Mindfulness and Meditation: Techniques That Can Help Improve Your Well-Being
Free online video courseCreated by AARP and Taught by Richard Davidson
Unit 2 Full Transcript
Four meditations: Three mindfulness meditations (breathing, body scan, open monitoring) and loving kindness meditation. The "why" from a scientific perspective is explained by famed neuroscientist Richard Davidson in Unit 1.
Cultivate Well-Being - Richard Davidson
Mindfulness meditation. We’ve heard a lot about it here in this course already. You’ve also seen the cover of Newsweek, the cover of National Geographic, New York Times, Washington Post. It’s all over the place. Fundamentally, mindfulness has to do with awareness. We are all born with the capacity to be aware of our external environments as well as our internal environments. When we talk about the internal environment here, we’re referring to our thoughts and our feelings.
And mindfulness is fundamentally about being aware of what is actually occurring in the present moment. At first blush, this may seem obvious. It may seem like we’re always aware of the present moment. But, how many of you have had the experience of reading a book and actually knowing what each word is and turning the pages, and going through one page, a second page, and maybe by the third page, you realize you have absolutely no idea what you've just read. Yet you're aware of each word. But you're lost.
So mindfulness is really about paying attention to the present moment and harnessing this extraordinary faculty of awareness that we’re all endowed with. Mindfulness can also be used as we cultivate it, to change specific aspects of our emotional style. We can change outlook. We can change resilience. We can change attention through these simple practices of mindfulness.
Certain meditation exercises have been proven to lower stress, anxiety, and depression. They have also been shown to change the self-awareness, attention, and resilience dimensions of emotional style.
Intro to Awareness of Breath: Mindfulness Breathing - Richard Davidson
And so the very first simple practice of mindfulness that we will describe is mindfulness of breathing. Now, why do we start with something like the breath?
Breathing is something that we carry around with us all the time, and so we can become mindful of our breathing at any point in time as we go about our daily lives. Now, let’s be honest — breath is not the most interesting stimulus that we can pay attention to that may be around us.
But this is actually the secret sauce of training mindfulness. If we can learn to pay attention to our breathing, we can learn to pay attention to virtually anything.
Mindfulness Breathing Meditation - Dawn Bazarko
I’ll be leading you now through an awareness of breath meditation. Let’s begin with tuning into our posture. So we can meditate sitting on a chair, like we are, sitting on a meditation cushion on the floor, even standing, walking, lying down. So, as we sit in the chair, just moving your body forward just a little bit so you’re nice and stable, feet on the floor, legs uncrossed, and allowing your hands to just rest on your thighs or cradled in your lap — wherever they’re comfortable. There’s no special way you need to hold your hands. And just embodying a posture that’s upright and balances relaxation yet wakefulness.
And if you wish, allowing your eyes to close gently. Or just a soft gaze on the floor a few feet out in front of you. Let’s begin by just taking a few deep breaths in [pause] and out [pause].
Just inviting a little bit of relaxation and ease to your day. And just feeling your body seated here, supported by the chair.
Feeling your feet on the floor connected to this earth. And let’s begin by checking in with our intention for our practice. Why are we practicing?
Tuning in to our intention, our motivation, taking this time to connect our minds and our hearts together — it’s a practice that benefits ourselves and so many people in our lives, people throughout the entire world.
It’s really a profound act of generosity. Begin by just exploring how we’re feeling here today. Our inner landscape — beginning with the mind, tuning into the condition of the mind. What thoughts are there to be noticed in the mind? Perhaps observing a thought arising and passing away again. And as best you can, simply allowing thoughts to be mental events, nothing more.
Resisting the temptation to get carried up in the thought. Now tuning in to how you’re feeling, your emotions. What emotions are present to be experienced?
Perhaps you’re noticing a sense of anxiety or even some stress. Perhaps there’s a sense of peacefulness and ease — just allowing things to be just as they are, not needing to change anything. [brief pause]
And now tuning into the body, doing on your own, a brief scan of the body, starting at the top of the head. Noticing sensations, the head and the face.
