let's call it a voyage of the mind.

So before we begin, posture and breathing

make a big difference in meditation.

So if you're not already on a nice firm chair

with your back straight, pause this recording

and go find a nice firm chair with your back straight,

ideally in a place that's kind of quiet and peaceful.

So now that you're there, sit with your back straight,

try to put your feet firmly on the floor.

When I do this, I like to rest my hands on my lap,

palms up gently curled, so really no effort.

And now start to slowly breathe a bit deeper

than you were just now and a bit slower.

In and out, at your own time but just a little bit deeper,

a little bit slower.

If you like, a lot of folks like to breathe

in through their nose,

out through their mouth,

but the key, once again, a little bit deeper,

a little bit slower.

And as you do so, start to soften your gaze

if your eyes are still open,

and when you feel comfortable, gently close your eyes.

Now, before we get into the heart of the meditation,

I'm going to give you a few reminders.

This whole exercise is about exploring your inner being.

It's about curiosity.

It's about relaxation.

There's no perfect way to meditate.

Sometimes folks think that they're not doing it right

or their mind is wandering too much.

And then it causes stress.

And that's the exact opposite

of what you want meditation to be.

It should be fun, it could even be funny at moments.

You should be curious.

You should be enjoying it.

If there are some random distractions,

and there inevitably will be,

it could be sounds around you,

it might be part of your body that itches or tingles.

Don't let it stress you out, just accept it.

It's part of the universe.

It's just atoms doing what they do.

It's the universe doing its thing.

And no worries if you need to scratch

or adjust part of your body, no reason to stress.

Now to add to the idea

that this shouldn't be a stressful experience,

I'm going to ask you to do something

that may or may not feel completely natural.

I want you to smile right now.

Give yourself a good smile

with your eyes closed, just smile.

Obviously, we smile when we're happy.

But sometimes, making a smile

can actually make us a little bit happier.

It can make us a little bit less stressed.

So even if you need to force it, smile.

And as much as possible, as we go through this meditation,

as long as you don't have to force it too much,

try to keep a gentle smile on your face the whole time.

All right, now let's get into it.

So, one thing to keep in mind

as we start trying to still our minds,

is to just appreciate that you're alive.

You're in this vast mystery we call life

and that you're taking pause

to appreciate who you really are.

And the beauty of this mystery,

this existence, this universe that we share.

So as you breathe deeper and slower, your eyes are closed.

Try to become aware of your thoughts.

What are you thinking about?

Are they random thoughts, something you saw on TV?

Is it something going on at school?

Are you thinking about some tests you might have coming up?

Or someone at your school, you tend to think about a lot?

Just observe your thoughts.

Don't try to fight them, just observe them.

And as you observe your thoughts,

start to appreciate that you are not your thoughts.

You are something different than your thoughts.

They're all in there in your head with you.

But clearly, you can observe them.

You can see them go by.

Sometimes we can get lost in them.

But I think you're seeing right now

that you are not your thoughts,

you can actually observe your thoughts.

One metaphor that folks sometimes use

is that your thoughts are cars on a road

or cars on a highway.

And oftentimes, we're in the middle of the highway

and those cars are bombarding us.

They're hitting us, or we have to dodge them in some way

or they're overwhelming us.

And one thing to do to observe them

is just get out of the highway.

You don't have to fight the thoughts,

those cars will keep on going by.

But now that you're on the median,

you're no longer on the highway, you can see them go by.

And what you'll often find is

when you're observing your thoughts,

they start to slow down.

And so if your thoughts start to slow down, great,

really embrace that, start to realize what that feels like

when your thoughts slow down.

And then there's even going to be moments

when you have no thoughts.

For the next few breaths, try that.

Try to have no thoughts.

Just breathe in, breathe out.

No thoughts.

Just stillness.

Just your consciousness here in this universe.

No time, no space, it's all in your mind.

No thoughts, stillness.

Now as you try to keep that state,

your mind will inevitably wander.

You're going to start thinking about an assignment

that you have due soon,

you're going to think about something

that you have to do this weekend

or someone that you think a lot about, that's okay.

Don't beat yourself up, if your mind wanders,

just remind yourself, just gently nudge it back.

Try to get back to the stillness.

Say, oh, look, I got a little bit distracted,

I started thinking about something.

That's funny.

I'm going to get my mind back to the stillness.

I'm going to try to slow down those cars.

And so gently breathe in and breathe out.

And I'm going to give you a few minutes

to just sit there, still.

Breathing in, breathing out.

Being still with your thoughts.

If your mind wanders, no big deal.

Just try to nudge it back when you can.

And if the silence starts to get to you a little bit,

don't worry, I will be back for sure in a few minutes.

Now that you've had a little bit of time on your own,

I'm going to give you some ideas

that just might help appreciate who you really are.

A lot of times we get caught up in the day to day,

we start worrying about test scores

or things we have due or what people think about us.

But remind yourself that you are not that.

You are not defined by your test scores.

You are not defined by your grades.

And you are not defined by what people think of you.

You are pure consciousness.

You associate yourself with your body with your thoughts.

But they're part of you, they aren't you.

You're something deeper and you're something far larger.

Like the whole universe, if you really think about it,

it's a construction of your mind.

Your mind has set up the simulation for you to enjoy.

In theory, there's a universe out there,

sound waves stimulating your ear.

Photons stimulate your eye,

air particles bouncing into your skin.

But from that input,

your mind creates the reality that you're in.

When you realize that,

that everything you see is a construct.

It's a construct of your mind

to make sense of all of that information.

You realize that you're a lot more central

than you might have appreciated before.

And you also realize

that the things that you might have been thinking about

things at school, what people think of you,

your test scores, those are nice,

you should try to do what you can.

But they don't define who you are.

They don't define your reality.

Think about how vast the universe is,

not just vast in space, but vast in time.

Let put some of our problems in perspective.

100 years from now, 1,000 years from now,

will these problems really be that significant?

When you think about where you are, on this planet,

part of the cosmos,

are these issues really that significant?

So I'll give you a few more moments

to just think about those ideas,

to just think about the vastness of the universe

and what a privilege it is to be able to participate in it,

to see the beauty of it.

And how small some of the things

that we often define ourselves by really are.

And so now when you get a chance

gently with your eyes closed,

start to feel and hear the room around you a little bit,

get a little bit more in touch with your body.

And when you're ready, open your eyes.

And take these ideas,

take that stillness with you through the rest of your day.

And you should thank yourself

for taking the time out for doing this today.

And I encourage you to make it a practice.

Some of you might be skeptical,

what would a few minute meditation do for me?

But I can guarantee you if you do it day in day out,

if you make a practice of it, do it regularly.

Over a few weeks, a few months,

you're going to notice some changes.

You're going to see yourself be more open to experience,

you're going to see more beauty in more things.

You're going to just have a positive energy

that people are going to want to connect with,

that people are going to be drawn to.

And you'll also see that you're doing better

at some of those things we talked about before,

because you're not stressed about them anymore.

You're enjoying them.

You're doing what you can,

but you're not attached to the outcome.

You do your best, wherever the chips fall, that's okay.

If things don't turn out the way you want it, that's okay.

You just accept where things are.

And then you decide what other actions can you take.

Assemble your actions piece by piece,

so that you can get to another outcome.

But once again, if the outcome is what you want, awesome,

if it isn't, accept it and move on from there.

So I'll leave you in this meditation.

Thank you for joining.

And once again, thanks for taking time out for yourself.