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Segment 27 - Breathing Into Your Power

So here we are, moving into the afternoon of two days of moving toe happiness and like we say, life is what happens to you when you're busy making plans, including dropping your microphone into the toilet so when we come to the power of meditation and even before that let's look at the power off the breath and andrew, while one of the great teachers says that you know, one of the best things he would recommend as a healthy living tip is to learn how to breathe correctly. And we did this yesterday I always sat forward we kind of slouch as we normally do in our desk and just in the simple act of sitting upright and freeing up our breathing space can change not just how we move our breath, our body, our mind, but how we see ourselves in this world. There's a great exercise by thomas crumb called the three deep breaths, and he associates a psychological state, teo each breath that we take and kind of breathing, he says, interacts between our involuntary on voluntary systems on the three de...

ep breaths just allow us basically become mindful off our brief thing. It doesn't add any time into your day you don't have to be an expert and breathing, but it's interesting the first thing we do when we come into this world is take a deep breath and the last thing we do is we leave this world as we know it is exhale breath is our energy it's a resource it's what we can tap into to remind us to be in the present moment it sounds so simple but how often we forget the power off the breath these three deep breasts you can use this anywhere in the car in that power off the pores between your work life and your home life, the power of the pores between that traffic jam and your first business meaning the power of the pores between sitting in the car and going to meet that blind date that you were excited to meet jackie so the first breath is just being aware we brave in awareness and we accept with awareness just bringing awareness to the breath has a calming influence on especially lengthen the ex tells you talked about yesterday it actually elicits the re lax ation response. So if you're in that fear, fight or flight or freeze that you're going to talk about after we do meditation with amy, one of the best ways to get out of that is to move into the breath the second breath is accepting we breathe in acceptance that where I am right now is perfectly in perfect and it's just what I need to be it allows you to detach from your ego and make your best highest choices versed on reactivity we're able to sit back paws breathe and act into the moment versus react to the past moment the last breath is action and I'm kind of reframing missile but well we condemn take that laugh last breath and reconnect with our gratitude muscle the power ofthe three breath applying awareness to the breath I breathe in awareness I exhale awareness the power of acceptance that where I am right now is where I need to be on her third breath is I breathe in gratitude and I breathe out gratitude that together for a moment because I don't think that's the lunchtime we're all good to breathe right now so we'll take the three breaths of awareness and in these could be done anywhere in the car at work at the office after get that email breath separates you it moves you into the power off the present moment it moves you out of that fight or flight and to be mindful we have to be in the moment so let's all do that at home we're going to just sit up told that's fine that good posture so we can take a deep breath and in case you were not with us yesterday let's all together slouch and just take a breath and see how that feels trying breathing deeply and feel grateful in this position and feel open and receptive doesn't really all go together no so we're going to sit up beautiful and just in that physical action of sitting up our internal messaging has changed there was great research by amy cuddy about power poses the way you sit interchanges with what's going on inside of you on before a meaning I want you to sit up right before you go into that job interview sit up right or stand upright and take a powerful poles it changes everything thats going internally and sometimes you just have to act as if on when you act as if that is good enough and just acting as if you just do it as if as if and then one day it is as is so for now if you wish I invited to close your eyes you don't have to I'm gonna keep my eyes open so I could just be in the moment of you guys but just rest your hands comfortable whatever that is for you let's just hit one breath in august breathing for four and exhale for six let's breathe in two three for I'm gonna exhale a little longer one two three four five six is that one more time in hell for three to pause and exhale six five four three two beautiful on this next breath I just want you think of taking a deep breath in and notice your breath listen to your breath I appreciate the gift of your breath and as you exhale notice your breath listen to your breath appreciate the gift of our breath on your next in hell bring acceptance breathing in acceptance for who I am right in this moment right here in this moment on as we exhale I bring acceptance to this moment to this breath to this moment and all the last third breath I breathe in such gratitude for my life for my work for my friends