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Just Be a Little Better Than Your Worst

There are days when even lifting your head feels heavy, when motivation evaporates like mist in the morning sun. You may sit in silence, feeling the weight of exhaustion, of uncertainty, of trying too hard for too long. In those moments, the world tells you to “push harder,” to “stay positive,” to “keep going.” But sometimes, that feels like asking the wind not to blow.

When you reach this place, where stillness feels safer than motion, there is a gentler path forward — one not of striving, but of allowing. It begins with a simple promise to yourself: just be a little better than your worst.

This doesn’t mean rising to your best self overnight. It doesn’t mean running toward the horizon when your legs can barely hold you up. It means acknowledging where you are — the lowest point, the tired point — and choosing to shift, even slightly. If your worst is lying in bed all day, your “little better” might be sitting by the window and breathing the morning air. If your worst is numbing out in despair, your “little better” might be to feel something, anything, and let it be okay.

Meditation teaches us that awareness itself is transformation. When you sit in stillness and witness your mind’s storms, something subtle happens. You begin to see that every emotion, every thought, every sense of failure is temporary. The tide will rise and fall. You do not need to fix everything — you need only to stay present.

Being a little better than your worst is an act of compassion. It’s the understanding that growth doesn’t always look like progress; sometimes it looks like patience. When you give yourself permission to move slowly, you discover a deeper resilience — not the kind that burns with effort, but the kind that glows quietly, steady as a candle in the dark.

Every step, no matter how small, ripples outward. Each breath you take in awareness becomes a seed of possibility. You may not notice it at first, but over time, those moments of “a little better” begin to build upon each other. The stillness becomes steadier. The darkness becomes less consuming. You begin to sense space — a quiet space within you where peace, strength, and clarity live.

And from that space, new energy arises. You’ll find that the next step doesn’t feel as heavy, that the world doesn’t press so tightly against your chest. You’ll begin to ask, “If I can be a little better than my worst, what would it feel like to be a little better than that?”

This is how transformation happens — not in leaps and bounds, but in breaths and moments.

So, when you feel lost, when you feel small, when you think you’ve failed — pause. Breathe. Remember: your worth is not measured by how fast you rise, but by your willingness to keep showing up.

Today, be just a little better than your worst. Tomorrow, see what else becomes possible.

That is the quiet miracle of being human.

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Make Your Food Do the Fasting for You

Fasting doesn’t always mean complete abstinence from food. In fact, one of the most sustainable ways to transform your health through intermittent fasting is to let your food do the fasting for you. Instead of battling hunger or pushing your body into extremes, you can invite awareness into your eating choices — one meal, one bite at a time.

The truth is, it’s not starvation that brings success; it’s strategy. The challenge with strict fasting is that it can feel like an all-or-nothing effort. You push hard, you restrict completely, and then life happens — a social gathering, a stressful day, a night when discipline fades. What if, instead of fasting from food, you simply fasted through your food choices?

The principle is simple: eliminate the bottom 20 percent of foods that create 80 percent of your problems. This is the Pareto Principle applied to nutrition. Most of your health struggles — sluggish energy, cravings, bloating, stubborn weight — are often caused by a small fraction of what you eat. The creamy sweet coffee, the mindless evening snacks, the hidden sugars in sauces and dressings. By identifying and reducing these, you allow your body to experience the same reset that fasting offers — without the emotional resistance of total deprivation.

And the best time to make these changes isn’t during a diet overhaul or a grand “Monday restart.” It’s right before you eat. That’s the sacred pause — a moment of mindfulness that bridges impulse and intention.

Before your next meal, stop for a breath. Ask yourself: What can I eliminate right now that doesn’t serve me? Maybe it’s the extra drizzle of dressing, the side of bread you don’t truly crave, or the second spoonful of sugar in your tea. You don’t have to cut it all — just half. Half the milk, half the sweetener, half the portion. Each mindful subtraction becomes an act of self-care rather than self-denial.

Over time, these small adjustments compound. You’re not fasting for long hours; your choices are fasting for you. You reduce the constant spikes in insulin and blood sugar. You allow your digestive system to rest and your energy to stabilize. Your body begins to burn stored fat naturally, not because you starved it, but because you stopped confusing it.

The beauty of this approach is flexibility. You can apply it whether you’re practicing a 16:8 fast, an alternate-day schedule, or just trying to eat more mindfully. It’s not about perfection — it’s about alignment. The more your food choices align with your long-term goals, the easier fasting becomes.

