Simple Starting Practice

• • Seated transcendent practice can be done anywhere you feel safe sitting with your eyes closed and back supported... try it in your car before you drive home from work, or outside in nature! Take 3-4 slow deep breaths and then try gently repeating a mantra silently (a sound or word) that the mind can follow easily without forcing or hanging on to it... when you realize you are paying attention to sounds or engaging in the thoughts that are coming and going simply return your attention back to the mantra effortlessly.

    • Any simple mantra such as "SO HUM" which means I am that, or "NAMAH" which means bow down/surrender...as in letting go, or "ANANDA" which means bliss/supreme contentment.

    • In Mindfulness practices the breath is used as a place to rest your attention, simply observe the in and out rhythm without controlling it.

    • Begin with shorter duration meditations and work up to a 20 minute seated practice daily, then aim for twice daily seated meditation: once in the morning before breakfast or coffee, and again mid afternoon or early evening before dinner.

• Mindful Awareness practices can be built into your daily activities to carry over the benefits of your self-transcending practice into your everyday interactions with life. For instance:

  • when walking, notice your feet, the sound they make, how the heal touches first and the toes push off

  • periodically look out a window from your desk or when driving and notice trees, the variety of colors, the fact that they breath in what we breath out (CO2) and we need them for what we breath, oxygen...notice your relationship/interconnection to trees!

  • Throughout your day pause and take 3 slow breaths (slower out than in, with abdomen relaxed)

Please see information under "Resources" for books on Mindfulness practice ideas, podcasts and Apps to help you on your journey! Click the file below for information on use of music when meditating and song suggestions.