Inner-Peace Meditation | Ashok Gupta | Gupta Program |

Hello, and a warm welcome back to our series of meditations live here on Facebook, brought to you by the Coronavirus Challenge. Now, what is the Coronavirus challenge? It's a 10 day program of videos and meditations and various exercises that can help you boost your immune system against the coronavirus against COVID 19. So at the moment, the media and the medical profession are focusing on avoidance. That's obviously incredibly important. But what's just as important that isn't being spoken about is the importance of we ourselves boosting our immune system. Because the more powerful our immune system, the more likely it is that we can fight off the virus more effectively, that we can actually reduce the number of days with symptoms. And some of these interventions, their lifestyle changes, diet changes, some of these interventions have been shown to reduce our chances of infection from viruses by up to 80 to 90%, which is incredible. And this preventative medicine, preventive health care, is something which isn't particularly talked about and yet it exists. So what we've done is we've taken our last 20 years of research and brought it into a specific program that you can all take to help you boost your immune system. And you can find out more information at www.the coronavirus challenge.com. so I hope you all get a chance to take that program and spread it with your friends, your family and groups that you're members of. Now, today we're going to be taking what we call the inner peace meditation. And many people right now are experiencing a lot of anxiety, a lot of challenges. How will this affect me and potentially my own health? How will that affect the health of my parents or my friends or my family? How will I survive financially? What will this mean to my livelihood? Or even how can I get basic groceries in a safe way? So there are many challenges that we all face as individuals and as a collective. And sometimes it can be difficult to deal with that anxiety, that sadness. And people may ask me, well, hang on, Ashok, how can we develop inner peace in an experience like this? That sounds impossible. And what I'll say is that let's flip it on its head and actually start from this idea that we are actually born as peaceful. We have that sense of peace within us, that sense of connection to everything around us. And then gradually over time, we learn different messages from society, from our families, from school system and those beliefs. And those systems then shift and change our ability to connect to that inner peace. And then gradually, only as an adult do we recognize the importance of connecting with that peace and stillness that we have within Us. And especially at a time like this, it's recognizing that we are made up of that sense of stillness and peace. So imagine a diamond. Now, a diamond is bright, it's glowing. It's one of the most solid substances in the universe. And yet when we cover that diamond with just a thin layer of dust, that diamond can no longer sparkle. It can no longer shine. And so it is with the ups and downs of life, the stresses and strains of life, and also the situation we're in right now, it can create layers of dust over that shining diamond that we are. And that shining diamond is that we can radiate love, we can radiate peace, we can radiate joy. But the situations and circumstances of our lives put these layers over it. Now, that doesn't mean that we deny what's going on or think that it's okay in some way, but it is about saying, actually, if we regularly use something like breathing or meditation to remove those layers of dust, we can connect.

With the core of who we are.

The deeper essence of who we are, which is that stillness and that peace. It's a happiness, but it's from a peaceful place rather than an excited place. And many people have had the opportunity now to go deep within themselves and meditate more, perhaps more than they ever did in the past. You know, they say, as I've mentioned before, if you can't go outside, then go inside. So many people are finding that this time that we're in right now has been an opportunity to do all of those things that we never said we had time for. How many people said, oh, I don't have time to meditate. I don't have time to exercise. I don't have time to think about preparing good, healthy meals. I don't have time for any of that. And yet you'll spend two hours surfing cat videos on Facebook. Whereas now we've been forced into this cocoon like a caterpillar turns into a butterfly. The transformation, when we get into that cocoon can sometimes feel painful. Imagine, a caterpillar has to sprout wings from its back. And yet that time, that time in that cocoon is an opportunity for us to transform in some way. We choose how we want to transform. That is the beauty of it. It is our choice. But as a starting point, that opportunity to meditate, to go deep within, I'd love for you all to experience either once or twice a day now as part of the coronavirus challenge, there are plenty of 10 and 20 minute meditations that you can experience on the website and lots of resources that you can take part in. And it's all completely free, so I hope you'll get a chance to partake in the Challenge. So we want to share this with everybody. So we're about to go into our inner peace meditation. So I'd love for you to share this Facebook Live event now and click Share at the bottom. And please share it on your own social media, perhaps other social media networks such as Twitter and whatever, Instagram. Also love for you to share it on groups that you're members of. And we get more people today experiencing the inner peace that we're all going to experience right now. Good. And remember, these meditations will also be available on our Facebook page as a recording, so you can listen to them in the future. And they will also be available, some of them on the Coronavirus Challenge website as well. And please do remember that on Thursday of this week at 5pm UK time, 12 o' clock Eastern, we will be looking at how we can use this opportunity now, this time that we've been given as an opportunity for growth, whatever that growth means to us. So we'll be exploring how we can grow during this period of time, how we can shift perspective and see this, the cocoon, the opportunity for growth, and what that really means for ourselves as individuals, as society, and the planet as a whole. So I hope it'll be a wonderful, stimulating conversation. So please do join me this Thursday when we send you more information out about that.

