Labelling the thoughts is one of the key mindfulness meditation practices that I teach as a foundation for mindfulness meditation in The Meditation Course.

For information on how and when to use the practice and how you can benefit, join our course by subscribing from the The Meditation Course Website.

To find out more about The Meditation Course, visit our website at: https://www.meditationcourse.live/

You can subscribe to our mailing list and get updated regularly with how to join the course, notification of new content and offers.

Counting the breaths is an ancient mindfulness meditation technique.

It's a practice where we count each breath using the inner voice.

The way I teach it is to count each in and out breath. This engages the mind in an activity that helps to calm the mind.

It is the single mindfulness meditation practice that is most helpful for most students.

To find out more about The Meditation Course, visit our website at: https://www.meditationcourse.live/

You can subscribe to our mailing list and get updated regularly with new content and offers.

A guided version of the following the breath meditation.

The following the breath meditation teaches us two things:

We have an alternative to being ruled by random thoughts.

There is a neutral place, the breath in the present moment, where we can find a refuge from the stresses of everyday life.

We learn all of this in the best and simplest way. Gentle repetition trains our mind to return to the present moment from wherever it has taken us.

More online meditation and mindfulness training, visit our website https://www.meditationcourse.live/

You can practice the Four Tens Meditation to help you to learn to relax.

It is also a mindfulness practice as when your attention wanders, you return yourself to the present moment by starting again.

Focus your attention on the area of your eyes: forehead, eyebrows, eyes and cheek. Relax this area on ten successive out-breaths.

Focus your attention on the area of your jaw: mouth and lips, jaw and throat. Relax this area on ten successive out-breaths.

Focus your attention on the area of your shoulders: shoulders and the back and side of your neck. Relax this area on ten successive out-breaths.

Focus your attention on your hands. Relax this area on ten successive out-breaths.

If you lose where you are, just go back to start again with your eyes.

The practice takes around four minutes.

To find out more about The Meditation Course, visit our website at: https://www.meditationcourse.live/

You can subscribe to our mailing list and get updated regularly with new content and offers.

The first meditation taken from The Meditation Course.

This training is from Month 1, Unit 1 - 'How to Meditate - Building the Foundations of a successful practice'

When we breathe in, we are activating the sympathetic (fight and flight) nervous system.

When we breathe out, we are activating the parasympathetic (relaxation) nervous system.

By increasing the ratio of time spent in the out-breath (relaxation) we relax the body. This sends a much-needed signal to the brain that *all is well*.

By breathing regularly and smoothly we are sending signals to the brain that all is well.

This results in a state known as Coherence. Our heart and breath become synchronised.

The 4-6 Breaths Practice is something we can do anywhere. It takes two minutes and is useful for rebalancing our physiology in stressful situations.

To find out more about The Meditation Course, visit our website at: https://www.meditationcourse.live/

You can subscribe to our mailing list and get updated regularly with new content and offers.

Meditation, the Gaze, Stress and Anxiety

In this recording of a live-streamed training class from The Loving Awareness Meditation Course, I explain and demonstrate how modifying our optical focus can help us intervene really effectively in anxiety and stress.

Check out my Classes and Courses online and in-person.

The Meditation Course:

https://www.meditationcourse.live/

The Loving Awareness Meditation Course:

https://lovingawareness.fm/

Bromley Mindfulness:

https://bromleymindfulness.org.uk

The eyes are actually an extension of the brain. The cells in the retina are neurons that have been modified through evolution to process light.

The connections between the eyes and the brain are not typical nerve fibres. They are axons. Axons are the fibres in the brain that pass messages from one neuron to another.

The eyes are also involved in emotional memory processing during a phase of sleep known as rapid eye movement sleep.

The early accounts of meditation, such as that found in the Bhagavad-Gita, an ancient Hindu spiritual text, instructs the meditation student to focus their eyes downwards past the tip of the nose.

“With torso and head held straight, with posture steady and unmoving, gazing at the tip of his nose, not letting his eyes look elsewhere, the Yogi should sit there calm, fearless, firm in his vow to be chaste, his whole mind controlled, directed, focused."

— The Bhagavad Gita by Stephen Mitchell

Downward gazing of the eyes can be seen in many ancient statues of meditators especially those in the Buddhist Tradition.

This practice is taught in the Buddhist tradition as 'softening of the gaze' and 'adopting a downward gaze'.

This can be experienced when practising the mirror meditation which I teach in this class.

References

Recent studies by Andrew D. Huberman of Stanford University and his research team have identified that softening the gaze and adopting a downward gaze, along with moving the eyes to the periphery of the vision significantly reduces anxiety and stress.

These meditations are taken from a live stream online meditation class taught on January 23, 2021.

The topic of the class was 'About The Meditation Course'.

The class explains the differences about The Meditation Course, and its history. These meditations are examples of Robert's unique style of teaching meditation, and provide a sample for anybody that is interested in finding out whether it's the right course for them or not.

If you enjoy these meditations, you will enjoy The Meditation Course.

Meditations:

The Meditation of No Meditation for Sound

The Meditation of No Meditation for The Breath

The Modem Mind Meditation

The Mountain Steam Meditation

Following the Breath

The full live-stream is on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/25wTEsKdRkU

The live stream is also on what is currently the 2020 Meditation Podcast and will soon become the loving awareness podcast.

The link is here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/2020-meditation/id1434349351

To learn more or to subscribe, visit The Meditation Course website here: https://www.meditationcourse.live/

Meditating on our external experience (Meta-awareness of external phenomena)

Meditation and Mindfulness is about awareness.

Meta-awareness is awareness of awareness. It is a more conscious choice of our awareness and of where we focus it.

This class is an exploration of meditation and external awareness.

Meditations:

The Breath

Third eye

Sound

Open Focus

Open Awareness

The Mirror Meditation

Trataka

Third Eye

The Breath

This episode has been posted to support The Meditation Course and is fully supported for course members with additional content, training and personally coached support.

To find out more about the course, visit our website at: https://www.meditationcourse.live

You can also just subscribe to our mailing list and get updated regularly with new content and offers.

Hi I'm Robert Mitchell,

This is a quick introduction to my podcasts. It's a couple of minutes minute long.

I've been podcasting now since 2018.

I started by just recording the meditation and mindfulness classes that I teach and putting them online.

I've been teaching meditation and mindfulness since 2013.

In that time, I'm proud to say that I've been able to reach tens of thousands of people with my training.

When it's possible to meet in person, I teach meditation classes, mindfulness courses, retreats, training days, I do organisational training and deliver one-to-one meditation and mindfulness coaching.

Online I run two courses.

The most basic course which is designed for learners and returners to meditation is called very simply 'The Meditation Course'.

The other course that I teach which is more advanced because it focuses on things like managing emotion and so on, it's called 'The Loving Awareness Meditation Course'.

Loving awareness is living with a sense of connection to others and to nature. I teach it with a combination of mindfulness and gratitude practices.

Starting in February 2020, what is now the 2020 meditation podcast will move over to being called The Loving Awareness podcast.

It will contain talks about meditation and full classes which include talks and the meditations themselves.

I'm starting a new podcast called The Meditation Course Podcast. It will consist of only meditations.

The purpose of these two Podcasts are to support the courses that I teach.

It's also a useful public resource for those of you that are not online course people.

Please drop me a line if you wish to ask any questions about the podcasts, the training and the online courses.

Blessings to you all.