Well, wouldn't you agree that we are going through

difficult times right now, with all these unprecedented

challenges and uncertainties about the future, so easy to get

distracted, and riled up by all the noise around us, the people

with their strong opinions, the media and the social media

outlets and lose our sadness, lose our sense of inner peace.

Now, how do we navigate through these times better, so that we

are not somehow in a constant chronic stress mode, but that we

can still operate from a place of greater joy, and calmness, be

that change that we want to see in the world? Well, there are

many ways that lead to Rome, but one of the roads that I find

that leads, you know, with greatest certainty, to peace is

meditation. I tried to meditate since I was 18 years old, and

for the first probably 10 years, I failed miserably. I knew

meditation was cool and helpful. And I also had no clue how to do

it that time, it wasn't that popular, there were not so many

ways to learn, and there certainly wasn't YouTube. So I

laid down, close my eyes, usually a lay down in the

bathtub, which was already a problem. And two things usually

happened. Either I got really frustrated, because my mind just

didn't stay still, I was actually racing more than ever,

or I fell asleep, which wasn't really exactly what meditation

is about. Now, fast forwards, you know, after I had a stretch

of giving up, and then coming back to and giving up, I

actually learned how to meditate and became a meditation teacher

at Kuhn aleni, yoga meditation teacher. And today, I want to

just share with you the insights that I have gained from

meditating and why meditation isn't rocket science, it's not

that complicated. And there are just a few things we can do to

get into a practice and get the most out of it. So I want to

encourage you to follow those simple four keys that are going

to introduce, and then notice that, hey, meditation can

actually become a part of my life, like brushing my teeth, I

just know it is something that makes me feel good. Let's first

take the pressure off meditation. My teacher, Yogi

Bhajan, who brought Kundalini Yoga to India, I asked him once

is meditation, something that really is quietening your mind

to a place where there is no thought. And he told me, if you

get, you know, zero thought line for one second, you really have

mastered something. And he has done meditation probably at that

time for, you know, 65 years or so. So that gave me a sense of,

well, it's not about you know, having a flatline here in our

brain, it's about actually mastering our mind, and being

able to not let the mind run us, you know, into all different

kinds of directions, but make the mind listen to us. And just

follow our guidance. And I'm talking about the subconscious

mind, you know, that part of your mind that's always active

and is looking around for anything that potentially can be

wrong, or anything that potentially can be more

interesting. It's like, a little puppy, who just you know, when

it doesn't get anything to do, it gets antsy, it starts, you

know, whimpering, and

chewing on your shoes. So how do you train your mind to not do

this, but really calm down with you to entrain in your

intentions. And that, ultimately, is what meditation

is about. Now, the same Yogi Bhajan also said that meditation

is like house cleaning. So when you haven't cleaned your house

for a long time, well, naturally, the dust keeps on

flying everywhere, right? And so when you start meditating,

usually what you will notice is that the thoughts and the

feelings just, you know, show up, it's like, almost as if you

know, it's louder inside of you during meditation than before.

And that's totally normal. Just imagine that, every time you do

it, you take another layer of dust away, you are releasing

some of those thoughts and, and it's just, you know, a matter of

time that your mind is more clear and quiet and stop. And

you feel automatically, then, wow, I can just shut off all

that noise externally, because internally, I have a sense of

peace. And that doesn't take years to get there, you can

actually get there quite easy. However, it may not last very

long, I remember that at the beginning, when I meditated the

effect lasted for maybe a minute. And then I was right

back in my little, you know, mind combined stress mode. And

then I continued, because that meant it felt so good. And

eventually it was five minutes, half an hour and, and after, you

know, an evening of meditation with my meditation group, I did

feel that it could actually last throughout the night and even

into the morning. So it's building a new foundation to of

how you're going to see yourself how you can approach life. And

that just takes a little bit of time, but it's absolutely worth

it. So let's delve into it. First key to make meditation

easy, is to choose what kind of meditation you want to do. Now,

there are plenty of meditations, I, you know, like writing

meditation in the morning pages, I like walking meditations,

where you're just in nature, and really mindfully, go on a on a

path and a trail. I like laughing meditation, which is

kind of really funny. I mean, we do this in Egypt sometimes. And

it's, it's hilarious, and it really releases a lot of energy.

And of course, a lot of people say, Hey, you know what, I

meditated, by listening to a guided meditation, which is

perfectly great. And if you go to my YouTube channel, unless

you're already there, you will find that I have plenty of

guided meditations with all different kinds of topics. The

only thing about guided meditations is that it doesn't

really replace the meditation with yourself. Because on some

level, there is still an outside source that you're focusing on.

