Gjin's Mindful Minutes

We are going to meditate, and not a make a big deal out of it.

This no big dealness, is really good for you.

It doesn't need to be an activity that you have to get it right.

You're already getting it by trying, staying and existing.

And it's part of allowing our minds to rest, trust and heal.

Let me take you to explore your breath.

You can take this anywhere and anytime. Workout or at home, or just a way of re focusing your mind back to one place and give your thoughts a break.

The breathwork above is also known as Ujjayi, which directly means victory over the mind.

A small manipulation in the out breath,

Almost like we turned to 'Darth Vader' in that moment or trying to frost a glass pane with our mouth closed.

Let's try and be victorious over our thoughts (well, able to control them woohoo)

With today's session, we are breaking things down a little more but subtly. Taking your awareness into 3 parts. We are softly giving our consciousness a nice massage for this one. Without anyone else to help, no need for a massage chair. Such a nice one for the winter weather. Enjoy.

What is deconstructing thoughts? It's simply to really really notice what is going on in your mind and perhaps label it. As much subtlety as it seems, this little skill can open up and enhance your awareness a little step further in knowing what exactly is going on in your mind.

And sometimes, it might just stop you in your trial of thoughts.

Let's give it a try

Have you ever thought what muscles do you use when you walk?

And which foot comes forwards before the other?

Do you start walking by taking your right foot forwards?

Often we succumb into pure unconsciousness when it comes to walking, our vital movement that takes us from one place to another.

Give this one a try, it'll open up your awareness more. This one is also amazing because it isat your convenience, to stand and walk if you're the type that prefers tolisten to podcasts at daytime.

If you've done meditation, you will probably know this one as a body scan. Something that we use as well at the beginning of a yoga nidra session. It's just following my voice as I will speak out the parts of your body. For this session, I highly recommend that you lie down, planning to fall asleep. Here we go.

Ever wondered why your mind keeps wandering?

Don't.

Because that's what it naturally does to live. Our mental and emotional state takes a different flow from other things such as our breath to survive us in our daily activities. There is no need to judge a thought that you have, nor push away feelings that you think you don't deserve. We are allowing everything to just be.

Just be. Giving ourselves to just be ourselves. Fully.

I know that apparently men know how to 'space' out completely in a box, and so if you're a guy listening to this, let's see if we can space out for longer. Here we go.

So many things has happened in the last year~ moving, settling, upskilling and starting new projects.

I'm now yoga teacher trained and took another upskill into the meditation world.

Excited now to share the knowledge I have to enhance and bring the best out of you.

Episodes will be fortnightly.

Seasons will remain as 10 episodes.

Speak soon!

Our mind is always a constant chatter. Flowing with thoughts, feelings, past events and future to-do list. If it's not this thought or feeling, it would be another, a never ending story.

With that, it becomes tiring, draining and exhausting. Try this practice to allow you to find a space again to de-clutter or pause the flowing mind for under 10 minutes.

Want to de-stresss in just 3 minutes? Follow this process :). 2 Skills, short, sharp but absolutely fulfilling.

Oh, it's 8 mins long if you want to know more about the thought process behind those 3 mins. 

Exploring homebases (longer version). This is a part of extending the concentration we don't have to necessarily focus on just coming back to our breath but we could explore other things which we can define as a homebase to come back to such as;
background sounds;
the physical sensations of breath;
the physical sensations of the body;
music;
etc.

Let's begin.

Just taking a short break before I start a brand spanking new season from next week! 

Here are my snapshots: 

Breathe (simple eh?)

I'll be back and hopefully running off tuning off themes from each season and tuning on to what you all might want to listen to on a Tuesday :). Stay tuned!

A wonderful meditation piece by the Calm founder Tamara Levit. She reminded us about the importance of self-nurture. Unfortunately, self-care isn't taught in school. So as we evolve into adulthood, we don't always have the tools to self-nurture. We may also succumb to society's conditioning that conflicts with self-nurturing, where we learnt to treat ourselves with tough love and harsh words. Fortunately, the practice of meditation is an act of self-nurturing. Each time we sit and turn inwards, we come back to ourselves, offering kindness and compassion that we don't always receive from the world around us. So today let this be a reminder, and the permission slip to love and nurture yourself.

Quite a famous story and an ancient tale from the Native American Cherokee which has been shared down to many generations, touching lives including mind. It is a story about 2 wolves fighting, of a battle between good and evil. Stay for this practice to find out which wolf will win.

Steps to self soothe. With the help of the gratitude exposure from last week this exercise will help identify the instant ways to be kind to yourself whenever a discomfort situation arises. 

For this, you can practice without the need to sit still or lie down but to continue your daily activities while listening to this podcast. Enjoy!

