Guided Meditations for Busy People

Guided Meditations for Busy People. Available

as a CD, and as an MP3 download.
If youre a stressed, busy person but the idea of finding 30 or 40 minutes to
meditate is itself stressful, Short power meditations are for you. Such as the
below between three and nine minutes in length can be highly beneficial for
busy people. Each practice teaches a specific and powerful technique for quickly
transforming the mind, encouraging the rapid development of calmness,
spaciousness, and relaxation.
MEDITATION 1 GROUNDING THE MIND
As soon as you try to meditate you begin to see just how unruly the mind is as it
wanders here and there in a seemingly random way. This gives us an
opportunity to see how much of the time we live on automatic pilot. When were
on automatic pilot the mind often manifests thought patterns such as blaming,
anger, frustration, doubt, avoidance, and anxiety. These kinds of thoughts cause
us suffering, but often were not even aware that were suffering.
Mindfulness is the antidote to life on automatic pilot. Mindfulness is an attitude
of conscious awareness of our experience in which we take responsibility for our
own mental states. The starting point for developing mindfulness is to
consciously become aware of the sensations of the body; the aspect of our
experience that its easiest to become mindful of. Of course what happens is
that the mind starts to wander. At this point weve lost our mindfulness, and are

back on automatic pilot. Becoming distracted is inevitable and nothing to be

concerned about. What we do when we realize that weve been distracted is to
step back into our present moment experience by becoming aware of the body
once again. When we notice that the mind is indulging in regret, frustration, or
anger about having been distracted, we simply note that these things are
happening and return to the body. Over time we start to notice that the mind is
calming down, that the body is relaxing, and that were feeling more content.
This practice is your home base and creates a foundation for every other
meditation practice that follows. Id suggest coming back to this one over and
over. [Download this file here]
IN DAILY LIFE: Keep bringing your awareness to the body as you go about
everyday activities. You may find it useful to keep your awareness focused in the
hara, which is a point two finger-widths below the navel and the same distance
into the body. The hara is the physical center of the body, and keeping our
awareness focused on that point helps to center and ground the mind.
MEDITATION 2 OPENING THE MIND
This is a simple yet effective practice that illustrates how the way we pay
attention changes the nature of our experience. We have different ways of
looking, both at the external world and, more metaphorically, in the mind, and
the way we look determines the nature of our experience. We can look in a tight,
narrow, focused way, which leads to physical tension inner tunnel vision and
mental strain, or we can look in a more open and receptive way, taking
awareness right to the periphery of our vision. Looking in this way leads to
greater relaxation and calmness.
So-called tunnel vision is associated with the sympathetic nervous system,
which triggers the so-called fight or flight response and leads to stress. The more
open, receptive way of seeing, by contrast, promotes activity in the
parasympathetic nervous system, which brings the mind, body, and emotions
back into a state of rest. [Download this file here]

IN DAILY LIFE: Going into peripheral vision is something that can be used during
down time, helping to create a resting space during the day, or can be used as
to stay relaxed while engaged in presentations and public speaking.
MEDITATION 3 BREATHING IN, BREATHING OUT
While Meditation 2 (Opening the Mind) shows us that how we pay attention
affects the mind, this exercise teaches us that what we pay attention to likewise
affects our mental and emotional states.
Paying attention to the physical sensations of the breath is probably the oldest
form of meditation known. The breath has the advantage that its always
present, that its an experience of the body, which helps to ground the mind, and
that its intimately connected with our emotional states. Simply bringing the
mind patiently back to the breath over and over again will have the effect of
calming the mind and resolving stress. (We dont, in this form of meditation,
control the breath in any way but simply allow the breath to find its own pace).
[Download this file here]
However, there are different effects on the mind depending on whether the in
breath or the out breath is paid attention to. When we emphasize awareness of
the out breath, for example by counting after each exhalation, we tune in to the
sense of letting go that takes place every time we breathe out. Each exhalation
involves a sense of physically letting go, and this has the effect of calming the
mind. On the other hand, the act of paying attention to the in breath through
counting before each inhalation makes us aware of the sense of expansion and
energizing that takes place each time we breathe in. This tends to have a
stimulating effect on the mind, helping us to be more alert and focused.
[Download this file here]
IN DAILY LIFE: Any time you have a pause in your activities, such as between
tasks or when sitting at traffic lights, or when you realize that youre becoming
stressed, bring your awareness to the breath. If you feel in need of a calming
influence, begin counting out breaths. If you sense that you need more energy,
count before each in breath.

