Heather Prince guides you through a breath-focused meditation. You'll count your breath from 1 to 4, notice tension in your body, and watch your thoughts pass like clouds. The practice takes you from posture and nasal breathing through to release and calm.
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Hello and welcome to video 2, How to Meditate. What did you discover in video 1 of this series? Did your distracting thoughts subside? Did you sense an inner peace and relaxation? Did your mind feel lucid and spacious? Now I have a question for you. Have you ever stood watching the sea when it's rough? Yes. The sediment is churned up and the water becomes murky, but when the wind dies down, the mud gradually settles and the water becomes clear. In a similar way, when the incessant flow of your distracting thoughts is calmed through concentrating on the breath, your mind becomes unusually lucid and clear. This is the first stage of meditation and is very powerful. You can see from this practice that it's possible to experience inner peace and contentment just by controlling your mind without having to depend at all upon outside conditions. And when the turbulence of distracting thoughts subsides and your mind becomes still, a deep happiness and contentment naturally arises from within, and this feeling of contentment and well-being helps you to cope with the busyness and difficulties of daily life. So much of the stress and tension we normally experience comes from your mind, and many of the problems you experience, including ill health, are caused or aggravated by this stress. Just by doing breathing meditation for a few minutes every day, you will be able to reduce stress. You'll experience calm, you'll have some problems just falling away, and difficult situations will become easier to deal with, and you'll naturally feel more warm and more loving towards other people, and your relationships with others will gradually improve. So right now, get into your posture which we spoke about in video 1, and when you're comfortable, close your eyes and bring your full attention to your breathing. And breathe naturally through your nose without any attempt to control your breath, and just observe as the air enters in through your nose and out through your mouth. Just focus on your breathing, nothing else. And thoughts may arise and you may feel that the meditation is making your mind busier, but the reality is that you're just becoming more aware of how busy your mind actually is. And if you're having difficulty settling, you can try counting the breath Which is an ancient meditation practice. So you can breathe in, and on your out-breath, slowly count 1, 2, 3, 4, and then breathe in. Take it all the way down, and then breathe out 1, 2, 3, 4. And thoughts will come along as you continue this practice, But just imagine them like clouds, just going along in the bright blue sky. And as they go on their way, you bring your focus back to that breath again. You breathe in through your nose, and as you breathe out, focus on counting 1, 2, 3, 4, and just observe your chest And your shoulders and your ribcage and your belly as you breathe in and as you breathe out. And as your mind wanders, return your focus back to your breathing. That's as simple as you need to focus on, is breathing in and counting out. 1, 2, 3, 4. Just breathe naturally and just become aware now of emotions and where they are in your body and what do they feel like. Maybe you are aware of tightness around your chest or maybe some butterflies in your tummy area. And just let go of the stories in your mind and refocus on your body. In this way, you're honouring your emotions, but you're not becoming entangled in any stories. And then breathe in and focus on the word calm, and breathe out and let those emotions go with your out-breath. Then breathe again, focusing up that— on that word calm. And as you breathe out, let go of that tightness in your chest or those butterflies in your tummy, whatever it is you're feeling, maybe the tightness in your shoulders. So you're breathing in, focusing on the word calm, and breathing out and letting go any feelings that you are aware of in your body. And when you feel calm, and when you feel relaxed, bring your focus back to your in-breath and back to your out-breath. Become aware of Become aware of your feet. Become aware of your hands. And when you are ready, open your eyes. Take a nice breath in. Breathe out. Bring yourself back into the space from where you began. And you have completed your simple breathing, counting, calming meditation. I'll see you again in the next video. This is Heather Prince, The Root Master.
