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How to Meditate: Meditation 101 for Beginners

10 Science-Backed Benefits of Meditation

What is Meditation?

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00:00

Meditation

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Relax Your Body

In this meditation, we will practice tuning into our bodies, the foundation for our capacity to reduce tension and pain, as well as amplify joy and goodness.

Let's start by settling

into a comfortable posture.

This could be sitting,

standing, or lying down.

If it feels comfortable to do

so, you can close your eyes.

And we'll take one deep

breath together to settle in.

In through the nose.

Slowly out through the mouth.

Inviting the jaw to soften.

Letting the shoulders be at ease.

As well as the hands and the belly.

As the body starts to settle

in, the breath can come

back to its natural rhythm.

And just take a few moments to anchor your

attention in the present moment, either

focusing on the breath or something else

in your awareness that feels grounding.

Notice the activity in

the mind in this moment.

Observe it from a grounded place and

redirect the attention back here to

whatever it is you're focusing on.

In this meditation, we're

going to do a body scan.

Tuning into all of the different

sensations in the body, from

the head down to the toes.

So start by feeling into the

sensations at the top of your head.

If there's hair there, noticing

where the hair meets the scalp.

If there's not hair, feeling the

sensations of the air on your skin.

And then sliding that awareness down

through the face, the forehead, the

eyebrows, the eyes, cheeks, nose, mouth,

jaw, around to the ears, the neck.

Just trying to feel the head region.

Not visualizing, not thinking

about it, but feeling the

sensations that are present there.

As you come down now through

the shoulders, into the arms.

As though the awareness is just

enveloping these parts of the body,

attuning you a little bit more

to what it's like to be embodied.

As we feel the hands now.

Sensations on the fingertips.

Then leaping your awareness

over to the torso.

Perhaps feeling the heart

beating in your chest.

Movement of the breath as it inflates

the belly, chest region, the back.

And just tuning into the

upper body as a whole.

As we slide our awareness

down through the pelvis.

Into the thighs.

You can even try to drop your

awareness a layer beneath the skin.

Can you feel into the tissue, the muscle?

How deep can the awareness

go into your body?

Coming down to the knees, calves, shins.

And finally at the feet.

And now just zoom out and

feel the body as a whole.

Notice if you're a little bit more attuned

to the sensations that are present.

Let's take one more deep breath.

In through the nose.

Out through the mouth.

And when you're ready, you can

start to reorient yourself and

invite the eyes to open again.

Great job.

So this was a brief body scan meditation.

Know that if you didn't notice

sensations in certain regions

of the body, that's okay.

And if any part of this was

uncomfortable, that's also normal.

The process of reconnecting to

our bodies acn take practice.

And it's something that we want to

go slowly into, especially if we've

spent time avoiding our bodies.

So great job on your practice today.

Take care.

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