So next time you reach for a snack or pour your coffee, pause. Ask gently: Can I make this meal fast for me? Maybe it’s by cutting the sweetener, skipping the creamer, or choosing whole food over processed ones. Every time you choose less of what harms and more of what heals, your body thanks you in the language of clarity, lightness, and balance.

Let your food do the fasting — and watch your body respond with effortless grace.

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Why I Teach Intermittent Fasting Through Science, Not Perfection

Let’s get one thing clear: I’m human. Just like you, I have good days and bad ones. I miss a fast now and then. I break a window early. I indulge in late-night snacks when I know I shouldn’t. And that’s exactly why I don’t teach intermittent fasting (IF) as a pursuit of perfection—but as a practice grounded in science.

When I talk about the benefits of intermittent fasting—improved metabolic health, insulin sensitivity, fat loss, cellular repair—I’m not speaking from a pedestal of flawless discipline. I’m speaking from research. From peer-reviewed studies, clinical trials, and the growing body of hard science that continues to validate this approach to eating.

Why Science Matters More Than Personal Discipline

If I only taught what I could practice perfectly, I wouldn’t be able to teach anything at all. That’s not a weakness—it’s reality. Life throws curveballs: social events, stress, travel, hormones, illness. Perfection isn’t sustainable, but consistency and understanding are.

Science gives us a foundation that doesn’t waver with our daily choices. It allows us to say, “Even when I’m not perfect, this method still works—because it’s not about me, it’s about biology.” IF isn’t a fad or a moral test of willpower. It’s a metabolic strategy supported by evidence: time-restricted eating affects hormones like insulin and ghrelin, it influences autophagy, and it can support weight management—even with occasional “imperfections.”

Detaching Morality From Food and Fasting

Too many people tie their worth to how “good” they are with their diet. That creates guilt, shame, and a cycle that often leads to burnout. But when we root our practice in science, we shift the focus from “Did I fail?” to “What did I learn?”

This isn’t about being good. It’s about being informed. It’s about knowing that fasting for 16 hours can lower insulin levels regardless of whether you ate pizza or salad during your window. It’s about understanding that skipping breakfast occasionally isn’t harmful—it might even be helpful. And when we mess up? The science doesn’t stop working. We just keep going.

The Role of Imperfect Teachers

Some might say that if you can’t practice something perfectly, you shouldn’t teach it. I disagree. The best teachers are the ones who’ve struggled, who’ve slipped, and who’ve come back stronger—because they can guide others with empathy and real-world wisdom.

I teach IF not because I’m the most disciplined person in the room, but because I believe in the method, I understand the evidence, and I’ve seen it work in both research and real lives—including my own, even when it’s messy.

Science Is the Anchor

So no, I’m not perfect—and I’m not trying to be. But what I teach is anchored in truth, not trends. I base it on what the science says, not what my last fast looked like. That way, when you come to this practice, you’re not following me—you’re following the data.

And that’s how it should be.

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Breath awareness meditation and time management

One of the reasons why some people don’t practice breath awareness meditation is that they feel there is not enough time in the day. How do we find more time to do the practice?  This will be discussed: the solution, why it works, and examples of what to do. 

The solutions to having enough time to practice breath awareness meditation is to manage your time better.  A lot of your time is spent spacing out and on low activities.  By reducing the spaces between relevant thoughts and cutting out low activities you can drastically increase your time.    

The better you manage your time the better able you are to allocate time to meditate.  You will see you have enough time to do breath awareness.  Not having enough time will no longer be an excuse. 

The following is how you can manage your time better:

  • Plan your activities and use the 80/20 rule to prioritize your time.  80/20 rule states that 20 percent of what you do gets 80 percent of the results.  Get rid of the activities that have little to negative return on investment and spend more time on activities that have high return on investment.  If we are honest with ourselves, we waste so much time on activities with little to negative return on investment like eating and watching tv.  We could use that time to practice breath awareness instead.  The practice as a lot of wonderful benefits.  It reduces fear, pain, stress, anxiety, and negativity.  You have more energy to live your life. 
  • Use writing procedures, checklists, and mind maps to speed up your work.   It is a good idea to simplify and get clear on your goals and be consistent everyday instead of wasting time wandering around.  Writing procedures, checklists, and mind maps help us get clear on our goals and reach them faster.  
  • Create reusable assets to multiply your work and money.  If you are into slide shows an asset could be something as simple as past saved work in PowerPoint.  It has all the transitions, sounds, timings, and images and text place holders.  You can use these over again.  Build a list of joint venture partners and consumer contacts so you can use them in the future.   Build systems and get people to operate them.   
  • Work on your external environment.  Clean and organize it.  Your external environment is consistent and owns Nero connection in your head.  Your mind will be clearer.  Also, you wouldn’t spend a lot of time looking for stuff.   
  • Develop working memory.  Do the same thing repeatedly for mastery to make things easier and faster.  Your brain will do more with less effort and time. 
  • Use small pockets of time so they don’t go to waste.  There are small pockets in the day when we result to nothing.  We are expecting one big pocket of time to do a work.  It doesn’t happen so we don’t do the work.  Also, the body doesn’t like doing the same thing for an extend period because of carp tunnel syndrome.  Furthermore, the body was designed for movement, and the mind for expansion.  We could chip away at our to do list so later we have time to do what we didn’t get done in the moment.  If you are on the computer and you need a break instead of doing nothing or a low activity, you could be washing dishes. 
  • Let your to do list cycle.   Your brain is always scanning the world for what it is missing.  You can’t be truly happy if you don’t have balance.  Make time to do everything in your list.  You don’t have to complete everything in one day. 

Now that I have discussed ways to manage your time better you are better able to allocate time to practice breath awareness meditation every day.  Use the 80/20 rule to prioritize your time.  20 percent of what you do gets 80 percent of the results.  It is most important.  Use written procedures, checklists, and mind maps to speed up your work.  In addition, you can create reusable assets to multiply your work and money.  Clean and organize your environment.  Achieve mastery through repetition to make a skill easier and faster.  Use small pockets of time so they won’t go to waste.  Let your to do list cycle.  Anytime you think to yourself how you are going to find time to practice breath awareness you know what to do.  Use the time saving hacks mentioned.

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How to motivate yourself to do breath awareness meditation when you don’t feel like it

Sometimes we can’t get to do an activity no matter how much we try.  This can affect a breath awareness meditation practice.  How do we deal with the situation?  The answer will be discussed:  the solution, why it works, and ideas to get us started.  

The solution 

The brain knows every trick against you, will make every excuse with breath awareness meditation, and will try to keep you down and not do the practice.  The easiest way to get yourself to do the practice is to work on your mood in general. 

Why it works

Your mood affects behavior.  If you feel awful, it will be harder for your to do an activity.  The more you force yourself to do the activity the more you feel awful.  You will be stuck in a negative feedback loop.  We all know how that ends.  As mentioned before, work on your overall mood.  Feeling good in general makes it easier to do activities including breath awareness meditation.   