Dropping down to the jaw. You want your jaw to be relaxed and loose. Scanning, sweeping now through the neck and the shoulders, a place we may carry a lot of tension or tightness.
Exploring sensations in the torso, the arms, the hands. Noticing what’s present, again, without needing to change anything. It’s just your experience in this moment.
Dropping your focus down, now, through the abdomen, the hips, thighs, knees, lower legs. All the way to the tips of your toes, both feet. And any time you run into places in the body where you might notice some tingling or tightness, or even pain, seeing if you can allow those places to just soften and relax. Even channeling your breath right into those places.
And now gathering up all of your attention and directing it right into the body, where you can feel the sensations of the breath most vividly today.
Most people experience the breath at the tip of the nose, the upper lip. Or the movement in the belly or the chest. So selecting a place where it’s easiest to make contact with your breathing. Connecting your attention right there with the sensations of the natural breath in the body.
Feeling the rising and expansion when you breathe in and noticing how the body feels when you breath out as it settles back to the spine. Allowing the breath to be an anchor into this present moment. The breath is always in the now. It’s not in the future, not in the past.
Now see if you can follow the cycle of just one breath. The rising and expansion as you breathe in and the settling as you breathe out. Allowing the breath to breathe on its own. You may find from time to time that your attention has been pulled off to thoughts, to sounds, to planning. Even sounds in the room. In that moment of noticing is a moment of waking up, a moment of mindfulness. And it’s not a problem. It’s all part of the practice.
And just directing your focus of attention once more, and reconnecting with your breathing. And doing this over and over again. The nature of the mind is to wander. Just invite it back. Back once more to the sensations of breathing.
So let’s sit here in silence together for just a few moments, following the sensations of your breathing, noticing if your attention is pulled off. And just begin again. It’s not a problem. (15 second pause)
So I’ll bring the practice to a close now with the ringing of the bell. (brief pause)
Thank you for your practice. Opening your eyes when you’re ready, if you closed them.
Intro to the Body Scan - Richard Davidson
Once you feel like you’ve gained some experience becoming aware of your breathing, the next mindfulness practice that we can try is called the body scan. The body scan is simply bringing awareness into our bodies. We are embodied beings, and yet we spend so much of our day focused on the external world, focused on the sights and sounds and smells and tastes around us. We spend very little time actually becoming aware of what’s going on in our bodies. And the body scan is an invitation to explore in the present moment what is actually arising in our bodies.
By doing a body scan, we can help relieve certain kinds of stress and anxiety. The body scan can also help us to sharpen our attentional focus. The body scan also brings more awareness to ourselves, more awareness to what’s going on inside, which is tremendously beneficial for empathy and for compassion and for self-awareness.
The following is a complete body scan demonstration, but for the purposes of this course, it may be slightly condensed. For this exercise, feel free to watch the video and try again on your own later or simply listen along. Let’s try it.
The Body Scan Meditation - Dawn Bazarko
I’ll be leading you now through the Body Scan meditation practice. So the Body Scan is a practice of focusing our attention with the sensory experiences in our bodies. So I’ll be leading you through a systematic review of regions of the body. And we’ll be bringing our attention inside the body to experience what’s to be felt, the sensations in the body. So the Body Scan is a wonderful practice to connect our minds into what we’re experiencing in our bodies. And it’s also a wonderful focused practice. So as we’re performing the Body Scan, if you find that you're lost in thought or exploring a different part of the body, it’s not a problem.
You can always come back to the sensations of breathing or back to the place in the body that we’ll be scanning. The Body Scan can be done in a chair, just like we’re sitting now, or lying down. Many people like to do the Body Scan lying down at night before they fall asleep. It can feel very relaxing. It’s a practice to fall awake, not so much fall asleep. But if you do find yourself getting a little sleepy through the Body Scan, just open your eyes. Okay?
So we’ll begin with checking in with our posture. With our feet on the floor, resting your hands on your thighs or cradled in your lap. And just observing the back stretched upward. Inviting that posture of wakefulness and restfulness. And dropping your gaze on the floor a few feet in front of you if you wish, or closing your eyes completely. And just taking a few deep breaths in and out. Inviting yourself into this moment.
