Mindfulness Meditation are really popular in this world. And you can find a lot of content about them. There's many, many, many courses that you can take, I recommend a seven weeks course on sounds true with Tara Brock and jack kornfield. And it's a little bit deeper. It's a very quiet, very slow course, exactly how it's supposed to be if you want to dig deep into mindfulness, meditation. And so mindfulness meditation is getting back into the present moment.

And there's certain ways how we can start mindfulness practice. But before I start giving you more tools as to how to do that, I would like to remind you that We will have to develop virtues like loving kindness to ourselves and compassion to ourselves and patience with ourselves. If we wanted to succeed with the meditation, we feel pressure, that we have to do it properly. And that we have to be sitting in a certain position. And that we have to, you know, sit for at least 30 minutes. And if we don't do that we beat ourselves up and we're disappointed with ourselves and we become frustrated or angry with ourselves disappointed.

Some people even get depressed because they're trying for so many times. And we need to drop that. That's the first thing you need to drop. If you want to succeed. Another thing I'd like to remind you of is you don't need to succeed in meditation. It's not part of the achievements.

It's not something that you need to do for anyone else. Except for yourself, okay, and you shouldn't expect from yourself to succeed in that because an expectation usually leads to disappointment. You have to start feeling that this is something you deserve, and something that you're doing for your heart and for your mind, so that you can fill up your tank. And that when you fill up your own tank, you can then be also kinder and karma to those people that you love. And then gradually to people that you meet all around the world, in any situations. So, without this awareness and this truth, you will not be happy in your meditation, it's pointless.

So verses like that really need to be developed. And think about it before you start the meditation and remind yourself of this. Every They, until it really sits with you and becomes your second nature. So mindfulness practice meditation and also Tibetan Buddhist meditations, is to be done in the most comfortable way for us. And it's a myth that you have to sit cross legged for a long time to close eyes and find stillness. That's scrap it.

Yeah, that's bullshit. And not true. So, get a new notebook and write new truths into that notebook about meditation. The most important thing is that you feel comfortable. And yes, there are suggestions that you should sit and you should sit straight up so that your spine is straight, because then the energy and the oxygen flows nicely through through your body. However, Some people are ill, some people have to lie in the hospital bed.

And so what they can't meditate. That's, that's not true. The point of meditation is to find inner peace. Five minutes or 10 minutes or 30 minutes or what have been the centerpiece forever. Right? But that's the point.

So, do what you can and don't torture yourself with the shoots and have to and must have meditation. It's your meditation. Yeah, the Buddha didn't tell people what to do and how to sit and beat them up for sitting cross, like for less than two hours, it doesn't work like that. So find your comfortable position. I personally for many, many years, was meditating in bed so I would just sit up but I would and I still actually do my morning meditation in my bed. And it's the deepest meditation in the morning for me because I struggle with the energy In the morning and I do it in my bed, I don't fall asleep there I feel great.

It's a it's the coolest place in the house and also, I love my bedroom. My bed is a safe place. And it makes a difference where you meditate. So it has to be comfortable and safe and peaceful for you that place you know. And then let's talk about time and study two minutes. And if you have children was screaming around the house and you can do it in the morning.

Well guess what, take him to school, come back and then do it. I do it like that in the weeks when we have our kids here. I have them every second week. And when I don't have them, I do it first thing in the morning when I have my kids. Then we will take them to school and when they come back and at nine, nine o'clock after I had coffee, I sit on my on my sofa And then I meditate there. If I'm, for example, on the weekends with the children, and they're not out or don't have any activities or anything, and they're loud and play Legos, and whatever they're doing, I go, I go to my toilet, like if you go to the toilet, do they disrupt you may be able to train them not to yet have kids, they're not, you know, they can handle it, go to the toilet, lock yourself in and sit on the toilet for two to five minutes, whatever you can do, and start slowly and gradually, and and then expand with time, you will know that you want to do more.

Okay? If you feel like oh, I have to do more dogs. Yeah, because that's putting pressure and more stress and more tension more worry. Yeah. All we want to do is get rid of the worry. So just take take it slowly.

