Welcome to this Meditation Mindset Training video!
I know that there's a lot of stigma and ideas behind meditation that turn people away, such as the idea that it's this super new-age hippie dippy kind of thing, or that you have to sit with your legs crossed in silence, holding your fingers a certain way in order for it to be proper meditation… and that is not the truth at all.
Meditation is meant for helping you connect with your inner thoughts, your breathing, and your soul. This is where great ideas come from. This is where creative outlets come from, but this is also where all of our beliefs, and thoughts, and inner self come from.
Start with just 5 minutes a day sitting in silence, focusing on your breath. It can be in your car, on your bed, at a park, in your living room... Whatever you wanna do as long as it's silent, but really focus on your breath. For a lot of people, that's really hard to do, because they try to sit in silence and they have all these things going on in their mind "I don't have time for this, I have 100 things I gotta do, 5 million calls to respond"... and that's exactly the reason why you need to do it. There's a quote that says "When you think you don't have time for meditation, that's exactly when you need to do it."
What happens to us when we are stressed, is that we feel out of breath. We tend to breathe through our chest. There’s not a lot of space there. It can cause just a lot of tightness in your upper back, it can make you feel really uneasy. It's because it's coming from your chest, so it constricts it. It’s much better to breathe from the belly.
So for this first time, for 5 minutes (set a timer!) focus on your breath. When your mind starts to wonder, instead of getting frustrated, just bring your attention back to your breath. Inhale, exhale... that's it.
We can divide our brains in three parts. The middle, the deeper part, and the back part. Each part of our brain functions differently. The back part contains your subconscious or higher-thinking-self. 95% of what dictates our reality comes from our subconscious, The other 5% part is our conscious brain, the one that is thinking, and doing, and being analytical. You have to slow down enough through breathing and through being present to turn down the volume of this part of your brain, and turn up the volume of this part of your brain. So, the whole point behind meditation is to slow down.
How does this translate into fitness? When you're working out and then suddenly feel like you've pushed yourself too far... What happens? We start to breathe really heavy from our chest. So when you learn to connect to your breath, you will be more present and aware of what your body is doing.
Just breathe, and you'll see that as you do that over time it will start to ground you in the present moment and keep you peaceful, no matter what is going on in any area of your life. Play around with it. See what works for you! Do you like sitting on your bed and doing it? Do you like doing it in the car? Do you like being outside? Do you prefer 10 minutes? Really make the meditation yours. You’ve got this!
