00:00Welcome today, I'm Stephanie Osborne with Meditate New Orleans and over the next 15
00:14minutes I'm going to offer you some experiences in meditation even with these sounds. I'm also
00:21going to tell you what to expect during meditation and also offer you some tools. So raise your hand
00:28if you've never meditated before. Okay. And raise your hand if you've meditated once or twice but
00:36it's not in your routine. And raise your hand if you have a regular practice. Okay. And raise your
00:47hand if you're a crisis meditator so you only meditate when you're stressed out. Okay. So
00:53meditation is the act of cultivating mindfulness. And mindfulness is the awareness that arises when
01:02you pay attention to the present moment like right now on purpose and without judgment. And so before
01:08we get started with the meditation I want to just give you an experience in grounding. So grounding
01:15is when you bring your awareness to the present moment by turning your attention to what's going
01:21on in your environment. So I'd like to invite you to start by just looking towards your right.
01:29Noticing the walls. Looking up at the lights. The open space. The towels on the ceiling. And then
01:38towards your left. The speakers. Maybe the people towards your left. And then looking at your palms.
01:45Noticing if your palms are sweating or if they're dry. Noticing your fingers and seeing if you can see
01:56your fingernails beyond your fingertips. And then looking past your fingers and hands. Maybe at your lap or the rug.
02:07And then turn your palms down and close your eyes. Or if you're not comfortable closing your eyes you can just
02:13allow your gaze to find the floor. And bring your awareness to the sounds in this space.
02:24You might identify three sounds outside of my voice.
02:31Music. People talking.
02:34You might even notice the sound of your own breath.
02:47And noticing the temperature in this space. Is it cool or warm?
02:55Noticing any tension in your body.
03:00If your tongue is on the roof of your mouth or if it's relaxed.
03:04Noticing any tension in your body.
03:06And when you're ready gently open your eyes.
03:12So four things will happen during meditation.
03:16The first thing that will happen is you'll be thinking.
03:18Right? Because our minds are designed to think. So no judgment if you notice thoughts are coming.
03:23I actually want to do an experiment with you.
03:26I'm going to turn my timer on for one minute.
03:30And I'm going to invite you to close your eyes.
03:32And over that one minute time frame I'm going to ask you to count your thoughts for just one minute.
03:39So when you're ready I'd like to invite you to close your eyes.
03:45And over the next minute just begin to count your thoughts.
03:49And when that minute is over I'm going to ring a bell.
03:52And you can open your eyes.
03:53Beginning now.
03:55And now.
04:04I'm doing a funcion.
04:04And now.
04:08Good job.
04:09Here we go.
04:14How do you today?
04:15T ัะตั foriyor?
04:17Thank you governments.
04:21and please open your eyes that was actually 30 seconds but raise your hand if you had no thoughts
04:39no thoughts okay raise your hand if you had one to five thoughts
04:45okay raise your hand if you had six to ten thoughts and raise your hand if you had more than 11 thoughts
04:57okay so our minds are designed to think so no judgment there if you find yourself thinking
05:03during meditation because that's what our minds are designed to do the second thing that will happen
05:08during meditation is you'll be focusing on an anchor so an anchor imagine there's a boat drifting along
05:17in the water you drop the anchor it might sway from side to side but it always comes back to center
05:24so an anchor is what you focus on to bring yourself back to the present moment and there are lots of
05:30anchors if you all saw what's love got to do with it with angela bassett one of her anchors was
05:35a chant nam yo ho renge kyo but they're also inward anchors like you focus on your mantra on the inside
05:45by thinking it but not repeating it there's also focusing on a candle flame and sounds but today
05:53we're going to focus on the breath and we're going to go over that in a bit i want to give you one um
06:00um so i'm going to give you a couple tools to practice mindfulness something that you can do
06:11when no one's around or when everyone's around because no one will even notice that you're doing
06:16it one is the square breath so you inhale in for the count of five retain your breath for the count of
06:23five exhale for the count of five and retain your breath for the count of five and so when you do
06:29that six rounds that's two minutes no one even has to know that you're doing it and so i would like to
06:36invite you now to do this exercise if you'd like that you can close your eyes or let your gaze find the
06:43floor and breathe in two three four five retain your breath two three four five exhale two three four
06:58five and hold your breath two three four five again inhale two three four five and hold two three four
