Listen: 12 meditation podcasts to boost your mental wellbeing

What is meditation?

Vani Pavadai, a meditation teacher with the Art of Living Foundation, has been teaching people how to meditate and be mindful for 21 years. 'Meditation is the beautiful art of being present. Of resting the busy, active, thinking, engaging mind,' she says.

Vani explains that our minds tend to move rapidly between the past and the future. 'This constant, non-stop internal chit-chat brings with it a degree of stress. So, meditation is the practice of constantly bringing the mind back and anchoring it gently in the present moment.'

"It's not visualisation, concentration, or focus in any way. It is, in fact, the opposite. It's about letting go, doing nothing, resting," she adds. "You're not trying to achieve anything, but you're practising to observe the mind without any judgement."

And remember, the brain is a muscle that needs exercise, too! "It's like exercising a muscle you've never really worked out before. It takes regular practice to get comfortable in the now and to be comfortable in your own head space."

What are the benefits of meditation?

Do you want to sleep better, stress less, and add more hours to your day? You can with meditation. The health and mental wellbeing benefits to meditation abound. When you meditate every day, it can help to:

• Lower your stress levels
• Lower your levels of anxiety
• Increase your creativity
• Increase serotonin, which improves your mood and behaviour
• Boost your immune system and help fight off diseases
• Improve your brain function
• Increase your attention span
• Help you feel more connected
• Slow down the ageing process
• Help you sleep better at night
• Improve your metabolism and help you lose weight
• Episode 12: Guided meditation 12 – balance

For more benefits of meditation, check out the Art of Living Foundation's website.

How to start meditating

Vani says a useful tool for practising mindfulness is to become aware of your breathing and to allow your mind to flow with the rhymth of your inhales and exhales.

Vani shares her expertise in the Art of Living Foundation’s “Discover You” series of guided meditation. In each episode, she teaches simple exercises to boost your mental wellbeing.

• Episode 1: Guided meditation 1 – opening up
• Episode 2: Guided meditation 2 – resilience
• Episode 3: Guided meditation 3 – relax
• Episode 4: Guided meditation 4 – breathe easy
• Episode 5: Guided meditation 5 – mental agility
• Episode 6: Guided meditation 6 – expansion
• Episode 7: Guided meditation 7 – reset and refresh
• Episode 8: Guided meditation 8 – sound to stillness
• Episode 9: Guided meditation 9 – the journey within
• Episode 10: Guided meditation 10 – transforming emotions
• Episode 11: Guided meditation 11 – internal energy
• Episode 12: Guided meditation 12 – balance

Are you ready for your guided meditation journey to begin? Check out this series of 12 meditation podcasts with Vani Pavadai.

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