Even the military needs to sleep, and this can be hard when surrounded by noise and stress. With regular practice, you can teach the mind to know that it is time to sleep with this short guided example of how to start your sleeping routine once you are in bed.

Learn how to start your sleeping routine with this short guided example to teach your mind to know it's time to sleep, even in noisy and stressful environments.

US Military Breathing

A simple and ancient technique that you can practice and then build into your own meditation practice. Taken from the ideas behind 'The Secrets of the Golden Flower. Learning to breathe in a backward flowing movement can help your focus and attention, whilst keeping awareness of softening parts of the body.

Learn to breathe backwards for improved focus and relaxation, using an ancient technique from 'The Secrets of the Golden Flower' for meditation.

Backward Flowing Breath

Well-being is not just one thing, it is many small positive steps with different components. We can all make the effort towards a better life, we just need to keep things simple and become more self-compassionate and curious about how to improve our overall state of mind.

Improving well-being involves taking small steps with different components, keeping it simple, and being self-compassionate and curious.

Wellbeing Routines

Making small changes in our diet can have a big impact on our sleep. Taking the time to plan ahead, shop, and cook for sleep can support your wellbeing and contribute to a healthier lifestyle. No need to be thinking that you have to cut out your favorite things, just consuming at different times in the day can help.

Small dietary changes can significantly improve sleep; planning, shopping, and cooking with sleep in mind can lead to a healthier lifestyle.

Choosing Food and Drink for Sleep

We can drift through life in autopilot mode and never be aware of how our own actions can affect others. Ignorance sneaks in through the back door when we are not paying attention. Some say it is a mental poison. At the end of this short recording, there are three questions to help you notice this negative force that can get in the way.

Ignorance can sneak in when we are not paying attention to our actions and affect others; three questions at the end to help notice this force.

What Is Ignorance

If you think happiness is something to find, consume or possess then you will find it will only bring you the opposite. Happiness is not a thing, it is an experience. An experience that happens when certain factors come together at the moment to give you that feeling. When we are happy we may find that it has involved helping people in some way.

Happiness is not a possession, but an experience that occurs when we help others.

What is happiness?

Resilience starts with self-awareness and taking a look at how we are right now and how we are spending our time. With a little reflection, we can start to make small changes in our routines and lifestyle.

Self-awareness leads to resilience by making small changes in daily routine and lifestyle.

Resilience and self awareness

Most mindfulness meditations involve the phrases of intention and motivation at the beginning of the practice. If you are not sure what this is all about then this short talk should explain. it is all about letting the mind know what you are about to do and why you are doing it.

Mindfulness meditation starts with intention and motivation, letting your mind know what you're about to do and why you're doing it.

Expectations, Intention And Motivation

Nobody can escape negative thinking and it can really have an impact on our mental health and wellbeing when it starts to spiral out of control. understanding that it is not our fault and product of our evolution may help to rationalize them and help us find a little space or balance in our thinking.

Negative thinking affects mental health; understanding its roots can help find balance and rationalize thoughts.

How Negative Thoughts Affect Us

We all have the self-critical voice that gets in the way of progress. We can choose to listen to it in more open-minded ways, even communicate with it in order to help understand its thinking. We can even discover what it is it really needs and help to make that happen. Learn how to befriend it so that it can integrate back into yourself and act in more positive ways.

Befriend your self-critical voice to understand its thinking and meet its needs, integrating it back into yourself for more positive action.

Dealing With The Self Critic

We all encounter stress and pressure at some point in our life. Depending on our resilience we can cope or push our bodies too far. We are not computers or machines. We are not designed to constantly deal with pressure. We must give ourselves a chance to rest and recover.

Rest and recovery are crucial for coping with stress and pressure, as we are not designed to constantly deal with it.

Resilience: 6. Stress And Pressure

So often when we are having a tough time emotionally, our minds tend to close down on the problem making it feel so much worse. We need to allow some space for the mind to see some possibility and another way to digest or process the current situation. A wider view.

Allowing space for the mind's wider view reduces emotional distress during tough times.

Managing Difficult Emotions

This is another major skill in the world of mindfulness. The problem is how do we learn how to do it when our minds are so distracted. The solution is to realize you will be distracted and to take a step back and just notice without judging.