and I exhale exhale gratitude for this opportunity to be who I am in this moment on this moment and this moment and lightly blink your eyes open and to shake it out the power off the breath it sounds so simple but how often do we forget to breathe on when we're anxious and were stressed out? What is the first thing that gets lost? The breath on one of my favorite sayings is anxiety is excitement without the brand are we being mindful auras are mined just full and we had a conversation yesterday when some was saying I just I don't know and sometimes that our mind is so full it doesn't leave room for us to find what it is our y our what for what we want to be doing versus what we should be doing and to the power of the breath allows us to move from being a mind full too mindful the power of the breath brings you into the moment and he can use those three breaths when you fasten your seatbelt when you're unfasten your seat belt that power between the interval, the intermission between that work life that all that stress we gotta let it go let that go before we step into our family life or vice versa maybe you had a fight at home or just things were not going well. They have a really important job interview whatever that it isthe one minute can change everything. It allows you to move into your cooling system versus that reactive system when you're waiting in line at the supermarket perfect teaching opportunity that's one place my gratitude could disappear really quickly, especially at home depot. I'm like, are you serious? Construction line is closed the lab level every like butt again gratitude how lucky am I to have a house? Why I need to go to home depot to fix my house that I'm lucky to have even with the leeks, my beautiful house, you know that good stuff and everything if you guys live here in the west co l a are you stuck on the the four o five great price to practice these breathing? One minute the power of the breath could do so much for the power of our life, and then in a moment we're going to meet amy an incredible teach when it comes to meditation, so we're going to tap into taking that breath a little further and move into the amazing effects that meditation can have on the quality of our life and happiness. Now we saw yesterday the power ofthe moving on the brain, how it fires it up and meditation allows our brain to slow down, but they're also saying they did some research with some of the most powerful meditators buddhist monks that they're part of the brain that is responsible. The happiness and resilience was off the charts through meditation. The effects ofthe meditation has been proven in science notice how meditations becoming more mainstream one of the biggest talking point in the time magazine article on the latest football and suck away my system is any chelsea go seahawks what was that? They just want the big football game way still call it soccer all right, so the shul off like such a ditz right now of all but one of them mean practices is meditation. We're now seeing athletes prime ing their brain quieting their brain to move into the most powerful self through meditation. The area of the brain again for resilience and happiness elevates meditation helps us be from the fixing it to the being with it from the tryingto analyze it first is observing with curiosity and it allows us to find those extraordinary moments in the most ordinary of moments meditation is another incredible tool that we can put into our happiness toolbox meditation is not about getting rid of the external it's about returning to self and when we talked about that yesterday that was so busy trying to fix it that's sometimes all we need to dio its scent and come back to who we were who we are who we forgot we are there was some amazing research by jon kabat zinn on he wrote the book I love the title wherever you go there you are just wherever you go there you are and he did an eight week a meditation intervention where a group of people met once a week and their goal for eight weeks was to go away and meditate for forty five minutes a day and that's that's a big chunk of time for especially if you're new to meditation on what they found was that they all met once a week so once a week they knew they were meditating for forty five minutes under supervision and then join that next week some stuck with the program we meditated for forty five minutes some money to do it for like ten and some not at all but what they saw that even the ones people that only meditated once a week they're elevation of well being and sense of purpose and resilience had greatly improved because I had recognized the gift off the present meditation is also a beautiful way to help lift our self esteem because it brings in self except acceptance living consciously self responsibility and self assertiveness. So what we gained from meditation is also what we need to build self esteem pretty powerful. So what we gain by sitting still bill's not only room in space for us to move into our thoughts but can build our self esteem and courage muscle to move into our very best life. Other bennett's of benefits of meditation, it reduces depression science that scientifically proven it improves self esteem. It obviously will improve workplace morale and job satisfaction increases. So when we talk about meditation in the workplace, we talk about the bottom line. It all improved through