Good.

So please now just make sure you won't be disturbed. You can switch off your phones or other devices, making sure you won't be interrupted, and we can go deep and experience some inner peace right now. And once again, for those of you who are new to meditation, please do remember that even if you sit there and all you're experiencing are thoughts, that's okay. Even experienced meditators will have days when they have just a head full of thoughts. And that's part of the process. It's just observing them, acknowledging that you have a busy mind with lots of thoughts, but you being the center of the storm. So there's a storm going around and there's this mythical idea of a center of the storm, the eye of the storm, which is a place of peace, no matter what is happening around you. So you observe without judgment, let your mind have lots of thoughts if you would like. And then as you regularly practice the witness position, you strengthen that witness position. And gradually, over time, you get less involved in the thoughts and the emotions of your mind. So you don't feed them anymore. Till eventually you fully associate with that witnessing awareness. And then everything changes. So let's just close our eyes now. So let's close our eyes and let's.

Just take a slow, deep breath in. And breathe out slowly through the nose. Let's take another slow, deep breath in. And just breathing out slowly through the nose again. And let's become aware of certain parts of our body.

Which becomes a stepping.

Stone towards going inwards. Let's become aware. Of our toes, Give our toes a little wiggle. Our feet and ankles. Observing and being with those parts of your body.

Without any judgment.

Bringing your awareness to your legs and your knees now. Bringing your awareness to the tip of.

Your backbone.

So the bottom of the spine. Bring your awareness to that region. Breathing slowly and deeply. Taking a slow, deep breath in. And breathe out slowly through the nose as you keep your awareness on the bottom of your spine. Bringing your awareness to the center of your hips, The space between your hips. Let's take a slow, deep breath in.

And breathe.

Breathing slowly through the nose.

Out.

Let's bring our awareness. To our belly button. Just observing any sensations in the area of your belly button. Let's take a slow, deep breath in with a smile. Breathe out slowly through the nose, Bringing your awareness to the center of your.

Chest.

To your heart. Noticing any sensations in your chest region. Breathing slowly and deeply. Sam. Let's take a slow, deep breath in. Observing the heart. And breathe out. Bringing our attention to our throat. Noticing any sensations in our throat region. Sa. Observing the throat. Let's take a slow, deep breath in. Breathe out slowly with a smile. Bringing our awareness. To in between the eyebrows. The space between the eyebrows. Sa. Notice any sensations or anything rigid between your eyebrows. Let's take a slow, deep breath. Breath in. Focusing between the eyebrows. Just breathing out slowly. Becoming aware of a point at the top of your head. The point right at the top of your head. Feel the sensations on the area of the top of your head. Take a slow, deep breath in. And breathe out slowly. Notice the presence and stillness of your body right now. Sa. In a moment, we're going to breathe in. And as we breathe out, we will whisper the word peace. So let's breathe in. And we whisper the word peace as we breathe out. Loosen your whole body. Allow your shoulders to drop.

And your.

Arms to fully let go. Just like a baby lets go of its body in its mother's arms. Take another slow, deep breath in. As we breathe out. Peace. Allowing yourself to let go of your body. So all the weight of your body is taken by the chair or the floor that you're sitting on. Breathe in again. And as you breathe out, say peace. You are made up of peace and stillness. Connect with that peace and stillness within. In this present moment right now. Sa. Imagine diving deeper and deeper within. Sam. Sa. Sam. Sa. Peace is your deepest nature. And you can continue with activities whilst connected to this deep sense of peace, peace and stillness in this present moment. Sa. Bringing yourself back to your body. Presence and stillness of your body. Becoming aware of the room around you with your eyes closed most. Let's take a slow deep breath in. And breathe out with a smile. And let's take a rejuvenating deep breath.

In.

Energizing the body and breathe out. And slowly and gently. When you're ready, you can just gently open your eyes.

And the sun has come back out here in London.

So I hope you enjoyed our inner peace meditation today.

Tomorrow will be doing a very special meditation on how we can deal with people in our lives. Right now, so many of us are spending more time with family or other people in our lives in close proximity and that can create some agitation perhaps, or just any general worries that we're finding or negativities about dealing with people in our lives even if they're not in the same house as you. So how we can surrender and let go of our resistances and our annoyances with people around us. So that's what we're doing tomorrow at the same time here live on Facebook. So please do invite your family and friends and of course what I'd love for you to do is share this meditation on your social media with your friends and family so they can experience this inner peace as well. And if as a result of that meditation you feel like just meditating a bit longer, that's perfectly fine as well. Sometimes people feel like they want to do a bit more because they're enjoying that experience so much. So you can go back into meditation if you would like. And I hope you'll also join me on Thursday on how we'll be looking at using this time right now for growth both individually and as a society. So thank you so much for watching and look forward to seeing you tomorrow once again at same time, 5pm UK time, 12 o' clock Eastern time and all the various other times around the world which are on the website. Thanks for watching and have a peaceful day. Goodbye.