Flow Into Friday ~ Guided Zen Reset

Join Dr. Pete for Flow Into Friday where we will work on simple meditation practices to become comfortable with the quiet, and just learning how to breathe together.

Learn more about Dr. Pete's Zen work and brand new meditation center here: 

https://cornerstonemeditationcenter.com/

Transcript

Welcome And Why Flow Into Friday

SPEAKER_00 0:17

Well, so now that you have a flow into Friday, welcome. Welcome to Flow into Friday. I'm Dr. Pete, your host. This is on air with Dr. Pete, and as promised, I'm going to offer some simple guided meditations once a month so that you can ease your practice into meditation. Here's the thing meditation works for everybody. It's just a matter of when you're ready for it. You know, it's um I recently opened up a Zen Center, and uh I have no idea what I'm doing, and I don't care. Uh right now, if you're watching on YouTube, you also know that my camera died. And so it's all good. None of this actually matters. That's what meditation helps us teach. Just roll with it, being flexible with it. And, you know, with the Zen Center, Cornerstone Meditation Center, it is just about trying to educate people on meditation, provide a space to do so. Uh, I've been so blessed to have uh Morningstar Zendo with my teacher Robert Kennedy and all of my Zen brothers and sisters there. And it's just such been such a uh uh a true blessing to have. Um you know, we are usually afraid of quiet moments. That's what Flow into Fridays is going to be. Learn how to be okay with with the quietness. Um, one of the first things you probably do in the car or when you get home is you turn something on. You know, you turn a podcast on, you turn the TV on, you turn the radio on. That is avoidance. It can be. It's not always avoidance, but it can be avoidance because we're not okay with being still. That's why people struggle with sleep. You might struggle with sleep because the first time your head hits the pillow is the first time that you don't have some device or something going on. Or as a result, you fall asleep on the YouTube or FaceTime or TV. That is really poor sleep hygiene. It affects your brain. You know, some of the challenges that we are facing in the world are due to our brain and the technology. Not technology is wonderful when we use it, not when it uses us. So if we talk about meditation in Flow into Friday, there's no right or wrong way to do so. Every person I have sat with is constantly looking to perfect the sitting. You know, how do I do this in the right way? You know, just like I was. If you've listened to one of my other Flow into Friday episodes, you you heard my uh my my story when I first met my teacher. It's just about being present. You don't want to be perfect about it. So you want to be wherever you are right now, and it might not be comfortable. Now, the goal is to create comfort in the posture. So by sitting the right way, so and you don't have to go buy all these fancy things, you know, but there are zafus and zabutans, these are meditation cushions, uh, there's benches, there's chairs, you know, whatever works for you. But you don't need any of that. You know, you could do it outside, inside. What you want to do is do it with intention, you know. And if you do the posture the right way, you'll be more comfortable. But again, that's not fully the goal. So let me just walk you through this. So if you're sitting right now, you know, um, if if if as long as you're not driving, you know, just feel your feet on the ground. You want to think about your ankles being directly below your knees, your shoulders above your hips, spine is super straight, and as if there's a string pulling your head up towards the ceiling. You're gonna want to fidget, you're gonna want to move. The goal is can I just ride the wave and not? Let your hands rest naturally. One of the things I like to teach is um hands down, palms down uh on your knees is an invitation to ground. So you're grounding yourself. So maybe if you've been sped up a little bit today, a lot going on, put your put your palms down. Feel them. Or palms up, up towards the sky. Maybe you want to receive something. You know, maybe you're just sort of open, you're feeling kind of strong, or you're feeling ready just to like encounter something different. Um, you you could close your eyes in the world of Zen, we actually keep our eyes open. So sometimes it's a little weird if you're in a Zendo with some Zen practitioners. Sometimes they might face the wall. Um uh my community doesn't tend does not does tend tends not to face the wall. And honestly, um, maybe because I've been an athlete and work with athletes, I want to face each other, you know. I so I also don't face the wall. Um, but the wall is about blankness and clarity. I just think it's important to sit for for each other, um, but with eyes open and you usually gaze down. And the teaching