Mindfulness involves noticing distractions without judgment and taking a step back to learn how to manage them.

How To Be Observant?

Listen to some statistics and information that relates to sleep and how we fall prey to bad sleep and how we can turn things around, making small changes for a better night's sleep. Good solid advice to help you choose what to change.

Learn how to improve your sleep by making small changes with good advice on how we fall prey to bad sleep through this informative article.

Lack Of Sleep Will Effect Your Life

What can you do when you have a rainy day or an old memory that you would like to resolve. Learn how self-compassion and the RAIN exercise can help you to loosen the grip of negative emotions.

Learn how self-compassion and the RAIN exercise can help you let go of negative emotions on a rainy day or when resolving old memories.

We All Have Rainy Days!

We all have to begin somewhere when we set out to visualize within our meditations or relaxation. It does not need to be perfect and there is no need to feel you have to create a clear picture. Even getting a sense of the image is a good enough start. Pick a place you feel safe in and visit in your mind on a regular basis. Repetition brings clarity and safety.

Start visualizing in meditation or relaxation, no need for perfection, just get a sense of the image and repeat regularly for clarity and safety.

Beginning to Visualize

There is no rush when it comes to mindfulness meditation. it is not a race and there is no endpoint. We have to learn to slow things down and be curious about what is happening. Avoid the temptation to rush ahead.

Mindfulness meditation isn't a race with an endpoint, so learn to slow down, be curious, and avoid the temptation to rush ahead.

Take It Slow And Steady

It is too easy to allow your thoughts to spiral out of control when you cannot sleep. Our minds do take control when we are tired. We can learn ways to calm our thinking down. Taking the time to be mindful or to create suggestions for ourselves.

Combat sleepless nights with mindful techniques to calm your racing thoughts.

Thinking About Sleep

If you can create an image of a safe place in your mind, you can progress to developing doorways or pathways that you can enter when you meditate or relax. Follow these into news spaces where you can absorb the mind and relax and let go of the body.

Visualize a safe place in your mind and use it to enter new spaces where you can relax and let go of your body during meditation.

Creating Secret Spaces In Your Mind

This can be a revolutionary moment in someone's mindfulness practice. To be able to come to the stage of being able to wish others and yourself well can really support your well-being and release old negative thinking patterns about others and yourself.

Wishing others and oneself well can revolutionize mindfulness practice, supports well-being, and eliminates negative thinking patterns.

Why Loving kindness?

Using our imagination to create a golden light through visualization can bring many benefits to our health and sense of well-being. It is easy to do and develops with practice. Some simple advice on how to do it and also make you won links on how it would benefit you. For some, it may be spiritual and for others, it is a simple tool for relaxation improving our sense of well-being.

Visualizing a golden light can improve health and well-being, with simple steps to follow and spiritual or relaxation benefits.

The Benefits Of The Golden Light

When we sit in meditation in the beginning it can be a little frustrating and we can give up too early. Learning to be in the body and move with the body can be a great alternative to just sitting. In fact, we should incorporate it into our routines alongside formal sitting practice.

Incorporating body movement into meditation routines can be a great alternative to just sitting, especially for beginners who may get frustrated and give up too early.

Informal Movement And Kindness

Listen to Jon explain the reason why you might want to try the mindful compassionate break exercise. Self-compassion is the key to well-being and understanding why we do it can deepen our understanding and practice.

Jon explains why trying the mindful compassionate break exercise is important for well-being by deepening our understanding and practice of self-compassion.

Compassionate Break Conversation

Why do we need people to tell us that we need to take a break? Are you able to plan some regular short breaks in the working day? It can just be a minute or 30 seconds, can you learn to give yourself permission to stop and rest.

Take regular short breaks in the working day to rest and recharge, even if just for a minute or 30 seconds.

Taking short breaks

Learning to visualize can enhance your meditation practice, and your relaxation time or even support your insomnia when you are restless. Take your time to actively plan out what and where you would like to go and create spaces in your mind that are safe and welcoming. Use imagination to solve problems and gain insight into your own mind and thinking.