meditation. How interesting and curious it would be for work places to take a five minute meditation break every afternoon. It's amazing stuff could happen. Other great benefits from meditation physical health improves our immune system strengthens, it could help normalize blood pressure. It reduces the likelihood of heart disease and increases energy and strength, intelligence, creativity and flexibility rises and memory will short term and long term improves. Meditation is exercise and recovery for the brain. Now I'm not an expert on meditation, so we're going to bring someone in who is an expert on meditation, and her name is amy cronus need andi she's going to help show us and teach us and share with us how we can take the benefits and use meditation in our daily life on we're also lucky enough that she is going to take us through a short meditation practice that you can do at home at work at the desk in the car wherever you need that little pause between the mind and the moment and your life so amy is gonna look a beautiful amy hi hello how are you? We are so happy that you are here thank you very happy to be here thank you so much better so this is my dear friend amy and she just exudes like love, happiness, peace, joy and amy teaches a lot of courses you could learn at home in the convenience of your own time on meditation, meditation for busy people and so I'd love us to start off with amy. What I love about you is that you kind of demystify this world ofthe meditation without distilling it, but you make it super accessible. So if someone really has heard about this word, meditation does it is becoming more mainstream but really doesn't know what it is. Can you give us kind of little backstory of what it is and how what the benefits are that you see immediately with the people that you work with? Sure, you know it's interesting because so many students come to me reading about the benefits of meditation or their doctor has told them to meditate or their spouse says would you please go meditate or something like that? And they say but I've tried on the cans I stink at it, you know, like I sit down and I tried to meditate and what am I supposed to do and and they feel like failures and meditating and I think part of it is that we have this idea that we're supposed tio not think thoughts like we're supposed teo be mindless right? Of course is impossible and why would you want to be mindless anyway? I love the fact that they actually have judgement on how they meditate because we've been talking about the heads, so the fact that you even judging ourselves when we're meditating is pretty interesting. So thank you for even just know that you're not alone in that brings a little bit of peace to it. Yes, and so I think if we can get beyond the idea that that meditation is something on our to do list or, you know, one more thing that we have to do to be a good person or something like that and instead, um I think about it like this, my teachers always told me that all medication is is thinking about what you want to think about forest long as you want to think about it, you know, I've never heard that before, and I liked the way that sounds sure that it's simply thinking about what you want to think about forest long as you want to think about it. So if I want to meditate on what kind of mother I want to be or if I want to meditate on gratitude, then it's very simply being able to sit down and put my mind on those things that I'm grateful for for as long as I want to without my mind going off to the dishes or the laundry or the spat I had with so and so yesterday, right that it's just about bringing our attention and our thoughts and placing them where it's valuable to us to place them. And so when we sit down like you've been talking about the power of the pause, right? So if if we when we get home from our day of work, park the car, turn it off and sit there for three minutes just landing in our bodies and thinking about okay, who do I want to be walking into the house to see my family? Who do I want to be? Not the harried person maybe coming from work, not the person who dealt with traffic, but what kind of partner mother daughter who do I want to be? What? What are my highest qualities? And can I land in that happiness or gratitude or spaciousness before I walk into the house so for me, amy, what you're saying is like really powerful because I I speaking for myself I think for others when I thought of meditation I always thought that it was meant to be omitting the mind so I replaced judgment on myself on a ll these thoughts would come in so how can we refrain that on dh say when we're trying we are to maybe try to focus on being a better mother or and those other four thoughts like the dishes do come in? What are you meant to do with those thoughts? Well, I think the first step is just to notice that two notice oh my mind is drifting no big deal it's like you were just talking about acceptance right? And then action you very gently very lovingly go okay, what do I want to place my mind on now I want to place my mind on gratitude I want to place my mind on how I want to be walking into my house so it's so interesting because in the west we do have this notion that somehow spacing out is being a good meditator and but we don't want to be spaced out beings right it's just like maybe it's a little bit of a relief because our minds are going