August 19, 2021 • 42 mins
Do you also struggle sometimes with a racing mind, feeling completely unsettled and unable to focus or calm down? When living in tumultuous times such as we currently are, it is very easy to get distracted, pulled out of our center and let our mind take us on a wild emotional roller coaster ride.
Like our home our mind needs its own regular house cleaning, training and focus to clear the everyday accumulation of stress, fears, overstimulation and unnecessary patterns. Thankfully there are many kinds of meditation to help with this such as; mindfulness, breathing, writing, walking, guided – and even laughing meditation.
Would you like to slow down your thoughts, get your energy into a more peaceful place, and feel more in control of your thoughts and feelings? Then you may want to take a closer look at mediation. Of course like many you may have tried to meditate before and decided “this is not for me”. Maybe you fell asleep or found yourself getting frustrated with trying to keep your concentration, even for a few short minutes.
Today I want to show you that meditation is easy – probably easier than you think and you can start right now with these 4 simple keys …
Preparation
Breath
Focus
Gentle Discipline
One of the most common excuses for not meditating is the lack of time. However, mediating will actually save you time! Through cleansing of the subconscious mind your focus will be stronger and work more efficiently. The only mistake is not to meditate at all. Start today with an attainable meditation routine and keep bringing yourself back to do it.
Dr Friedemann’s Takeaways:
Difficult Times (00:00)
Training Your Mind (4:33)
Use An Affirmation (13:51)
My Conscious Mind (23:19)
Meet Dr Friedemann
Learn more at: https://DrFriedemann.com
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/dr.friedemannschaub
PINTEREST: https://www.pinterest.com/drfriedemann
TWITTER: https://www.twitter.com/DrFriedemannS
LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drfriedemannschaub/
Friedemann Schaub, MD, PhD, is the award-winning author of The Fear + Anxiety Solution. Dr. Schaub has helped thousands of people with his Personal Breakthrough and Empowerment program to overcome their fear and anxiety by addressing the deeper, subconscious root causes of these emotional challenges.
Are you looking for more from Dr Friedemann? Check out his “Your Accelerated Breakthrough Program” https://drfriedemann.com/breakthrough-program/.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Unknown (00:02):
Well, wouldn't you agree that we are going through
difficult times right now, withall these unprecedented
challenges and uncertaintiesabout the future, so easy to get
distracted, and riled up by allthe noise around us, the people
with their strong opinions, themedia and the social media
(00:23):
outlets and lose our sadness,lose our sense of inner peace.
Now, how do we navigate throughthese times better, so that we
are not somehow in a constantchronic stress mode, but that we
can still operate from a placeof greater joy, and calmness, be
(00:44):
that change that we want to seein the world? Well, there are
many ways that lead to Rome, butone of the roads that I find
that leads, you know, withgreatest certainty, to peace is
meditation. I tried to meditatesince I was 18 years old, and
(01:07):
for the first probably 10 years,I failed miserably. I knew
meditation was cool and helpful.And I also had no clue how to do
it that time, it wasn't thatpopular, there were not so many
ways to learn, and therecertainly wasn't YouTube. So I
laid down, close my eyes,usually a lay down in the
(01:29):
bathtub, which was already aproblem. And two things usually
happened. Either I got reallyfrustrated, because my mind just
didn't stay still, I wasactually racing more than ever,
or I fell asleep, which wasn'treally exactly what meditation
is about. Now, fast forwards,you know, after I had a stretch
(01:52):
of giving up, and then comingback to and giving up, I
actually learned how to meditateand became a meditation teacher
at Kuhn aleni, yoga meditationteacher. And today, I want to
just share with you the insightsthat I have gained from
meditating and why meditationisn't rocket science, it's not
(02:13):
that complicated. And there arejust a few things we can do to
get into a practice and get themost out of it. So I want to
encourage you to follow thosesimple four keys that are going
to introduce, and then noticethat, hey, meditation can
actually become a part of mylife, like brushing my teeth, I
(02:36):
just know it is something thatmakes me feel good. Let's first
take the pressure offmeditation. My teacher, Yogi
Bhajan, who brought KundaliniYoga to India, I asked him once
is meditation, something thatreally is quietening your mind
to a place where there is nothought. And he told me, if you
(03:01):
get, you know, zero thought linefor one second, you really have
mastered something. And he hasdone meditation probably at that
time for, you know, 65 years orso. So that gave me a sense of,
well, it's not about you know,having a flatline here in our
brain, it's about actuallymastering our mind, and being
(03:25):
able to not let the mind run us,you know, into all different
kinds of directions, but makethe mind listen to us. And just
follow our guidance. And I'mtalking about the subconscious
mind, you know, that part ofyour mind that's always active
and is looking around foranything that potentially can be
wrong, or anything thatpotentially can be more
(03:47):
interesting. It's like, a littlepuppy, who just you know, when
it doesn't get anything to do,it gets antsy, it starts, you
know, whimpering, and
chewing on your shoes. So how doyou train your mind to not do
this, but really calm down withyou to entrain in your
(04:08):
intentions. And that,ultimately, is what meditation
is about. Now, the same YogiBhajan also said that meditation
is like house cleaning. So whenyou haven't cleaned your house
for a long time, well,naturally, the dust keeps on
flying everywhere, right? And sowhen you start meditating,
(04:29):
usually what you will notice isthat the thoughts and the
feelings just, you know, showup, it's like, almost as if you
know, it's louder inside of youduring meditation than before.
