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Guided Meditation: Putting Out the Welcome Mat
Lesson time 11:42 min
Learn how bringing mindfulness into your life can help you face the full spectrum of your experience, including the challenges and triumphs.
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Topics include: Guided Meditation: Putting Out the Welcome Mat
Teaches Mindfulness and Meditation
Mindfulness expert Jon Kabat-Zinn teaches you how to incorporate meditation into your everyday life to improve your health and happiness.
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[MUSIC PLAYING] - Very often when people start to meditate, they begin to think they're not doing it right. How do I do it? I want to do it right. Now that I'm meditating, now I've joined some kind of meditation program, whatever it is, I want to do it right. But the curriculum of your meditation practice is whatever arises. So you can easily think I'd be having a great meditation if only this wasn't happening. But this is-- whatever the this is, that's a perfect occasion to put out the welcome mat for that. Because guess what? It's already here. It's part of the actuality of experience in this moment. So the challenge is, again, always the same. How are we going to be in wise relationship with the this, even if it's seriously unwanted, unexpected, or just plain annoying? So you see immediately some idea of perfection arises, some idea of a goal that I've got to, like, perfect something. And the entire thrust of this MasterClass, this program that we're doing together, is that you don't have to perfect anything. You're already perfect exactly as you are, including all the imperfections that your mind is rushing to say, well, he doesn't know who I am because he can't possibly mean me perfect. And I'm saying, yes, you, that you're just fine, you're OK just as you are. And this is a wonderful place to start with you simply showing up, being present as you are, and that the challenge of mindfulness and the beauty of mindfulness and the invitation of mindfulness is that it's not about attaining some ideal meditative state where all your problems will go away, and you'll be 50 years younger, and your face will glow, or anything like that. It's not about attaining anything. It's about recognizing that you're already whole, W-H-O-L-E, already perfect just as you are, good enough at least to begin an adventure of the heart to explore who you actually are. Who signed up for this course? Who cares enough? Who thought deeply enough to even want to play with this? And I want to just dispel any notions about this program being about you improving yourself. There is no improving on the deep dimensionality of who you are as a human being. You're already whole. You're already good enough. You're already perfect. And with the meditation practice, what mindfulness will be offering us is an opportunity to drop down into the actuality of our life unfolding as it is in the conditions we find ourselves in, in the face of what I call after "Zorba the Greek" the full catastrophe of the human condition. So it doesn't have to be pretty. In fact, it's going to be messy at times. And if you say it's not, you're not alive. It's going to be messy. And that's part of the curriculum. It's not something to pretend isn't happening. It's something to in some sense put the welcome mat out for and then embrace in awareness whatever arises. And maybe this would be a good time to actually recite a poem that can sometimes encapsulate what is meant by putting o...
About the Instructor
A pioneer of the Western mindfulness movement, Jon Kabat-Zinn has spent more than 40 years studying, teaching, and advocating the benefits of mindfulness. In his MasterClass, he teaches you how to cultivate a mindfulness practice, reduce your stress, and soothe your thoughts with meditation and movement. Jon shares expert tips and guidance that meets you where you are. Let this class help you make the most of being alive.
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Jon Kabat-Zinn
Mindfulness expert Jon Kabat-Zinn teaches you how to incorporate meditation into your everyday life to improve your health and happiness.
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