Day 1: Benefits Of Mindfulness Outside The Meditation Room

Hello everyone,

Welcome to this mindfulness meditation challenge.

Now we know what mindfulness is,

Why we are practicing mindfulness.

So after John Kabat-Zinn brought it to the West,

There have been multiple,

Multiple scientific researches.

So it has been like the most researched topic in the last,

You know,

Two decades.

So all must know that there are so many benefits of mindfulness.

Overall,

Mindfulness help us become more aware,

Okay,

More self-aware.

It also help us step towards self-realization.

It help us respond skillfully to life challenges,

Okay.

And that is very important,

Like,

How does it help us outside of the meditation room?

Because that was the link which I made during my own journey,

Which had the most impact on me.

Because I was like,

Okay,

You know,

After I meditate,

I feel calm,

I feel peaceful.

But how is it helping me like outside of that room?

So mindfulness has many benefits.

I'm going to elaborate on two,

Especially.

So mindfulness meditation has four parts.

First,

We choose an object to focus on.

In this case,

It was the breath.

But since mindfulness is becoming aware of the present moment,

So it doesn't just have to be the breath,

Okay?

Whatever in this present moment is asking for your attention is more prominent,

You know,

Supposedly you have a pain,

Right?

So that is calling for your attention.

And that is your present moment right now.

That is what is happening in the present moment.

So we choose an object to focus on.

So we become aware of what is present mindfulness.

Second,

There's concentration,

We focus on that breath.

So what is concentration?

Concentration is directing our attention and then staying with it,

Right?

So this part of staying with our breath,

Of not wandering,

Of being with our breath,

Paying attention to our breath is concentration,

Right?

So we are cultivating that scale of concentration.

We choose an object in the present moment,

Right?

Breath,

Mindfulness,

Right?

We focused on that object,

Right?

Concentration.

We notice that our mind has wandered and that moment when we notice it,

Mindfulness,

Mindfulness help us notice,

Okay?

Mindfulness help us become aware that our mind has wandered.

And each time when you notice that your mind has wandered,

That is a moment of awakening,

That is a moment of pure awareness,

Okay?

Next,

Finally,

When you recognize it,

You redirect your attention to your breath,

Okay?

So you focus back on the breath,

Concentration.

So mindfulness and concentration,

These are the two qualities that we are cultivating from this basic process.

Okay,

Now how it is going to benefit in real life.

So let's say you are a student or you're working,

Okay?

And you have a task and you have to focus on it.

You need your concentration,

Right?

So at that moment,

That task,

That study material,

Those Excel sheets,

That become a part of your present moment,

Okay?

So you're focusing on it,

You are directing your attention on it and you want to stay with that work for a certain period of time.

So it needs concentration,

Right?

So where your object was breath,

Now the study material becomes your object,

Okay?

So the object has shifted,

The process is the same,

Right?

So the task at hand is a substitute of the breath.

Anything can be object of awareness,

Okay?

Anything can be object of meditation.

It can be my sound or any sound for that matter.

It can be emotions in my body,

Sensations in my body,

It can be thoughts.

So even thoughts can become object of awareness.

So every single thing can become an object of meditation.

So breath is replaced by the study material,

The task at hand,

Okay?

So now when we are doing this,

Focusing on our breath,

Redirecting our attention on breath,

Focusing on our breath,

Redirecting our attention on the breath,

In the language of gym,

Okay?

So we are exercising this concentration muscle.

So the more we do this process,

The more our concentration power increases,

Right?

And we are itself learning the concentration skill,

Right?

So when you are switching your breath with the task,

All you have to do is practice the same thing that you do with the breath.

You focus on your study material,

Your attention will wander,

Right?

Into your phone notification,

Into the sound around you.

Everything is interesting and we are working,

Right?

So our attention will wander and then we come back,

We redirect our attention to the task at hand.

So that is the very skill of concentration from our process of meditation that help us in our real life,

Okay?

Yeah,

So that is one benefit that we get,

Okay?

Second benefit.

So I mentioned four processes,

Right?

In this whole,

You know,

Sitting meditation.

So the four processes in the sitting meditation or any meditation process,

Right?

So remember,

We covered the concentration part,

That is focusing on our breath and redirecting our attention on the breath.