And that's totally normal. Justimagine that, every time you do
it, you take another layer ofdust away, you are releasing
(04:50):
some of those thoughts and, andit's just, you know, a matter of
time that your mind is moreclear and quiet and stop. And
you feel automatically, then,wow, I can just shut off all
that noise externally, becauseinternally, I have a sense of
(05:10):
peace. And that doesn't takeyears to get there, you can
actually get there quite easy.However, it may not last very
long, I remember that at thebeginning, when I meditated the
effect lasted for maybe aminute. And then I was right
back in my little, you know,mind combined stress mode. And
(05:30):
then I continued, because thatmeant it felt so good. And
eventually it was five minutes,half an hour and, and after, you
know, an evening of meditationwith my meditation group, I did
feel that it could actually lastthroughout the night and even
into the morning. So it'sbuilding a new foundation to of
(05:52):
how you're going to see yourselfhow you can approach life. And
that just takes a little bit oftime, but it's absolutely worth
it. So let's delve into it.First key to make meditation
easy, is to choose what kind ofmeditation you want to do. Now,
there are plenty of meditations,I, you know, like writing
(06:14):
meditation in the morning pages,I like walking meditations,
where you're just in nature, andreally mindfully, go on a on a
path and a trail. I likelaughing meditation, which is
kind of really funny. I mean, wedo this in Egypt sometimes. And
it's, it's hilarious, and itreally releases a lot of energy.
(06:35):
And of course, a lot of peoplesay, Hey, you know what, I
meditated, by listening to aguided meditation, which is
perfectly great. And if you goto my YouTube channel, unless
you're already there, you willfind that I have plenty of
guided meditations with alldifferent kinds of topics. The
only thing about guidedmeditations is that it doesn't
(06:58):
really replace the meditationwith yourself. Because on some
level, there is still an outsidesource that you're focusing on.
There still, you know, like aninput, rather than you releasing
rather than you letting go. Andit doesn't really necessarily
strengthen your mastery of yourmind, the way it can, when you
(07:24):
really sit with yourself, andyou focus on let's say, your
breathing, it's a little bitlike getting a massage and
wanting to get into a greatershape, the massage is wonderful,
but you're not getting stronger.And so that is where maybe a
combination of both can be veryhelpful, just to not ignore
(07:44):
that, that presence of yourself.And that's what a lot of people
feel, hey, I'm so uncomfortablewith myself, I don't really like
to hang out with myself. So Irather listen to Dr. Friedman.
And then I don't have to reallyfeel what's going on inside of
me. It's a little bit of anescape. And ultimately, I don't
think that we can escapeourselves. Our you know, mind,
(08:08):
our subconscious, always wantsto, you know, somehow have
something that leads it. Andthat's not an outside voice.
That should be that innerconscious awareness that we are
gaining through meditation.
So the first step of meditation,the first key is preparation. So
(08:31):
you choose today because I tellyou, so to do a breathing,
meditation, simple setting,breathing, choose a place that
you feel is quiet, you don't getdisturbed. Choose a time
ideally, I like it in themorning before everything starts
or in the evening to end theday. Choose to also have a
(08:56):
little bit of a, you know, likeanchor, like a calming anchor
that makes you feel good, likeyou know, Lighting a candle, or
I like to have these words thatYeah, like a little sprayed. So
lavender spray, and it justsmells good and gives your whole
system that sense of Oh, okay,now, apparently, we are going
(09:18):
into meditation, you can havevery quiet music or some little
silent machine with maybe wavesilence or rain sounds just to
know create some kind of acontainer that makes you feel
calm right from the start. Andthen you go into that inner
(09:40):
focus. A lot of people thatteach meditation, say all you
need to focus on is your breath,or your body sensations or maybe
your thoughts and I agree, thatcan be really, really helpful,
because you're kind of going toa neutral place. But the problem
is that you The mind, especiallyat the beginning, will not be
(10:02):
totally satisfied. By justobserving yourself, it is more
helpful. I find when you giveyour mind a direction, something
that you want to enhance, and,and continue to focus on during
the meditation. So this can be,for example, peace. You think
(10:22):
about a place or a time in yourlife, where you felt very much
at peace, or compassion, youthink about what it feels like
to be compassionate, or to lovesomebody to something that is
feeling positive, and calming,and expansive, all at the same
(10:44):
time, we have in our mind in oursubconscious, like, you know, a
huge pantry of all differentkinds of emotions and
experiences. And we can alwaysgo to the shells and pick up
whatever we want to really, youknow, feel right now, even
though we are not in thispeaceful place in the, you know,
(11:06):
rain forest, that we may havereally experienced this
connection to nature that wenever had before. But as you go
back there, into this memory,you can elicit those feelings,
and you will naturally in thatmoment, really have exactly the
same sensations and the samereactions inside of you, as if
(11:28):
you're there, your subconsciousdoes not care, whether it's
reality or fiction. And we knowthis alternative negative way
because it's subconscious can gooff onto a, what if tangent, and
you actually experience atrauma, even though it has never
happened and probably will neverhappen. So use that subconscious
(11:48):
ability just to make you feelsomething to your benefit. So
then you choose that as yourlittle trail, your emotional
trail to follow through with. Sothis is your focus, peace or
compassion, or kindness orwhatever you want to, you know,
enhance them. The next place togo to or the next key is your
(12:15):
breath. So you're ready. Now,you know what you want to focus
on, you have a direction. Nowthe breath keeps you guide it.
