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How to Meditate: Meditation 101 for Beginners
10 Science-Backed Benefits of Meditation
What is Meditation?
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How to Meditate: Meditation 101 for Beginners
10 Science-Backed Benefits of Meditation
What is Meditation?
Benefits of Mindfulness: Mindful Living Can Change Your Life
Mindfulness 101: A Beginner's Guide
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Hi, and welcome to your Daily Mindfulness. Today.,We're going to talk about how to use love and compassion to soothe anxiety and stress and bring ease and calm to our minds. So a lot of the time when emotions like anxiety or stress arise, we respond by trying to push them away or fight with them. That tends to intensify the difficult feelings, rev our nervous system up and pull us into reactivity and struggle. But what would happen instead of fearing the anxiety, fighting with the anxiety, if we met it with kindness and compassion? Although it might sound a little bit counter-intuitive to bring love to your anxiety, it's actually a really powerful way to regulate your emotions, soothe your nervous system and find in a calm.
So according to Professor Paul Gilbert, we have three types of emotional regulation systems. So we've got the threat system, the drive system and the soothing system. The threat system focuses on self protection. So that's our fight or flight response. The drive system is reward focused.
It's involved in wanting, striving, achieving, and consuming. And the soothing system focuses on bonding and connection. It involves kindness, caring, and play. In the soothing system, we feel more safe. We feel more relaxed.
We feel content and we feel connected. Now when we're experiencing a lot of stress and anxiety, we often get stuck with our threat system, turned on. Basically we get stuck in a fear response. And if we're responding to that fear, that anxiety, that stress by fighting it or denying it, the emotions, as I said, become more intense, they get prolonged. But if we can bring compassion and kindness to what we're feeling, we switch on that soothing system.
And we start to surround our anxiety in soothing softness and kindness. When we switch on this soothing system, our brain releases oxytocin. We get this squirt of soothing and feel good hormones into our bodies. And oxytocin is often called the cuddle hormone because it makes us feel a sense of love, of relaxation, of wellbeing. So by practicing self compassion and kindness in these moments, what happens really is we stop ourselves from getting caught in a vicious cycle.
We stop throwing fuel on the fire of difficult emotions so they can just pass through us more easily. We also soothe our nervous system and bring kindness and presence to ourselves when we need it the most. So in today's meditation, we'll practice this skill a little bit more. Bringing loving kindness to our feelings, to ourselves and to whatever arises. So I invite you to settle in for that now.
And of course, as always, thank you for your practice and your presence here with us.
How to Meet Fear With Love
Personalized support for learning how to integrate mindfulness into your life. Delivered fresh everyday by our world renowned experts. Choose meditation duration:
Duration
Your default time is based on your progress and is changed automatically as you practice.
Hi, and welcome to your Daily Mindfulness. Today.,We're going to talk about how to use love and compassion to soothe anxiety and stress and bring ease and calm to our minds. So a lot of the time when emotions like anxiety or stress arise, we respond by trying to push them away or fight with them. That tends to intensify the difficult feelings, rev our nervous system up and pull us into reactivity and struggle. But what would happen instead of fearing the anxiety, fighting with the anxiety, if we met it with kindness and compassion? Although it might sound a little bit counter-intuitive to bring love to your anxiety, it's actually a really powerful way to regulate your emotions, soothe your nervous system and find in a calm.
So according to Professor Paul Gilbert, we have three types of emotional regulation systems. So we've got the threat system, the drive system and the soothing system. The threat system focuses on self protection. So that's our fight or flight response. The drive system is reward focused.
It's involved in wanting, striving, achieving, and consuming. And the soothing system focuses on bonding and connection. It involves kindness, caring, and play. In the soothing system, we feel more safe. We feel more relaxed.
We feel content and we feel connected. Now when we're experiencing a lot of stress and anxiety, we often get stuck with our threat system, turned on. Basically we get stuck in a fear response. And if we're responding to that fear, that anxiety, that stress by fighting it or denying it, the emotions, as I said, become more intense, they get prolonged. But if we can bring compassion and kindness to what we're feeling, we switch on that soothing system.
And we start to surround our anxiety in soothing softness and kindness. When we switch on this soothing system, our brain releases oxytocin. We get this squirt of soothing and feel good hormones into our bodies. And oxytocin is often called the cuddle hormone because it makes us feel a sense of love, of relaxation, of wellbeing. So by practicing self compassion and kindness in these moments, what happens really is we stop ourselves from getting caught in a vicious cycle.
