When you're physically stressed, you only have a few options to intervene in your stress.

One option is to learn how to relax.

Relaxation isn't something you need to go on holiday for; you also don't need a glass of wine, a cigarette, or a magic combination of price-tagged experiences. It's a really simple thing. When we get stressed, our body becomes tense because we're finely tuned for nature, and our body prepares us for action. Relaxation is how we return to our normal calm, relaxed, focused condition.

Unfortunately, in our consumer society, advertisers have stolen the concept of relaxation. Like so many other valuable and natural things, we have forgotten what it is.

Learning to relax takes time, but you can switch off all this stress and tension in a few seconds and return to a calm and relaxed state of mind. This podcast is a great place to start to learn how to relax. You can learn what relaxation is, how it works, and how to train to gain this essential life skill. Listen in and have a calm, relaxing day.

Join my regular online in person, guided meditation, classes at: https://meditationcourse.live/

Counting the breaths is an ancient mindfulness meditation technique and the best practice for about 50% of new meditators to start with. 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. Counting the breaths is the single mindfulness meditation practice that is most helpful for most students. The Meditation Course is Four Live Guided Meditations On Most Weeks. To Learn 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.

In this class, I teach about mudras, which are hand gestures used in meditation.

Anjali Mudra

The Anjali mudra involves pressing your palms together. I teach this because it has a real effect. You can explore it yourself.

Specific Mudras in Meditation

I focus on the chin mudra, where you lightly touch your thumb and first finger.

My methods for Anjali and chin mudra are unique. They're not just gestures; they have a purpose.

Some say the chin mudra connects to universal consciousness. If you experience that, let me know.

Focus and Awareness And The Importance of A Light Touch

I use these mudras to help focus awareness. They're also useful for relaxation and sleep.

A lighter touch in these mudras can have a strong impact.

Anjali Mudra Explained

In India, Anjali mudra is a greeting, often accompanied by the word "Namaste." It's an old practice seen in ancient art. It's a sign of peace, showing you're unarmed. It's a way to show you're safe to talk to.

This gesture is powerful when done with a light, springy pressure between the palms. Pressing your palms together like this engages many nerve cells in your body, making it a rich sensory experience.

The brain has a part called the somatosensory cortex that processes touch. The single largest part of which is dedicated to interpreting our hand sensations. Our hands are important for sensing our environment and using tools. They're a big part of our sensory experience.

Sensory Focus in Meditation

Focusing on the sensation of the hands pressed together can be immersive and comfortable.

The chin mudra involves a very light touch between the thumb and first finger. You need to maintain this light touch, noticing if the contact changes. Keeping this light touch requires focus but not forced concentration.

The aim is to maintain a light focus, which can bring a sense of calm over time.

https://meditationcourse.live/the-power-of-mudra

Dive deep into the mechanics of nature meditation in this particular recording from our Sunday guided meditation class held on July 23rd. As part of The Meditation Course, this podcast explores the intricate relationship between the natural environment and the process of meditating, illustrating how the calm and quiet of nature can significantly enhance our emotional processing and healing journey.

The complete transcript of this insightful group session is now available on The Meditation Course website here: https://www.meditationcourse.live/understanding-nature-meditation This will allow you to reflect more on each point and perhaps deepen your understanding at your own pace.

By subscribing (for free), you gain access to a variety of resources. You will be the first to know about our new podcasts and receive notifications about insightful articles, upcoming online events, and much more. The beauty of the meditative journey is that there's always something new to learn, and our platform aims to make this journey easier for you.

Subscribe today and join us on this life-enhancing path. Remember, the subscription is free! Explore, learn, meditate, and grow with The Meditation Course. Learn More: https://www.meditationcourse.live/about-the-meditation-course/

Mood and meditation

This is our second instantly recorded live group, guided online meditation podcast episode. Hopefully the audio quality will be better than the last one.

A lot of students of meditation, engage in meditation to help and benefit their mood and they're looking for ways to improve their mood. I'm confident there in time pretty much. Everyone can benefit emotionally from Meditation but it's a long process.

In this class, I teacher set of practices that you can use when you're in alone mode, and you're feeling demotivated, and you don't feel like meditating .

This is a class taught on 2 July 2023 online on The Meditation Course.

The Meditation Course is four live guided group meditation classes each week for the same price as a weekly Starbucks latte!

https://meditationcourse.live

This is a class taught on first of July 2023 in Bromley on the subject of purpose, Resilience and Connection.

The Meditation Course is four live guided group meditation classes each week for the same price as a weekly Starbucks latte!

https://meditationcourse.live

I taught this class today on Saturday, the 29th of April on The Meditation Course at https://meditationcourse.live because I was contacted by yet another person who told me that they can't meditate because they can't stay focused on their breath.