Now, breath is something that issuch a fascinating thing, right?
I mean, it's we take it forgranted, we never really pay
attention to it. But at the sametime without breathing,
(12:36):
obviously, we're not reallyexisting anymore. But also
breath has, you know, awonderful metaphorical function
of the cycle of life. When youinhale, you are really taking in
and receiving, which is a partof life. When you hold the
breath, you are maintaining,you're just enjoying that
(13:00):
fullness of your lungs. And whenyou are exhaling, you go through
the cycle of release. And that'sexactly what life is all about.
Receiving, holding on to, andthen letting go. And that is why
I love this
breathing of that cycle. Fiveseconds, inhale, five seconds,
(13:21):
holding five seconds, exhale, asa wonderful way to stay focused
on the present moment, youalready have emotionally
energetically your focus. Butthen you let your mind just
watch. In addition to it, theinhale holding an exhale, and
you can count to five or 10depending on how long you want
(13:45):
to do each cycle. Or you can usea little affirmation I made
peace now I am opening myhearts, I am content with my
life. And then you just keep ondoing this three times, which
would be let's say five seconds,or eight times for 10 seconds,
you'll see. But that can alsothen add like this little mantra
(14:08):
part to staying with the breath.Certainly a helpful tool. There
are other breaths, I mean, youcan just do long deep breathing
without holding the breath in.You can do alternate nostril
breathing, where you're closingthe right nostril, and then
you're inhaling for the left andthen you're closing the left
(14:30):
nostril and you're exhaling tothe right. And then it just
keeps on going like that. That'sa very calming breath in itself.
In Kundalini Yoga, we alwaystalk about that this affects
both brain hemispheres, the leftand the right. It has a cooling
effect on your mind. So that'scertainly also something that
(14:50):
you can do especially when youfeel a little stressed out at
the beginning. don't meditatelonger at the beginning. Then
seven or 10 minutes, don't feellike you have to go into, you
know, the 30 minute or an hourextent, because you're going to
feel really frustrated and yourmind feels frustrated too. You
(15:12):
know, often men talk about thepuppy. But often I see our
subconscious also a little bitlike a horse, because I have
horses and I love horses. And ifyou have a young horse, an
untrained horse, and you wouldlet it stand there next to you,
for longer than 10 minutes, and10 minutes already a stretch, it
really gets antsy, it getsnervous, it wonders what's going
(15:34):
on. And your mind is exactly thesame way. So just do seven to 10
minutes, that's a huge success,you don't have to even do it
every day, maybe you want tojust focus on three times a
week. It's really about justdoing it, that is the secret.
It's not about doing it perfect.or doing it long, or doing it
(15:56):
all the time. It's just gettinginto the habit and gradually
noticing the benefits of it.With the breath, just briefly to
mention, make sure when youinhale that your belly expands,
so that you really push yourbelly out, I know, we're usually
trying to you know, keep thebelly in, but yet push it out.
(16:18):
And then on the exhale, you pullyour navel back to your spine,
and then in itself empties yourlungs more and it fills your
lungs more up. So inhaling, justexpansion, and exhaling, just
letting go and pulling gentlyyour navel back. So that's a
(16:38):
breath part. Pretty simple,right? When you breathe, by the
way, this first breath, I toldyou, inhaling, holding and
exhaling, you're going to noticesomething about yourself. And
what you're going to notice isthat you will have a harder time
with one of the three. So maybeyou have a hard time just
(16:59):
getting enough breath in.Because you know you feel like
out of breath, or you have ahard time holding it, you can't
wait until you release it. Oryou have a hard time when you
release, you feel like youcannot get it out fast enough,
you cannot just you know, slowit down, it's going to tell you
something about how you go aboutlife, whether you have a hard
time receiving, maintaining, orletting go and it's 99%
(17:25):
accurate. So watch yourself. Andyou can see that when you are
really getting more into theequilibrium of breathing, you
know mastering your breath, youmay actually also master more
and more your mind and thishabit about you know, your
difficulties receiving holdingon to or letting go. The mind is
(17:46):
adjusting itself to the breathjust like you know
unconsciously, our breathadjusts to the mind stressed
mind, fast breath. And viceversa.
Another thing that are anotherkey is the focus. And I already
mentioned several things aboutfocus, you know the energy,
focusing on the breath, having alittle mantra, a little
(18:09):
affirmation. Now mood rah, whichis you know, the posture is also
very important. And right fromthe start, I mean, you can also
just put this into thepreparation said a little bit
more straight than me. So reallysit straight, don't lay down,
don't make that mistake, it'sgonna definitely end up in
(18:30):
falling asleep, sit in a chairwith a nice pillow, maybe in
your back. Imagine that there isa little string attached to the
back of your head so that youreally have this nice alignment
of head neck and back of yourbody have your chest a little
back because it opens your heartand legs you can keep uncrossed
(18:52):
and hands in a mood raw, whichis you know, a lock. And so the
gun mood dry having the indexfinger and the thumb together,
that's a very common one. Andsome people love to go just
through all the fingers, everyfinger has a different meaning.
