Master Your Mind Meditation Course

Topics: 

• Setup your trigger, anchor habit, place and time for meditation.
• Setup a reminder, alarm, or calendar event. 
• Practice: simply breathe deeply 12 times. Count when breathing out.

Forum

Every day, once you go through the lesson and do the practice, leave a comment below, sharing how the practice went for you. Something like, "DAY 3: {your experience or question}"

This has a habit-reinforcing effect on you and on other course students. Also, feel free to ask any questions or share experiences.

Guided Meditations

One of the purposes of this course is to teach you meditation from the inside-out, making you stand on your own feet, and not depend on guided meditations. 

In that spirit, you will find that in each week there are only guided meditation audios attached to two or three lessons. I encourage you, on the other days, to practice it without an audio aid.

Further resources

All lessons in this course have a short PDF file attached to them, containing the transcript of the class and links to learn more about meditation and the topics presented in that day's lesson.

Topics: 

• The ideal attitude towards practice (letting go of expectations and hurry).
• Practice: breathe deeply and slowly 15 times. 

Topics:

• Learn to enjoy the process. 
• Practice: breathe deeply and slowly 15 times. Keep your body still.

Topics:

• Rewarding your practice. 
• Practice: breathe deeply and slowly 20 times. Count with every inhalation and exhalation.

Topics: 

• The importance of a routine. 
• Don't get too ambitious. Be patient. 
• Practice: breathe deeply and slowly 20 times.

Feedback: How is the practice going so far? Please share it in the forum—Something like, "DAY 5: {your experience}".

Topics: 

• Bulletproofing your practice against future obstacles. 
• Practice: breathe deeply and slowly 20~25 times. Count backwards.

Topics: 

• Review of what you learned and achieved this week. 
• Practice: breathe deeply and slowly 20~25 times. Counting backwards.

Topics: 

• Starting to use a timer (+ recommendation).
• Instructions for the new technique: breathing awareness.
• Practice: pay continuous attention to the rising and falling of your chest or belly, while you breathe (4min). Continue counting your breathing, this time from 1 to 4.

Now that your practice is getting more serious, you may feel the need to get a meditation cushion or bench. If you feel the need, here is a guide for you to choose the right one.

When you download the Insight Timer app, go to "Groups" tab and search for "LiveAndDare" to join our community there.

Download links: iOS, Android.

Topics: 

• Increasing your motivation by discovering your core values and linking meditation to them.
• How to deal with thoughts and distractions.
• Practice: Breathing Awareness (4min).

Feedback: How can meditation help you with your core goals/values in life? Please share it in the forum—something like, "DAY 9: {meditation can help me in X and Y by....}".

Topics:

• Understanding how your attention works, and how you can hack it in a way that meditation is easier.
• Practice: Breathing Awareness (5min)

Topics:

• Visualization exercise to help you deal with excuses for not meditating. 
• Practice: Breathing Awareness (5min). Attention should be continuous.

Topics:

• The difference between breathing slowly and just observing the natural rhythm of your breath.
• Eight points for the perfect meditation posture: head, chin, teeth, tongue, shoulder, pelvis, hands, and the usage of cushions.
• Practice: Breathing Awareness (6min). Pay closer attention to posture.

Some people like to rate how they feel before and after meditation. They find that going through this small exercise helps them better see the rewards of practice, especially when they are not in their best days. I have prepared a spreadsheet with some questions, if you would like to try that. Download it here: http://bit.ly/1RFbAfH.

Topics:

• Is the time you are meditating the optimal one? Four points to check.
• Practice: Breathing Awareness (7min).

Topics:

• Review of the principles you learned this week.
• Practice: Breathing Awareness (7min).

Topics: 

• Learning how to do mantra meditation. 
• Choosing your mantra. 
• Practice: Mantra Meditation (8min).

Topics: 

• How to relax the body before meditation. 
• Practice: Mantra Meditation (8min).

Topics:

• Levels of depth for mantra meditation.
• Tips for preventing distractions in meditation.
• Practice: Mantra Meditation (9min).

Additional tips for mantra meditation (not included in the PDF nor the video):

• When repeating the mantra, try to unite your mind with the sound vibrations of the mantra as much as you can. It's as if your whole mind becomes the mantra, and the mantra is resonating in your whole being. Keep "zooming in" into the mantra with your attention.
• Most people find helpful to repeat the mantra out loud a few times (like 20 or 30 times) at the beginning of the meditation, or before it. This makes it easier for the mental repetition to be more fluid and ingrained.

Topics: 

• The importance of gladdening the mind before practice (and how to do it). 
• Practice: Mantra Meditation (9min).

Topics: 

• How to focus your intention before practice, as an aid for deepening it. 
• Practice: Mantra Meditation (10min).

Topics: 

• How to deal with emotions during practice. When to ignore, and when to work with them. 
• Label, Accept, Investigate, Let Go. 
• Boredom in meditation. 
• Practice: Mantra Meditation (10min—or 20min if you accept the challenge).