Breathing in some relaxation and ease. And letting go on the out breath anything you might be holding that doesn’t serve you well. And grounding with your intention for the practice. Your motivation for taking this time for self care. This act of generosity that benefits ourselves, those around us, and the world. And we’ll begin by just checking in to our inner experiences right now.
Starting with observing what thoughts there are in the mind. Noticing how thoughts arise and pass away again. Exploring your heart’s center. How are you feeling today? What emotions are to be noticed? Allowing things to be just as they are. And now directing your attention back into the body. Feeling the weight of your body seated here. Your hands resting on your thighs or cradled in your lap. Feeling your feet on the floor, connected to the earth.
Let’s begin now by stabilizing our attention by connecting with our breathing. Wherever you feel your breath in your body most vividly right now. You might notice sensations of breathing at the tip of the nose, over the lip, the chest, or deep in the belly. Just choosing a place now that’s easiest for you to connect your attention with the sensations of breathing. Not thinking so much about breathing, but sensing the breath from inside the body. What does this breath feel like in this moment? Is it deep or shallow? Long? Short? Are you feeling your breath at the top of your lungs or deep in your belly?
Bringing a little bit of curiosity, even some playfulness to the practice. Now, as the mind begins to settle, as the body does too, we’ll begin to scan the body, starting with our feet. So directing your focus of attention all the way down the body to both feet. And noticing sensations in the toes, the soles of your feet, the tops of your feet, even the ankle region. Perhaps you’re noticing some coolness, or tingling, heaviness. Just observing sensations in this part of the body, the feet, the ankles. Without judging your experience, just noticing what’s to be felt in this part of the body. Now breathing in. And on the out breath, directing your focus of attention up through the lower legs, the knees, all the way through the thighs, both legs. Taking in this part of the body and exploring all the sensations that are to be felt here.
You might notice the weight of your clothing. Perhaps a little bit of tightness or heaviness. Feeling your hands making contact with your thighs, perhaps. Just exploring all sensations in this entire region of the body, just as it is. And any time you run into tightness, or bracing, or tension, see if you can just channel your breath right into those places. Breathing right into the legs, knees, lower legs.
Now, breathing in. And on the out breath, moving your attentional focus now up to the buttocks, pelvis area, the abdomen. Exploring all that’s to be felt here. Perhaps feeling the weight of your body supported by the chair.
You might even notice sensations of digestion or hunger in the belly. Or you may not notice anything at all and just register not noticing. That’s okay too. And any time you find that your attention has been pulled off from the body to sounds or thoughts, just notice where it’s gone.
And gently, but firmly, with lots of self-kindness, direct it back to the region of the body that we’re exploring. The abdomen, the buttocks, the pelvis.
Now breathing in. And on the out breath, letting go of that part of the body and moving your attention now up into the torso. The back part of the body, the front part of the body. It’s part of the body that does so many things for us. Supports our circulation, our lungs, breathing air in. All our vital organs that work so hard to keep us alive.
And exploring what’s to be felt in this entire region of the body. You might be feeling your heartbeat. This is also a part of the body where we hold lots of emotion. Exploring all that’s to be felt without judging and allowing things to be just as they are.
Now breathing in and breathing out, letting go of this part of the body, and directing your focus of attention down both arms to the tips of your fingers. And exploring all the sensations in this entire region of the body. So many nerve endings in our hands and fingers. You might be feeling pulsing or vibration. Even a little bit of tingling or moisture.
Exploring sensations through the full hands, the wrists. These hands that do so much work for us, and we often don’t pay such kind, close attention as we are now.
Directing your focus up through the lower arms, the upper arms, all the way to the place that the arms connect with the shoulders. Noticing all that’s to be experienced in this moment in the arms, and the hands, fingers. Breathing in, and on the out breath, letting go of this region of the body and directing your focus of attention now up into the shoulders. The back and front part of the neck, even the lower jaw.