And that can also be a littlebit you know, good for occupying
(19:16):
your mind. So that is where youknow the focus can help and, and
one thing that a lot of peopledon't know is that your eye
focus is also important, youknow your eyes are closed,
usually, but you can also keepyour eyes open and just focus on
let's see the candle that youlit or a spot on the wall. As
(19:37):
long as you feel like when youreyes are open, you stay focused
on that. That can be also verymeditative, and it certainly
prevents you from fallingasleep. Or you can roll your
eyes up to the top of your heador this third eye point between
your eyebrows, rolling your eyesup even though they are closed.
(19:58):
What happens is It takes alittle effort and it puts a
little pressure on yourforehead. But in Kundalini Yoga,
we often talk about how that isactually massaging your
pituitary gland. Because, youknow, the, the eye nerves are
kind of embedding this mastergland of your brain. And you
(20:20):
know, the pituitary gland ispretty much responsible for your
entire hormonal system. So it'sgiving it a little massage from
both sides. And it has also avery calming effect. And you can
also focus on the tip of yournose, with your eyes, like, you
know, maybe a third open. Sothere are different focal points
(20:44):
with your eyes, and all of themhave, you know, something
positive to them. So you maywant to just try out what feels
the best, I would not just closemy eyes, I like to do something
where I feel like yeah, I'mcreating the maximum effect by
actually also engaging my eyesthis way. So the last one, the
(21:08):
last point is then the gentlediscipline. So what do you do,
if your mind just screams at youlike Angry teenager or a child
with a temper tantrum, this isboring, let's get out there more
things to do, you're lazy, youcan never do this, your mind
will never be still. And thenyou feel like a frustrated
(21:29):
failure. So what do you do, youactually embrace it, you really
have this gentle discipline,because your intention is peace,
or compassion, and love, andhave that peace, compassion and
love also, for yourself, forthat part of you, that feels
uncomfortable, doing nothingthat feels heavy, you know,
(21:54):
afraid of the consequences ofnot being on guard and
constantly thinking and beingbusy and occupied, have
compassion with this part of youin gently bring it back to the
present moment. You know, it'slike training this puppy again,
well, if you do potty trainingwith a puppy, it may run off and
(22:14):
want to pee somewhere else whileyou bring it back to the paper.
And so you bring your mindgently back to the paper, and
then re engage in what you havebeen doing. Sending a little
love to that part of you thatdoesn't feel that comfortable
with it. But really, in the end,feeling like my goal is to
(22:35):
create a safety between oursafety for me and beautiful
connection between that
part of my mind that feels moreresponsible to you know, keep me
safe, and or make me happy. Andmy conscious mind who has chosen
(22:56):
to approach life from a greatersense of alignment and
centeredness and balance in theend, meditation and I actually
often miss write it when I writeabout it, because I'm writing
mediation and not meditation.And it's really true. Meditation
(23:17):
is like a mediation andmediation between your conscious
and your subconscious mind. Sothat at the end, you're creating
an agreement, you're notmeditating 24 seven, you're just
meditating, to recalibrateyourself to start the day, from
(23:37):
a place of I'm owning it, I knowwho I am, I have a sense of
coherence with which I canapproach any kind of challenges
through the day. So mysubconscious doesn't have to be
on guard all the time or feellike you know, overwhelmed or
stressed out because mysubconscious can lean on me, and
(24:01):
just follow me on this journeythrough life. So it's like that
kind of mediation that makes youalso be able to have a greater
sense of, you know, alliancewith your subconscious mind. I
love that about meditation thatmy subconscious mind more and
more, listens to me andsupports, what I consciously
(24:26):
choose, rather than having aconflict that I think a lot of
people feel, you know,consciously you want to do
something of, you know, feelinghappy and joyful, but
subconsciously, you worry andyou know, feel stressed out so
meditation can help you to just,you know, find peace and, and
(24:46):
resolution of that conflict. Andthe last thing about meditation
that when I, what I want to sayis that it really also connects
you to a deeper part of youwhether you want to call it us
And or your higherconsciousness. There's a
spiritual aspect to it, eventhough meditation doesn't have
(25:07):
to be this way, and it'scertainly not a religion. I do
also feel that when I meditate,I'm tuning and tapping into a
greater consciousness. I'mfeeling a greater sense of
oneness, whether it's a onenesswith nature, with life with the
universe, it just stops me fromfeeling that it's all up to me
(25:32):
and everything is, you know, onmy shoulders. It is a complete
reconnection with a deeper truththat we don't always have words
for. But it certainly gives us asense of peace and trust that
goes beyond that, what we canreally consciously conjure up.