twenty four seven but I'll tell you those studies that have been done on the tibetan buddhist monks who are so happy they are placing their mind on what they want to place it on forest long as they want to place it there they are doing the kind of meditation that says ok, I'm thinking thoughts so what do I want to think about? And they're choosing very beautiful things to think about their choosing to think on happiness and gratitude rather than thinking on what am I stressed out about so even in meditation it's the power of choice yes yes so what I love about you, amy like so just say we got a lot of people watching at home that is so like tight on time already and I know we're gonna have the beautiful gift of you taking us through meditation in a few moments, but for the people like how could we tap into that part of ourselves that meditating in action during a day at the other things that you can have a kind of pull upon to like when we're in a meeting? Or is it possible to use meditation in action like doing the dishes or being at work? Or is that just really an unrealistic that? Well, I'm going to say yes and no, you know, technically the meditation is yes make your body still and it's so perfect with what you're teaching because I think part of the reason it's so hard for us to be still is that we're not moving and when we bring movement in on a regular basis and we have that luscious experience of moving then it's so much easier to be still without fidgeting it's so much easier to be still because both of them involved feeling the body both of them involved the choice to feel and so when we're moving on a regular basis it makes meditation easier that was a huge heart may have no problem the reason that we have we're saying so hard to sit still is because we're bodies on until we're not moving yes I need to sell palm drawn that's amazing so one of the like amy when we take this into we take this practice into our life I knew you teach this one of the things you're hearing from the students like how is that life changing and what I'm going to get a zoom into really strange question I just thought is there a minimum amount of time we can meditate a day for it to be beneficial you know I really recommend for people starting that they see if they can do three minute meditations three times a day because you don't have to schedule that you don't have to go oh no ten whole minutes right if we can take three minutes three times a day it will feel luscious and you will want mohr and that that's what we want is not to leave going oh I stink at this or oh that was a long time but to go all I want more of that give me those little little sweet nuggets of peace and quiet and contemplation please right so that's what I suggest is see where you can slip it in because you can do that this ties in with your previous question you can do that while you're washing the dishes mmm you just I do this I stop my hands are under the water and maybe it's a huge waste of water but it's so good for my soul and I stop and I close my eyes and I steal my way dropped down to my feet and I feel the water on my hands and I just connect with being a breathing feeling living being not a function of my to do list not somebody who has to accomplish I owe so much but just the beauty of feeling that is meditative that is meditation in action if you want to call it that now what I'm seeing from people which is so exquisite our stories like this but people will say man I used tio have tio work as I as I worked with my kids on a patient be calm try to stay steady and now that I'm meditating on patient without even trying now that I'm meditating my attitude is better in everything that I approach and I don't have to consciously try I just um in that more grounded place I am more of who I want to be I am happier because I have integrated the practice into my life so in a way what I'm hearing is like meditation allows you to the have the habit off being yourself being your best self your best self yeah that's enough reason for me to want to meditate with people that are still busy and you see I know the answer is yes but do you see people feeling more successful that working more productive at work because you're crazy trying to squeeze mohr into more time that sometimes this is I know this is an observation is not how I think but way feel like taking more time to almost do nothing which is not what we're doing can seem almost like I just don't have the time to take the time to do nothing and it's not that we're doing nothing but long way but not my mind that that's the mindset and it makes sense but when we start to dabble in it even a little bit what we start to see is oh wow I'm so much more creative after I sat for a short period of time I make decisions faster I have greater clarity of mind I saw problems faster we become more efficient and more effective in our jobs whether it's a corporate job, a creative job parenting job we become so much more effective when we take that time makes complete sense we had another great guests on guest on yesterday john c havens and he was also referring to like you know if you don't pay mindfulness to this we're going to crash you would you want to work seventy hours for the sake of seventy hours do you want to be productive and those thirty five hours and what you're saying here by taking the small moments of time to sit back and