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How to Meditate: Meditation 101 for Beginners

10 Science-Backed Benefits of Meditation

What is Meditation?

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Why We Are Bad Predictors of Our Happiness

Cory Muscara

00:00

00:00

Meditation

4.6

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Why We Are Bad Predictors of Our Happiness

In this meditation, we practice letting go of control and trusting the flow of life.

Let's start by settling

into a comfortable posture.

This could be sitting,

standing or lying down.

It feels okay to do so,

you can close your eyes.

And we'll settle in together

by taking a deep breath.

Breathing in through the nose.

And slowly out through the mouth.

Inviting the jaw to relax.

Letting the shoulders be at ease.

And letting the hands and belly soften.

In this moment there's no place else

you need to be, nothing else you need

to do and no problems you need to solve.

See if you can actually give

yourself permission to be here.

And as you start to settle

in, your breathing can go

back to its normal rhythm.

And your body can settle into

a posture that feels slightly

more comfortable and grounded

Since we're not the best predictors

of what will make us happy in the

future, in this meditation, we're

going to practice cultivating a

quality of happiness right now.

And to do this we'll use a particular

breathing pattern and mantra.

As you breathe in, you say in your

own mind: Breathing in, I feel joy.

Breathing out, I llet go of suffering.

Breathing in, I feel joy.

Breathing out, I let go of suffering.

As always with these mantras and

phrases, really see if you can feel

the intention behind their words.

I'll give you some time

in silence to practice.

As we come to the end of our meditation,

let's take one more deep breath together.

In through the nose.

And slowly out through the mouth.

And when you're ready, you can start to

reorient yourself back into the space.

Inviting your eyes to open

if they've been closed.

And give yourself a pat on the back.

Good job.

So as you go about your day, see,

if you can come back to this idea

of finding a little bit more joy and

contentment right here, right now.

I acknowledged that this won't

always be possible, and it's not

always the appropriate response

to what you're going through,

especially if it's very difficult.

And I think there are a lot of moments

where we're chasing some future vision

of when we can finally be happy.

And that just puts us on

a never ending treadmill.

So as we try to build the life that

we're excited to live into, can we

simultaneously develop a quality of

peace and contentment here and now?

Thank you for your practice.

And until we talk again, take care.

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