9 Ideas to get you started

  1. You can listen to inspirational music.  You can go on the internet, specifically YouTube.  Type in your favorite inspirational song and listen to it.  Listen to new songs and add to your list of favorites.  Music can transport you to a different place.  If you want to go to a happy place listen to happy music.
  2. You can fast.  When you are under a lot of stress and dealing with very stressful things in your external environment your body isn’t thinking of digesting food.  Give it a break.  The worse foods you eat the more your digestion needs a break.  You don’t want to feel awful.  Also include prayer.  Now your body as more energy to manifest your prayer because it isn’t digesting food.  Spend more time on areas that are bothering you the most.  Don’t negatively polarize your emotions.  Focus and feel the ideal scenario as if with positive emotions.  Fasting and praying can also make you physically healthier.  Fasting moves energy from the gut to the brain.  You don’t want to overdo it.  Before sleep time eat something but eat something light so you won’t feel sick in the morning. 
  3. You can practice affirmations, and love and gratitude.  Use present and positive connotations for your affirmations.  Affirm who you want to become.  Also, affirm the action you are going to take to reach your goals.  The body will become the mind.  You are building muscle brain memory.  Performing the action will feel more natural.  Think of it as a rehearsal for the real event.  The more you do it the better.  Get a notebook.  Everyday right down ten things you are grateful for.  In looking for positives you are teaching your brain to look for or remember the positive things in your life and stop focusing on the negatives.  It builds positive brain neuroplasticity.  You will be happier.  Your body is also an extension of your brain.  You will also be healthier.  If you want better health, give thanks for the level of health that you have. 
  4. Don’t judge yourself negatively for making mistakes or things not going according to plan.  Do things that will make you positive.  If you work on the strengths and the strength of your strengths your weaknesses will reduce or be eliminated.  Instead of saying you are going to stop eating junk food, say you are going to cook more.  You don’t want to resist junk food and have nothing to replace it with.  You are setting yourself up for failure. 
  5. Take care of burning problems that might be weighing you down.  Is your work boring or stressful?  Do you have more important business?  This can affect your overall wellbeing.  It isn’t just what you do.  It is how you feel about what you do.  Emotions affect chemistry and chemistry affect physics.  Take care of the burning problem.  Decrease or increase the difficulty of your work.  Prioritize your goals. 
  6. The more you learn about something the more you see it from a set of new Nero connections in your brain, become more aware of the different possibilities, and the more you appreciate it.  You don’t want your dopamine receptors to get num.  When you aren’t active, learn.  Learning will help you fantasize and try new things.  If you have too much free time you can increase your financial intelligence.  You will always need money.  You can solve more problems.  You are less likely to do things that don’t serve your highest good with your free time.    
  7. Use the 80/20 rule to make decisions.  All you need is a few habits to make you most happy and productive.  20 percent of the input gets 80 percent of the results.  You know you are getting a hundred times a lot more than you are putting in, so you are motivated.  Then do a different variation of each habit to create nuance.  When making money work where most results are possible with the least amount of effort first.  Do the best micro activity of your best activity.  Plan your time and make reusable assets.  Keep things simple and consistent.  Work on other things also like your health.  Go for the gut and you will solve a thousand other problems.  Allow your to do list to cycle.  This will keep you motivated.  If something doesn’t add to the synergy of all your activities, it should be eliminated.   Take your least important activity that is giving you low to negative results and experiment with something that is potentially better. 
  8. Work on your environment.  Arrange your environment in such a way that it discourages bad addiction and encourages good addiction.  Subliminal messages are always reaching your subconscious mind when you aren’t paying attention and the more you are exposed to them the more likely you are to act on them.   If you leave in a cluttered environment your mind will be cluttered.  If you are always looking for stuff it is a drain on your energy, and you will feel frustrated.  You need a clean workspace to work.  Set up your environment in a way that it reinforces your goals.  You can watch inspirational or educational programs on YouTube.  Write down your goals on paper and affirm the action you are going to take.  Have faith and be positive.  Take baby steps every day and commit to learning.  Make your worst-case scenario still good as you experiment your way up.  Have a routine but rework the worse part of your routine as needed.   
  9. Take a break from your routine.  The left brain likes to follow standard routine all the time.  The right brain is open to learning and trying new things. If you are doing something and it is making you frustrated or depressed, take a break.  Do something else temporarily.  Do something fun that doesn’t involve work, change your environment, or read a book you don’t read every day.  You will be able to come back to an activity with a fresh perspective.  Try not to miss two days in a role of an activity.   

Final thought 

What uplifted your mood yesterday and motivated you to do an activity won’t necessary work today.  Ask yourself what you need right now to uplift your spirit.  It might be doing nothing for a short while.  It might be something else not discussed.  That is okay too.  Don’t fail, give up, and believe nothing is working.  Different things will work at different times and somethings more often than others.  Next time you find yourself not being able to do breath awareness mediation ask yourself, “How do I feel in general?”  Then work on improving your mood if you need to.   

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Overcoming fear of consistent daily breath awareness meditation practice.

Problems are a part of meditation. Solving problems is what make meditation fun. It forces you to think creatively. You will experience all kind of problems in your practice journey. Don’t focus too much on a problem that you fail to see the possibilities around the problem. A solution usually presents itself when you have a problem, and you are motivated to act. You just need to be persistent.  When the problem arises in the future you would know how to deal with it. One of the problems is the fear of doing breath awareness work. Write down all your fears on meditation on a piece of paper. This helps you see all your resisting thoughts, feeling, and emotions concerning it. You can be better able to deal with it. Then counter those fears and come up with creative solutions to them. Some of the fears of breath awareness meditation will be discussed. There are boredom and depression, overly attached to results, and over complicating your practice.

Overcoming Boredom and depression.

