm center and a steady awareness.

Wishing you a wonderful day.

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