Intro to the Nature of Meditation Podcast Episode 1

Michelle introduces her "Nature of Meditation" podcast, aiming to explore silent meditation. She shares her background in mindfulness, psychology, and counseling, explaining her motivation to start a PhD in meditation. Michelle describes her deliberate, mindful speaking style for the podcast and its accessibility to a wide audience, including some Buddhist influences. She emphasizes experiential learning and includes silent meditation practices at the beginning of each episode for listeners to connect with themselves and be present. Episodes will cover theoretical teachings and guided meditations, encouraging listeners to use their breath as an anchor for meditation practice. Michelle aims to create a peaceful, nurturing space for listeners to relax, reflect, and grow in their meditation journey. Hello, my name is Michelle and welcome to this introductory episode about this Nature of Meditation podcast that I'm going to be creating throughout 2025. Today is the 7th of December 2024 and I'm making this introductory episode to explain what the podcast Nature of Meditation is going to be about and how you might get the most out of it. I also want to say a bit about myself and my goal, motivations and intentions for creating this podcast on silent meditation practice. I'm an English Mindfulness teacher and coach with a professional background in psychoanalytic psychology and humanistic counselling. My students and clients have been asking me to create a podcast about meditation practice and so here it is. One of the motivations to create this podcast is my intention to start a PhD in meditation next year so that the creation of this podcast acts as a meditation research device to prompt my research and study of silent meditation. I also practice as a distaught counsellor which is a phenomenological experiential approach focused on present moment experience in the here and now. Distaught therapy is also considered a humanistic approach in that a lot of heart is needed to stay unconditionally present in the moment without criticism and judgement of oneself, one's experience and of others. The motivation for and intention therefore is to help me learn, reflect on, develop and consolidate my understanding of silent meditation, an embodied present moment experience. I'm in the process record and share my understanding with my students, clients, friends and the general public. I'm aware that my current understanding of silent meditation and also my current meditation practice is limited at this time and that the understanding I possess now is not complete and unchanging but is growing, deepening and changing over time. So if I made a podcast on silent meditation in five years time, maybe after completing a PhD in meditation, obviously my understanding would be different and the content of the podcast and my way of speaking and being would be different to how it is now. I also want to say a bit about my way of speaking in this podcast. I have written psychoanalytic research papers on diagnosis through the phonetic sound of the voice, but any person searching through podcasts and videos, online for study or entertainment purposes, will understand that the question of who one chooses to listen to is a subjective and personal matter. Many factors come into play in choosing to listen to a particular public speaker, teacher, coach or therapist. So I want to be transparent as is possible and share with you that the audio recordings that I'm producing for this podcast, I'm purposely using a deeper tone of voice and a slower pace of speech than I use in my personal and social life. In my social life and personal life, for example, my voice is much more melodic with higher tones and pitches, containing much more of my personality, using much more intonation and a much wider, broader width between the high notes and low notes. But that's not the case in the way that I'm speaking for you at the moment. So I'm deliberately using a more mindful and careful way of speaking for these podcast recordings, much more intentional as I use in my psychology research presentations and in my clinical practice. And my intention for my voice in these recordings is to reflect a peaceful and spacious mind transmitted through the notes and tones of my voice with many silences in between. So I will be speaking at times and I will be silent at times. And there will be pauses, gaps and spaces between my words and sentences. Empty spaces that are more important than my words. So I invite you, as best you can, to gradually become comfortable with the empty spaces between my words and sentences. And just as much as you may feel, hopefully, comfortable with or attached to my words, I hope you will feel drawn to enter into the spaces and a spacious state of being in meditation. So I understand that deliberately speaking in a slow and mindful way may not appeal to everyone. Some people may experience it as helpful, soothing, relaxing. Others may experience it as challenging, annoying, frustrating or jarring. But I hope many people will find a deliberately slow and clear voice with a spacious pattern. I hope people will find it both awakening and soothing and be an aid to silent meditation practice. At the same time, it is important for me to be natural and not sound false in any way. So please feel free to adapt anything I say to aid your learning and comfort. And feel free to speed up the pace of my speech if the audio device you use has that facility to do so. Another point to note is that this Nature of Meditation podcast is designed to be secular and accessible to as many people as possible. However, some episodes on the various elements of silent meditation will contain words and terms from the Buddhist tradition. This is because I am a Zen Buddhist and my meditation journey over many years, more than 20 years, has been within Buddhist communities. Mainly within the Mahayana branch of Buddhism. These philosophies, traditions and texts I have studied and practiced. If a Buddhist term is used in an episode, it will always be translated into English, undefined and explained. And generally I will try to avoid using Buddhist language or any religious language in these audio recordings that are designed for the general public. Another intention for this podcast is for it to be as experiential as it is theoretical. That is, for it to be a practical learning and experiencing of meditation, by way of practicing meditation and being meditative. Listening to the Nature of Meditation episode is not meant to be an intellectual exercise. Although, if something you hear helps you gain insights into the Nature of Meditation, and helps you experience a meditative state of being, then that is all to the good. I start all my mindfulness classes and coaching sessions with a 5 minute meditation practice. To create space for people to arrive and settle into experiencing their present moment experience. Therefore, I will start every episode with a 3 minute silent meditation practice. To give listeners time and space to arrive. To put down any projects for the duration of the episode they are listening to. And the 3 minute silence is an invitation to notice what