perceivable do nothing is actually going to raise your level of creativity of productivity of off just being uninvolved human being and contributing and being able to be of service that's right and the science is backing it up it's quite beautiful amy can we have the luxury off like you taking us through a three minute or whatever minute you want I'm less no boundaries on this middle meditation practice sure I was going to get a comfortable seat I have to make sure my perfect seat for meditation wear good all right so just take it away I'm gonna be quiet okay so so grateful to be here with you all please everybody close your eyes be bold you know whether you're sitting in a studio or whether you're a seated at home it can be a bold thing to close your eyes but it's the only way we'll benefit so please be bold and go ahead and close them and rise up tall sure your spine yeah like there's a list right from your seat all the way up through the roof of your mouth and the crown of your head I just feel where you are feel your feet flat on the ground feel the weight of your body settling down through your sit bones I feel a little list right at the crown of your head notice the breath so simple but we're just taking the mind I'm thinking from one thing to the next I'm here we just placed the mind on the breath so breeze fully and deeply like you are nourishing yourself like you nourish every cell of your body with the breath in and with every breath out very simply let go of what you don't need and now notice notice what you can here you can hear the sound of my voice maybe there are other sounds around you that you can just notice we're not going to shut anything out just notice the sounds notice the sensations in your body so there may be places in the body that feel really open and there may be places in the body that shell a little a key or tight and I just want you to feel that feel what is present for you except what is present for you see if you can take your awareness a little deeper can you feel the beating of your heart that study rhythm that life force itself your vitality and if that's challenging to feel that's fine you know just stay open like you are listening to your own experience and for those of you who can feel the heart quite readily just notice if there's any other sense ofthe pulsation in the body maybe a little electricity and your fingers or your toes or your belly this is just a few minutes to settle in to settle into the body and to feel everything that is present for you feel everything that is present for you and as you're ready just plant a little seed of gratitude for having given yourself those few minutes and maybe even rejoice silently to yourself that you did just meditate for several minutes and as you're ready knowing there's no rush you can open your eyes I so want to give you a round of applause right now have appropriate about give yourselves a round of okay oh that was amazing you know it's so interesting I know myself we talk about things we need to implement into a life of keystone habits that would trickle into other areas I know a keystone habit I truly no I need to add into my life is this I really believe it is this that will take me to be able to be of service to people at the next level and the fact that you invited us tow listen t feel our heart I've never thought that before I drop down like oh my god, I can feel it coming freaked out by that you know but it's all these things we take for granted our heartbeat the gorgeous bit of our heart our breath being here now with you with each other gratitude off the ordinary and the extraordinary off the ordinary yes amy thank you so much. I mean, this is just the tip of the iceberg but it's I think it's that power of the pause it's giving us so it's creating more within such a a world of cramming mohr and doing like he said doing mme or trying to get striving as someone's already to do is create the space and this allows us to create that space where can we find you? I mean, this is just so yummy I'm lucky she lives pretty close by so I can go and take a meditation class with her but where can we find more of a museum meanness? Oh, thank you so much for asking and it's such an honor you confined more about me and our online offerings at the path to the list dot com well that's just so perfect the way have moving toe happiness and the path to bliss jefty yummy amy it is a deep gratitude from all of us here and all of the people around the world who are spending this time with you virtually online in studio with a deep of our gratitude, thank you for spending this time with us and sharing yourself your presence, your knowledge with us here. It really has been beautiful, thank you so very much. Thank you, patches. I love that woman. But did that? I mean, just taking this time for ourselves can see really indulgent. But can we imagine the power that we would have just emptying out for five minutes, three minutes a day, three times a day, super powerful. And I love the way that amy gave us things to actually do within the meditation. I don't. Have you guys found that usable I found actually encouraging, almost like little security blanket. If someone had said to me now empty your mind, I'd like okay, now, my, I wouldn't be able to do it, you know. But now, with her give me put. Now listen to your breath. I had an act, awareness, acceptance and action. I love that.