10 years ago I've started this habit of writing down 3 things to be thankful each day and it stopped just because my priorities were shifted to seeing the world. As I have come back to my roots and with a family, something started to nudge me to start the habit up again. And for 2 years now I have been writing or thinking about 3 things I am grateful of each day and somehow it helped me admire and appreciate the things I have right now. 

This practice delves slightly further to a fulfilling session just reminding or allowing us to be in this beautiful space. Let's try.

Just like a puppy, our minds love to go astray. To wonder and constantly move without stopping. In this ever-changing environment our mind will keep constantly react, respond and repeat to external an internal dialogue just to keep up with the resilience. 

Sometimes it gets overwhelming and hence our minds do need a break. 

As well as a break, we do also need to be kind to our minds. It is natural for it to constant flow with thoughts, emotions and feelings.

 Let's explore this kindness as well as resting our mind with today's session.

There we have! End of Season 4, but I found that quite enjoyable with personalised background music. 

The theme continues to Season 5 where we continue with background sounds (subtle, yet effective) and maybe moving into more Yoga Nidra-ish theme.

We will take a pause through the holiday season and will be back in the new year. Season greetings, and Happy 2022! Little message from me before we head off for a break.

I have always loved the beach when I was little, since I grew up in a tropical climate country. 

Those days when my family would take trips to the island had been special memories to me right up to now. 

This episode takes you on a journey into visualising ourselves at a beach, and so it may be only suited to those who have been there. Even then, the exercise would benefit all as it is a journey to enhance all 5 senses when entering a space of nature. 

Go ahead and explore.

Feeling tones. 

The pleasant, unpleasant and neutral.
This I have actually introduced briefly in the first season, but now we delve deep slightly. 

All about feeling.
About listening to the feeling internally.
And all about staying and sitting with this feeling without fear. 

Calmly and simply. 

Try it, it's not as scary as you think.

Sometimes you just wonder 'how in the world that this mind of mine cannot stop conjuring the past, planning the future, even having a friendly chat with me and never stops to rest?'. 

It is amazing how much our mind can keep going, if I were to compare it to exercising or mowing the lawn I bet the whole park would be done over a day or I'd be one of the fittest person in the planet. 

Little do we know, our minds do not know how to rest when it needs to. 

So perhaps tune into this episode to see if it works for you. 

Enjoy.

I know...when we hear that word 'practice', it can seem hard, monotonous and a struggle

I would go 'ugh'

But did you know it takes 20 days to kick-start a habit?

That way, you don't even need to 'practice'

You just 'do'

You would just 'be'

But hey, why not delve deep in the practice within a practice? That itself is also a practice.

I love the marvels of meditation. Whatever we do, we think, we be. Practice or not.

Because we are, in the moment.

Being invincible. Courtesy of Tamara Levit's meditation session from the calm app, this specific episode from her acknowledges mental health day which has passed a few weeks ago. It acknowledges the invisibility of mental health issues, and reminding that the more we accept ourselves, the more invincible we get.

As ironic as it sounds!

Season 3 done! How was it? Did you like the stories? Were there any that striked out? Do share it please with me.

Once again, hi my name is Gjin, and the aim of having this podcast is to share any of my knowledge and experience to you about meditation. A brief background about myself a full time working mother with 2 children with one having special needs, a group fitness instructor teaching Les mills BODYBALANCE and BODYPUMP, qualified NZ PT (Which I have yet to practised) and credited meditation facilitator. Oh, and one lousy entrepreneur who probably can't handle owning a business just because there is so many things against my values. But hey we need money to survive to a certain extent as ironic as it sounds…

Again we recap, Season 1 is all about finding some basics just like finding an easy exercise to come into to expand this arena of being mindful. Season 2 draws a little deeper to being with feelings or emotions that linger in me for the past few years. Season 3 was about story telling, perhaps on a lighter note that you can listen to it as a daily activity.

Season 4 - Dealing with emotions. This time with some music background (I'll have to figure out how to turn the background music on without jeopardising the mic! Take note, this is a fusion of season 1 and 2 as we blend and continue to bring out the essence in meditation.

Last chapter of the season! Enjoy this beautiful poem by John Roedel. 

So beautiful, it has over 1,000 hits on Facebook....

The horse - elegant, powerful and strong

The butterfly - light, graceful and simple

A great story about the prison of the mind...

A story about Buddha and his disciple, Ananda and about the river stream. Enjoy :)

A story about a man who saved up and used all his money, efforts and time to find enlightenment. This is the story of his journey.

Once upon a time there used to be musks deers that reside in the Himalayas...until this story came about.

A great lesson about letting go as we delve deep into a journey of 2 monks...

Once upon a time, there was this intention to catch a baby dragon for its immense power. There are a few baby dragons to catch, but as each warrior attempts they fall into a trap to which another picks and learns lessons from but not completely because then they fall into another trap. And another.

What is this teaching us? Hmm, let's find out. Perhaps there is no need to catch a dragon after all.

Now this one is worth a scene...