We had our Sunday Introduction to Meditation Class at Yoga Bliss.   We practiced Dr. Rick Hanson‘s guided meditation called Feeling Connected.  The meditation is drawn from his excellent audio program called Stress-Proof Your Brain: Meditations to Rewire Neural Pathways for Stress Relief and Unconditional Happiness.

Rick observes that most of us live our lives at a slow simmer of tension.  He offers a variety of “mind-body” tools to cool the fires of stress.  He suggests that the most powerful way to use the mind body connections to improve mental  and physical health is through guiding the autonomic nervous system – specifically the parasympathetic nervous or “rest & digest” system.  Every time we calm your nervous system we tilt body/brain/mind increasingly toward inner peace and well being.

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We had our Sunday Introduction to Meditation Class at Yoga Bliss.   We practiced Dr. Kristin Neff‘s guided meditation called Self Compassion.  Kristin is a professor of psychology and author of  Self Compassion:  Stop Beating Yourself Up & Leave Insecurity Behind.  She’s conducted pioneering research into self-compassion and has developed an 8-week program to teach self-compassion skills.  I learned about Kristin after listening to and interview with her in Rick Hanson‘s Compassionate Brain series.  I encourage you to investigate these resources as both are generously offered as a community service.

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We had our Sunday Introduction to Meditation Class at Yoga Bliss.   We practiced a guided meditation called Taking in the Good from The Buddha’s Brain: the Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love and Wisdom.

Neuropsychologist, author and instructor, Rick Hanson, suggests this practice to help overcome what scientists believe is the brain’s built-in “negativity bias.”  Rick suggests intentionally practicing ways to “take in the good” to improve how you feel, get things done and treat others.

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We had our Sunday Introduction to Meditation Class at Yoga Bliss.   We practiced a guided meditation called Befriending Your Body from The Buddha’s Brain: the Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love and Wisdom.  Neuropsychologist, author and instructor, Rick Hanson, suggests this practice to  help build the neural circuitry of self compassion.

Rick observes how we commonly push our bodies and ignore their needs until they get intense.  We get disappointed, frustrated, impatient or even hostile toward our bodies.  As if aging, illness and perceived imperfections were a matter of choice.  He warns of the big price we pay for these attitudes and behaviors since we’re not separate from our bodies.  Their needs and pleasures are our own.  He suggests that if we treat our bodies  like good friends, we’ll feel better, have more energy, be more resilient and probably live longer.  Why live longer?  This is a question you’ve probably considered more deeply after experiencing a serious illness or the loss of a loved one.  I find motivational energy in this question.  It gives me a willingness to explore the mystery of life beyond the limiting attitudes of my fixed beliefs.

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We had our Sunday Introduction to Meditation Class at Yoga Bliss.   We practiced a guided  meditation called Being on Your Own Side.  Neuropsychologist, author and instructor, Rick Hanson, uses this practice to  help us explore how caring for ourselves can enhance our mind and brain health.

In Rick’s book, The Buddha’s Brain: the Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love and Wisdom, he describes how we can use our minds to change our brains and how positive changes in our neural circuitry, in turn, help us cultivate healthier mental states.  It starts with befriending ourselves.  It sounds simple – just like the meditation instruction to follow the breath.  Yet when it comes to practice we discover how difficult this can be – especially when we doubt the value of what we’re doing.

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We had our tenth Introduction to Meditation Class at Yoga Bliss.   We practiced a guided  meditation inquiry, Who Am I?   Instructor and author, Tara Brach, uses this practice to  help us see beyond our stories of self and enter the revealing the mystery of our true nature.

In Tara’s book, True Refuge,  she encourages readers to use the inquiry both formally, in meditation, and informally, in every day life, by taking a few moments to pause, look into our awareness  and question what is true.  Then we let it be.

Over time our sense of being a “separate self” becomes apparent and we can also experience the boundless nature of pure awareness.

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We had our ninth Introduction to Meditation Class at Yoga Bliss.   We practiced a guided  meditation, Exploring Inner Space, that instructor and author, Tara Brach, uses to touch pure awareness – the mystery of our true nature.

In Tara’s book, True Refuge, she encourages us to engage in a sincere inquiry into what she calls:  “the refuge of pure awareness.”

In pure awareness we are no longer creating, defending or fortifying a sense of separate “self.”  We’re free from our daily preoccupations and habits of mind, free from grasping or pushing experience away.

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We had our eighth Introduction to Meditation Class at Yoga Bliss.    We explored a guided practice meditation instructor and author, Tara Brach, says can help us cultivate compassion:  Seeing Past the Mask.

In Tara’s book, True Refuge, she describes the way we develop in relationship to others – from
our early months in the womb and then with our mothers and close caregivers.  We learn the “dance of attunement.”

Our bodies are designed to feel a connection with each other.  We have specialized “mirror neurons” that attune us to another person’s state – to sense their emotions, even the intentions underlying their movements.   She calls the mirror neurons and the other structures in the prefrontal cortex our “compassion circuitry.”

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“Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking.  Live in silence.  Flow down and down in always widening rings of being.”  Rumi

We had our seventh Introduction to Meditation Class at Yoga Bliss.  We discussed how most of us fall into habits of worry or repetitive thoughts.

Anxiety, stress or unpleasant surprises unleash spirals of planning and problem solving.  Uncomfortable interactions replay with shades of anger, regret or shame.   Meditation instructor and author, Tara Brach, says we reflexively lapse into these patterns as a way of trying to control life.  Tara says:

the common denominator is that whenever we’re lost in thought, we’re disconnected from our body and our senses. We’re cut off from the perceptiveness and receptivity that underlie our natural intelligence and kindness.

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We had our sixth Introduction to Meditation Class at Yoga Bliss yesterday.   We shared a guided meditation called RAIN:  Recognizing, Allowing, Investigating, Nonidentification.  I drew this inspiration and meditation instruction from meditation instructor and author Tara Brach.

In her book, True Refuge, Tara  explains that this practice is intended to help us cultivate mindfulness in difficult times.

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