Noticing, feeling the sensations in this part of the body. You might notice some tensing or tightness in the shoulders, lowering the shoulders to just relax and soften. You might be noticing even some tightness and bracing in the jaw. Allowing the jaw to be loose, even separating your lips just a little bit.
And again, you might not be feeling anything at all. And that’s okay. Just bringing awareness into this part of the body, directing your focus of attention right here. Now breathing in, and breathing out, moving your attention now up to explore sensations in the face, forehead, the top of the head, scalp, even the ears.
Noticing sensations of your furrowing your brow and the forehead. Space around the eyes, behind the eyes. And noticing sensations in the ears. These ears that receive sound all day. And exploring what there is to be felt at the top of the head, scalp. And breathing in and letting go of this part of the body, and breathing out and taking in your entire body as a whole, seated here.
Breathing in through your entire body, from the top of your head to the tips of your toes, fingertip to fingertip. Breathing in and breathing out. (brief pause)
And just sensing the body seated here, whole and complete. And as I draw the meditation to a close, once more, just connecting with the sensations of breathing, the natural breath in the body. Wherever it calls to you, the chest, the abdomen. Or even feeling like your whole body is breathing. Because it is. And if you wish, even bringing a little smile to your face, even if you don’t feel like smiling. Just bringing a little smile to your face for taking this time to nourish yourself in this way. To nourish yourself, to nourish those around you through this practice of mindfulness. And I’ll end the meditation now with the ringing of the bell. (Bell ringing)
Thank you for your practice, body scan, and opening your eyes, if you closed them.
Intro to Open Monitoring - Richard Davidson
If you’d like to build more awareness of the world around you, and perhaps loosen your tight attention focus, I suggest you try open monitoring meditation, also known as open presence meditation. This type of meditation doesn’t have you focus on one specific object, but it allows you to take in all the ongoing feelings and emotions and sensations that may be occurring.
In essence, it’s meant to cultivate awareness of awareness. I mentioned this in my book, but many people who practice this type of meditation say it gives them a panoramic view of their world by helping them understand their own thoughts, their own feelings, and the world around them in an integrated way. So let’s please try it. Feel free to watch the meditation instruction or simply to listen along.
Open Monitoring Meditation - Dawn Bazarko
This practice is called Open Monitoring or Open Awareness, so it’s going to be a little bit different of an experience. Before, the instruction has involved focusing attention in a very specific way into the body, following the sensations of the breath, or even in the Body Scan. Really focusing on the parts of the body that we were sensing. This time we’re going to open up our awareness broadly, as if a spotlight, a spotlight of awareness, and invite in anything that presents.
And we’re going to maintain a sense of openness and acceptance, non-judgement, to all of these experiences, and holding them all in our field of awareness. There may be some things that present in the foreground and then fall to the background, so it’s going to be a little bit different of a practice this time.
So let’s begin by settling into our meditation posture, relaxed and awake, allowing your eyes to remain open in a soft gaze, or a few feet out in front of you on the floor, or eyes closed entirely.
And just taking a few deep breaths in and out to invite yourself into this moment. Inviting in some relaxation and ease, and letting go on the out breath anything you might be holding that doesn’t serve you well.
And as we settle, making an intention of exploring our motivation for the practice, this practice that benefits ourselves and those in our lives, our loved ones, and all people throughout the world. It’s a profound act of generosity and compassion and goodness. And connecting your attention to begin with the sensations of breathing, settling with the breath to calm the mind as we transition to open monitoring.
Following the cycle of your breathing, connecting with the breath in the body, wherever it’s most vivid for you, where you feel the breath most clearly. And now when you’re ready, opening up your field of awareness, that spotlight of awareness, to invite in and observe everything that presents in your mind. If you notice a thought, observing the rising and passing of a thought, without getting tangled up in the content of thinking.
As if watching thoughts from afar, being an objective observer of your thinking. If you experience sound or noises in the room or outside of the room, just receiving sound, observing the quality of the sound, the intensity of the sound and how it passes away, without judging sound as beautiful or noise. Just receiving sound. This is a practice of building awareness of awareness. Meta-awareness.
