Keep It Simple - Meditation & Coffee

Hello!

You are listening to Meditation and Coffee,

The weekday meditation podcast that helps you start your day off calm,

Aware,

Intentional,

Focused and most importantly,

Awake.

Because did you know that the word Buddha actually means awakened one?

I'm Hannah,

Your host and founder of the online meditation community Breathe Like a Badass,

And I am obsessed with starting the day with good coffee and seriously simple meditation.

As a trained meditation teacher and a female entrepreneur,

My mission is to help anxious yet ambitious women cut through overwhelm,

Negative self-talk,

Constant comparison and fear so they can get the calm,

Clarity and focus that they need to build happy,

Fulfilling,

Freedom-filled businesses and lives.

Meditation is not magic,

But it's a pretty good place to start.

So whether your coffee is a shot of espresso,

A latte decaf or even a tea or a chai,

I invite you to join me every weekday to start your day off right.

FYI,

These sessions are recorded live on my Instagram page,

At Breathe Like a Badass,

So if you'd prefer to join in and watch them live,

You can do so there.

The videos are also available after the lives on my IGTV page.

Now,

On to the meditation and coffee.

Hello friends,

We are live for another session of meditation and coffee.

I'm just posting the title of today's meditation.

And for those of you that can't see it,

It is called Keep It Simple.

Now,

This meditation was inspired by some work that I was doing with a client and I realised that it's so easy to overcomplicate meditation.

It's so easy to make it this big thing that we have to do,

That we feel like we're not good at,

That seems really complicated,

That seems like this sort of whole spiritual practice that we're intimidated by.

And don't get me wrong,

It is a spiritual practice and I've been doing it for more than 10 years and I still feel like I've barely scratched the surface of understanding it and all of that,

Which is true.

And if you really want to geek out on all of the history and the meanings and the Buddhism and all the rest of it,

You can.

Like knock yourself out.

But I would say that that can be really overwhelming.

And actually at its core meditation and mindfulness is a tool to help you feel better in your life and make you feel happier,

Healthier,

More secure in your body.

And that is very simple.

And there's a phrase that I always use,

Which is that meditation is simple but not easy.

But I think that focusing on the simplicity of it can sometimes be exactly what we need to really help us continue to do it and make it something that fits into our life rather than something kind of scary and intimidating that we don't want to do.

So rather than thinking about this as a meditation session,

Capital M and capital S,

We can literally just think of it as a bit of time that we take for ourselves to check in and see how we're doing.

So I'm going to go into the meditation very very quickly because that's what we're doing just to keep it simple.

Today I have my coffee in a mug that is kind of fancy.

Got some fancy little designs on it.

I fancied a little bit of whimsy today,

Which is interesting because that's in direct,

Direct contrast to what we're doing in today's meditation,

Which is extremely simple.

So without further ado,

I invite you to literally come into position exactly where you are and be comfortable.

And be comfortable and sit and notice what it feels like to be sitting where you are.

Coming into the body,

Allowing yourself to drop,

Allowing the gravity to be noticed on your body.

Dropping your shoulders.

And I invite you to bring your attention to your breath.

Now this is the key with this meditation and just in general.

Mindfulness meditation,

The definition of it,

Has been described as paying attention on purpose without judgement.

That's it.

And you're breathing anyway.

You're always breathing,

Even if you're noticing it or not.

So with today's meditation,

I'm simply inviting you to notice your breath as you would be breathing anyway.

All we're doing for the next few moments is bringing our attention to the breath.

To the breathing that we would have been doing during this time anyway.

And we're bringing our attention to it on purpose.

Calmly,

Simply,

Without judgement.

Breathing normally,

As you would be anyway.

Allowing yourself to drop into your body for these few moments.

Getting curious and noticing.

Noticing the quality of the breath.

Is it shallow?

Is it deep?

Is it deep?

Where do you notice it most?

In your chest,

In your stomach,

Or your nose,

Or somewhere else.

This simple practice of noticing your breath as it is,

Is incredibly powerful.

It doesn't feel like it when we're doing it.