07:11five exhale two three four five and hold two three four five inhale
07:23and hold
07:27exhale
07:31and hold
07:35one more round inhale
07:36and hold
07:43exhale
07:47and hold
07:50and when you're ready open your eyes so that's the square breath and you can do that on your own
07:55the other breath that i really like is ujjayi breath or ocean breath it's called also victorious
08:03breath or dark vader breath because the sound you can hear it and it's a really calming sound
08:09and so you start by placing your hand in front of your face inhale in through your nose
08:15exhale out onto your hand as if you're fogging a window
08:21again inhale in through your nose and exhale out onto your hand as if you're fogging a window
08:27now this time place your palm down close your mouth and close your eyes inhale in through your
08:35nose but this time exhale out through your nose keeping the same tone in the back of your throat
08:41so you can hear your exhale out breathe in listen for your exhale out
08:46and when you're ready open your eyes so the first thing that'll happen during meditations you'll be
09:06thinking the second thing that'll happen is you'll be focusing on your anchor which today is the breath
09:12the third thing that might happen during meditation is you might doze off if you're tired or warm or
09:18lying down or not used to meditating then your body might tell you it's time to go to sleep no judgment
09:24there people say that if you doze off it means your body needs rest so no judgment just when you hear
09:31yourself snoring wake up and go back to the meditation the fourth thing that might happen during the
09:36meditation is you'll slip into the gap so deepak chopra calls the gap the space between your thoughts
09:46where your breathing is very shallow and you're fully in the present moment and when you notice
09:52that you're in the gap you say oh i must be in the gap you start thinking again so no judgment there
09:57just come back to the breath every inhale in and every exhale out and so we're going to have
10:05a brief meditation i'd like to invite you to close your eyes or let your gaze find the floor
10:13and turn your awareness to the breath don't try to control it in any way just notice it
10:20is it fast or slow is it deep or shallow just notice and breathe in slowly through your nose
10:38and slowly control your exhale out
10:41and this time as you're breathing in and out begin to sense where you notice your breath
11:09mostly mostly in your body is it your nostrils your throat chest or belly just notice
11:26and breathe in deeply into that space filling it with air
11:32and when you're ready slowly control your exhale out
11:39again breathing in deeply extending your breath in
11:51exhaling slowly lengthening your breath out
12:00you might even notice the natural pause between your breath in and your breath out
12:09and you might extend that pause making it a little bit longer
12:20pausing your breath further allows you to control your breathing and it also prevents hyperventilation
12:27breathe in
12:31breathe out
12:32you might notice the beginning middle and end of your inhale
12:46in the beginning middle and end of your exhale
12:54softening your forehead
12:56relaxing the space in between your eyebrows
13:08turning your awareness to the tips of your nostrils
13:12noticing the temperature of the air that enters your nostrils as you inhale
13:16and seeing if the temperature changes as the air escapes your nostrils as you exhale
13:29breathe in
13:33breathe out
13:34and as you inhale in through your nose notice your chest rise and expand
13:49and as you exhale notice your chest collapse
13:56just observe your chest rising
13:58breathing and falling like waves in an ocean
14:04no two breaths are the same
14:11shift your awareness to your belly
14:14as you inhale in through your nose notice your belly inflate like a balloon pushing against your clothes
14:22and as you exhale noticing your belly deflating moving away from your clothes
14:41breathing in deeply
14:46as you exhale relaxing your shoulders down
14:52and imagine the moment you woke up this morning
15:03did you lie in bed a while or did you get right up
15:10and remember doing your hygiene routine
15:15and getting dressed
15:22and your route to this building
15:31and the moment you stepped in this space
15:36and found your seat
15:42everything that you have done in your life
15:45everything that you've experienced and perceived up until just a few seconds ago has brought you to this
15:53very moment
15:56and no one can experience this moment like you can breathe in
16:05breathe out
16:06and when you're ready allow your eyelids to float open
16:20thank you so much i hope this was good for you um if you have any questions feel free to ask
16:26do you want to ask
16:28yes
16:33private ones
16:34oh i have private sessions um i have a six-week course on carolton avenue and
16:43oh a private question later yeah and then you can follow me at steph ozzy
16:49s-t-e-p-h-o-z-z-y on instagram thank you so much i hope you all have a great day thank you
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