(25:54):
So meditate, do it, prepareyourself very simple. Have a
little timer with you, so thatyou know, when seven or 10
minutes are over, choose whatyou want to focus on, have the
breath as that railing on thatpath. Use your eye position, so
(26:17):
that you are you know reallyalso getting the most benefit,
have little mutrah to move yourfingers around so that this is
also again creating an energeticlock. And be gentle with
yourself. Be kind with yourself,clean the mind, without rush
without hurry withoutperfectionism. Just know this is
(26:40):
my time for myself, This is mygift. And this is a sense of
coming from sorry. This is mygift. This comes from a place of
self love. And it comes from aplace of self appreciation. I
(27:00):
will do 11 minutes. There issome magical number there. But I
will do an 11 minute meditation,a breathing meditation, not a
guided one just sitting with youfor 11 minutes that will also
show up on YouTube. So then wecan meditate together.
(27:21):
And there is something to besaid, meditating with others, it
creates even a stronger field ofpeace and calmness. So if you
can get your partner or afriend, even meditating, long
distance just agreeing here thistime we're going to sit together
and meditate. It really createssomething that makes meditation
(27:45):
even more powerful anddelicious. Well, I hope this
helps. And I hope you will getthe most out of it. As always
ask a question in the commentbox and I'm happy to answer it
and be so kind and sign up forthis channel. Thank you I
Well, wouldn't you agree that we are going through
difficult times right now, withall these unprecedented
challenges and uncertaintiesabout the future, so easy to get
distracted, and riled up by allthe noise around us, the people
with their strong opinions, themedia and the social media
(00:23):
outlets and lose our sadness,lose our sense of inner peace.
Now, how do we navigate throughthese times better, so that we
are not somehow in a constantchronic stress mode, but that we
can still operate from a placeof greater joy, and calmness, be
(00:44):
that change that we want to seein the world? Well, there are
many ways that lead to Rome, butone of the roads that I find
that leads, you know, withgreatest certainty, to peace is
meditation. I tried to meditatesince I was 18 years old, and
(01:07):
for the first probably 10 years,I failed miserably. I knew
meditation was cool and helpful.And I also had no clue how to do
it that time, it wasn't thatpopular, there were not so many
ways to learn, and therecertainly wasn't YouTube. So I
laid down, close my eyes,usually a lay down in the
(01:29):
bathtub, which was already aproblem. And two things usually
happened. Either I got reallyfrustrated, because my mind just
didn't stay still, I wasactually racing more than ever,
or I fell asleep, which wasn'treally exactly what meditation
is about. Now, fast forwards,you know, after I had a stretch
(01:52):
of giving up, and then comingback to and giving up, I
actually learned how to meditateand became a meditation teacher
at Kuhn aleni, yoga meditationteacher. And today, I want to
just share with you the insightsthat I have gained from
meditating and why meditationisn't rocket science, it's not
(02:13):
that complicated. And there arejust a few things we can do to
get into a practice and get themost out of it. So I want to
encourage you to follow thosesimple four keys that are going
to introduce, and then noticethat, hey, meditation can
actually become a part of mylife, like brushing my teeth, I
(02:36):
just know it is something thatmakes me feel good. Let's first
take the pressure offmeditation. My teacher, Yogi
Bhajan, who brought KundaliniYoga to India, I asked him once
is meditation, something thatreally is quietening your mind
to a place where there is nothought. And he told me, if you
(03:01):
get, you know, zero thought linefor one second, you really have
mastered something. And he hasdone meditation probably at that
time for, you know, 65 years orso. So that gave me a sense of,
well, it's not about you know,having a flatline here in our
brain, it's about actuallymastering our mind, and being
(03:25):
able to not let the mind run us,you know, into all different
kinds of directions, but makethe mind listen to us. And just
follow our guidance. And I'mtalking about the subconscious
mind, you know, that part ofyour mind that's always active
and is looking around foranything that potentially can be
wrong, or anything thatpotentially can be more
(03:47):
interesting. It's like, a littlepuppy, who just you know, when
it doesn't get anything to do,it gets antsy, it starts, you
know, whimpering, and
chewing on your shoes. So how doyou train your mind to not do
this, but really calm down withyou to entrain in your
(04:08):
intentions. And that,ultimately, is what meditation
is about. Now, the same YogiBhajan also said that meditation
is like house cleaning. So whenyou haven't cleaned your house
for a long time, well,naturally, the dust keeps on
flying everywhere, right? And sowhen you start meditating,
(04:29):
usually what you will notice isthat the thoughts and the
feelings just, you know, showup, it's like, almost as if you
know, it's louder inside of youduring meditation than before.
And that's totally normal. Justimagine that, every time you do
it, you take another layer ofdust away, you are releasing
(04:50):
some of those thoughts and, andit's just, you know, a matter of
time that your mind is moreclear and quiet and stop. And
you feel automatically, then,wow, I can just shut off all
that noise externally, becauseinternally, I have a sense of
(05:10):
peace. And that doesn't takeyears to get there, you can
actually get there quite easy.However, it may not last very
long, I remember that at thebeginning, when I meditated the
effect lasted for maybe aminute. And then I was right
back in my little, you know,mind combined stress mode. And
(05:30):
then I continued, because thatmeant it felt so good. And
eventually it was five minutes,half an hour and, and after, you
know, an evening of meditationwith my meditation group, I did
feel that it could actually lastthroughout the night and even
into the morning. So it'sbuilding a new foundation to of
(05:52):
how you're going to see yourselfhow you can approach life. And
that just takes a little bit oftime, but it's absolutely worth
it. So let's delve into it.First key to make meditation
easy, is to choose what kind ofmeditation you want to do. Now,
there are plenty of meditations,I, you know, like writing
(06:14):
meditation in the morning pages,I like walking meditations,
where you're just in nature, andreally mindfully, go on a on a
path and a trail. I likelaughing meditation, which is
kind of really funny. I mean, wedo this in Egypt sometimes. And
it's, it's hilarious, and itreally releases a lot of energy.
