“Researchers investigating the effectiveness of mindfulness found that after just five days of meditating for a very short time, participants showed increased blood flow to the area of the brain that helps to control emotions and behavior.”
― Andy Puddicombe

In the fast-paced and often chaotic world we live in, finding moments of stillness and tranquility can be challenging. As stress and anxiety become pervasive companions, many are seeking respite through mindfulness practices like meditation. Recognizing the transformative power of meditation, Headspace has curated a collection of "Today's Meditations" designed to cultivate inner calm and clarity amidst life's hustle.

I’ve used these meditations for years as an introduction to my daily practice. Here are seven of my favorites Today’s Meditations from Andy Puddicombe.

Today’s Meditations From Headspce

Experiencing Meditation

Some things have to be experienced directly to be fully appreciated and understood. Meditation is one of these things. No amount of explanation can ever replace the direct experience. So, there are so many parallels for this idea in everyday life, whether we're talking about food or an activity of some kind. We can read about it, we can talk about it, we can watch it, but it's so different from the experience itself. And that's more true than ever with meditation. We're only really going to experience the benefits when we take the time to sit down, to pause, to focus the mind, and to let go of that everyday chatter. 

Meditating Proactively

We're always going to start tomorrow. I was going to start next week. But if we keep putting it off we won't have it for those times we need it the most. Much better to start right now. So this could just as well apply to other things in life and not just meditation but I think it applies especially to meditation. It's not that we need to do it every single day. We shouldn't give ourselves a hard time if you miss a session here and there. But there is a temptation to maybe not prioritize looking after the health of the mind whether it's because we have so many other things going on in our life, whether we think physical health is more important, or whether you simply can't really see it and nobody else can see it and we don't really know what's happening so maybe it doesn't matter that much. The truth is, it's so much easier to train in meditation in a proactive way rather than waiting until we're really stressed and then using meditation to get less stressed. Instead, training the mind to feel resilient so we don't even get to that place where we feel too stressed or overwhelmed. If we can begin to think in this way and approach meditation in this way then all of a sudden we start to find meditation becoming more applicable in our life, rather than getting in a situation where the situation is challenging enough and then having to learn meditation at the same time. Instead, we're able to bring that skill, the familiarity of being present in the moment, to the most challenging aspects of life. 

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In meditation we fearlessly allow thoughts to come and go without bias or preference. Observing their nature as they arise from empty emptiness and return to emptiness untainted. So I think the easiest way to think about this is perhaps it's like seeing a rainbow appear in the sky. So we see it. It's as if it appears from nowhere. We see it clearly, the colors, very intense, very vivid, and yet if we were to get close we could put our hand right through the rainbow. So, it's there and we can see it. It rises from emptiness yet it seems to disappear in place again. And we can't say it hasn't existed. In the same way, we watch thoughts in the mind. Thoughts arise and seem to come from nowhere. They seem present and yet they’re intangible. You can't touch them and yet they seem to disappear from nowhere as well. When we remember this all of a sudden the mind feels lighter and more spacious and we find that comfortable place of ease.

Getting Comfortable

It can take a little while to get comfortable in sitting with meditation, to become familiar with sanity. So we should be surprised if these things feel a little challenging or unusual at first. So, for most of us when we sit to meditate for the very first time it will probably be the very first time in our lives when we have sat distracted not trying to think about something, not engaged in anything at all, simply allowing the mind to be present. So, it's no surprise that it's going to feel like an alien thing. And it's no surprise that so many people try it, feel a little uncomfortable, and decide it's not really for them. But if we can stay with that if we can ride out that feeling of discomfort even if it's just for a few days or so then we find a place where not only does it feel a little more familiar, a little more comfortable but actually we start to see the potential for change and we experience the benefits and we begin what is a journey of a lifetime

Goals & Dreams

With clear intention and a kind heart. We move forward in life. I'll happiness not dependent on reaching that goal. We're happy and free as we go very often with meditation, there's an idea that somehow in letting go, we have to let go of everything. Even any idea of goals or dreams or hopes in life, but that's not really what we're talking about. We're talking about letting go of any attachment to the result. So if we can go about our life living, with a sense of purpose, meaning and direction focused on what's happening right now. And the process itself, the unfolding process rather than the destination or the result, then that's a way of living happily. But this is dependent on achieving that result or getting to that destination. Then we set up a real state of tension, perhaps even anxiety in the mind where we're always striving to get to and knowing, hoping that we'll find happiness at the end. So as much as possible letting go of any idea of a goal or destination and just being focused on this moment right now.

Seeing The Mind

To begin with, we're so caught up in thought that we don't even know we're caught up in thought. But once we've seen this thought clearly, life will never be the same again. So it's talked about in different ways in different traditions, the Indian culture, talk about it, as a snake going down a piece of bamboo where there's only one way out. It can only go forward and it doesn't go and reverse. The Tibetans talk about swallowing a porcupine; once it's gone down, there's no way it can be pulled back up.  I think, however, we look at it once we've seen the mind as it is, there's really no kind of going back.  Once we’ve sat and seen how many thoughts are there we're always going to be aware of that, at the very least, have a memory of it.  At some level, there will be the desire to experience freedom from that and that's a really powerful thing. Sometimes it can be tempting to hide away from it, to run away from it to be scared of it even.  But actually, as long as that's there, that underlying sort of motivation to be free from the discursiveness of mind to be free from being overwhelmed by emotions, however, you like to think about it, there is always the opportunity to transform the mind.

Transforming The Mind

Meditation does not eradicate difficulties and challenges of human life but it does allow us to have more clarity around things, to feel less overwhelmed, and to learn something valuable.  We may begin practicing medication with the idea that somehow it’s just going to clear the way, that difficult things are just going to stop happening in life but we very quickly realize that those will continue regardless.  Besides, meditation is not about changing those things, it’s about how we relate to them when they arise.  And very often, the more aware we become it’s like life starts giving us these difficult opportunities to learn from, to start to see what we can do with a little more practice, what is it that shakes our stability of awareness and compassion?  So as much as possible, not seeing these things as obstacles to but as a way of transforming the mind, bringing these difficult experiences onto the path as a way of learning and transforming the mind.

Shared Experience

When we’re rushing from place to place, it’s easy to see those around us as an inconvenience.  It can probably be useful to remember that they’re probably thinking the same thing about us.  My favorite way of looking at this is maybe when we’re sitting in a car and we might be sitting on a road full of cars during a busy time of day.  We find ourselves thinking, “Oh, all this traffic” and we forget that not only are we in the traffic but we are the traffic.  To the people behind us, we are no different from all of the other cars around us.  It doesn’t matter whether you’re in a car or whether you’re in a big bus city or on the subway or on the streets.  There’s a temptation when somebody either steps out in front of us or the car moves in front of us to feel a sense of frustration towards that other person. And we forget that we’re actually all in this together.  It’s not as though everyone else is in our way.  We are all simply traveling in the same direction.  The more we can remember this somehow the more our mind relaxes.  We realize that we’re not in this on our own.  We’re in this together.  And yeah, there will be times when it’s difficult when there’s a lot of us trying to do the same thing at the same time but in knowing that it’s a shared experience somehow the mind lets go a little bit, tends to relax a little bit more.  And all of a sudden we might even find ourselves enjoying that situation.

Related:

• Why I Still Use The Headspace App