Visualizing enhances meditation, relaxation, and insomnia. Plan safe spaces and use imagination to gain insight and solve problems.

Learn To Visualize

Establishing your own routines when you work from home can help with stress, efficiency, and productivity. Keep things simple when you try new things to add to your flow of work. Make things accessible and easy to get to whilst making an effort to create a better way for yourself.

Creating simple routines when working from home can reduce stress and increase productivity. Keep things accessible and make an effort to improve.

Working From Home Routines

Sleep is not a one-off activity that is separate from the rest of life. A good night's sleep involves your active participation with healthy routines throughout the day. keep it simple and get interested in yourself and what you can do to enhance your ability to enjoy better nights of sleep.

Sleep is an active process that requires healthy routines throughout the day to enjoy better nights of sleep.

Sleep Routines

Listen to Jon as he discusses the reasons why we might want to practice the body scan. If you are new to meditation then they hear about the benefits might just convince you to have a go.

Jon discusses the benefits of practicing body scan in meditation, which may motivate beginners to try it out.

Body Scan Conversation

So often in life, we encounter daily stress and pressure which build in our minds and bodies. We can be so overstimulated our mind never rests and we can struggle to fall asleep or just relax. In this meditation, we take time to let things be as they are. Not trying to change anything just allowing and learning to let be and let go.

Meditation helps to let go of daily stress and pressure by allowing the mind and body to relax and not change anything.

Letting Things Be

Take time to sit in your own presence and allow yourself to feel that you are in fact enough in this moment. Get comfortable with your body and learn to be less critical.

Be comfortable with yourself by sitting in your own presence, feeling enough in the moment, getting comfortable with your body, and being less critical.

I Am Enough

We can find ourselves tossing and turning in bed with an active mind that agitates the body. With progressive relaxation, we take control of the body sensations and focus our attention on those sensations and away from the mind.

Progressive relaxation helps calm an active mind as we focus on bodily sensations, reducing anxiety and promoting better sleep.

Progressive Relaxation For Sleeping

A simple meditation to use as part of your sleep routine, either in bed or sitting just before you go to bed. Our minds are so busy at the end of the day that we need to learn how to exercise the mind in readiness to sleep. In this simple practice, it is enough just to notice how your mind is and bring the focus back to your breath and body.

Meditate before bed to calm your busy mind and help you sleep with a simple breathing and body focus practice.

Settling The Mind For Sleep

When emotions are riding high we can find it hard to regain our composure and be more in the present. Taking a few minutes out to recognize how we are and the realization that other people just like us are also having a tough time can help to give us a little more space from our emotions and difficulties.

Recognizing our emotions and realizing others feel the same can help us regain composure and be more present.

Compassionate Break

Mediation is a life skill and we can fall into the trap of being too passive or too active when we sit. It is finding the middle ground with your breathing, awareness, and attitude. We all have busy minds and we will all fall into the trap of thinking we are failing and not trying hard enough. In the mindfulness world, we learn to drop all of this and be with whatever is going on at the time with kindness and acceptance.

Mediation is about finding a balance between being too passive or active, and learning to be present with kindness and acceptance despite our busy minds.

How To Meditate?

Approaching mindfulness meditation with the correct mindset can make all the difference in your ability to learn and also to commit to practicing. This advice is for those that may struggle to settle before playing a meditation track on Aura and also for those who enjoy listening to meditations and would like to deepen and enjoy the practice more. We can be more active before we start to listen to the recording by letting our minds know why and what we intend to do. Motivation and intention are essential components of meditating but also in life too.

Approaching mindfulness meditation with the right mindset is crucial for learning and committing to practice; motivation and intention are key components for success.

How To Approach Mindfulness Meditation

When we direct our attention towards others we shift our focus from ourselves and our own suffering, toward others and actively be with them well and develop feelings of joy towards them. A short exercise when you are feeling a little fragile and self-orientated.

Directing our attention towards others helps shift the focus from ourselves and develop feelings of joy towards them; a helpful exercise when feeling fragile and self-orientated.