We stop throwing fuel on the fire of difficult emotions so they can just pass through us more easily. We also soothe our nervous system and bring kindness and presence to ourselves when we need it the most. So in today's meditation, we'll practice this skill a little bit more. Bringing loving kindness to our feelings, to ourselves and to whatever arises. So I invite you to settle in for that now.
And of course, as always, thank you for your practice and your presence here with us.
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This is the app I turn to when I want to feel calm and loved.
- Abby
Melli has a beautiful way of guiding and reminding us of the stillness within.
- Adrienne James
I have been on a journey of healing and learning self-love. Amidst the work, I have been using the mindfulness app for the gentle reminders, guides to the moment (especially the difficult ones).
Kelly Boys offers a fresh and illuminating take on how to step out of lifelong patterns that keep snagging us.
- Tara Brach, PhD
Truly life changing. This isn't solely meditation and mindfulness...this is about striving to be the best the versions of ourselves.
- Marisa, Plus+ Member
Relaxing and assuring beyond description... thank you, Cory.
- Babs312
This is the app I turn to when I want to feel calm and loved.
- Abby
Melli has a beautiful way of guiding and reminding us of the stillness within.
- Adrienne James
I have been on a journey of healing and learning self-love. Amidst the work, I have been using the mindfulness app for the gentle reminders, guides to the moment (especially the difficult ones).
Kelly Boys offers a fresh and illuminating take on how to step out of lifelong patterns that keep snagging us.
- Tara Brach, PhD
Truly life changing. This isn't solely meditation and mindfulness...this is about striving to be the best the versions of ourselves.
- Marisa, Plus+ Member
Relaxing and assuring beyond description... thank you, Cory.
- Babs312
This is the app I turn to when I want to feel calm and loved.
- Abby
Melli has a beautiful way of guiding and reminding us of the stillness within.
- Adrienne James
I have been on a journey of healing and learning self-love. Amidst the work, I have been using the mindfulness app for the gentle reminders, guides to the moment (especially the difficult ones).
Kelly Boys offers a fresh and illuminating take on how to step out of lifelong patterns that keep snagging us.
- Tara Brach, PhD
Truly life changing. This isn't solely meditation and mindfulness...this is about striving to be the best the versions of ourselves.
- Marisa, Plus+ Member
Relaxing and assuring beyond description... thank you, Cory.
- Babs312
Shamash's guidance is a gift of wisdom to help us in our busy and stressful lives.
- Paul Gilbert, PhD, FBPsS, OBE, Centre for Compassion Research and Training, University of Derby, United Kingdom
Excellent! Cory gently guides you into internal peace.
- Steve Ericson
A necessary tool for those who feel lost.
- Piper
Just want to say a big thankyou to all involved as this has had a positive impact in my daily life 🙏 Valuable teachings that have allowed me to have a better relationship not only with those around me, but with myself. Heal ourselves and we heal the world 💫✨🌍
- Marty
I start every day with Cory or Melli for my daily practice. Including this app into my practice helps me continue to build more mental focus and understanding of my thought processes. What a welcome and powerful gift.
- Oku
Shamash's guidance is a gift of wisdom to help us in our busy and stressful lives.
- Paul Gilbert, PhD, FBPsS, OBE, Centre for Compassion Research and Training, University of Derby, United Kingdom
Excellent! Cory gently guides you into internal peace.
- Steve Ericson
A necessary tool for those who feel lost.
- Piper
Just want to say a big thankyou to all involved as this has had a positive impact in my daily life 🙏 Valuable teachings that have allowed me to have a better relationship not only with those around me, but with myself. Heal ourselves and we heal the world 💫✨🌍
- Marty
I start every day with Cory or Melli for my daily practice. Including this app into my practice helps me continue to build more mental focus and understanding of my thought processes. What a welcome and powerful gift.
- Oku
Shamash's guidance is a gift of wisdom to help us in our busy and stressful lives.
- Paul Gilbert, PhD, FBPsS, OBE, Centre for Compassion Research and Training, University of Derby, United Kingdom
Excellent! Cory gently guides you into internal peace.
- Steve Ericson
A necessary tool for those who feel lost.
- Piper
Just want to say a big thankyou to all involved as this has had a positive impact in my daily life 🙏 Valuable teachings that have allowed me to have a better relationship not only with those around me, but with myself. Heal ourselves and we heal the world 💫✨🌍
- Marty
I start every day with Cory or Melli for my daily practice. Including this app into my practice helps me continue to build more mental focus and understanding of my thought processes. What a welcome and powerful gift.
- Oku
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