(06:35):
And of course, a lot of peoplesay, Hey, you know what, I
meditated, by listening to aguided meditation, which is
perfectly great. And if you goto my YouTube channel, unless
you're already there, you willfind that I have plenty of
guided meditations with alldifferent kinds of topics. The
only thing about guidedmeditations is that it doesn't
(06:58):
really replace the meditationwith yourself. Because on some
level, there is still an outsidesource that you're focusing on.
There still, you know, like aninput, rather than you releasing
rather than you letting go. Andit doesn't really necessarily
strengthen your mastery of yourmind, the way it can, when you
(07:24):
really sit with yourself, andyou focus on let's say, your
breathing, it's a little bitlike getting a massage and
wanting to get into a greatershape, the massage is wonderful,
but you're not getting stronger.And so that is where maybe a
combination of both can be veryhelpful, just to not ignore
(07:44):
that, that presence of yourself.And that's what a lot of people
feel, hey, I'm so uncomfortablewith myself, I don't really like
to hang out with myself. So Irather listen to Dr. Friedman.
And then I don't have to reallyfeel what's going on inside of
me. It's a little bit of anescape. And ultimately, I don't
think that we can escapeourselves. Our you know, mind,
(08:08):
our subconscious, always wantsto, you know, somehow have
something that leads it. Andthat's not an outside voice.
That should be that innerconscious awareness that we are
gaining through meditation.
So the first step of meditation,the first key is preparation. So
(08:31):
you choose today because I tellyou, so to do a breathing,
meditation, simple setting,breathing, choose a place that
you feel is quiet, you don't getdisturbed. Choose a time
ideally, I like it in themorning before everything starts
or in the evening to end theday. Choose to also have a
(08:56):
little bit of a, you know, likeanchor, like a calming anchor
that makes you feel good, likeyou know, Lighting a candle, or
I like to have these words thatYeah, like a little sprayed. So
lavender spray, and it justsmells good and gives your whole
system that sense of Oh, okay,now, apparently, we are going
(09:18):
into meditation, you can havevery quiet music or some little
silent machine with maybe wavesilence or rain sounds just to
know create some kind of acontainer that makes you feel
calm right from the start. Andthen you go into that inner
(09:40):
focus. A lot of people thatteach meditation, say all you
need to focus on is your breath,or your body sensations or maybe
your thoughts and I agree, thatcan be really, really helpful,
because you're kind of going toa neutral place. But the problem
is that you The mind, especiallyat the beginning, will not be
(10:02):
totally satisfied. By justobserving yourself, it is more
helpful. I find when you giveyour mind a direction, something
that you want to enhance, and,and continue to focus on during
the meditation. So this can be,for example, peace. You think
(10:22):
about a place or a time in yourlife, where you felt very much
at peace, or compassion, youthink about what it feels like
to be compassionate, or to lovesomebody to something that is
feeling positive, and calming,and expansive, all at the same
(10:44):
time, we have in our mind in oursubconscious, like, you know, a
huge pantry of all differentkinds of emotions and
experiences. And we can alwaysgo to the shells and pick up
whatever we want to really, youknow, feel right now, even
though we are not in thispeaceful place in the, you know,
(11:06):
rain forest, that we may havereally experienced this
connection to nature that wenever had before. But as you go
back there, into this memory,you can elicit those feelings,
and you will naturally in thatmoment, really have exactly the
same sensations and the samereactions inside of you, as if
(11:28):
you're there, your subconsciousdoes not care, whether it's
reality or fiction. And we knowthis alternative negative way
because it's subconscious can gooff onto a, what if tangent, and
you actually experience atrauma, even though it has never
happened and probably will neverhappen. So use that subconscious
(11:48):
ability just to make you feelsomething to your benefit. So
then you choose that as yourlittle trail, your emotional
trail to follow through with. Sothis is your focus, peace or
compassion, or kindness orwhatever you want to, you know,
enhance them. The next place togo to or the next key is your
(12:15):
breath. So you're ready. Now,you know what you want to focus
on, you have a direction. Nowthe breath keeps you guide it.
Now, breath is something that issuch a fascinating thing, right?
I mean, it's we take it forgranted, we never really pay
attention to it. But at the sametime without breathing,
(12:36):
obviously, we're not reallyexisting anymore. But also
breath has, you know, awonderful metaphorical function
of the cycle of life. When youinhale, you are really taking in
and receiving, which is a partof life. When you hold the
breath, you are maintaining,you're just enjoying that
(13:00):
fullness of your lungs. And whenyou are exhaling, you go through
the cycle of release. And that'sexactly what life is all about.