there is like you can't just close your eyes and escape. You know, you want to experience everything as it is, and that allows for it. Uh breathing, whatever's comfortable for you, you just you do want to breathe in your belly. Uh, I've had multiple conversations with Pilates instructors because they're always talking to scoop your belly. So if you've taken Pilates or if you're one of my Pilates folks and teachers, you'll know that I get annoyed by that because uh I always say I'm triggered when I hear scoop your belly. Because I've been breathing for 20 years in my belly. You know, Buddha breathes in his belly. Uh, and and that's that your diaphragm. You want to activate your diaphragm. So by breathing into your belly, you activate your diaphragm, you take some deep breaths. Um, you want to think about the breaths as like uh a wave, you know, coming in and out. So you want it to be steady, the same sort of rhythm. Uh you could feel the air coming in out of your nose, you could feel the air coming in and out of your mouth, you can observe the rise and the fall of your belly. You want the rhythm to be natural and even. So an even inhale with your exhale. You want to one of the things I often think about is you want to breathe in what you need and exhale what's no longer serving. You know, so sometimes in Zen you have a mantra. Very easy one might be you breathe in, let and you exhale go. Let go. You could also use a prayer. So again, uh Zen is not a religion, so you you hold to your religion. If there's any uh prayer that you use, you know, if you're um Jewish, uh if you practice Islam, uh you know, Catholic, if there's anything or prayer that you usually use, do it. Actually, in terms of Islam, beautiful. Seven day seven times during the day, you know, you bring out the carpet and you kneel and you pray and you bow. You know, do that mindfully. That's me that can be meditative. So you get that same sort of you know benefit. You want to notice if there's any kind of calming that happens. And that first breath, just let the tension go. Uh and really there's nothing you need to do, you know, and and um even though your to-do list is forever and there's a lot you need to do, you just want to kind of be where you are. You know, uh there's hundreds and of muscles in your face, just let them relax. Um that's what you want to do in the meditation. You know, this is one way of a guided meditation that you can do. You know, just let go of the tension, whatever you've been holding on to. Um I'll often say just leave it here. You know, maybe as you exhale, you notice it going further away. Uh one of the biggest misconceptions about meditation is if it's supposed to not think about anything. Um, I don't know if we ever don't think about anything. You know, maybe when we die, but there's still no evidence of that. You've definitely heard me say that because I love saying that. Because we don't know. And so to think that you're gonna not think, to believe that you'll have no thoughts during meditation sets us up for failure. We have thoughts all the time. So allow yourself just to arrive where you are, feel the calm of this moment, take some deep breaths, and and just watch, watch, watch what comes up. Watch the thoughts, don't latch on to them, let them come and let them go. So at the end, you want to kind of bring some awareness into yourself. Um, your legs may fall asleep if you're sitting cross-legged. So I know I did like as if you're sitting in a chair, if you're if you're on the floor and you have a Zafu, uh Zafu rate, you sit on it with your on your butt, and that raises your hips up. So you have three points on the earth. You have your both knees and your butt is on the zafu. Um, your legs will fall asleep. You know, when we do long sits, they fall asleep and then they come back. You know, it's a terrible feeling, you know, when you have to stand up after your leg's falling asleep, if it's still fall fell asleep. But that's okay. Just stand there, you know. Notice the anxiety of it, notice the pain of it, the suffering of it, and just let it come and let it go. So, this is our flow into Friday. I really appreciate you tuning in. Uh, very interested in hearing what you would like to learn about. Um, I'm certainly gonna uh in the upcoming episodes, you'll have some Zen talks. So some of the Dharma talks that I've given to my community. I'm gonna repeat here. Uh, I'm gonna break down the four noble truths. Kind of each episode is another thing we're gonna do. The eightfold path, gonna break those down. Uh, maybe a couple chants, like a heart sutra or diamond sutra, a meal gotha, a night gatha, kind of all these terms uh I flow into Friday. Last Friday of the month, on air with Dr. Pete, gonna be about Zen, Buddhism, meditation. So thank you for taking the time to pause, breathe, and to flow into Friday. Until next time, spread a little kindness, stay well.