MEDITATION 4 INTERCONNECTEDNESS
A sense of being isolated from the world saps our confidence by making us
seem small and insignificant. This meditation is a reflection on
interconnectedness, in which we reflect on how the breath connects us with
other living things. For example each out breath helps to create rainforests, and
the air you are breathing right now comes from the forest. Rather than seeing
yourself as isolated, you can come to appreciate yourself as part of a greater
whole. This realization can be very empowering. [Download this file here]
IN DAILY LIFE: Pause before you eat or drink anything, and reflect upon not only
where the food came from but on the many people (farmers, transportation
workers, store employees, etc) who were involved in bringing it to you. The next
time you pass a tree, give some thought to the fact that the tree is partially made
up of carbon dioxide that youve breathed out in the past (and is therefore partly
you) and that you contain oxygen that the tree has given out (and so you are
partly the tree).
MEDITATION 5 PROTECTED BY LIGHT
At one time I worked in a Buddhist printing cooperative in Glasgow, and when
things got stressful I would find it useful to look at a poster that was on the wall.
The poster depicted a scene from the Buddhas life, in which he is experiencing
his spiritual awakening while seated under the Bodhi tree. At that moment he
experiences doubt and begins to question his right to experience the bliss and
insight that is arising in him. Iconographically and mythically this is portrayed as
an army of demonic forms assaulting the Buddha by firing arrows, and hurling
rocks, spears, and other weapons at him. However the Buddha is protected by
an aura, and whenever the demons weapons touch this aura they are
transformed into beautiful flowers that fall harmlessly to the ground. I found
that by imagining that I was similarly protected by an aura, my mind was
protected against stress. The sources of stress were outside of me, and the aura
protected me from any harmful influences.
This protective aura can also be used to provide a sense of cherishing others if
we expand our own aura to embrace others around us or if we imagine people
in distant places surrounded by their own protective auras. Interestingly, caring

for others has also been shown to reduce our own stress. [Download this file
here]
IN DAILY LIFE: As you go about your daily activities, and especially at times of
stress, visualize your protective aura and imagine that external sources of stress
cannot affect you. Extend your protection to others by embracing them in your
own aura.
MEDITATION 6 HEALING LIGHT MEDITATION
Appealing to a higher power is common in all meditative and prayer traditions,
even in nontheistic traditions such as Buddhism. Exercises such as this one, in
which we imagine that we are receiving light and love from an external source in
the form of a ray of light that touches the heart, tap into the powerful resources
of the unconscious, making more energy available for coping with everyday life.
[Download this file here]
IN DAILY LIFE: In any periods of down time, close your eyes, bring your
awareness to the heart area, and imagine that a ray of loving light is flowing to
your heart. If it helps you to see this light as coming from a religious source then
feel free to do so, but its okay to be creatively vague about the source of these
qualities.
MEDITATION 7 BEING IN THE MOMENT
Anyone who has tried meditation has realized perhaps with a certain amount
of shock just how much the mind wanders. We bring our awareness to the
breath, which seems easy enough until we realize that for the last five minutes
weve been daydreaming. The mind likes to wander. Much of this wandering is
remarkably useless and even bad for us. We spend a surprising amount of time
wishing that the past had been different, or worrying about things in the future
that we have little or no control over. Mindfulness keeps on bringing us back to
our present-moment experience, which in reality is the only thing we have. The
past is gone and the future is just an idea. All we ever have in our experience is
this eternally unfolding present moment. When we start to realize that every
experience is unique and will never happen again, we begin to value our

experience and the present moment more than ever before. [Download this
file here]
IN DAILY LIFE: When you find yourself thinking about the past or future, come
back to your present moment experience sensing the body, your breathing,
and noting how you feel and realizing that thoughts about the past and future
are just thoughts. You are here, now, so cherish this moment for it will never
come again.
MEDITATION 8 MEETING PAIN WITH COMPASSION
A lot of our suffering is self-imposed. We take an original painful episode in our
lives perhaps something that has been said to us that we didnt like and we
replay it over and over again, in effect forcing ourselves to repeat that suffering.
And we take the suffering further by creating stories stories about our own
unworthiness, thoughts about how these things shouldnt happen to us, angry
thoughts about revenge, thoughts about further things that might go wrong
that cause us further pain.
Mindfulness has been shown in medical and therapeutic contexts to lessen
anxiety and stress by reducing rumination. There are benefits to cultivating the
quality of acceptance so that we can allow a sense of hurt to exist in the heart
without spiraling off into thoughts that only multiply the discomfort we feel.
[Download this file here]
IN DAILY LIFE: When you find that youve called to mind a circumstance thats
caused you pain, see if you can accept the unpleasant feelings that have arisen.
Moreover, see if you can wish the hurting part of you well, embracing it in a field
of tender care.
MEDITATION 9 THREE MINUTE BREATHING SPACE
This short meditation even more than the others on this CD is designed to be
brought into daily life. The three-minute breathing space is an opportunity to
pause momentarily amidst the days busyness, so that you can regain a sense of
balance. First we step out of automatic pilot by noticing whats going on in our
experience this very moment. We then bring awareness to the breathing, letting
go on each out breath. Finally, we expand awareness back into the whole of our

experience, including our experience of the world around us, before returning to
activity. [Download this file here]
IN DAILY LIFE: Just do it! Take three minute breaks from your daily schedule,
perhaps in pauses between tasks, or as breaks when things are becoming
stressful.

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