There still, you know, like an input, rather than you releasing

rather than you letting go. And it doesn't really necessarily

strengthen your mastery of your mind, the way it can, when you

really sit with yourself, and you focus on let's say, your

breathing, it's a little bit like getting a massage and

wanting to get into a greater shape, the massage is wonderful,

but you're not getting stronger. And so that is where maybe a

combination of both can be very helpful, just to not ignore

that, that presence of yourself. And that's what a lot of people

feel, hey, I'm so uncomfortable with myself, I don't really like

to hang out with myself. So I rather listen to Dr. Friedman.

And then I don't have to really feel what's going on inside of

me. It's a little bit of an escape. And ultimately, I don't

think that we can escape ourselves. Our you know, mind,

our subconscious, always wants to, you know, somehow have

something that leads it. And that's not an outside voice.

That should be that inner conscious awareness that we are

gaining through meditation.

So the first step of meditation, the first key is preparation. So

you choose today because I tell you, so to do a breathing,

meditation, simple setting, breathing, choose a place that

you feel is quiet, you don't get disturbed. Choose a time

ideally, I like it in the morning before everything starts

or in the evening to end the day. Choose to also have a

little bit of a, you know, like anchor, like a calming anchor

that makes you feel good, like you know, Lighting a candle, or

I like to have these words that Yeah, like a little sprayed. So

lavender spray, and it just smells good and gives your whole

system that sense of Oh, okay, now, apparently, we are going

into meditation, you can have very quiet music or some little

silent machine with maybe wave silence or rain sounds just to

know create some kind of a container that makes you feel

calm right from the start. And then you go into that inner

focus. A lot of people that teach meditation, say all you

need to focus on is your breath, or your body sensations or maybe

your thoughts and I agree, that can be really, really helpful,

because you're kind of going to a neutral place. But the problem

is that you The mind, especially at the beginning, will not be

totally satisfied. By just observing yourself, it is more

helpful. I find when you give your mind a direction, something

that you want to enhance, and, and continue to focus on during

the meditation. So this can be, for example, peace. You think

about a place or a time in your life, where you felt very much

at peace, or compassion, you think about what it feels like

to be compassionate, or to love somebody to something that is

feeling positive, and calming, and expansive, all at the same

time, we have in our mind in our subconscious, like, you know, a

huge pantry of all different kinds of emotions and

experiences. And we can always go to the shells and pick up

whatever we want to really, you know, feel right now, even

though we are not in this peaceful place in the, you know,

rain forest, that we may have really experienced this

connection to nature that we never had before. But as you go

back there, into this memory, you can elicit those feelings,

and you will naturally in that moment, really have exactly the

same sensations and the same reactions inside of you, as if

you're there, your subconscious does not care, whether it's

reality or fiction. And we know this alternative negative way

because it's subconscious can go off onto a, what if tangent, and

you actually experience a trauma, even though it has never

happened and probably will never happen. So use that subconscious

ability just to make you feel something to your benefit. So

then you choose that as your little trail, your emotional

trail to follow through with. So this is your focus, peace or

compassion, or kindness or whatever you want to, you know,

enhance them. The next place to go to or the next key is your

breath. So you're ready. Now, you know what you want to focus

on, you have a direction. Now the breath keeps you guide it.

Now, breath is something that is such a fascinating thing, right?

I mean, it's we take it for granted, we never really pay

attention to it. But at the same time without breathing,

obviously, we're not really existing anymore. But also

breath has, you know, a wonderful metaphorical function

of the cycle of life. When you inhale, you are really taking in

and receiving, which is a part of life. When you hold the

breath, you are maintaining, you're just enjoying that

fullness of your lungs. And when you are exhaling, you go through

the cycle of release. And that's exactly what life is all about.

Receiving, holding on to, and then letting go. And that is why

I love this

breathing of that cycle. Five seconds, inhale, five seconds,

holding five seconds, exhale, as a wonderful way to stay focused

on the present moment, you already have emotionally

energetically your focus. But then you let your mind just

watch. In addition to it, the inhale holding an exhale, and

you can count to five or 10 depending on how long you want

to do each cycle. Or you can use a little affirmation I made

peace now I am opening my hearts, I am content with my

life. And then you just keep on doing this three times, which

would be let's say five seconds, or eight times for 10 seconds,

you'll see. But that can also then add like this little mantra

part to staying with the breath. Certainly a helpful tool. There

are other breaths, I mean, you can just do long deep breathing

without holding the breath in. You can do alternate nostril

breathing, where you're closing the right nostril, and then

you're inhaling for the left and then you're closing the left

nostril and you're exhaling to the right. And then it just

keeps on going like that. That's a very calming breath in itself.

