Deep Psychology

I've been practicing meditation consistently for nearly a decade and now teach dozens of meditators every week.

What I've found is that beginners tend to come into meditation with all sorts of misconceptions.

These misconceptions are unhelpful and even damaging. They jeopardise our efforts to establish a regular practice and start seeing its power.

So here are my three best meditation tips for beginners. With these you'll avoid the typical traps and plant the seeds for a mature meditation practice from day one.

EXTRA MEDITATION TIPS FOR BEGINNERS: https://deep-psychology.com/advice-beginner-meditators/

Train with me: https://deep-psychology.com

Mentioned in this episode:

Spirit Quest Tours

Spirit Quest Tours

MIND is my bespoke 10-week online mindfulness coaching programme that empowers you to bring mindfulness into your day-to-day and have it transform how you face life’s challenges, overcome your blocks, and gain greater authenticity and fulfilment.

I'm Ross Edwards BSc DipBSoM, founder, teacher and coach.

In my 10-week online coaching programme, you not only learn essential mindfulness techniques – you learn how to adapt them to your own needs for maximum personal growth. You start incorporating them into your daily life as soon as possible, meaning you get maximum leverage from your practice.

You craft your own coaching goals, get personalised guided meditations to help you reach them, and work with me to strategically improve your life using mindfulness as the main tool. You simply don’t get this level of attention in standard meditation classes or on the popular apps.

In this episode, we dive deeper into my programme and why it’s powerful.

Free guided meditation: https://deep-psychology.com/online-mindfulness-coach/

Book your free 30-minute taster: https://bit.ly/calendlyrossedwards

Train with me: https://deep-psychology.com

Jean Gebser's work on the structures of consciousness illuminates the deep emergent structures of human psychology and how they play out in culture, society, religion, science and systems of meaning across human history, back to time immemorial.

This is psychoactive philosophy. We're not analysing these structures of consciousness as separate entities far removed from them.

We're steeped in these structures of consciousness.

In fact, our psychology morphs and evolves through these structures as we grow and develop – in both an individual and collective sense. And their vestiges can be seen strewn across both our inner world, our objective world, and our planet.

Here are Jean Gebser's Five Structures of Consciousness, which he calls mutations:

1) Archaic 2) Magic 3) Mythic 4) Rational 5) Integral

Integral is being born right before our eyes. Can we step up and embody this aperspectival, multi-viewed, flowing, flexible consciousness and take the world beyond the limited Rational perspective that has dominated for the last few hundred years?

To be spiritual yet worldly and inclusive, rational yet integrative, and healthily selfless and selfish. This is our challenge as modern humans.

Next listen: My Spiral Dynamics Series - https://player.captivate.fm/collection/f6689822-66c5-47c3-8232-ad8d64b60883

All my episodes on developmental psychology: https://player.captivate.fm/collection/e495f46d-4f50-4a3e-b4c3-b5f407d00628

Explore my 200-episode podcast library: https://deep-psychology.com/#pod-cats

Newsletter & books: https://deep-psychology.com/my-links

Ken Wilber’s Four Quadrants sound nice in the abstract, but how do we apply them in practice?

Let's discuss some of the on-the-ground applications of this theory, with a focus on our wellbeing, values, desires, and our developmental journey.

By doing so we see the power of Ken Wilber's Four Quadrants and can begin applying them to find greater balance in our lives.

Keep in mind one principle for this: four-quadrant balance is a requirement for healthy functioning.

Next listen: The Four Quadrants Explained (#16) ; Ken Wilber's Integral Theory: Introducing the AQAL Model (#104)

All episodes on Four Quadrants and Integral Theory: https://player.captivate.fm/collection/e46558fd-17aa-465e-b1aa-b569951e4072

200-show library by category: https://deep-psychology.com/#pod-cats

Get my book Integral Theory: Your Concise Guide: https://deep-psychology.com/integral-theory/

We tend to emphasise some perspectives over others.

When we do this, we’re blind, we’re biased. We’re not seeing the full picture, the fullness and complexity of life, and we create weak explanations and weak solutions.

