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Hello and welcome to 12

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minute meditation, a weekly

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podcast from mindfulandmindful.org that

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offers mindfulness meditations backed

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by neuroscience. If

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you've been practicing, you know that

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12 minutes of meditation a day can

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yield benefits like increased

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attention, focus, creativity,

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calm, resilience, and

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compassion. The

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latest scientific research supports this

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knowledge. So on

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this podcast, we invite you

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to do your 12 minute practice with

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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

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benefits day to day. I'm

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Chelsea Arsenault, director of

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advertising at mindfulandmindful.org and

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this week's meditation is led by

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Rashid Hughes and is based

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on the acronym REST. This

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practice specifically takes into account that

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every one of us show up

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to mindfulness practice with our life

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experience. For many, mindfulness

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practices that instruct people to confront

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their inner world directly and

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to quiet the mind can feel

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very disorienting. This

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is especially true for BIPOC

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folks, trauma survivors, and people

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from marginalized communities and

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even those of us who are

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simply exhausted due to hardships and

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life. So today,

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in honor of Black History Month, we

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bring you a practice from

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Rashid Hughes that reimagines

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meditation, liberation, and

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REST as one. In

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the REST meditation, R stands

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for Relax Your Attention. Release.

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E is for Exhale All

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Striving. Empty.

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S is for Sit. Silence the silence.

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Surrender. T

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is for tune into awareness.

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Trust. Rashid

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Hughes is a writer,

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meditation teacher, yoga instructor,

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and a restorative justice

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facilitator. He is

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the co-founder of the Heart Refuge Mindfulness

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Community, a mindfulness community

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in Washington, D.C. that

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is dedicated to inspiring black,

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indigenous, and people of color

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to live with love and

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courage. You

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can subscribe to 12 Minute

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Meditation while you're on mindful.org

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or wherever you find your

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favorite podcast. And if you're

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moved to leave us a review, we'd

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be grateful. And so will

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other listeners. See, your

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review helps them to decide whether 12

2:51

Minute Meditation is for them. But,

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for now, for you, here's

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Rashid Hughes. Hello

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and peace everyone. This is Rashid, and

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I'll be guiding you through a short practice

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of rest. So

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beginning by finding a comfortable posture of

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your choice. This

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could be a sitting posture, standing,

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or lying down. If

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you choose to keep your eyes open, allow

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your gaze to rest lower on a point in

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front of you. If

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you choose to keep your eyes closed, rest

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your eyelids comfortably. And

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let's set our intention towards relaxing

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and effortlessness. Whenever

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you notice yourself shifting into doing or

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thinking, simply

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return back to your original intention

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and begin again. So

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the R of rest invites us

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to begin by relaxing our attention.

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So just begin to release any fixation

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that you might have on any object

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and being as ordinary and natural as

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possible. Allowing

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your attention to completely

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relax from

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any need to be focused or

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fixated. If

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you notice that your attention becomes

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fixated or distracted, that's okay. Simply

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begin again and just

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relax, allowing

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your attention to just rest

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naturally. And

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continuing to the E of rest, which

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invites us to exhale all striving.

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Also allowing yourself just to be

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empty of any effort towards

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achieving a particular outcome.

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Having empty of having

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a particular result. Nothing

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to anticipate or

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expect to happen. Simply

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remaining open and accepting to

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the present moment as it is. Letting

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your attention rest naturally and also

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letting your experience be

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as it is. If

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you notice that you begin to find yourself

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striving, simply

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relax your attention and

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remain open and accepting

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of the striving. When

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the S of rest sends the

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silence, invites

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us to surrender all

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of our attachment or

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fixation on whatever we might be

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noticing. And

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sensing into the

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inner quietness and

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silence that's

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here with you. Notice

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how thoughts and

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emotions arise

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from this silence within you and

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notice how they return back to the surface. and

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sense the

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feeling of the vastness of the

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silence not

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just within you but

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as you are

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sensing how even

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outer sounds around you don't

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disturb the inner silence

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within you. This

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is because you

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are the silence. There's

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no need to try to

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quiet yourself because

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this silence is natural

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to who and what you are. Simply

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rest in

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this silence. Thank

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you. The

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tea of rest invites us to tune

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into awareness. Tuning

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into awareness is

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recognizing that you are

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naturally aware. The

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tuning is the

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returning to this recognition that

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you are aware. And

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in the returning to

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this recognition, you

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see that you are conscious

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of this awareness. Trust

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this effortless knowing and

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the silence and

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feel yourself as

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this ever-present essence

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of awareness. There

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is nothing to achieve. There

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is nothing to focus

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on. There

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is nothing to do. There

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is nothing to

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be afraid of. being aware. Allow

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yourself to feel this spacious

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presence of awareness. And

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trust that

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this is who and what you are. You

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can rest in awareness as

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long as you'd like. And

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when you're ready to end the practice, gently

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bring your attention to your surroundings

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and invite simple movements to your body. Thank

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you for listening to this episode of

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12-minute meditation from Mindful and mindful.org. I

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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.