Developing joy in our thinking

This is a meditation for bedtime, teach your mind to focus on breathing and body sensation, and spaciousness as a way to help you to develop a more positive sleep routine. Learn to allow distractions to be there as well as to let go into the space around. You will not be trying to get to sleep you are just opening up to lying there in your bed, with no expectation or striving to get off to sleep. Learn how to be softer in your approach with yourself when it is time for bed.

Meditation for bedtime to develop positive sleep routine by focusing on breathing, body sensation, and spaciousness; allow distractions and be softer with yourself.

Mindful Sleep Preparation

Numerous individuals experience nocturnal awakenings, which often leave them feeling frustrated and irritable. The disruptive impact of external sounds can make it challenging to resume our sleep peacefully. However, by adopting a mindset of resilience and practicing techniques to redirect our focus back to our bodies, we can effectively train ourselves to respond more positively to these disturbances. This meditation is designed to cultivate self-compassion and infuse our nighttime experiences with loving kindness. Through regular practice, we can develop a profound sense of self-care and understanding, even during the wakeful hours of the night.

Learn to respond positively to disruptive sounds at night by practicing resilience and redirecting focus, cultivating self-compassion and self-care.

Returning To Sleep After Being Disturbed

We can never find the time to be kind to ourselves when we are having a difficult moment. This short 3-minute exercise can fill that short gap and make it achievable for you to take some time out to have a break and take a breath.

A 3-minute exercise can help you take a break and be kind to yourself during difficult times.

Self Compassion Break

In this practice, we can learn to just observe what is happening in the mind. Being able to remain in our practice and in the moment when thoughts arise. Very useful in learning to let go of strong emotions and thinking patterns. We can become acquainted with the flow of things in our minds and just watch instead of becoming too involved.

Observe the mind's flow, stay present, let go of emotions and patterns. Watch, don't get involved. Meditation practice tips.

Observer and Undercurrent

Sitting in this meditation helps us befriend the mind and body, promoting relaxation. As we sit in stillness, we cultivate a closer relationship with our thoughts and emotions, observing them without judgment. By connecting with our bodies, we become more attuned to physical sensations and tensions, allowing us to release stress and achieve a state of calmness. The practice of meditation enables us to be present, fully embracing the moment and fostering a sense of inner peace and a sense of kindness. Through regular practice, we develop the skill of relaxation, empowering us to cope better with life's challenges and enhancing overall well-being.

Meditation promotes relaxation, cultivates a closer relationship with thoughts and emotions, releases stress, and fosters inner peace.

Befriending, Getting Closer To Ourself

Being able to be at peace in the environment we find ourselves can be difficult. Practicing your meditation where we focus on the people we love and the safety we feel while knowing that we have enough and we can settle down to doing nothing. Opening to what is around us and feeling safe is an essential part of soothing the parasympathetic nervous system.

Practicing meditation focusing on loved ones and safety can soothe the parasympathetic nervous system and bring peace in the environment.

Opening The Here And Now

Using mindfulness meditation to help us take a short break in the day. Bringing attention to different things and then bringing them all together and resting in that space. Learn to relax and not take it all so seriously, we just do our best to show up and allow the words to guide us.

Practicing mindfulness meditation helps to relax and bring focus to the present moment, allowing us to take a break from our busy lives.

7 Minute Mindful Break

This is a beginning meditation for anyone starting out and wanting to develop a regular mindfulness meditation practice. Do this every day for a week to teach your mind that you can sit and focus on breathing. It might take longer, but do not rush, there is no race to get anywhere with this. This will form the beginning of any of the meditations as we move forward.

Learn mindfulness meditation by focusing on breathing every day for a week to form the foundation for future meditation practices.

Settling The Mind

In this short version of loving-kindness, you can explore how it is to send loving phrases to people that you care for. Maybe they are having a difficult time and you are not sure how to help. This is a simple way to allow your mind to be active in positive ways. We can generate positive feelings and hormones which support wellbeing.

Send loving phrases to those you care for to generate positive feelings, support wellbeing, and activate your mind in positive ways.

Loving Kindness for Others

We do not need to practice mindfulness in quiet places. In fact, being able to be mindful when we are in the midst of noise, distraction and chaos is the whole point. Being able to notice what is happening at the moment and prevent ourselves from being dragged along. Practice this in busy environments.