Topics: 

• Review of what you have learned and achieve this week.
• Practice: Mantra Meditation (10min).

Topics:

• Learn what is chakra meditation, and how to do it.
• Third eye chakra and heart chakra.
• Practice: Chakra Meditation (11min). Focus fully on the internal feeling.

Chakras are special points along the center of your body. They correspond to certain nervous plexus, and were found to be powerful objects for concentration by the Yogis.

Topics:

• Integrating your sense of sight and hearing into your chakra meditation.
• Mantra and visualization.
• Practice: Chakra Meditation (11min)

NOTE: if you decide to visualize light, and it naturally shows up for you in another color (like bright white or yellow), then just allow that to happen. There is no need to force the visualization.

Topics:

• The importance of keeping a non-judgemental attitude in practice.
• Why engaging in too much self-evaluation will hurt your meditation.
• An outline of the meditation process.
• Practice: Chakra Meditation (11min).

PRO TIP: If you are still finding hard to focus on a chakra, you might find helpful to have a physical sensation on your skin, at the chakra spot, as an aid to bring your attention there. One of the ways to do this is to lick your finger, and then apply a light pressure on the chakra spot, humidifying it.

Let me know if this works for you.

Topics: 

• Why it's important to let go of expectations in your meditation. 
• Enjoying the practice for its own sake. 
• Practice: Chakra Meditation (12min).

Feedback: Is visualizing the light or using the mantra helping you better focus on the chakra? Which chakra are you focusing on? Please leave a comment in the forum—Something like, "DAY 25: {your experience}".

Topics: 

• Don't criticize yourself when you get distracted in meditation. 
• Letting go of self-criticism in other areas of your life too. 
• Practice: Chakra Meditation (12min).

Topics: 

• Why keeping meditation on the cushion is not good enough. 
• How to start integrating mindfulness in your daily activities. 
• Practice: Chakra Meditation (13min).

This is the bracelet I recommended in the video.

Topics: 

• Summary of what you learned and achieved this week. 
• Practice: Chakra Meditation (13min - or accept the challenge and do 20 min).

Topics: 

• Learning how to do loving-kindness meditation. 
• The five ways to practice loving-kindness, and its natural progression.
• Visualizations and affirmations that aid this practice.
• Practice: Loving-Kindness Meditation (13min)

Topics:

• How you can develop any inner quality, or experience any feeling you like, without depending on external sources.
• Prompts for deepening your practice.
• Practice: Loving-Kindness Meditation (14min). Relish in the feeling of love. Let it absorb you.

After reading the PDF, let me know in the comments for what emotion or personal quality development you will use this type of meditation in the future.

Topics: 

• You can work with any feeling using this same technique (not only the feeling of loving-kindness). 
• A challenge for developing more self-awareness and a restful mind. 
• Practice: Loving-Kindness Meditation, focused on someone you care about (14min).

Topics:

• Fine-tuning the attitude you bring into your meditation.
• Second day of your "Restful Mind Challenge".
• Practice: Loving-Kindness Meditation, focused on a neutral person (15min).

Feedback: How is your restful mind challenge going? What did you learn about your mind by observing it more carefully? Please leave a comment in the forum—Something like, "DAY 32: {your experience or insight}".

Topics: 

• How too much media exposure hurts your meditation and your life. 
• Tips for changing your relationship with media. 
• Practice: Loving-Kindness Meditation, focused on you, a friend, or a neutral person (15min).

Topics:

• Tips for transitioning out of your meditation.
• Second day of "Less Media Challenge".
• Practice: Loving-Kindness Meditation, focused on a difficult person (15min).

Feedback: What did you change in your life to implement the Less Media Challenge? How did it feel for you? Please leave a comment in the forum—Something like, "DAY 34: {your experience or learning}".

Topics:

• Review of the things you learned and achieved this week.
• Practice: Loving-Kindness Meditation, expanding it to the whole world (15min).

Today is the last lesson! Congratulations on finishing the course.

What was your biggest takeaway or transformation?

Please leave a comment in the forum—something like, "COURSE COMPLETE: {your experience or feedback}".

When I asked students finishing this course what program I should create next, the majority voted for an Intermediate Meditation Course.

So after working for months in this new project, I'm excited to announce that we now have the sequel to Master Your Mind.

Master Your Mind — INTERMEDIATE Course (20% off)

The Intermediate course picks up exactly where this one left you. It guides you through a 40-day journey of meditation, helping you...

• Explore 10 new meditation techniques
• Better integrate meditation in daily life through practices of breathing, acceptance, focus, witnessing, etc.
• Develop 10 key personal strengths (virtues) related to meditation

Best news is: those that finished this course are entitled to 20% off!

Learn more about the Intermediate course here.

Here is a list of steps for you to take in your meditation journey.

The main next step is choosing which technique you will make your permanent one. And then to slowly increase the practice time until you reach 20min (or more). I suggest you add a calendar event to increase your practice one minute per week, every Sunday.