It is not the meditation that make you happy, but your perception of it. Success revolves around happiness. The higher your emotions the more parts of your brain are dedicated to help you reach your goal. Decide 80 percent of what you are going to do 20 percent of the time. Then focus on feeling good independent of the activity you choose. 90 percent of the signal goes from your heart to your brain. It will be easier to add on the activity.

Depression can keep one from meditating. You wake up the same day dreading doing the same thing at the same time. How much are you investing in the unknown? Investing in the unknown is what makes things exciting. Feel free to shake things up. When things unfold in ways you can’t always predict it is exciting.

If meditation is boring, make it fun. Use your imagination. You can reward yourself for doing the practice, or creatively visualize yourself obtaining your highest goal for it.

If you keep viewing your meditation with the same Nero circuitry it gets redundant.  Your brain and body goes on autopilot and your practice becomes boring and stressful.  You can learn more about the work. By doing so, you will be able to apply more meaning to your practice. Learn more benefits to it. You always had the benefits, but you were not aware of them.  One of the things you can do is do your practice differently to add some nuance to it.   You can do a different type for a while and go back to the old type with a new perspective.   You can play around with the duration and time of the meditation.  You can have a new reward. 

Don’t be overly attached to results.

Sometimes it feels you aren’t making progress. You want to quit. The more you look for something the more you push it away. You are saying you don’t have it. Hang in there and be patient. Allow yourself to be successful.

Watch your self-criticism. Don’t destructively criticize yourself. This type of criticism creates fear and destroys creativity.

Allow yourself to make mistakes. It is through experimentation you learn. You can only connect the dots looking back. Continue what works from the past, experiment with new things, and replace the old with new things that work better.     

Don’t over complicate meditation.

Keep it simple.If you make meditation more complicated, you are less likely to keep up a daily practice. The only wrong practice is the one that you don’t do. Showing up is 50 percent of the battle. The more complicated you make your work, the less successful you will be. The simpler you make it, the more successful you will be.

Meditation is straight forward. Focus on your in breath and out breath. Your mind will wander from time to time. The unwanted thoughts are part of your practice. Simply bring your awareness back to your breath. You are going to go back and forth between thoughts and breath. Physical sensations, and sounds are also part of your practice not just unwanted thoughts. You aren’t going to know when you experience stillness known as the gap until you come out of it. You may or may not have a mystical experience. It is okay. Continue your meditation without worries until you are done with it. Surrender without expectations. Move in the direction of comfort. If you need to open your eyes to look at the time or scratch your nose do so.

Summary

Now that the following has been discussed: how to overcome boredom and depression, how not to be overly attached to results, and how not to be too complicating to help you overcome fear of breath aware meditation you are better able to do the practice. Invest in the unknown because that is what makes something exciting. Don’t look for results. The more you look for results the more you push it away. Keep your practice simple. Focus on your breath in and out. Anytime you get distracted from your breath bring your attention back to it. Thought, physicals sensations, and sounds are part of the work. Next time you are afraid of meditation you can eliminate the three fears discussed.

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Best time to meditate

What is the best time to meditate?  Understanding the best time to do so will help you deepen your practice.  The following will be discussed: doing the practice in the morning, having a bigger window to do the practice during the day, and doing the practice in the evening before you sleep for you to better understand the best time to meditate.

You can do the practice first thing in the morning to get it out of the way.  Things can happen during the day that prevent us from doing the practice.  If you knock the practice off first thing in the morning you don’t have to worry about it for the rest of the day.  Even if you run out of time at the end of the day you have already done the practice.  Don’t try to do meditation at a specific time.  This will create unnecessary frustration.  Do it as a sequence of activities.  Anytime you wake up use the restroom and then do the practice.  

It helps to have a bigger window of time to do meditation just in case.  You can do the practice anytime during the day if you miss or can’t do your practice first thing in the morning.  You should still plan to do the practice first thing, but occasionally things might happen that will prevent you from doing so.  If you plan each of your activities during the day you will be able to move stuff around and make time for doing the practice.  You will better be able to see how much time is spent on unnecessary things like tv, social media, and so on.  Then you can allocate that time into doing the practice.   

You can also meditate last thing in the day.   It is recommended to do the practice first thing in the morning and last thing in the evening.  Things get busy during the day.  The morning and evening are the times you can do so with less distractions.  Also, your mind can go into a higher state of consciousness because you are just waking up or falling asleep.  Your brain waves are slower.  You want to do the practice in a sitting position, so you don’t fall asleep.  Also, set your alarm so you know when you are done.  You can also do so in a lying position without setting your alarm to help you fall asleep. 

