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How to Meditate: Meditation 101 for Beginners

10 Science-Backed Benefits of Meditation

What is Meditation?

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Unwinding Stress

Melli O'Brien

00:00

00:00

Meditation

4.6

Duration

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Unwinding Stress

This powerful breath meditation will help you gather your awareness into the present moment when you feel overwhelmed or stressed.

So no matter what's been going on

for you, just taking some time now

to sit as comfortably as possible.

Just really taking your time to settle in.

And then if you care to, just allowing

the eyes to gently close now, or you might

like to keep the eyes open and just gaze

softly somewhere just in front of you.

And when you're ready, just taking

some deep, slow, full breaths now.

So breathing in and

feeling the lungs expand.

And breathing out and feeling all of the

muscles of the chest let go and soften.

And as you breathe in again now, just

conscious of that feeling of fresh,

clean air entering and filling the body.

On the exhale, feel the

body again soften and relax.

And just taking a couple

more breaths in this way now.

And with each exhale relaxing

more and more fully into this

time, this place, this moment.

And now just letting go of any

effort to control the breath.

Just let the breath become natural again.

And no matter how stressed or tense the

mind is right now, there's no need to

try and fix or change anything at all.

Just letting the mind be as it is.

And we're going to focus attention

to the feeling of the body in

contact with the surface beneath you.

Just noticing what sensations can you

feel right now at the contact points

where body touches the surface beneath.

And it might be feelings of

tingling, pressure or textures.

It might be heaviness or lightness.

Just really bringing your full focus

into feeling what's here to be felt.

And allowing the weight of your

body to settle down into gravity

a little more with each exhale.

And now just bringing attention

to the whole physical body.

And notice how the body is

gently being rocked and craddled

by the movement of the breath.

Sometimes just noticing the

soothing rhythm of the natural

breath can bring soothing and

softness to the mind and body too.

If the mind wanders away from

feeling the breath, just notice

what thoughts carried you off.

And no matter what the thoughts

were, no matter how important they

claim to be, just letting them go

and coming home again to that feeling

of the breath moving in the body.

Just letting the feeling of the

breath be an anchor, a resting place.

Giving yourself permission to let

everything else go now and simply

be fully focused on the breath.

Nothing but the breath.

Nowhere else to get to.

Nothing more that needs to happen.

Just breathing.

Not getting caught up in thoughts,

just allowing the thoughts to come

and go on their own, without chasing

them or trying to change them.

But remembering if you do get

lost in thought, just noticing the

distraction, letting it go, and

coming gently back to the breath.

And just taking these last moments of

this meditation to really luxuriate in

the feeling of the flow of the breath.

And just giving yourself

that permission to rest here.

And letting everything else go.

And now just inviting in a little

bit of a longer and deeper breath.

A couple more breaths like that.

Filling the lungs with air on the inhale.

And as you exhale, feeling all of those

muscles of the chest and lungs let go.

And now once again, feeling a

sense of your whole physical body.

And noticing the position of

the body, position of the legs,

and torso, the arms, and head.

Whole physical body.

And just noticing the connection

points between your body and the

surface you're sitting or lying on.

Feeling the weight of the

body against that surface.

And just taking a moment to now also

connect with the different sounds

in the surrounding environment.

And when you're ready, just

beginning to wriggle the fingers

and the toes a little bit.

And gently opening the eyes.

And as you get ready now to reconnect

with the rest of your day, just taking

this more centered and grounded awareness

with you into the rest of your day.

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