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How to Meditate: Meditation 101 for Beginners

10 Science-Backed Benefits of Meditation

What is Meditation?

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The Container of Loving Awareness

Melli O'Brien

00:00

00:00

Meditation

4.5

Duration

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The Container of Loving Awareness

Learn to create a safe, compassionate, and soothing inner space with which you can hold any difficult emotions.

So just finding a comfortable

position on a cushion or on a chair.

And lightly closing the

eyes, if you care to.

And just tuning into the feeling

of the breath in your body.

And as you continue to follow the

breathing now, there may be emotions

arising, maybe also thoughts.

And when we experience any difficult

emotions in our meditation, whether

it's sadness, fear, loneliness,

irritation, or anger, our instinct is

to try to push them away or ignore them.

But that doesn't really help us because

pushing away emotions only tends to

prolong them and make them bigger.

So today, if anything is arising

that feels difficult, see if you

can create a safe space within you,

a container of awareness that can

hold whatever's arising in a gentle,

compassionate and accepting way.

So seeing if you can have a sense

of tending to any pain, resistance,

or discomfort like you would tend

to a loved one who was hurting.

If your loved one was upset, you wouldn't

try to make them go away or ignore them.

You'd simply give them support, maybe

a hug or a loving presence to be with.

See if you can meet any difficult

emotions in this way too.

Allow the emotion, to arise,

acknowledge the emotion, and create a

safe container of awareness for them.

And just continuing to

follow the breathing..

Staying in touch with the breathing in.

The breathing out.

And the spaces in between the breaths.

When we create this container of

awareness, we learn to offer a safe

space for our emotions, offering them

compassion, gentleness, and acceptance.

And in this way, we can then

be with anything, no matter

how hard or scary it feels.

So just continuing for these last

moments of practice to follow the

breathing and having this attitude

of creating a safe container for

any emotions to arise and dissipate.

And now bringing this practice to

a close by taking a deep breath in.

And breathing out, beginning to

wriggle the fingers and toes.

And when you're ready,

you can open the eyes.

So well done today.

You've learned to be with difficult

emotions in a brave, kind and healthy way.

So just knowing that when you're

going through hard times, you

can use this meditation again.

You might like to favorite it.

Or you can simply practice

accepting your emotions and

tending to them with compassion.

Difficult emotions can then

simply pass in their own time.

And you move through them in

a way that makes you stronger

and wiser on the other side.

And wishing you a great day.

Thank you for your practice.

Take care.

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