Now that the following has been discussed: doing the practice in the morning, having a bigger window to do so during the day, and practicing in the evening before you sleep you are able to understand better the best time to meditate.  It is usually a good idea to do the practice first things in the morning to get it out of the way.  Then you can focus on other things throughout the day.  Allow for a bigger window to do so throughout the day.  Rearrange your schedule and do the practice during the day if you must do so.  It is a great way to end your day.  It can also be part of a ritual that will help you fall asleep.  Next time you want to do the practice you know how to figure out the best time. 

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Motivation to meditate.

Meditating everyday for the rest of your life can be challenging.   Sometimes you just do not feel like doing the practice.  Having ways of motivating yourself can make it easier for you to meditate.   The following are some ways that will help keep you motivated to do so:

Focus on getting started.  Do not worry about the entire session.  Once you get going it will be easier to keep going.  The neurons in your brain responsible for meditating will get fired up. 

Reward yourself by learning something interesting about meditation every day.  This will make your meditation more fun.  When it is more fun it becomes easier to do. 

Do not look for results or try to be perfect.  The more you look for results or try to be perfect the more you push it away.  Let things unfold in a natural way. 

Focus on your strengths.  Ask yourself what part of your meditation is going well, and you can do more of it.  You will get better at meditating.

Learn meditation teaching.  If you are not just doing meditation for the experience, but also to improve your life you will be more motivated to do it.

See meditating as an investment not a sacrifice.   Do not look at the fact that you are spending your time and energy meditating.  Look at all the things it is enabling you to do.  It is helping you have more blissful and stress free days.

Be with the pain unconditionally.  If you do not accept the pain, you will give up or be more stressed.  What you fear or focus on is made more manifest. 

Do not limit yourself to one percent of meditation.  There is a whole world you can play around and have fun with.  Ask yourself what you feel like doing today and do it. 

For better results mix faith and positive emotions with your meditation.  Whatever you send out into the universe you receive.  Do creative visualization, and affirmations.  With faith and positive emotions you will have better memory, focus, energy, and motivation. 

If you do not have time or get distracted easily, schedule the time the night before.  If you are behind in other things still meditate.  It is okay to complete your to do list the next day after you meditate.    

Remind yourself the reason why you are meditating.  It is the only time you connect to your soul, be more loving and grateful, let go of control, and merge with the one.  It is a blissful experience.  It has many benefits including stress and pain relief.  Also, it ripples to other areas of your life.  If you don’t meditate you will miss it. 

Use pain and suffering to support meditation.  It is not hard to make meditation a habit.  Once you experience higher states of consciousness and you do not experience it anymore you will seek it. 

Look at expert work for inspiration.  It is where you could be tomorrow.  Do not compare yourself today to expert Buddhist monks.  Compare yourself to where you were yesterday.

If you cannot meditate no matter what you do it is probably because you are depressed.  Try this trick.  Sometimes you will not feel like focusing on any activities.  This can happen sometimes.  Trying to fight it will make things worse.  Things that you found rewarding are no longer rewarding because you need a cue to trigger motivation for reward.  You cannot keep rewarding yourself with activities all the time.  If this happens during the time you are supposed to meditate and you cannot get yourself to do so no matter what you try have down time, lie down, and listen to a positive podcast.  You can resume your activities later.

Mix faith and positive emotions with your meditation.  The human mind does not want to engage in an activity that is uncertain.  If you view it as fun and fulfilling it becomes just that.  Do not worry about the other things that are going on in your life.  Faith and positive emotions that worked for your meditation will work in other areas.  

Now that some ways for you to motivate yourself to meditate have been discussed, it will make your meditation journey a whole lot easier.  You can use some of the techniques discussed, and even add to the list.  Next time you need a little motivation to meditate you know what to do.  

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Breath awareness meditation for beginners.