Now there were two more parts,

Which was cultivating the skill,

The very skill of mindfulness,

Which is awareness,

You may say,

Okay?

So the first was becoming aware of the present moment,

Which breath was a part of.

So it can be anything,

Anything that becomes prominent in your present moment,

Anything that asks for your attention and recognizing that our attention has wandered,

That was a demonstration of the skill of mindfulness.

So now,

When in life you get triggered,

So there is a meeting and you just get the notification for that meeting and it says that you have to present in that meeting,

Okay?

And you start to feel anxious.

So the trigger happens,

The trigger,

The stimulus is the notification about the meeting stating that you have to present tomorrow.

Second,

Whenever a trigger happens,

What happens internally is there is a automatic physiological reaction.

So our body goes into flight or fight,

Stress response.

So every stress hormone or,

You know,

Everything is released in our body,

Cortisol and everything,

Okay?

So that automatic physiological response only stays for 90 seconds.

Usually we keep on feeling anxious and anxious,

I will tell you how that happens,

But that initial physiological response triggered by that stimulus only stays for 90 seconds.

So there was a person known as Jill Bolte-Taylor.

She found out this in her research that the initial reaction only stays for 90 seconds.

Now,

What happens is that after 90 seconds,

When you are feeling this uncomfortable sensations in your body and you know that,

You know,

Meeting is about to come,

You feed your thoughts,

Okay?

So just like in meditation,

A thought comes to your mind and then if you go towards it,

Like if you get absorbed in that,

Then a story starts.

So in this case,

Maybe an automatic thought comes,

Okay?

So you have no control over it.

It comes as a part of the reaction.

And then you get involved in that story that,

Oh,

I'm not feeling prepared,

I'm not good enough,

My promotion is on the line and,

You know,

It is just coming and what will I do?

My colleagues are also busy,

I cannot ask them for help.

You know,

I feel like an imposter,

I don't know how to do this,

How will I work out,

You know,

The tech part?

So the story goes on and on and on about that,

Okay?

You get involved in the story,

You get sucked into the story,

Your mind,

You know,

Involves you into the story and now you are living that character,

You are that character in that story who is giving the worst meeting in the world possible,

Right?

And now these thoughts are actually also triggering,

So each thought is triggering a reaction in our body.

So 90 seconds,

90 seconds,

90 seconds,

So it is getting accumulated and there is so much emotion,

So much sensation in your body and then when you are feeling all of this,

You are feeling overwhelmed by this,

Your anxiety,

Your peak anxiety has been triggered,

Now you will react impulsively,

Okay?

So your logical mind shuts down when an emotion,

When all these emotions,

When our limbic system is activated.

So limbic system is a part of our brain that deals with this emotion,

So when that is activated,

When you are feeling so emotional,

Your logical mind shuts down.

That's why we do things that we won't do,

You know,

We were in our calm mind,

We won't do them and when we react impulsively,

There is always a negative consequence of it.

Now this is the whole cycle that usually goes.

So where does mindfulness fits in?

So mindfulness fits in after that initial reaction,

That initial 90 second reaction is automatic,

We cannot do anything about it,

But we can use mindfulness to not let that become a cycle,

Okay?

So if that initial thought came and we didn't got involved in the story,

We just recognized it,

Like we recognize that our mind wandered,

Like during the practice we do recognize that,

You know,

My mind is in the thoughts,

Like I am not on the object,

Right?

So similarly,

When we recognize that there is a thought,

So this is a skill,

Later you won't need an object to come like to focus and then your mind wanders,

When you become more mindful,

When you cultivate that skill,

Then automatically you will notice that my mind like I am having these thoughts,

There is a sense of detachment and you are just observing them that okay,

This is a thought,

This is happening inside my head.

Now at this point,

It gives you a choice whether you want to get involved into the thoughts and yes,

The pull is very hard,

Your mind is like cooking up all the stories,

All the evidence,

It is just trying to suck you in,

But at that time,

If you don't get sucked in,

If you have that level of mindfulness,

Then you would be able to detach from the thought,

You would be able to see it and even if you have done some inner work or know some resources,

Then this is the moment when you apply them,

Okay?