Receiving, holding on to, andthen letting go. And that is why
I love this
breathing of that cycle. Fiveseconds, inhale, five seconds,
(13:21):
holding five seconds, exhale, asa wonderful way to stay focused
on the present moment, youalready have emotionally
energetically your focus. Butthen you let your mind just
watch. In addition to it, theinhale holding an exhale, and
you can count to five or 10depending on how long you want
(13:45):
to do each cycle. Or you can usea little affirmation I made
peace now I am opening myhearts, I am content with my
life. And then you just keep ondoing this three times, which
would be let's say five seconds,or eight times for 10 seconds,
you'll see. But that can alsothen add like this little mantra
(14:08):
part to staying with the breath.Certainly a helpful tool. There
are other breaths, I mean, youcan just do long deep breathing
without holding the breath in.You can do alternate nostril
breathing, where you're closingthe right nostril, and then
you're inhaling for the left andthen you're closing the left
(14:30):
nostril and you're exhaling tothe right. And then it just
keeps on going like that. That'sa very calming breath in itself.
In Kundalini Yoga, we alwaystalk about that this affects
both brain hemispheres, the leftand the right. It has a cooling
effect on your mind. So that'scertainly also something that
(14:50):
you can do especially when youfeel a little stressed out at
the beginning. don't meditatelonger at the beginning. Then
seven or 10 minutes, don't feellike you have to go into, you
know, the 30 minute or an hourextent, because you're going to
feel really frustrated and yourmind feels frustrated too. You
(15:12):
know, often men talk about thepuppy. But often I see our
subconscious also a little bitlike a horse, because I have
horses and I love horses. And ifyou have a young horse, an
untrained horse, and you wouldlet it stand there next to you,
for longer than 10 minutes, and10 minutes already a stretch, it
really gets antsy, it getsnervous, it wonders what's going
(15:34):
on. And your mind is exactly thesame way. So just do seven to 10
minutes, that's a huge success,you don't have to even do it
every day, maybe you want tojust focus on three times a
week. It's really about justdoing it, that is the secret.
It's not about doing it perfect.or doing it long, or doing it
(15:56):
all the time. It's just gettinginto the habit and gradually
noticing the benefits of it.With the breath, just briefly to
mention, make sure when youinhale that your belly expands,
so that you really push yourbelly out, I know, we're usually
trying to you know, keep thebelly in, but yet push it out.
(16:18):
And then on the exhale, you pullyour navel back to your spine,
and then in itself empties yourlungs more and it fills your
lungs more up. So inhaling, justexpansion, and exhaling, just
letting go and pulling gentlyyour navel back. So that's a
(16:38):
breath part. Pretty simple,right? When you breathe, by the
way, this first breath, I toldyou, inhaling, holding and
exhaling, you're going to noticesomething about yourself. And
what you're going to notice isthat you will have a harder time
with one of the three. So maybeyou have a hard time just
(16:59):
getting enough breath in.Because you know you feel like
out of breath, or you have ahard time holding it, you can't
wait until you release it. Oryou have a hard time when you
release, you feel like youcannot get it out fast enough,
you cannot just you know, slowit down, it's going to tell you
something about how you go aboutlife, whether you have a hard
time receiving, maintaining, orletting go and it's 99%
(17:25):
accurate. So watch yourself. Andyou can see that when you are
really getting more into theequilibrium of breathing, you
know mastering your breath, youmay actually also master more
and more your mind and thishabit about you know, your
difficulties receiving holdingon to or letting go. The mind is
(17:46):
adjusting itself to the breathjust like you know
unconsciously, our breathadjusts to the mind stressed
mind, fast breath. And viceversa.
Another thing that are anotherkey is the focus. And I already
mentioned several things aboutfocus, you know the energy,
focusing on the breath, having alittle mantra, a little
(18:09):
affirmation. Now mood rah, whichis you know, the posture is also
very important. And right fromthe start, I mean, you can also
just put this into thepreparation said a little bit
more straight than me. So reallysit straight, don't lay down,
don't make that mistake, it'sgonna definitely end up in
(18:30):
falling asleep, sit in a chairwith a nice pillow, maybe in
your back. Imagine that there isa little string attached to the
back of your head so that youreally have this nice alignment
of head neck and back of yourbody have your chest a little
back because it opens your heartand legs you can keep uncrossed
(18:52):
and hands in a mood raw, whichis you know, a lock. And so the
gun mood dry having the indexfinger and the thumb together,
that's a very common one. Andsome people love to go just
through all the fingers, everyfinger has a different meaning.
And that can also be a littlebit you know, good for occupying
(19:16):
your mind. So that is where youknow the focus can help and, and
one thing that a lot of peopledon't know is that your eye
focus is also important, youknow your eyes are closed,
usually, but you can also keepyour eyes open and just focus on
let's see the candle that youlit or a spot on the wall. As
(19:37):
long as you feel like when youreyes are open, you stay focused
on that. That can be also verymeditative, and it certainly
prevents you from fallingasleep. Or you can roll your
eyes up to the top of your heador this third eye point between
your eyebrows, rolling your eyesup even though they are closed.