You can do breath awareness meditation while lying down, sitting down, or standing.  Sitting down is the standard meditation position, but you might find it better to lay down, so you are not distracted too much by painful physical sensations.  Find a quiet place where you will not be disturbed for at least 30 minutes.  It is not necessary for the place to be completely quiet.  Sound is part of the meditation.  It does not have to be dark either.  It does not matter because you will be closing your eyes.  Get an alarm clock to time yourself.  When you are starting out as a new meditator do not meditate for too long.  Pick a time that you know will be easier and more automatic.  Slowly increase the time as it become more automatic for you.  The instructions to meditate are as the following:

  1. Get into your meditation position.  Keep your back straight.  Relax your body.  Allow your tongue to touch the roof of your mouth and your eyes to roll up slightly. 
  2. Start breathing in and out through your nostrils.  Do not time your breath.  Just breathe naturally.  Focus on each breath as you breathe.  Observe the inhale, bridge, exhale, and bridge.  Feel the air coming into your nostrils and out of your nostrils. 
  3. You are going to get distracted by physical sensations, thoughts, and sounds.  It is okay.  The distractions are part of your meditation.  When you realize you have been distracted and are no longer focusing on your breath gently bring your attention back to your breath.
  4. You are going to shift back and forth between thoughts and the breath.  In the place where there are no thoughts is called the gab.  You are not going to know that you are there when you are there.  It is only when you come back to a thought you know you were there.
  5. Do not try to control the outcome of the meditation.  You are not trying to accomplish anything and nothing as to happen during your meditation.   Just relax and surrender to whatever unfolds.  Do not worry about perfecting your meditation.  The only wrong meditation is the one that you do not do. 
  6. It is our natural state to be happy.  Meditation helps you be in that happy place.  You experience your true self without the ego. You experience unbounded unconditional love.    
  7. Keep practicing the meditation for the duration of your meditation session.  You want to be comfortable.  If you need to scratch your nose do so.  If you want to open your eyes to see how much time you have left on the clock do so. 

If you miss a day of meditation, do not worry.  Just pick up the next day.  You are still going to get accumulative results of the meditation.   Over time as you do the meditation, you will begin to have less stressful days.  Meditation builds grey matter in the brain that serves as an insulator against emotional shock.  Experiment with your meditation.  Expand on what you are previously doing or what you know about meditation to stay motivated. 

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How to practice conscious breathing all day.

There are many benefits to breathing.  One of the benefits to conscious breathing is that it can be used to help us to be calmer and more relaxed under stressful situations.  We can maintain a meditative state not just during a meditation session, but other times of the day. You are not going to practice conscious breath all day, every day, for the rest of your life. It is unrealistic, but it can be used as one of many tools to support your meditation journey. To understand how to practice conscious breathing all day the following will be discussed:

The process of conscious breathing all day.

Situations when to practice conscious breathing and when not to.

16 second breaths.

The process of conscious breathing all day.

Start by paying attention to the inhaling and exhaling of air through your nose gently as you are doing an activity. Do not get frustrated by thoughts distracting you.  It is part of the process.  When you get distracted gently bring your attention back to your breath. In some situations, an activity demands your full attention, but when things clear up you can continue your conscious breathing. You can also repeat a phrase in your mind or count to ten in certain situations when you find it easier.

Situations when to practice conscious breathing and when not to.

There are situations where you need to be unconscious of your breath because you need your conscious mind to think for long periods of time.  When something demands your full attention, take a break. Continue when things clear up. You might not want to perform this action if you are giving a speech, driving a car, or any situation where you need to pay full attention.  Your conscious mind cannot focus on two things at once.  You can repeat a special phrase that will help you focus while relieving boredom and stress. It can help in rush hour traffic, and public bathrooms. The practice of continual breath awareness is perfect for drinking, eating, walking, watching television, waiting for someone, being a passenger in a car, and so on.  

16 second breaths

You can practice 16 second breaths anytime you are in a stressful situation that is causing you to panic and want to relax.  Breathe in for four seconds, hold for four seconds, breathe out for four seconds, hold for four seconds, and repeat the process as you need.  16 second breaths not only solve panic attacks but also the fear of one because you know what to do in the situation.  It should not be used as a replacement for your breath awareness meditation practice, but to complement it. The breath meditation makes you calmer and more relaxed throughout the day.  When you are calm and relaxed you automatically breathe more properly. You can also try counting backwards from ten or repeat a phrase in your head that will help you focus on solving the problem while staying calm and relaxed. 

Now that the following has been discussed: the process of conscious breathing all day, situations when to practice conscious breathing and when not to, and 16 second breaths you understand how to do these things better.  Become aware of inhaling and exhaling air through your nose while in activity.  If you get distracted, bring your attention back to your breath.  Do not do this practice when something demands your full attention. When things clear up again then you can continue.