In this class, we explore the effect of 'The Marketplace of Fear' the modern media has become and learn how to change our mindset so that our attention is no longer drawn consistently towards a place of anxiety.
This needs a toolkit of practices that we can use to manage our stress, redirect the focus of the mind, intervene in repetitive thoughts and take beneficial actions.

To join us on our live meditations 4x each week, subscribe at https://meditationcourse.live

In this episode, I teach a set of practices that people have been using for at least 3,000 years to cut through all of these layers of uncomfortable, unhelpful baggage and return us to an experience which is our evolutionary legacy. It's how human beings can live when we are liberated from all of the expectations that the modern world heaps on us.

This is a recording taken from a class on Saturday, 28 December, on The Meditation Course. We meet four times a week to meditate together online. If you'd like to join us for four classes each week for most of the year, the first month is free, and you can cancel at any time. All for the same cost as a weekly Starbucks latte.

Click the link below to learn more.

https://meditationcourse.live

Hi everyone,

This is another meditation only episode. I will add a small number more of these then probably, depending on the response, return to the full episodes including the talk.

In any case I intend to add a few more of these meditation only episodes as they have been requested by students.

There is quite a lot happening in January so I suggest that you subscribe, at least for free, to The Meditation Course at: ⁠https://meditationcourse.live⁠

That way you will be up to date with the changes.

I hope you enjoy this meditation and there are more to come.

with gratitude, 

Robert

Understanding Awareness, The Perception Zone, and Witness Consciousness

This meditation is designed to cultivate mindful awareness and Witness Consciousness. It is also a deep and calming practice.

In our fast-paced world, we often find ourselves rushing through life on autopilot. Yet beneath this surface-level experience lies a deeper capacity for awareness that can transform how we experience each moment.

The Three Levels of Awareness

Our consciousness operates across three distinct levels, each offering a unique quality of experience:

1. Basic Awareness vs. Autopilot

At the most fundamental level, we're either present and aware of our surroundings, or we're operating on autopilot - lost in thoughts, memories, or future planning. Brain imaging shows these states activate different neural networks:

2. The Perception Zone

The perception zone represents our brain's integration of sensory information into a coherent experience of the present moment. Research shows this integration happens in roughly 300-millisecond chunks - creating our continuous experience of "now."

3. Witness Consciousness

This deepest level occurs when we become aware that we're aware - a meta-cognitive state where we consciously observe our own experience. It's not just being present; it's choosing to investigate and explore our present-moment experience with intention.

Understanding the Perception Zone

The perception zone is particularly fascinating because it represents how our brain actually constructs our experience of reality:

Practical Applications

Driving Example:

Social Interactions:

The Body's Role in Awareness

Our bodies play a crucial role in awareness:

Practical Steps for Developing Awareness

Integration into Daily Life

Practice awareness during:

A Journey of Discovery

Developing awareness isn't about achieving a perfect state of consciousness. It's about gradually building our capacity to be present and engaged with our experience. Each moment offers an opportunity to practice and explore these different levels of awareness.

Another Meditation only today.

The perception zone is our nexus in space and time. We need to be aware of our presence in the space around us, and we also need to be aware of the passage of time. When we're in nature, this gets switched on. Walk into a forest, especially if you're alone, especially if there's low visibility, and you will be plugged into your environment, receiving all of that sensory information and processing it in a natural way.

Fast forward to the modern world. We're on autopilot all day in our minds, trying to solve problems. There's an overwhelming stream of information, and we ask ourselves, where did the day go?

In the meditation this week, we're training ourselves to become aware that we're here in our environment, aware of the passage of time. This is the power of the perception zone. This is the power of now.

https://meditationcourse.live

This Episode is a meditation only.

Apologies for the delay in posting. I have been focused on the pilot for a private podcast for subscribers to The Meditation Course. This has almost all of my classes on it so there are three or four episodes each week. This will be available as an extra tier in January, 2025.

Change of Format

Normally my podcasts are recordings of my classes which all start with a talk.

This is the first of a Series of Episodes which will just consist of meditation practices that will bring calmness in different ways.

Everyone is different so I will provide a number of different options. My goal is to give you a place to come and listen to a meditation session of between 20 and 30 minute durations you can choose from.

As this is a new format, I will open the episodes to comments on Spotify and on The Meditation Course website here: https://meditationcourse.live

This is a recording from a class on Thursday, November 7. The topic of the class talk is Meditation and connection. In it, I explain how some Meditation practices (including the practices in the Seven Keys to Clarity program running on The Meditation Course) help us release the burden of beliefs that form our mental model and cause us to feel separate from nature and each other.

This sense of separation, almost universal in our consumer Society, is destructive for a social animal like a human being.

The journey of Meditation is a journey of learning about reality (the present moment) and realising that we adopt an illusion created by our society: that life is a continuum, that the present moment is something to be gotten out of the way to reach the future, and that the mental model that we form represents our lives, whereas it instead creates an illusion that is constructed in our heads and distracts us from the present moment which is where we connect.

The meditations begin at 14:10 and combine mantra, connection, and visualisation meditations.

To join us for four live group guided meditations every week for the price of a start weekly Starbucks latte, visit https://meditationcourse.live.

In this class recorded in Bromley on Saturday 26 October and part of The Meditation Course, I explain how we can relax our mind and body together.

The way that the mind connects to the body is fascinating.

By relaxing the body deeply we can come to a place of deep, focus, and calm for the mind.

To join us for four live group guided meditation classes each week, visit https://meditationcourse.live

Meditation is mental training. It's easy to become diverted into the meditative experience itself and think that is the end of it. 

It's important to remember that meditation is mental training for life. We can learn many skills from our meditation practice that can benefit us in different ways.

It's never too early to put what we learn in meditation into use as during our day. Then we can integrate these practices into our life and that transforms our life.

In this class, which I taught on The Meditation Course, I focus on the Perception Zone, which is a concept I use to help meditators experience and understand the present moment and learn a set of tools that help to bring us into it, whether it's during the meditation or during our day.

If you'd like to join us, click on the link below. The first month is free at the moment. There is zero-commitment and easy unsubscribe.

Click this link to join us.

⁠https://meditationcourse.live⁠

Contact me if you have any questions.

The direction of the mind is a combination of thoughts and emotions that lead us into an inner narrative. This narrative can be unhelpful or even distracting.

In this class I taught on Saturday, 12 October, we explored the relationship between the mind and emotion. We practised some meditations that help us work with the mind when its direction is powerful and intense. The meditations include meditating on the body and also using labelling, which is the meditation of the month for October.

Join us on The Meditation Course *Live* four times each week for more guided meditation classes.