It is a common misconception that meditation is an attempt to stay focused on the breath and the successful meditation is one where we remain focused on the breath instead of losing our attention and mind wandering.

In this class, I explain the mechanism behind all the benefits of meditation, which is called the *Moment of Recognition*, and is actually what happens when our mind wanders.

Blessings🙏🙏🙏

PS, apologies for the delay in getting a podcast published. I've been really busy with retreats and courses and classes.

Mindful Awareness is that crystal-clear sensory experience we can feel in a forest. Or when standing on a quiet beach or at the top of a mountain. Mindful Awareness is what we can sense when we connect to nature and what we share with animals.

We can culture Mindful Awareness by practising focused attention meditation.

Focused attention meditation is often called mindfulness meditation and is an ancient mental exercise that helps you focus on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting your feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations. Focused attention builds attention regulation, which in turn, can enhance many aspects of our lives.

In 2013, I started teaching meditation to a group of friends, who then suggested that I teach it at a local church room. In 2015, I was asked to run some courses by my students who wanted more structured training. I had discovered the high level of stress in the modern world, so I started by including stress management and emotional regulation techniques with the mindfulness and meditation practices. I learned after some research that this combination contributes to resilience.

Resilience is the ability to cope with adversity in a way that helps us cope with future adversity.

Resilience is a process, not a state. At any given time, our resilience is either growing or diminishing. Since 2013 I've taught around 3,000 sessions, with an average of 10 people per session. I gather feedback at every stage. I continually research to better understand and improve my teaching, drawing from wisdom traditions and scientific studies. Building resilience has been my guide throughout most of this time.

The practices of Mindfulness-Based Resilience are aimed at five aspects: focus, calmness, relaxation, mindfulness, and resilience.

Focus is Attention Regulation. Attention Regulation comes about through practice. Meditation is that practice. Focus and calmness involve attention regulation, being aware of the mind's direction, and regulating its choices.

Mindfulness is the undistracted awareness of the experience of the present moment.

Mindfulness is awareness of all the sensory experiences happening right now. Life isn't the past and the future. It is a succession of present moments. Unfortunately, we're trained to live in a world where the past and the future are like a continuum. And we are simply walking along this path from the past to the future. The present moment then becomes something to get out of the way to gain future happiness.

Mindfulness brings awareness of the present moment. It doesn't mean that you don't have any memories, or that what has happened in the past doesn't affect you. It isn't that you ignore your future or you stop caring about it. What does happen is that fear of the future and regret or resentment of the past no longer rules your present moment. Because life is a succession of present moments.

Mindfulness is the foundation of all the Mindfulness-Based Resilience techniques. For example, if you learn a stress management technique, you have to be aware that your stress is growing to know when to use it.

To relax, we might have a glass of wine and watch TV. That is not relaxation. Relaxation is releasing the musculoskeletal tension that builds up in our bodies due to stress. I teach relaxation practices that are also great stress management tools.

Calmness is becoming comfortable with the mind, thoughts, and emotions. Training the subconscious to become sensitive to changes in state enables awareness and intervention using various tools, like extending the breath. Mindfulness-based resilience includes stress management, emotional regulation, and meditation practices to process emotions and improve focus, relaxation, and calmness. It's about integrating these skills and not relying on external factors.

I teach Mindfulness-Based Resilience in 6-week online and in-person courses.

Learn more here: https://bromleymindfulness.org.uk/mindfulness-courses

Each Sunday Evening from Sun 26 March 2023 on The Meditation Course for the next few weeks, I shall run a Yoga Nidra meditation.

Yoga Nidra is a type of meditation that can help us access the hypnagogic state. This state is the transitional phase between wakefulness and sleep. Practicing Yoga Nidra can make it easier to move into this state and therefore help us achieve rest.

To practice Yoga Nidra, find a comfortable and relaxed seated position with your back free and your head balanced. The goal is to enter and stay in the hypnagogic state while maintaining awareness of the warm, comfortable feeling that comes with it. If you wake up from this state and you don't feel sufficiently rested, use the feeling to guide you back into it. Use the feeling of the hypnagogic state to get back into it. So, get comfortable, and let's start practicing. You can also find various other Yoga Nidra meditations on my podcast.

This podcast episode is a recording of a class from The Meditation Course, an online program that offers live guided meditations throughout the year, with up to four classes per week!

You can join us on The Meditation Course by clicking on this link here: https://www.meditationcourse.live/about-the-meditation-course/

If you can't join us for whatever reason but you enjoyed this meditation, I encourage you to become a podcast supporter. By joining us, you'll receive two newsletters and a host of other benefits that will take your meditation practice even further. All for the price of a monthly Starbucks extra shot, caramel latte! Become a Podcast Supporter here: https://www.meditationcourse.live/podcast-supporters-membership/

And if you're feeling generous and you would like to support my work with a single one-off donation, you can buy me a coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/robertmitchell