Episode number six, is about becoming addicted to peace. What do I mean by that? I'm talking about internal peace, feeling that calm within your body, and making this be a priority. Prioritizing this over anything else that happens within your life.

Now, you may be thinking, well, that seems a little extreme to be so. focused on internal peace. It might even feel a little selfish.

But in reality, peace within yourself isn't selfish, and it should really be your number one priority. Because if you do that, everything else will just fall into place. Your loved ones will feel more connected and seen. Your health will improve as needed, and people will gravitate to your energy. Success, whatever that means to you, will become more easily.

Although this peace benefits all, we sometimes feel guilty about spending the time it takes to get there. Whether that be taking the time to meditate, or to go to a yoga class, or to sit and pray. So to get to peace actually takes discipline. And you need to create some boundaries to make this happen.

But becoming addicted to that internal peace Is going to feel beautiful to you and to everyone around you.

Now, this internal peace is challenged every day. There's so many obstacles. Just step out your door, look around inside your home, even look inside yourself. There's so many things getting in our way from really, truly sinking into that peaceful feeling, that peaceful feeling that everything is okay.

Peace to me is also about no fear, not being afraid, And with that, settling down into your body and moving into a sympathetic nervous system state

Up until this point, we've done some different styles of meditation, including yoga nidra for sleep and relaxation. We've done some techniques like labeling. We've talked about the ones and zeros. of our body, that tension or relaxation within the body.

Today we're going to rewind a little bit and talk a little bit more about some of the basics around meditation. Over the years I get questions like, how do I sit? Am I allowed to lay down? Where's the best place to do it? Does it have to be quiet in the place in which I meditate? Should my eyes be open or closed?

We'll go through some of these questions and more and hopefully this will help you settle more into your practice and bring you into deeper relaxation, deeper grounding. Taking a big breath in through the nose,

What is the difference between yoga nidra and meditation? Well, a traditional meditation is most often experienced in the waking state associated with the beta and alpha wave brain states. Yoga nidra, on the other hand, explores the deeper layers of self awareness.

By moving beyond the waking state and into more of the subtle layers of yourself. And it's, it's very commonly considered, um, a good preparation for sleep. And the most general description of the yoga nidra practice is that it's a, that it combines guided mental imagery with a specific yoga posture called shavasana or Corpse Pose.

The goal of Yoga Nidra is to promote a profound state of relaxation, which differs from sleep in as much as there is still an awareness of one's surroundings. So it's very common to fall asleep during Yoga Nidra, and if that happens, that's what your body needed. But in a perfect world, you would stay in that in between state of consciousness.

A gratitude meditation is simply the practice of reflecting on the things in our lives we are grateful for. It's about experiencing that feeling of appreciation, really sitting with it, feeling in our body.

What does it feel like? It doesn't really matter what it's about. It could be for a loving family member, a beautiful sunny day, or just a simple cup of coffee. Things that bring you pleasure. Outside of meditation, there's other ways to [00:01:00] practice gratitude. For instance, you know, taking a moment each day and sit and think about three things that you're grateful for.

They don't have to be complicated, just simple things that feel good. Simple things that bring you pleasure. And allow for you to appreciate this human existence. Another idea is keeping a gratitude journal to write these things down. So as you see things that make you feel grateful and you can experience it, put it down to paper so that when you're not feeling grateful, you can refer back, you can read, and it can bring a light into your heart.

When I was in the ashram in Rishikesh, India, my My guru, uh, Vishva ji, talked about these ones and zeros, and this was the first time I'd heard of this. And in his mind, the way he described it, that our body is filled with millions of ones and zeros. And these ones and zeros, uh, are represented by cells, by muscle fiber, chakras, by nerves, all of these things all together, all the things that make the body.

And so these ones and zeros, what are they?

In today's session, we're going to talk a little bit about labeling. Why do we do that? We do that to calm the monkey mind. The vritti as they speak about it in India. And really this is the sole purpose of yoga and um, and meditation being part of that yoga experience getting us to samadhi to self actualization.