Finding Calm in the Chaos - Guided Meditation With Zen Master Henry Shukman #631

0:03Dr. Rangan Chatterjee:Hey guys, how are you doing? Hope you're having a good week so far. My name is Dr. Rangan Chatterjee and this is my podcast, Feel Better, Live More. Meditation is an incredibly powerful tool for transforming our lives, but in the modern world, many people find it a challenging practice to start and maintain. so this March I have decided to try and inspire more people to take up this life-changing practice throughout the month we're teaming up with Zen master Henry Shookman and his meditation app The Way to bring you our first ever meditation challenge though I've tried so many meditation apps over the years but I've never come across one as effective as The Way I've been using it most mornings for many months now and it has really helped me feel calmer, relaxed and more present.

1:03Dr. Rangan Chatterjee:I love this app so much that I recently decided to invest in the company and join them in their mission to get more people meditating as I believe this will result in a calmer, happier and more compassionate world. Meditation has been shown to have all kinds of benefits reducing stress, improving focus and over time has even been shown to result in positive structural changes in the brain but of course you only get those benefits if you actually do it. So this March why not join Henry and me and thousands of other meditators on a 30-day journey that has the potential to transform your life. All you have to do to take part in this free challenge is go to thewayapp.com forward slash live more.

2:00Dr. Rangan Chatterjee:You'll get practical tips, exclusive content, and 30 free short meditation sessions to get you going. Committing to 30 consecutive days of meditation really does have the potential to create a lasting daily habit. I will also be joining in the challenge and using the way app every day throughout the month. I very much hope that you decide to join me. And now to give you a flavour of what Henry's meditations are like, here's a beautiful meditation that he recorded exclusively for my podcast community.

2:40Henry Shukman:Welcome to this meditation with me, Henry Shukman. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm really happy and grateful to be able to share this practice with you, a practice that has meant so much to me for many years, has greatly, greatly helped me with various challenges I've had in my life. There's a lot of research, a ton of research these days into meditation and how helpful it can be to help us recalibrate our nervous systems, dial our nervous systems down, get more centered, more grounded, and find more peace and less reactivity in our lives. At the same time, I know it can be rather a challenging prospect how to build in another habit when we already may have various things we're trying to do daily to help ourselves.

3:36Henry Shukman:I like to think of meditation not as another element on a to-do list, but rather as something like a return to ourselves, as simply a space where we're allowed to come back to who we really are. And that's the way I'm going to try to share it with you and invite you to see it that way too and to come to know it that way. So we're going to go right into a meditation right now. So get comfortable, get set up in a seated position that feels good for you. We usually do meditation seated, but if you prefer to lie down, that's no problem whatsoever. Any chair will do, kitchen chair, office chair, side of the bed, couch, all good.

4:26Henry Shukman:Get yourself arranged comfortably, close your eyes or if you prefer to have them open that's fine lower the gaze if they are open in this meditation we're going to do a body scan where we simply become more aware of our body they say that the mind is a time traveler but the body lives in the present moment so it can be really helpful to anchor ourselves in sensations of the body as a way to come back to ourselves here and now so let's just become aware of our bodies right now sitting still and again check that you're comfortable make any adjustments that you feel would help and we're going to simply move our awareness through the body, getting to know our experience of the body a little bit more clearly and intimately.

5:32Henry Shukman:So feel your face and let your face become soft. Relax your face.

5:44Henry Shukman:feel your jaw and let your jaw sink a little bit let the jaw go slack a lot of us carry tension in our jaw and it can be so helpful just to release them so let your jaw go you might feel a little softness in the throat as you do so.

6:16Henry Shukman:Now let your hands rest. Let them be in your lap or on your thighs. And let your arms go slack. Let them be like old ropes. Sort of hanging at your sides.

6:38Henry Shukman:now we'll move our attention to the chest area let the chest be soft and warm

6:54Henry Shukman:becoming aware of the belly now let the belly be soft and warm

7:07Henry Shukman:Let the hips and seat be relaxed.

7:17Let the upper legs be soft and warm, loose.

7:25Henry Shukman:Let the lower legs be soft and warm, at ease.

7:37Now let the ankles and feet be warm, loose.

7:48Henry Shukman:So now just see if you can get a sense of the whole body, the entirety of the body. Just sitting here, quiet and still, at ease, and enveloped in a kind of softness. A restfulness. There's really nothing special about this. Nothing special you have to do. You're just being with yourself. Being with your own body. Just as it is. Resting with your body.

8:49Henry Shukman:bring a little movement into your fingers and toes, wiggle fingers and toes, raise your gaze, open your eyes, look around the space that you're in, have a little in-breath and out-breath. Great, that's it, we just did a meditation, it's that simple nothing special and yet precious because it's a space just for you

9:19Dr. Rangan Chatterjee:thank you so much for joining me so how was that for you how do you feel now compared to when you started you see just a few minutes of meditation each morning helps me start off each day feeling calmer, grounded, and more present. So if you want to join this free 30-day meditation challenge, all you have to do is go to thewayapp.com forward slash live more to sign up and receive practical tips, exclusive content, and 30 free meditation sessions to get you started.

10:04Dr. Rangan Chatterjee:if you enjoyed today's episode it is always appreciated if you can take a moment to share the podcast with your friends and family or leave a review on apple podcasts thank you so much for listening have a wonderful week and always remember you are the architect of your own health making lifestyle change is always worth it because when you feel better you live more Thank you.