If you notice body sensations or strong emotions in the foreground of your attention, just observing [pause] them, the experience of the sensation, the pull of the emotion in the body, without getting tangled up in the emotion or the sensation or judging, just experiencing it. Holding all of your experiences in your field of awareness, treating all things equally, not judging anything as good or bad, just allowing them to be your experiences in this moment.
And as I bring this practice to a close, once more I invite you to connect with your breath in the body, help stabilize the mind, settle the body, very helpful any time we become unsettled. And sending yourself a little bit of appreciation for taking these moments to practice in this way, to nourish the mind, nourish the body, profound act of self care. And I’ll bring the practice to a close now with the ringing of the bell. (Bell ringing)
And gently opening your eyes if you closed them. Thank you for your practice.
Intro to Loving Kindness Meditation - Richard Davidson
A popular type of meditation for building compassion and empathy is called “Loving Kindness” meditation. It’s very similar to another type of meditation that you may have heard of called “Compassion Meditation.” Loving Kindness is designed to break down feelings of resentment, of hatred, and of greed. It builds your love for yourself and your love for others, even those who may challenge you, which has many positive benefits.
It’s been used to lower stress and anxiety, and also to build well-being. The way it works is pretty simple. You just say uplifting phrases about yourself and about others in your mind. Sounds very easy but the results can be enormously powerful. Over time, loving kindness can help you open your heart to others, and even build your love for yourself. It can also help in the beginning process of forgiving yourself or someone else.
Loving Kindness Meditation - Dawn Bazarko
I’ll be leading you now through a compassion practice. And it’s a wonderful practice that recalls our true nature of goodness and kindness and love. It’s also a practice that reminds us that we’re all deeply interconnected. We’re all part of the condition of being human. It’s a practice that helps us open our hearts and our minds to ourselves and to others. It’s a very lovely, profound practice. So the practice will involve me reciting words or phrases, and we’ll be directing these phrases, these wishes to ourselves and to other people in our lives, including people in our lives that we might have some difficulties with. So it’s not so much about the words or the wishes, it’s around the heartfelt intention, of extending this heartfelt expression of kindness and love and. compassion to others.
So the typical phrases that are utilized in the practice are words like: May I be safe. May I be happy. May I be healthy. And may I live with ease. And we’ll begin with ourselves, because often it’s hardest to express these wishes to ourselves. We’re often putting other people first. But we’re going to experiment, extending these wishes to ourselves. And then I’ll be instructing you to extend these wishes to a benefactor, a person in your life that’s helped you, a loved one, a neutral person, a difficult person. And then we’ll close at the end by extending these wishes to all people throughout the world. So let’s begin by settling into our meditation posture, feet on the floor, legs uncrossed, hands resting on your thighs or cradled in your lap, eyes open or closed, whatever feels comfortable for you.
I’m spending a moment now silently reflecting on our intention for the practice, this practice of generosity, of kindness, love, compassion that benefits ourselves and so many throughout the world. Begin by connecting with the sensations of breathing in the body, using the breath as an anchor to place your attention in this moment, connected into the now, into this moment and allowing the breath to just settle into its own natural pace. (short pause)
And we’ll begin by extending these wishes of kindness, compassion, and loving kindness to ourselves. So bringing to mind an image, maybe a memory of yourself. Sometimes its helpful as if you envision sitting, looking right into your very own eyes and repeating these phrases at a pace that feels comfortable and authentic for you. Don’t worry so much about the words. It’s again, the intention, and extending these wishes to yourself.
May I be safe. May I be healthy. May I live with ease.
May I be safe. May I be healthy. May I live with ease.
And allowing the feelings of compassion and loving kindness to flow through your entire body. You might even notice an opening, a warmth in the heart or a warmth through your entire body perhaps, or not noticing anything at all, and that’s too, fine. Now bringing to mind someone who has helped you in your life, might be a grandparent, a teacher, someone who has really supported you, bring that person into your awareness, your mind’s eye, holding this person in your awareness and extending these heartfelt wishes to that individual, or persons. Maybe there’s more than one person.