Mindfulness can be practiced in noisy places to stay present and avoid getting caught up in distractions and chaos.

Sitting in chaos

Mindfulness meditation can help take a short break in the day, relaxing and bringing attention to different things, allowing words to guide us.

Short Mindful Break

If we have regular practice we might want to improve our attention, focus, and awareness at the moment. Can we learn to follow our thoughts when they arise and watch them disappear when they are finished? This is great to teach the mind to sit back and just be an observer of what is going on. We might realize that thoughts just emerge.

Regular practice can improve attention and awareness by teaching the mind to observe thoughts as they arise and disappear.

Noticing The Undercurrent

The whole point of mindfulness meditation is to train the mind to be less reactive. Using our thoughts to do this can be a great way to begin this type of training. Teaching the mind not to analyze or get involved in thought and just allow thoughts to come and go in our experience is a skill that brings many benefits.

Mindfulness meditation trains the mind to be less reactive; using thoughts to begin training is beneficial as it teaches the mind to allow thoughts to come and go.

Training Our Mind Using Thought

Taking time out to practice visualization will develop this skill. Imagine breathing in a warm and healing golden light deep down into the body. This can help to re-focus the mind and take into a more present experience of visual and body sensations. I am teaching you to sit and open the body to a felt sense of healing and calm.

Practicing visualization enhances focus, promotes healing, and cultivates a present experience of visual and body sensations for a sense of calm.

Breathing In The Golden Light

Take 10 minutes out to develop your mindfulness skills in this meditation. Learn to go slow, accept what is happening, and practice returning to a present moment experience. Doing this simple practice can help you to not take meditation too seriously as our mind will wander, whatever the situation. We must be kind and realize that that is what it does. Our job is to notice and come back to the present in a gentle way.

Practice mindfulness through meditation for 10 minutes, learning to go slow, accept distractions, and gently return to the present moment.

Simple Mindfulness Meditation

A gentle introduction to mindfully creating your own inner worlds that you can develop over time and return to over and over again. Learn the process so that you can do these exercises without the need for the support of recordings and then just let your mind go and be creative. Help to answer questions, get advice and insight into situations, and communicate with yourself in new ways.

Learn to create your own inner worlds mindfully and creatively for self-reflection and communication.

Visualization for Wellbeing

Learning to feel how the body is can be a valuable lesson in developing mindfulness-awareness of the self. If we can start to notice sensations in the body earlier then we can do something about it earlier. For example, addressing pain before it develops into something more. learning to be with our bodies too involves acceptance and letting go. We can develop a better understanding of what is going on in our bodies.

Developing mindfulness-awareness of the self involves learning to feel the body's sensations, which can help address pain earlier and achieve acceptance.

Body Scan

We get lost in our thoughts and can get distracted by them and other people. We can live for years and not realize that we are just reacting to the things around us and never really stopping to take in the present moment and to think for ourselves. This short story will help to refocus and to learn how to avoid too much distraction. Take the time to just sit and observe what is going on.

Get lost in thoughts and other people, live for years without thinking for ourselves. Refocus and avoid distraction by observing the present moment.

The Hungry Seagull

Sometimes our mind needs to understand that it can learn from just listening to stories. Milton Erikson was an expert at telling stories and in this short story, we hear how he learned to sleep in a busy factory full of noise. Sometimes it is best not to put ourselves under pressure and so this recording might be best listened to in different environments and times of the day. It is not about falling to sleep it is about learning to fall asleep.

Expert storyteller Milton Erikson learned to sleep in a noisy factory, showing that we can learn from stories and not put ourselves under pressure to sleep.

The Famous Milton Erikson

Listen to how a young disruptive clown gets into trouble at the circus and how he turns this all around when he is befriended by the lion tamer. He learns to get in touch with his feelings and how to deal with them, he learns about kindness and being with people.

A disruptive clown befriends a lion tamer, learns to deal with feelings and about kindness in the circus in trouble.

Clowning Around

You can build resilience by creating the right conditions for it to strengthen and grow. It is not about making grand gestures and big plans, it is about small meaningful actions on a daily basis.

Small actions taken daily create the right conditions for resilience to strengthen and grow, rather than grand gestures.