In Kundalini Yoga, we always talk about that this affects

both brain hemispheres, the left and the right. It has a cooling

effect on your mind. So that's certainly also something that

you can do especially when you feel a little stressed out at

the beginning. don't meditate longer at the beginning. Then

seven or 10 minutes, don't feel like you have to go into, you

know, the 30 minute or an hour extent, because you're going to

feel really frustrated and your mind feels frustrated too. You

know, often men talk about the puppy. But often I see our

subconscious also a little bit like a horse, because I have

horses and I love horses. And if you have a young horse, an

untrained horse, and you would let it stand there next to you,

for longer than 10 minutes, and 10 minutes already a stretch, it

really gets antsy, it gets nervous, it wonders what's going

on. And your mind is exactly the same way. So just do seven to 10

minutes, that's a huge success, you don't have to even do it

every day, maybe you want to just focus on three times a

week. It's really about just doing it, that is the secret.

It's not about doing it perfect. or doing it long, or doing it

all the time. It's just getting into the habit and gradually

noticing the benefits of it. With the breath, just briefly to

mention, make sure when you inhale that your belly expands,

so that you really push your belly out, I know, we're usually

trying to you know, keep the belly in, but yet push it out.

And then on the exhale, you pull your navel back to your spine,

and then in itself empties your lungs more and it fills your

lungs more up. So inhaling, just expansion, and exhaling, just

letting go and pulling gently your navel back. So that's a

breath part. Pretty simple, right? When you breathe, by the

way, this first breath, I told you, inhaling, holding and

exhaling, you're going to notice something about yourself. And

what you're going to notice is that you will have a harder time

with one of the three. So maybe you have a hard time just

getting enough breath in. Because you know you feel like

out of breath, or you have a hard time holding it, you can't

wait until you release it. Or you have a hard time when you

release, you feel like you cannot get it out fast enough,

you cannot just you know, slow it down, it's going to tell you

something about how you go about life, whether you have a hard

time receiving, maintaining, or letting go and it's 99%

accurate. So watch yourself. And you can see that when you are

really getting more into the equilibrium of breathing, you

know mastering your breath, you may actually also master more

and more your mind and this habit about you know, your

difficulties receiving holding on to or letting go. The mind is

adjusting itself to the breath just like you know

unconsciously, our breath adjusts to the mind stressed

mind, fast breath. And vice versa.

Another thing that are another key is the focus. And I already

mentioned several things about focus, you know the energy,

focusing on the breath, having a little mantra, a little

affirmation. Now mood rah, which is you know, the posture is also

very important. And right from the start, I mean, you can also

just put this into the preparation said a little bit

more straight than me. So really sit straight, don't lay down,

don't make that mistake, it's gonna definitely end up in

falling asleep, sit in a chair with a nice pillow, maybe in

your back. Imagine that there is a little string attached to the

back of your head so that you really have this nice alignment

of head neck and back of your body have your chest a little

back because it opens your heart and legs you can keep uncrossed

and hands in a mood raw, which is you know, a lock. And so the

gun mood dry having the index finger and the thumb together,

that's a very common one. And some people love to go just

through all the fingers, every finger has a different meaning.

And that can also be a little bit you know, good for occupying

your mind. So that is where you know the focus can help and, and

one thing that a lot of people don't know is that your eye

focus is also important, you know your eyes are closed,

usually, but you can also keep your eyes open and just focus on

let's see the candle that you lit or a spot on the wall. As

long as you feel like when your eyes are open, you stay focused

on that. That can be also very meditative, and it certainly

prevents you from falling asleep. Or you can roll your

eyes up to the top of your head or this third eye point between

your eyebrows, rolling your eyes up even though they are closed.

