meditation course for beginners-day1
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‘The body is your only home in the universe. It is your house of belonging here in the world. It is a very sacred temple. To spend time in silence before the mystery of your body brings you toward wisdom.’

~John O’Donohue

Welcome to day one! I’m so very glad to have you here with me, committing this time to improving your mind and life.

To get the most out of this course, I invite you to think about how, for the next five days, you can clear space around giving yourself the time to prioritise your self care. This means making the time to do the daily exercises I’ll be sending.

But it also means making decisions in other areas of your life that can minimise stress and maximise what you know is good for you.

Some ideas are:

  • Normally I would suggest a week long social media detox- but right now use social media to your advantage to help stay connected to others. You might also like to arrange zoom catch ups with friends. Giving and receiving support is so important right now
  • Get into an exercise routine: Walking every day is great for movement, connecting you to nature, fresh air, and time for yourself (with two kids on lockdown I love the time to myself ) There are so many great online exercise programs in offer whether yoga pilates or others
  • Try to get into good sleep habits and eat well. Both of these things boost your immune system promoting better health. Personally right now I’m into upping my green vegetable intake and love finding healthy baking recipes.
  • If you’re feeling anxious or stressed you're not alone- but if you're feeling generally overwhelmed or having difficulty coping- it’s always a good idea to speak to a trusted friend or someone professional to get the added support you need
  • A lot of people are using this extra time at home to declutter and organise their homes. It can feel very cleansing, liberating and empowering. (Personally I haven’t got to that yet and unlikely I will with a baby, four year old, and business to run) but lots of people are loving it
  • Completing that pesky chore that’s been plaguing you in the middle of the night
  • Cancelling anything non-urgent that might lower your stress load
  • Finding creative ideas and possibilities on line- for yourself or that you can enjoy with your kids or partner. (Here maybe you’ve always wanted to learn salsa!) Or maybe you can discover the joy of jigsaw puzzles (quite meditational)
  • Taking some time if possible to just relax, watch movies or do whatever time out activity makes you feel relaxed.

Meditation is an incredible tool for helping you overcome stress. Research shows it can lower anxiety and stress significantly - and we could all use that. 

But to help me help you get stronger in these coming 5 days, my request today is that you take some time to complete three pages of the Meditation Course for Beginners workbook to analyse any areas of your life where you can lower stressors and increase the things that bring you vitality and joy.

The second task is this very calming meditation.

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It’s called the Five Minute Breath meditation. Find it here in the meditation dashboard.

Often when we are dealing with high stress levels, or overwhelm the last thing we feel like doing is sitting still to meditate. It just feels too hard and we avoid it even though we know it’s good for us.

That’s where the Five Minute Breath meditation comes in handy. Often when we think about meditation we imagine ourselves sitting diligently for 20… 30… 40 minutes at a time with perfectly straight backs and clear, stress free minds.

But if you were traiining for a marathon you would build up your training a step at a time. We become mentally fit incrementally it's important to be patient and do shorter and more regular practice during the training process.

So lets start our training today with small do-able steps: just five minutes.

You can do it!

Whether lying down in bed or sitting in a relaxed but position in a chair or even your desk. Just close your eyes and follow my instructions. Feel free to repeat at several times throughout the day to consolidate your training.

N.B You can download all the meditations from the program here.

Day 1: Five minute breath

The final task for you today is this:

Download the Meditation Course for Beginners Workbook if you haven’t already. Complete the first three pages to work out how you can start to reduce stress in your life right now.

I’ve also got an exercise for you to test your current stress levels and to see how mindful you currently are. At the end of the five days, I will ask you to fill it out again so we can compare results and see if this practice has been of benefit.

That’s all you need to do for today.

Tomorrow I'll share an interview I did with an amazing "stress" expert. She'll share some highly practical and even life-changing advice to support you in dealing better with stress.

Warmly,

Elise

P.S If you know someone who might benefit from this course, or even a whole community or workplace, I’m sure they’d be grateful if you’d let them know. They can register here.

STAY ON TRACK:

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