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How to Meditate: Meditation 101 for Beginners

10 Science-Backed Benefits of Meditation

What is Meditation?

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Zoom In and Out

Cory Muscara

00:00

00:00

Meditation

4.5

Duration

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Zoom In and Out

In this meditation, we'll train our brain to focus like a camera, zooming in when we want more detail, and zooming out when we want more space and perspective.

Let's start by finding

a comfortable posture.

This could be sitting,

lying down or standing.

If it's comfortable to do

so, you can close your eyes.

And we'll take a deep breath

together to settle in.

Breathing in through the nose.

And slowly out through the mouth.

Inviting the jaw to relax as well as any

tension in the face, around the eyes,

the cheeks, the forehead, the lips.

Inviting the shoulders to be at ease.

And the hands and the belly.

Giving the body full permission to

just let go, as the breath settles

back into its natural rhythm.

And we'll take a few moments to

collect our attention on our breathing.

As the mind wanders, we just gently bring

it back to this breath, in this moment.

In this meditation, we're

going to practice the skill of

zooming into our experience and

zooming out of our experience.

Very often, we get sucked into the

actual content of our thoughts, our

emotions, our pain, without an ability

to step back and see the bigger picture.

We're going to practice that zooming

in and zooming out capacity here.

So start by bringing your attention

very narrowly to the breath, as

if you were focusing on the spot

just around the belly button.

On each inhale, you might

notice the sensations there.

And make your attention very

precise, as if you were looking at

it through the lens of a microscope.

Just what are the sensations?

All of your attention goes right there.

Really narrow.

Just this one location in the body.

Like you were shooting at a laser pointer

with your attention right at that spot.

And now reverse and expand the awareness.

So instead of just focusing at the

belly button, expand to include

all the sensations in your body.

Resting in a very broad,

vast kind of awareness.

You might feel the outline of your body.

You might also sense the

space around your body.

Being more attuned to sounds around

you, smells, other sensory experience.

You may even notice your

body posture opens up a bit.

Okay, let's get narrow again.

So focusing at the belly, really narrow.

And expand open.

Narrow again at the belly,

like a laser pointer.

And expand open.

The last couple of moments

here to just rest in this

open, aware, relaxed presence.

We'll take one more deep breath together.

Breathing in through the nose.

And out through the mouth.

And when you're ready,

you can open your eyes.

Great job.

As you go about your day today, see if you

can practice using both of these skills.

The ability to tune into one thing, really

focused and the ability to step back,

to zoom out and see the bigger picture.

As always, thank you for your practice.

And until we speak again, take care.

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