Make Your Damn Bed

Today, just practice coming back to your breath. As it is now. Coming back to your body, as it is now. Practice consciousness. If your mind starts to wander and get lost in the sauce of chaos… come back to the way your body and breath feels in that very moment. You always have you to return to. Stay grounded in that knowledge. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I encourage you to implement a few minutes of this mindfulness and meditation practice into your daily routines, as often as you can, so you can start to see the rewards and keep showing up for yourself. If it feels like work at first, that’s because it can be a bit of work, at first. We have to remember that meditation is an active form of brain training. We have been lead to believe it’s inactive. Sitting and doing nothing - but it’s actually an active process of choosing inactivity to increase awareness of your own thoughts and feelings to get more comfortable within your own body and mind so you can manage negative symptoms that naturally occur to our consciousness.  Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is a process and the practice is meant to enhance your life over time by improving your relationship with yourself. Don’t rush it. Don’t get frustrated. Some days will be harder than others. Don’t worry about doing well or doing bad, don’t cling to any expectations. And don’t start looking forward to some grand explosion of enlightenment. If you have brilliant thoughts, dope. Write em down, then go back to breathing. If you feel strong emotions, dope. Feel them and then go back to breathing. Simply breathe, sit, and relax into whatever the hell comes up for you. No matter what. Good or bad, weird or comfortable, calm or busy, It’s all human, which is the point of this practice. To simply embrace what it is to be human. Article cited in episode:  https://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/meditation.html A Guided Meditation on the Body, Space, and Awareness with Yongey Mingyur Rinpoch  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GSeWdjyr1cGuided Wim Hof Method Breathing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tybOi4hjZFQ Isha Kriya: A Guided Meditation For Health And Wellbeing | 15-Minutes  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwQkfoKxRvo REA EARTH: Self Love for Your Subconscious Mind https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVcur3OPNvg Taming Your Wandering Mind – TEDxCoconutGrove https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df2JBnql8lc&feature=youtu.be Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Almost 50 studies have been done further confirming the benefits of global meditation and its direct impact on everything in the world, according to results published in the Journal of Crime and Justice in 1981. We shouldn’t be meditating for the perks. But being aware of them doesn’t hurt. Clinging to the outcomes or the changes or the enlightenment will only hurt your practice in the long run - so go in with only the expectation to disconnect from the outside world and reconnect to yourself, which will in turn allow you to better connect to the collective without having to try so damned hard. Meditation is about being human and connecting to your own human-ness, for better or for worse. It’s about sitting with yourself, without expectation, and just being. Of course, as a result, it can absolutely become a way to tap into the energetic resources that live within you and share them with the world, but only by practicing the release of the need to do or be anything at all. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Forbes Article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2015/02/09/7-ways-meditation-can-actually-change-the-brain/?sh=76a285111465Official, scientific studies, as well as my own anecdotal experiential evidence supports the fact that meditation helps balance emotions, and increases memory, focus, and productivity. Studies show an increase on creativity, reasoning skills, and standardized test scores. It is also proven to decrease depression, stress, and anxiety while improving your pain tolerance. It’s not a cure-all, of course, nothing is but it’s an amazing resource for helping manage symptoms and improve your relationship with yourself and others.  Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

So, although the history can be incredibly off-putting, it shouldn’t steer you away from the practice. Instead, it should empower you to embrace mindfulness with intentionality to honor those who came before us and made it possible for us to do so.In reality, we should all be practicing mindfulness but so we can better our lives, not optimize them. It’s meant to increase our awareness, not numb it. and we should be meditating so we can improve our relationships, not just with ourselves, but with the rest of humanity. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Youtube channel of Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche:  https://www.youtube.com/user/MingyurRinpocheThe article I referenced: https://www.zerotothree.org/resources/3715-perspectives-defunding-mindfulness-while-we-sit-on-our-cushions-systemic-racism-runs-rampant  I could spend a whole season talking about the value of establishing a conscious mindfulness and meditation practice. I’ll spare you the full season but for the next few days I am going to be doing a series on how to get started with a meditation practice, even if you’ve never considered doing it before. The history of mindfulness and meditation is incredibly important and often overlooked, so today we’re starting there because honoring roots is a critical piece in learning and respecting cultures without appropriating them. Plus, if we continue to choose to skip learning the real history of things, we will end up perpetuating negative cycles and losing sight of the meaning of these practices that are meant to do the opposite. So, today, I wanted to start with touching briefly on the history of meditation. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s officially time to get that thing you have been putting off done. Once and for all, today is the day. This week is the week. You know exactly the thing I am talking about, too. That damned thing that you’ve been putting off, doesn’t need to wait any longer. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

People have far less power when we act individually. Acting together as group is where real, substantial change is made. Unions are built on this reality. And while no union is perfect, they are the collective voice of the workers, which is incredibly important in a world determined to take advantage of individuals. Unions work to put power in the people to ensure the rights and wages are protected. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our thoughts, feelings, and even experiences are not always rooted in reality. More so, they are rooted in survival. The fact that we can often take a step back from a real, tangible, valid feeling and realize that we no longer feel the same affects of those feelings, proves they are real but not trustworthy advisors in our behaviors. Deception and distortion is built into the natural human mind for our survival. It’s our job to recognize that and change our relationship with suffering so we can not fall victim to creating more suffering than necessary just as a means of basic survival. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/make-your-damn-bed. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.