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Hello and welcome to 12-minute

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meditation, a weekly podcast

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from mindful and mindful.org that offers

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mindfulness meditations backed by

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neuroscience. If you've been

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practicing, you know that 12 minutes

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of meditation a day can yield benefits

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like increased attention, focus,

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creativity, calm, resilience,

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and compassion. The latest

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scientific research supports this knowledge.

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So on this podcast, we

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invite you to do your 12-minute practice

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with guided meditations from today's leading

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mindfulness experts. There's

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a new practice each week and a

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new way to experience some of those benefits

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day to day. I'm Chelsea

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Arsenal, director of advertising at

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mindful and mindful.org and

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today Jay Vidyarthi leads

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us through a practice that helps release racing

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thoughts and immerse us in the present

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moment.

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In a world where self care feels

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like an added task, Jay

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offers a new approach.

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Rather than pushing for change, this

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practice encourages you to simply

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be. The aim is not

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to do, but to exist, letting

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things be as they are. Jay

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Vidyarthi is

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a mindfulness teacher with over 10 years

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of personal meditation practice and

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has led workplace mindfulness training for

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large organizations.

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You can subscribe to 12 minute meditation

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while you're on mindful.org

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or wherever you find your favorite

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podcast and if you're moved

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to leave us a review, we'd be grateful

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and

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so will other listeners. See,

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your review helps them decide whether 12-minute

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meditation is for them, but

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for now,

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for you. Here's Jay

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Vidyarthi.

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You can start by finding a comfortable position,

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whatever feels comfortable for you. I like

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to think of myself as kind of embodying

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my intention for the practice in

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the way I hold my body. So, you know,

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if you think about that word, embodying, to like

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put something within the body. So

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to take that intention, so in this practice, I

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intend to do nothing but to do it

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with a sense of presence and awareness. And

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so there's a sense of alertness, but

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also a sense of relaxation. So I'm going

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to stretch my body up, sort

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of reach the top of my head to the sky,

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align my spine, and then

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kind of relax into position.

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Maybe

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I'll take a breath or two to just

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let go of whatever came before

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this practice, whatever

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might be coming after. If

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you tend to prefer closing your eyes, you can do

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that. If you want to keep them

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open, I recommend you find a spot

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to focus your gaze.

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It can help

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keep us focused. Before

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we dive in, let's just take a moment to

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be here as we are. Before

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you're ready, letting

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go of any kind

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of intention to do

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anything or to change

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anything about what you're

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experiencing in this moment.

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Drop the resistance and

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let it go. happen.

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If you find yourself naturally

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gravitating to some other

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practice you do, maybe you notice yourself paying

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attention to the breath, the

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sounds or saying an affirmation. Just

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let that happen. Let that be

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a part of your natural state

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in this moment. There's no need to

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change anything about that. You

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may also notice yourself uncomfortable.

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Maybe you're tired or drowsy. Maybe you're

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getting bored already. It happens.

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Maybe you're noticing yourself caught up in a lot of thought,

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a lot of racing thoughts about all

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the challenges we're facing. Whatever

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it is you're noticing in this particular

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practice, we're accepting

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that as okay. The

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next little while, whatever

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you're experiencing is okay. There's

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no need to fight any of it.

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Just let it happen in a radical

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act of self-acceptance. you

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Maybe you're noticing some external experience

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that you might be resisting. Maybe the neighbors

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are banging on the wall or you're

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trying to meditate here and you told someone,

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you told your roommate, you told your

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spouse that you're going to meditate. And

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they're speaking very loudly in the other room

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or whatever it might be. Embrace

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that as part of the meditation and just accept it

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as part of your experience in this moment.

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Whatever you're experiencing right now is

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exactly what it's like to be you

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in this moment. And

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all we're doing here is dropping the fight, dropping

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the resistance, and accepting that completely

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just to see what happens. Bring the sense

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of curiosity here.

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What happens when you fully

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do nothing and let

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things be as they are.

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Often when we're trying to take a break, that

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sort of phrase, that idea of taking a break. a

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break can often be pretty

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effortful. We can find ourselves

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trying really hard to relax or

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trying really hard to stop

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thinking or trying

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really hard to enjoy some

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sort of distraction. But

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is that really a break? In

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this practice we are not

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trying to do anything. Maybe

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you are thinking what

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happens when you just let that happen?

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Maybe you're not enjoying this meditation.

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What happens when you just let that happen? Maybe

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you find yourself confused. Just

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let it happen. you

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you

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sometimes our

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self-care routine whether it's exercise

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or mindfulness or whatever it might be

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just becomes this

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other new entry

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on our task list. Another thing

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we're trying to check off in our already

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overwhelmed

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And so no matter what you're facing when it comes

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to mindfulness, that can be

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a very useful framing, but sometimes

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it can take over. You

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can lose track of this idea of just

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being present without striving to

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change something about who you are or

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to change something about your experience

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in this moment. So let's take

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this last minute or two to

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refresh our intention, start again, and spend

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this time truly just

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being here without

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any attempt to change anything about

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what we're experiencing. For this next

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minute, everything you're experiencing

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is okay exactly the

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way it is. Thank

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you. Okay.

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Well done. Let's just

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take this last moment to let go of the practice.

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Transition

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at your own pace, snow

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rush whatsoever and see if you can carry

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whatever sense

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you discovered, whatever insight you

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discovered

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in this 10-minute practice, see if you can carry

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that forward to whatever

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is coming next in

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your day. A

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sense of that balancing the tightrope

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between

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striving and efforting to

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be better, to do better, to help yourself,

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to help others, to take care of yourself, to get that

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task done,

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with the sense of just being okay with

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the way things are. Especially

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in challenging situations, this can be a very

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difficult line to walk. I

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encourage you to try these sort of practices

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to balance some of the more

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goal-directed practices, the

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more focused attention of practice

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that you might be doing as part of your routine.

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I recently became a new dad about a year and

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a half ago and that's when my practice

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really shifted to prioritize

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practices where you fully let go because

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my life was so busy. So if you're in a position

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right now, especially in light of

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the pandemic that we're facing while I'm recording this,

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if you're in a position where you are overwhelmed,

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there might be economic struggles, there might

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be health struggles, there might be

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the cabin fever of being in quarantine

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or whatever it might be. I encourage

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you to consider inviting a sense

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of nothingness, a

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sense of lacking

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intention into your practice,

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into your routine, to see if that helps give

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you the true break that you need and helps

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you balance your approach. So

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thank you so much. Again, my name is Jay Vidyarthi.

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Don't hesitate to send me questions. You can Google

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my name to find out a lot about me and find my

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email address and contact information

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if you want to talk further about this. Otherwise, thank

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you and thank you so much to a mindful, wonderful

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organization doing great work to get important

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messages out to the people.

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Thank you for listening to this episode of 12-minute

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meditation from Mindful and Mindful.org.

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I hope you enjoyed practicing with us. We'll

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be back in seven days with another meditation

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for you.