What if we could go beyond all this dichotomising and reductionism to a complete picture of reality? Enter The Four Quadrants.

In his Integral Theory, Ken Wilber proposes his Four Quadrants as the four fundamental perspectives on life, human beings, and the cosmos. And they play a huge role in this comprehensive perspective.

These four fundamental perspectives are visible in all human disciplines, in all phenomena.

To get an accurate picture of politics, health, science or any other real-life phenomena, we ought to look at them from these four perspectives, at least.

Next listen: The Four Quadrants Applied (#17)

All my episodes on Wilber's philosophy: https://player.captivate.fm/collection/e46558fd-17aa-465e-b1aa-b569951e4072

Explore my 200-episode podcast library: https://deep-psychology.com/#pod-cats

Get my book Integral Theory: Your Concise Guide: https://deep-psychology.com/integral-theory/

Let’s talk about the Pygmalion Effect and the self-fulfilling prophecy.

The beauty of these concepts is that they reveal the power of thought, belief and emotion. We’re creators, and our primary medium is our imagination.

And though we tend to abuse this power and create like drunkards, it’s possible to retrain ourselves to get our mind working in our favour.

We look at common examples of this effect, like in the learning process, contemplate why it’s true, and discuss the keys to getting it to work for you.

Train with me: https://deep-psychology.com

Let’s talk about a powerful concept that I’ve discovered after years of working hard on my personal growth and mastering different subjects, from maths to languages to meditation to writing.

This is my Law of Proportional Reward, and it applies to all areas of personal growth, whether it’s career, relationships, finances, spirituality, or indeed learning.

It even explains our levels of fulfilment and zest for life. We tend to think that a comfortable, easy life is what we want. This law turns that idea on its head.

I’ve had this concept built into my psychology for a long time, but only recently have I realised that it drives many of my positive personal growth habits and explains my negative ones.

If you want to experience positive gains in any area of life, you simply need to know – nay, live and breathe – my Law of Proportional Reward.

Want to be a prolific learner? Join the GU Members Area to access premium online personal development courses, including Master How to Learn.

Learn about the sneaky snares of Spiral Dynamics that blindside most people. Yes, believe it or not, Spiral Dynamics can TRAP you and make you slide backwards in your self-transformation journey.

I want to show you the traps you may be falling into as you learn and apply Spiral Dynamics. Learn very practical solutions for these pernicious problems so that learning this framework helps you rather than hinders you.

Next listen: Spiral Dynamics Illuminated, The 8 Levels (#2) ; Want to Do a Spiral Dynamics Test? (#116)

All my episodes on Spiral Dynamics: https://player.captivate.fm/collection/f6689822-66c5-47c3-8232-ad8d64b60883

200-show library by category: https://deep-psychology.com/#pod-cats

Get my book Master Spiral Dynamics: https://deep-psychology.com/master-spiral-dynamics-ebook/

A crucial part of learning how to learn is becoming acutely aware of the obstacles that block our path to excellence.

Here we look at three dysfunctional characters – the Dabbler, the Hack, and the Obsessive. These are the three learner profiles you want to avoid. Together they’ll give you a spookily accurate assessment of how you prevent yourself reaching true competence and expertise.

And in my article "Learning How To Learn + Skill Up: The Four Learner Types", we expand on these three learner types and look at the gold-standard learner: The Master. This character avoids all the learning pitfalls and ultimately prevails.

You can use the exemplary archetype as a template for improvement in any area of your life, from your relationships, hobbies and career, to your overall approach to life.

• Here's why talent is a myth

The connection between mindfulness meditation and life purpose might not be apparent, but when it comes to aligning our career with our authentic passions and desires, we need the tools of mindfulness both to get started and see us through the process.

I teamed up with Grace for a chat on Instagram Live.

Grace and I discussed our career journeys, how to become more aware of what’s going on in our emotions and thoughts, and how to use this knowledge to find a career we love.

• My online MIND mindfulness coaching
• Grace's article on how mindfulness empowers us

Train with me: https://deep-psychology.com

Connect with Grace on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/grace.being/