Take it gradually. Yeah, it's like going to the gym. Yeah, you start with 10 minutes on the treadmill and then you increase it Swimming, you do two laps, and then you end up doing 20 in three months, but it takes three months, right? So it's the same thing. It's like a training your muscle. And small baby steps will lead you along way.

All right. So increase the time gradually. And as you feel, sometimes you will end up doing like 30 minutes, but then one day, you can't do 30 minutes. That's fine too. Don't panic, okay, your energy is low, you're don't beat yourself up, because the more you beat yourself up, the more you resist what's going on and the more attention you bring into your life, you will not succeed in that meditation. Now, how do we become mindful?

How do we bring ourselves into this present moment? We all say start with a breath. And I personally struggle with that. But breath is really simple. To bring yourself to the present moment because you have to think about Breathe in. Breathe out.

Breathe in. Breathe out. Yeah. Give it three breaths and you start thinking about what you're going to cook for lunch, find that thought goes comes in. And then guess what you apply the observer meditation and say thank you very much. This can wait.

Thank you. Like little child, and then breathe in and breathe out. And even if you do that for one or two minutes, and you start becoming frustrated that it's safe. Thank you. I'm doing really well here. This is really lovely because you yourself, yeah.

And move on with your day. If you feel that you're a little bit you know anxious about that. Something are, you know, frustrated or anything during the day, do the same thing again, go to the toilet, and or, if you're at home, you're gonna have to hide in the toilet all your life. Just find a place and do it again. For some people, it's also very helpful that they do it physically. So I learned in the Tibetan monastery, Buddhist monastery, to use my fingers to, to help my breath so and so you basically want to breathe in with your right nostril and you hold on with your hands you say breathing, breathing, breathing and continue doing that.

Some people like the physical sensations of the body, I personally feel my hands my palms, and I feel them when I concentrate on them and I can actually feel like a burning sensation, they become hot. And they usually become a bit warmer and hot when I when I'm going a little bit deeper in the present moment, so you can put them on your lap. And just when you close your eyes, you focus on your breath, and try to slow it down. And you do it by breathing in. And then slowly breathe out and breathe in crazy Keep breathing mean and breathe. And when you feel tension in your neck, put your shoulders a bit down.

Please just become aware of your muscles on your face and your jaw. Really subtler release. ellipse in this little, little bit. Just become a little bit more relaxed. Check your shoulders and you're constantly breathing. And our thoughts are coming because you're checking your muscles and you breathe in, keep breathing.

And if it helps when a thought comes, and you kindly say, Thank you, I'll talk to you later. And you go back to your breathing, you can also start feeling the fingers in your hands and focus on those or any other part of your body. So, with this part of the mindfulness meditation, you are in the present moment. You are not anywhere else and you're not telling yourself any stories. So that's good. That's really cool thing you reach the power of now.

You can also start hearing sounds around you and welcome them, but just as passing sounds as part of your present experience. So I'm here and I see my air con, I can hear my air conditioning on. But I don't stop thinking about the air conditioning and just hear it. There's a car passing by another car and I go back to my breath. And I'm aware how peaceful and quiet my apartment is. I can feel my burning hands.

I can feel that I'm tensing my shoulders. And I don't ask myself why am I sure I can talk about it later. Protect here, some wind outside and I agree. And the thought came in and it came in and allow your thoughts to come in, like your breath and then go and then not annoyed with the bus that just passed by. And it's quiet again. And now there's no more Three minutes in the present moment.

And you hopefully were here with me in the present moment feel. So this is mindfulness practice, where you feel yourself in that moment. There's another way of coming into this state, which is a Buddhist, Tibetan Buddhist space. It's called the single pointed concentration. And in the single pointed concentration, we try to find an object on which you focus. And it's the same thing as with your breath, and your hands and everything.

Except you find one object usually will really works. And I did it in my yoga classes, any times. When I was recovering from my workaholism, and my, my yoga teacher recommended it's funny. She put a candle on and I had To look at the candlelight and not stop thinking about other things or looking around and but you can also bring in objects that candlelight in your mind so you can close your eyes and just focus on it. You can also do it with open eyes if you want to look at a painting or an object in your in your house. And just try to do it for two minutes, three minutes, five minutes.

And that's what brings you into the mindfulness into the past into the moment present moment.