But that is the practice that builds the brain muscle,

That rewires our brain.

That allows us to get all of the results that we hear that meditation helps with.

Focus,

Compassion,

Sensitivity,

Enjoying life more,

Feeling happier in the moment,

More self worth,

Feeling more calm,

Less stressed,

Less anxious.

All of these things can be achieved by training ourselves to stop,

To notice,

To drop into our body and pay attention on purpose without judgement.

Even as you're listening to my voice doing this,

I invite you to still keep your attention on the sensations of noticing your breathing as much as possible as if you would be if you were breathing normally anyway,

Which you would be.

Nothing special,

No special kinds of breathing,

We're not trying to reach some kind of elusive calmness or the perfect zen meditation mood.

Coming back to basics,

Keeping it simple.

And when you notice that your mind is distracted,

Has led you down a random path,

Notice that,

Maybe give it a name like thinking or distraction,

And bring it back to the physical sensation of noticing your breath.

Every time that you notice you're distracted,

Even though it doesn't feel like it,

That's good because that is what is building the muscle in your brain,

Changing those thought patterns.

And every time you do it,

You are becoming just a tiny,

Tiny bit better at training your attention.

And training your attention allows us to be more in the present,

To feel better in our own skin,

To concentrate more,

To stop anxiety spirals,

To be grateful for what we have right now in this moment.

It all comes back to this ability to commit to refocusing on our breath again and again and again.

So even if you have to bring it back 17 million times per session,

That's great,

You're doing it right.

That's 17 million more little practices,

17 million more little tries,

And that's what builds the practice.

That's what we're doing here.

And you can practice this technique in a formal meditation session,

Kind of like this one,

Or you can do it in the rest of your day at any moment.

You can take a breath,

Drop into your body and notice how it is feeling to be breathing as you would be anyway,

As you are anyway,

In your body right now.

So,

Inviting you to notice a few more breaths and allowing your body to be balanced and grounded,

Allowing your shoulders to drop even more,

Relaxing the skin around your eyes and your face.

Taking a few more last breaths.

And if you had your eyes closed,

You could open them now.

But that is a practice actually,

Where you don't always have to have your eyes closed.

And at the beginning of that practice,

You might notice that I didn't specify close your eyes or not.

Because part of keeping it simple is literally doing what works for you.

And like I say,

Noticing your breath and your body as it is right there and then.

Sometimes,

Amongst all of the hullabaloo,

Whatever you want to call it,

Around meditation and yoga and mindfulness,

All of the people telling you that this is the practice you need and that's the app that you should get.

And even your own mind telling you that it's difficult and hard and you can't do it or it takes too long or.

.

.

It's all just noise.

Keep it simple.

Meditation is simply a practice,

Paying attention,

On purpose,

Without judgement.

And I would say that it's also a practice between you and the practice.

Who cares what anyone else says?

It's about giving yourself permission to drop in,

To be with yourself and see how it goes for the few minutes that you do it.

That's it.

So I hope that was a good practice for you guys.

I hope that you appreciated that little going back to basics.

Like I say,

It's not easy but it's simple.

So keep it simple.

And yeah,

Let me know how it went.

Let me know what you're drinking,

As usual,

Where you're joining us from if you're watching the replay.

I will see you for another session soon.

Thanks so much for being here.

Have a great day.

That's it for today.

Thanks so much for listening and spending your morning with me.

If you like this podcast and you are as obsessed with coffee and maybe meditation as I am,

Please go ahead and leave a rating and a review on Apple podcasts or wherever you normally listen as it helps spread the word and get the message out to more brilliant women just like us who need it.

You can also share with your friends on Instagram tagging me at Breathe Like a Badass.

I always love to see you there.

If you like this and you'd like to hear more from me and Breathe Like a Badass on how to use meditation to get the calm,

Clarity and focus you need to build a happy,

Fulfilling,

Freedom-filled business and life,

Head on over to my other full-length interview style podcast,

Just search Breathe Like a Badass anywhere that you normally listen to podcasts.

Thank you so much for listening and I will see you for the next one.