is going on for you at that moment. Notice how you are feeling and what is on your mind. Notice your state of mind and the state of being that you are in, in that moment. Notice how your body is feeling in that moment. Noticing how your breathing pattern is in that moment, on that day or evening that you are listening, with your attention and your presence. And your awareness of how you are in that moment. And just letting however you are be as it is, so that you can let go of any projects for the duration of the podcast. It is helpful to make yourself comfortable and relax when you are listening to an episode. In order for you to facilitate becoming more present and aware. I suggest you find a quiet place to listen, where you won't be disturbed. And make sure all electronics, including your smartphone, are turned off. And I hope that listening to an episode on the nature of meditation will be a peaceful and nourishing experience for you to connect with yourself. Enter into presence and stillness, to decompress and relax. Another intention for this podcast is to create space, time, presence and awareness for myself and for my listeners. And I will also try my best to create kindness and compassion towards myself and my listeners, as this is a very important part of meditation practice. I suggest you give yourself time and space to listen to the podcast, so that you can relax and enjoy listening and learning. And you will know when is right for you to listen and set aside a period of time for yourself. Each episode will last approximately an hour, and I suggest you listen to the whole episode in one go, without breaks or interruptions. Being able to be still, present, centered and focused for a period of time, let's say one hour, is itself meditation and an achievement. Even if your mind wanders while you sit still listening. You can listen to a podcast episode whilst traveling on a long journey on the train, or making a long car journey. Some episodes are teachings on the nature of meditation, and therefore more theoretical, while other episodes are guided meditations, designed to be primarily experiential and meditative experiences. Okay, so there's a lot more I could mention about the nature of the podcast. But let's take a few conscious breaths together and pause for a moment. So, breathing in, aware that you're breathing in. And aware of your out-breaths as well, as best you can. Not changing your breath or manipulating your breathing in any way. I'd also like to invite you to use your breathing, that is, your awareness of the sensations of breathing in your body, as an anchor for your meditation practice. And no doubt, in many of the episodes, I will mention using your awareness of your breathing as an anchor for your meditation practice. And you can return your attention onto the sensations of breathing in your body. Whenever you notice your mind somewhat distracted, or you notice your attention moving away from the content of the podcast you're listening to, or if you're feeling anxious that day or at that moment, perhaps something in the episode brings up a thought or an emotion or sensation. That has an impact on you. And the invitation is to bring your attention gently to the sensations of breathing in your body. And just for a few moments, as best you can, try to focus your attention on the breathing. Relaxation is a necessary foundation of meditation practice. But we also want to stay alert and fresh. We don't want to become so relaxed that we become drowsy or sleepy. That's a very common trap or hurdle that many meditation practitioners not only fall into, but become deeply attached to that story and experience of becoming drowsy or sleepy. So one of my gifts to you, perhaps my first gift to you, is that you don't need to become drowsy, sleepy or disengaged or distracted. That doesn't have to be a part of your meditation, story, narrative, belief and journey. So there will be episodes that address each of the things I have mentioned about meditation practice. For example, why relaxation is a necessary component of meditation. Why being alert is necessary in meditation practice. There will be an episode on the role of awareness. The role of presence. The role of non-attachment to momentary experience. And episodes on many various components of silent meditation practice. For now, though, we're simply arising, gathering ourselves, our energy, our attention, developing a relationship with our attention, with our field of attention, our field of awareness. I should say our attention that I hope will become able to rest in our field of awareness. And allow things to become pleasant and coagulate in their own way and in their own time. No pressure if your present moment awareness is currently not stable in your field of awareness. And by allowing things to arrive and coagulate, I mean allowing your attention to settle down and become more even, more steady and grounded in your field of awareness. So here we are now, learning to consciously be aware of our breathing. Just happening naturally and automatically without us having to think about it or make it happen. Just noticing our breathing to help us steady our attention on what we're hearing. Hearing in the present moment. Consciously perceiving and listening to the podcast. You may be aware of your breathing and the room you're in. And you may also be consciously aware of some thoughts and feelings and sensations that you experience in your moment-to-moment awareness. Consciously being aware of your moment-to-moment experience. And an invitation to make yourself as comfortable as possible. But at the same time, be open to welcoming any discomfort. Any unknowing inability, not needing to get anything right. Okay, let's start to wrap up this introductory episode on what this podcast, The Nature of Meditation, is for and what it's about and how it might be. There's lots more that I could explain, but I don't want to overload you with information now. Thank you for being here and bringing your presence and attention. And I hope the podcast will be a gift and a blessing for you in some way. And that it will help you formulate your own understanding of The Nature of Meditation. Whether your understanding will be the same or different to mine. I hope you will be developing your own unique understanding. And taking whatever's helpful and leaving what doesn't resonate with you. And I hope to take as many people as possible with me on this learning journey that I'm excited to go on with you. And you're most welcome to post comments below on the various podcast platforms that I will be using. Such as SoundCloud, Podbean, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and maybe some other podcast platforms. So you're most welcome to post comments on those platforms and direct message me. And email me if you have any questions about something I raise in a podcast episode. Or about your own meditation practice experience. And I'll be happy to respond and help if I can. So I look forward to meeting you again in the next episode that will be the first actual teaching meditation. So looking forward to sharing more with you. See you, well not see you, but meet you again in the next episode. Bye for now.