What happens is It takes a little effort and it puts a

little pressure on your forehead. But in Kundalini Yoga,

we often talk about how that is actually massaging your

pituitary gland. Because, you know, the, the eye nerves are

kind of embedding this master gland of your brain. And you

know, the pituitary gland is pretty much responsible for your

entire hormonal system. So it's giving it a little massage from

both sides. And it has also a very calming effect. And you can

also focus on the tip of your nose, with your eyes, like, you

know, maybe a third open. So there are different focal points

with your eyes, and all of them have, you know, something

positive to them. So you may want to just try out what feels

the best, I would not just close my eyes, I like to do something

where I feel like yeah, I'm creating the maximum effect by

actually also engaging my eyes this way. So the last one, the

last point is then the gentle discipline. So what do you do,

if your mind just screams at you like Angry teenager or a child

with a temper tantrum, this is boring, let's get out there more

things to do, you're lazy, you can never do this, your mind

will never be still. And then you feel like a frustrated

failure. So what do you do, you actually embrace it, you really

have this gentle discipline, because your intention is peace,

or compassion, and love, and have that peace, compassion and

love also, for yourself, for that part of you, that feels

uncomfortable, doing nothing that feels heavy, you know,

afraid of the consequences of not being on guard and

constantly thinking and being busy and occupied, have

compassion with this part of you in gently bring it back to the

present moment. You know, it's like training this puppy again,

well, if you do potty training with a puppy, it may run off and

want to pee somewhere else while you bring it back to the paper.

And so you bring your mind gently back to the paper, and

then re engage in what you have been doing. Sending a little

love to that part of you that doesn't feel that comfortable

with it. But really, in the end, feeling like my goal is to

create a safety between our safety for me and beautiful

connection between that

part of my mind that feels more responsible to you know, keep me

safe, and or make me happy. And my conscious mind who has chosen

to approach life from a greater sense of alignment and

centeredness and balance in the end, meditation and I actually

often miss write it when I write about it, because I'm writing

mediation and not meditation. And it's really true. Meditation

is like a mediation and mediation between your conscious

and your subconscious mind. So that at the end, you're creating

an agreement, you're not meditating 24 seven, you're just

meditating, to recalibrate yourself to start the day, from

a place of I'm owning it, I know who I am, I have a sense of

coherence with which I can approach any kind of challenges

through the day. So my subconscious doesn't have to be

on guard all the time or feel like you know, overwhelmed or

stressed out because my subconscious can lean on me, and

just follow me on this journey through life. So it's like that

kind of mediation that makes you also be able to have a greater

sense of, you know, alliance with your subconscious mind. I

love that about meditation that my subconscious mind more and

more, listens to me and supports, what I consciously

choose, rather than having a conflict that I think a lot of

people feel, you know, consciously you want to do

something of, you know, feeling happy and joyful, but

subconsciously, you worry and you know, feel stressed out so

meditation can help you to just, you know, find peace and, and

resolution of that conflict. And the last thing about meditation

that when I, what I want to say is that it really also connects

you to a deeper part of you whether you want to call it us

And or your higher consciousness. There's a

spiritual aspect to it, even though meditation doesn't have

to be this way, and it's certainly not a religion. I do

also feel that when I meditate, I'm tuning and tapping into a

greater consciousness. I'm feeling a greater sense of

oneness, whether it's a oneness with nature, with life with the

universe, it just stops me from feeling that it's all up to me

and everything is, you know, on my shoulders. It is a complete

reconnection with a deeper truth that we don't always have words

for. But it certainly gives us a sense of peace and trust that

goes beyond that, what we can really consciously conjure up.

So meditate, do it, prepare yourself very simple. Have a

little timer with you, so that you know, when seven or 10

minutes are over, choose what you want to focus on, have the

breath as that railing on that path. Use your eye position, so

that you are you know really also getting the most benefit,

have little mutrah to move your fingers around so that this is

also again creating an energetic lock. And be gentle with

yourself. Be kind with yourself, clean the mind, without rush

without hurry without perfectionism. Just know this is

my time for myself, This is my gift. And this is a sense of

coming from sorry. This is my gift. This comes from a place of

self love. And it comes from a place of self appreciation. I

will do 11 minutes. There is some magical number there. But I

will do an 11 minute meditation, a breathing meditation, not a

guided one just sitting with you for 11 minutes that will also

show up on YouTube. So then we can meditate together.

And there is something to be said, meditating with others, it

creates even a stronger field of peace and calmness. So if you

can get your partner or a friend, even meditating, long

distance just agreeing here this time we're going to sit together

and meditate. It really creates something that makes meditation

even more powerful and delicious. Well, I hope this

helps. And I hope you will get the most out of it. As always

ask a question in the comment box and I'm happy to answer it

and be so kind and sign up for this channel. Thank you I