May you be safe. May you be healthy. May you live with ease.
May you be safe. May you be healthy. May you live with ease.
And now letting go of this person or persons, and bringing to mind a dear loved one, a purely uncomplicated relationship, could be with a child, a spouse, a dear friend, bringing that person to mind as if they’re right here with you, right now, and extending these wishes to that person or persons.
May you be safe. May you be healthy. May you live with ease.
May you be safe. May you be healthy. May you live with ease.
And now letting go of that person or persons, and bringing to mind a neutral person, someone you don’t really know that well, don’t really feel one way about them or the other, could be the person who works at the coffee shop, could be the janitor, someone you don’t know very well, and reminding ourselves that this person or persons wants the very same thing that we want, and bringing that individual to mind now and extending these heartfelt wishes.
May you be safe. May you be healthy. May you live with ease.
May you be safe. May you be healthy. May you live with ease.
And just taking a moment now and reconnecting with the breath and the body. Sometimes when we practice this way, we might notice strong emotion, feeling of warmth in the chest. It’s all natural. It’s a feeling of loving kindness, of opening our hearts.
Now I invite you to bring to mind someone that’s difficult, maybe not the most difficult person in your life, but someone with whom you experience some friction or tension, inviting them into your awareness, holding them in your mind’s eye, and now extending those wishes to that person and a gentle reminder that they, too, want what we want, even the people in our lives tat we have difficulties with.
May you be safe. May you be healthy. May you live with ease.
May you be safe. May you be healthy. May you live with ease, just like I want to.
And now we’ll bring to mind all people throughout the world everywhere without any exception, all people, fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the planet Earth, all beings throughout the world, and extending these wishes to all beings everywhere without any exception.
May all beings everywhere be safe. May all beings everywhere be healthy.
May all beings everywhere live their lives with joy and ease.
May all beings everywhere, ourselves included, find peace.
May all beings everywhere find peace.
And in the final moments of the practice, once more reconnecting with your heart, if you wish, even placing a hand or two hands over your heart as a gesture of compassion, kindness, generosity to ourselves and to the world, and sending some appreciation to yourself for practicing in this way, extending compassion and kindness and goodness to ourselves and to all people throughout the world. And I’ll ring the bell now to end the meditation. [Bell ringing]
And opening your eyes, if you closed them, when you’re ready.
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Course Conclusion - Richard Davidson
We’ve come to the end. Thank you so much for taking this course and for your practice. We’ve learned a lot. We’ve learned about six dimensions of emotional style, all really important for our well-being and for our life. We’ve also taught you some very simple meditation practices and mindfulness exercises. These are practices which you can take anywhere. You can do them as you’re commuting, you can do them at home, do them at work, even for just a few minutes a day.
Please think of this as a kind of mental exercise that may complement physical exercise. It’s a sort of mental hygiene practice. I hope that you can use the exercise that we’ve taught to ignite your passion for training your mind, rather than leaving the conditioning of our minds to the happenstance circumstances around us. We have many more resources on the web page so that you can continue your journey. We wish you well, and thank you again for your attention and for your practice.
Go to Unit 1
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More Resources
To Practice Mindfulness, Counting Your Breaths - Breathe In and Out
http://centerhealthyminds.org/news/to-practice-mindfulness-start-by-counting-your-breaths
Innate Kindness- Learn More About Kindness
http://centerhealthyminds.org/join-the-movement/innate-kindness
Mindfulness and Beyond - Consider a variety of contemplative practices
http://centerhealthyminds.org/news/mindfulness-and-beyond
The Center for Healthy Minds
http://centerhealthyminds.org/
Meditation and Attention
http://centerhealthyminds.org/news/study-can-meditation-sharpen-our-attention
Brain Power - free course 45 min Taught by Wendy Suzuki, PhD
http://ula.thebigknow.com/course/brain-power-improve-brain-health-cl1-uhc/session/brain-power-improve-brain-health-cl1-uhc
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Unit 2 full transcript posted here with permission from AARP.
May all beings be happy, free of suffering and its causes.
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