Name: Here’s What It's Like to Meditate with Deepak Chopra
Uploaded: 2016-11-02
Duration: 20 min 27 s
Description: He took us through a guided meditation at Fortune’s Brainstorm Health.

[ MUSIC ] So I'm gonna take you through a 20 minute process. Meditation has been around now for thousands of years. In the last 30 years, there've been over 1, 000 papers, scientific papers, on the benefits of meditation, particularly for stress management. They are sleep, health and biological transformation. As David just mentioned, there is now reasearch that shows that meditation changes gene expression. So all the genes that are responsible for homestacy or self regulation, they go up and genes That cause inappropriate inflammation. They go down. And these papers have been published not only by our institution but many. So these days, we don't use the word mind and body. Bodymind is one phrase. Just like spacetime, it is one word. Mass energy is one word. Body mind is one word. Whatever happens in the mind has effects on the brain and the body and vice versa. So if you'll kindly relax now with your feet on the ground, uncross your feet. Be relatively erect. Keep your hands open. And we'll go through different aspects of meditation. Self awareness, self reflection, and transcendence. And mindfulness, which is a very popular buzzword these days. I basically awareness of mind, body, mental space, breath, etc. So that's what we'll do. Please close your eyes and we'll begin with just observing the breath. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] and as you observe the breath, perhaps your mind may drift, which is natural. When you become aware of that, just bring it back to [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Notice the breathing is spontaneous, we don't really breathe, we are being breathed by the biosphere. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Notice it's off the nature of a rising and subsiding. That we can not hold onto a breath. If you do, we'll suffocate. And that's true of any experience. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] And now just become aware of Any sensations in your body. So just be aware of sensation. Feel your body from the inside out. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Notice just like the breath Sensation arise and they subsided spontaneously. Go and hold onto that, just like we can not hold to the experience. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] And now we'll go a little bit deeper into the process, bring your awareness into your heart. And just with a little focus, Try and sense your heartbeat either as a sound or as a sensation. [ BLANK_AUDIO ]. Little effort, focus awareness, feeling your heartbeat either as a sound Or a sensation. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Now move your awareness from your hearts into your fingertips. Keep your hands open. Finger just pointing upwards and Try and sense your heartbeat in your fingertips. Just an intention. And you should be able to feel your heart beat in your finger tips. As a throbbing or sensation Or tingling something. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Just like the breath and sensations the heartbeat is an on- off phenomenon. It arises and then it subsides. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] In your own being. And one final time, bring your awareness into your own body, all of it. And just realize that the same. Heartbeat is in every cell. It's the pulse of life. In every cell of your body, spontaneous. Arising, subsiding. And now back to your heart, Bringing your awareness into your heart will engage in a little bit of self reflection. So keeping your awareness in your heart, mentally ask the question who am I? [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Allowing any sensation, image, feeling or thought just spontaneously come to you. A few times. Who am I? Not looking for an answer, but allowing any thought any emotion. Any feeling, any image to spontaneously arise and subside. Who am I? [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Who am I? [ BLANK_AUDIO ] The second reflection. Mentally. What do I want? What do I want? Allowing, once again, any sensation, image, feeling, thought, insight to spontaneously come to you. What do I want? [ BLANK_AUDIO ] What do I want? [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Third reflection. What is my purpose? [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Do I have a purpose? What is it? What is my purpose? [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Allowing any sensation, image, feeling or touch to come to you. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ]. Final question. What am I grateful for? What am I grateful for [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Allowing any sensation, image, feeling or thought to come to you. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] What am I grateful for? [ BLANK_AUDIO ] And now we move onto the next phase of our meditation. So mentally repeat your full name to yourself in the following way. In the following manner. I am and then your first name and last name. So I am Deepak Chopra. I am Mary Smith. I am David Hages. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] And now. You can allow your awareness to fill up with all the things in your life right now. All the things you have to do. All the experiences you're having, all your plans. Anything that comes up. Allow your awareness to fill up with all the. Perceived stresses. And all the things that you need to do. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Lots going on. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] And now drop your last name and just repeat your first name. So I am Deepak. [ INAUDIBLE ] I'm David. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] And now allow your awareness to fill up with any memory from your childhood, from when you were less than 14. Perhaps school, your home, your parents, your siblings, teachers, toys, birthdays, anything. Memories from childhood. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] And now discard your first name, and just repeat I am. Without any name attached to it. I am. Allowing all memories, all thoughts, all feelings, all images, to slowly fade. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Just I am. I am with no name attached to it. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] And now if you want, you can either continue with I am or traditionally replace it with a mantra. And the mantra is shivo hum, shivo hum. It means I am pure consciousness. But you don't have to think of the meaning. Just repeat the sound of the mantra. Shivo hum. Shivo hum. Shivo hum. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [ UNKNOWN ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Now finally, Let the mantra go. Let it go, and just rest in awareness. Just be aware. Just be aware of being aware. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Awareness is the ground state of being or conscienceness, before any feeling or thought. Arises. Awareness is who we are, a fiend of pure potential, spontaneous creativity, just being. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Awareness is existence [ BLANK_AUDIO ] And blink. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] The starting point of all feeling, thought, speech and action, being. So for the next minute just sit in awareness, sit in being. Rest in existence. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Okay, now let's come back to this location in space and time by bringing awareness to our body. Taking half a minute or less and opening your eyes. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] So that was a short journey in Self awareness, breathe awareness, body awareness what is called mindfulness, but a little deeper. How many people could feel their heart beat? How many people could feel the tear? So just to intention and tell us you got circulation from here to here this is Stimulating the autonomic nervous system which is responsible for self regulation. Usually we are in sympathetic overdrive. Which is called the fight- flight response. Always doing something. And our autonomic nervous system, we never give it an change. That was the first part, mindfulness. Then, there was self reflection, which again, we don't usually engage in, but it's important because then certainly you will have incites in what's important in your life. And the last portion was going from the conditioned mind to the pure mind. The conditioned mind is All the conditioning comes from society and media and all the bombardment of information that we are subjected to but as we took the labels off, we ended up with just awareness. And that was it. Thank you very much. Each of these aspects has a Effect on different parts of your brain. And now we can see it on things like MRI. We can see what happens to gene expression. We can see what happens to what we call self regulation and homeostasis. Thank you very much. [ APPLAUSE ] [ MUSIC ]

He took us through a guided meditation at Fortune’s Brainstorm Health.