(19:58):
What happens is It takes alittle effort and it puts a
little pressure on yourforehead. But in Kundalini Yoga,
we often talk about how that isactually massaging your
pituitary gland. Because, youknow, the, the eye nerves are
kind of embedding this mastergland of your brain. And you
(20:20):
know, the pituitary gland ispretty much responsible for your
entire hormonal system. So it'sgiving it a little massage from
both sides. And it has also avery calming effect. And you can
also focus on the tip of yournose, with your eyes, like, you
know, maybe a third open. Sothere are different focal points
(20:44):
with your eyes, and all of themhave, you know, something
positive to them. So you maywant to just try out what feels
the best, I would not just closemy eyes, I like to do something
where I feel like yeah, I'mcreating the maximum effect by
actually also engaging my eyesthis way. So the last one, the
(21:08):
last point is then the gentlediscipline. So what do you do,
if your mind just screams at youlike Angry teenager or a child
with a temper tantrum, this isboring, let's get out there more
things to do, you're lazy, youcan never do this, your mind
will never be still. And thenyou feel like a frustrated
(21:29):
failure. So what do you do, youactually embrace it, you really
have this gentle discipline,because your intention is peace,
or compassion, and love, andhave that peace, compassion and
love also, for yourself, forthat part of you, that feels
uncomfortable, doing nothingthat feels heavy, you know,
(21:54):
afraid of the consequences ofnot being on guard and
constantly thinking and beingbusy and occupied, have
compassion with this part of youin gently bring it back to the
present moment. You know, it'slike training this puppy again,
well, if you do potty trainingwith a puppy, it may run off and
(22:14):
want to pee somewhere else whileyou bring it back to the paper.
And so you bring your mindgently back to the paper, and
then re engage in what you havebeen doing. Sending a little
love to that part of you thatdoesn't feel that comfortable
with it. But really, in the end,feeling like my goal is to
(22:35):
create a safety between oursafety for me and beautiful
connection between that
part of my mind that feels moreresponsible to you know, keep me
safe, and or make me happy. Andmy conscious mind who has chosen
(22:56):
to approach life from a greatersense of alignment and
centeredness and balance in theend, meditation and I actually
often miss write it when I writeabout it, because I'm writing
mediation and not meditation.And it's really true. Meditation
(23:17):
is like a mediation andmediation between your conscious
and your subconscious mind. Sothat at the end, you're creating
an agreement, you're notmeditating 24 seven, you're just
meditating, to recalibrateyourself to start the day, from
(23:37):
a place of I'm owning it, I knowwho I am, I have a sense of
coherence with which I canapproach any kind of challenges
through the day. So mysubconscious doesn't have to be
on guard all the time or feellike you know, overwhelmed or
stressed out because mysubconscious can lean on me, and
(24:01):
just follow me on this journeythrough life. So it's like that
kind of mediation that makes youalso be able to have a greater
sense of, you know, alliancewith your subconscious mind. I
love that about meditation thatmy subconscious mind more and
more, listens to me andsupports, what I consciously
(24:26):
choose, rather than having aconflict that I think a lot of
people feel, you know,consciously you want to do
something of, you know, feelinghappy and joyful, but
subconsciously, you worry andyou know, feel stressed out so
meditation can help you to just,you know, find peace and, and
(24:46):
resolution of that conflict. Andthe last thing about meditation
that when I, what I want to sayis that it really also connects
you to a deeper part of youwhether you want to call it us
And or your higherconsciousness. There's a
spiritual aspect to it, eventhough meditation doesn't have
(25:07):
to be this way, and it'scertainly not a religion. I do
also feel that when I meditate,I'm tuning and tapping into a
greater consciousness. I'mfeeling a greater sense of
oneness, whether it's a onenesswith nature, with life with the
universe, it just stops me fromfeeling that it's all up to me
(25:32):
and everything is, you know, onmy shoulders. It is a complete
reconnection with a deeper truththat we don't always have words
for. But it certainly gives us asense of peace and trust that
goes beyond that, what we canreally consciously conjure up.
(25:54):
So meditate, do it, prepareyourself very simple. Have a
little timer with you, so thatyou know, when seven or 10
minutes are over, choose whatyou want to focus on, have the
breath as that railing on thatpath. Use your eye position, so
(26:17):
that you are you know reallyalso getting the most benefit,
have little mutrah to move yourfingers around so that this is
also again creating an energeticlock. And be gentle with
yourself. Be kind with yourself,clean the mind, without rush
without hurry withoutperfectionism. Just know this is
(26:40):
my time for myself, This is mygift. And this is a sense of
coming from sorry. This is mygift. This comes from a place of
self love. And it comes from aplace of self appreciation. I
(27:00):
will do 11 minutes. There issome magical number there. But I
will do an 11 minute meditation,a breathing meditation, not a
guided one just sitting with youfor 11 minutes that will also
show up on YouTube. So then wecan meditate together.
(27:21):
And there is something to besaid, meditating with others, it
creates even a stronger field ofpeace and calmness. So if you
can get your partner or afriend, even meditating, long
distance just agreeing here thistime we're going to sit together
and meditate. It really createssomething that makes meditation
(27:45):
even more powerful anddelicious. Well, I hope this
helps. And I hope you will getthe most out of it. As always
ask a question in the commentbox and I'm happy to answer it
and be so kind and sign up forthis channel. Thank you I
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