So if you have worked upon it and you know you have a limiting belief,

If you know that,

You know,

These are the common errors or the biased way in which I think,

Then this is the time that you remind yourself.

So this is you responding intentionally,

Skillfully to your inner world right now,

Okay?

So you say,

Okay,

This thought that I am going to fail,

This is like I am jumping to the conclusion,

There is no evidence,

I have given like meetings in the past and they have went well.

So you can be rational because the emotion stuff has not come up.

So this mindfulness helps you ground and it helps you be logical,

It helps you deal with your thoughts,

It helps you apply anything,

Apply any technique,

Like any emotion regulation technique,

Deep belly breathing,

You know,

Any kind of breathing technique,

Any kind of grounding technique.

And if you want to like learn these techniques,

You can check out my profile,

Like I have a playlist of emotion regulation techniques.

Everything,

Every part of your inner work,

Now you can like apply the lessons from there,

Everything here.

So now when you respond skillfully to your inner environment,

Then and then only you can respond in that very situation in a manner that your ideal self would have responded.

Okay,

So after doing all this work,

Then you would be able to respond in a way that of course it is triggering,

Of course it is making you anxious,

But you would maybe be able to solve the problem,

Focus on problem solving instead of,

You know,

What will go wrong in the end,

All the what ifs,

What if this happened,

What if that happened.

So the trajectory whole changes.

You were going into a negative spiral in the previous scenario.

Now you can stay with it and you can see,

Okay,

What can I do about this situation,

This and that.

So your logical mind is active.

Okay,

You are feeling more calm,

You are having more perspective.

This is how mindfulness help us in our real life,

In our real life scenarios.

Okay,

So these are the two benefits that I highlighted,

But there are many subtle benefits like compassion.

So many of the people that joined yesterday mentioned that they want to be,

You know,

Kind to themselves.

They want to get rid of the self-critical voice,

They want to feel more self-love,

Right?

So in this process only,

Many things are happening.

I cannot like highlight every single thing,

But each time when your mind wanders,

You recognize it and you bring your attention back to the breath.

So the way in which you bring your attention back to the breath,

That matters a lot.

Okay,

So if you are being harsh,

That why did my mind wandered,

You know,

This meditation is not going well,

I am so bad at it,

Or this process is irritating,

This process is not going to work and everything like that.

So if you be compassionate to yourself,

To your mind,

That okay,

There is something on my mind and my mind is just trying to help me,

Right?

So your mind is not evil,

Okay,

It helps you a lot.

So when you gently bring your attention back to the breath,

There is a difference when you feel agitated and you bring your attention back to the breath and when you gently and with compassion and you just recognize,

Okay,

It wandered again,

You may even smile at this natural tendency of your mind.

And that's why it's known as monkey mind,

It goes on here and there and here and there,

Right?

So when you gently bring it back like a puppy,

Like a child,

Who maybe wandered here and there and you were like,

Oh,

You know,

Come back here,

This is your place,

Or your puppy who goes here and there and you just bring it with,

You know,

So much love that it's okay,

It wandered,

Now please come back here,

Right?

If you're getting agitated,

If you are being harsh on yourself,

If you're being critical,

Then that's what you are practicing.

You are building that muscle of criticism,

Of agitation.

And if you're being compassionate to yourself,

And you are,

You know,

Gently bringing it,

Then you're cultivating compassion.

Why?

Because when are we critical on ourselves,

When we don't do the things that we were supposed to do?

Or when we do the things that we were not supposed to do,

Right?

So in this case,

We were supposed to,

You know,

Be with our breath,

But we didn't.

And then we are just being compassionate and just bringing it back and going on the task.

So that is what this,

That is the muscle that you are building inside your head or mind.

And that will resonate in your life,

That will,

I don't know,

Ripple out in your life.

Yeah,

So every benefit that research says,

So it does happen,

Maybe you're not able to directly see it,

But it will happen once you will start to like being regular with the practice.

You will naturally notice that there is a difference on the days you are,

You know,

Practicing and on the days you are not practicing.

Yeah.

So I have told you like,

In a nutshell,

What are the benefits of it?

Okay,

So this session has come to an end.

So thank you so much,

Everyone for tuning in,

Sending my love and healing to all of you.