**10 Minutes to Melt Away Stress — Guided Meditation with Zen Master Henry Shukman — Transcript & Summary | SozAI** Source: https://sozai.app/transcript/10-minutes-melt-stress-guided-meditation/ Guided 10-minute meditation by Zen Master Henry Shukman to reduce stress and develop a healthy relationship with thoughts. ## Key Takeaways - Meditation reduces stress by calming the nervous system and promoting balance. - It is normal to have thoughts during meditation; the goal is to notice and gently let them go. - Comfort and relaxation in posture enhance the meditation experience. - Consistent quiet time without distractions gradually transforms consciousness. - Success in meditation is measured by regular practice, not by achieving a thought-free mind. ## What the video covers - Meditation helps dial down the nervous system and restore balance. - Many people feel stressed about meditation due to misconceptions and discomfort with stillness. - Common myth: meditation requires having no thoughts, which is false. - The practice focuses on developing a different relationship with thoughts rather than eliminating them. - Guided meditation encourages comfortable seated posture and relaxation of the body. - Thoughts are categorized into three types: memories, plans, and imaginings, then gently acknowledged and released. - The meditation emphasizes wakeful rest and present-moment awareness without distraction. - Regular quiet and stillness positively impact unconscious mind and overall consciousness. - The goal is consistent practice of stillness rather than perfection or blissful experiences. - The meditation concludes with gentle movement and encouragement to appreciate gradual changes over time. Answers ## Questions about this video Do I need to have no thoughts during meditation? No, having no thoughts is a common misconception. Meditation is about developing a different relationship with thoughts, noticing them, and gently letting them go. How should I handle distracting thoughts during meditation? When thoughts arise, acknowledge them and categorize them as memories, plans, or imaginings, then thank them and gently return your focus to the present moment. What is the main goal of this meditation practice? The main goal is to spend a portion of the day in quiet and stillness without distractions, which gradually impacts and improves your unconscious mind and overall well-being. ## Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown 00:00 Speaker A Welcome to Meditation Monday. It's a joy to be back with you. Thanks for hopping on. So many of us come to meditation to help us with stress, and rightly so. Meditation is a great vehicle for dialing down our nervous systems, coming back into homeostasis, into more of a balanced state. But I've noticed over 15 years of teaching meditation that it's not uncommon for people to get stressed about meditation. There's good reason for that. In meditation, we're still, we're quiet, and for many of us, we just don't do that in the course of our day. We're busy all the time, engaged in activities. We also don't have distractions. If we're feeling uncomfortable, we, you know, we can't reach for the phone while we're meditating or whatever our favorite distractions might be. So it's perfectly natural. But there's even a bigger reason, I think, where people get stressed around it, which is that we commonly think—I did it myself for years—that there's something that I'm supposed to kind of measure up to, there's some way my meditation is supposed to be. And one of the common misconceptions right there is about thinking, thinking that we're supposed to have no thoughts when we meditate. Basically, it's rubbish. We are developing a different relationship with thoughts. It's true, but our brains naturally secrete thought, as some people put it. So we're not aspiring to have total, you know, radio silence within when we meditate. Not at all. So in this sit, we're going to deal with and address some of this meditation stress, i.e., stress around meditation itself, particularly when it comes to thinking. So let's come into our comfortable seated position. Get yourself set up seated in a way that feels good for you. We want to be comfortable. We want to be able to relax. So right now, we can close the eyes or lower them if you prefer keeping them open but lowered. Just give yourself a moment to come back to you. This is really about you. It's about you as you are right now. And, you know, sometimes we also get inklings that it's about coming back to some sort of deeper sense of myself, something that in a way has been here all my life and that I may have journeyed far from, but now we can start coming back. And it begins with being here just as we are right now. So let's again check how much tension we're holding in our jaw and release the jaw. Imagine there's a little sling right under your chin that you're or can rest in and let it rest. Let your arms hang like the sleeves of an old coat, totally relaxed. See if you can find a certain sense of warmth and softness in the chest, in the belly, in the hips, and letting legs and feet also be relaxed at rest. We're really just coming home to ourselves, to this whole life just like this now. As we're resting and being a bit more present, very commonly thoughts will come up, and before we know it, we're off on a train of thought. And then we realize, oh, whoa, I've been far away in another time and place thinking. Great, we recognized that that's happened. We congratulate ourselves. We've come back. And what we're going to do is just check where we were in our thinking, just enough to be able to file the thinking we were just in in one of three files: memories, plans, imaginings. So just check what kind of thinking it was. File in either memories, planning, or imagining. Thank the thoughts for showing up and come back. So as we go, I'll offer a few little prompts. Sitting here in a restful state, present, not needing to do anything, just noticing when thoughts have come up, when we've been carried off by thinking. So any time thoughts have arisen, note them, welcome them, and file them in one of those three folders: memories, planning, imagining. And when there's no thoughts, just rest in being present right here, sensing your calm, relaxed body. You might notice some sounds around you, resting in the here and now, just this as it is, and recognizing that thoughts will arise and filing them according to that little scheme: memories, plans, imaginings when we notice they have arisen. So we're not trying to have no thoughts. We're just seeing if we can notice thoughts when they arise. We acknowledge them and we file them away in one of those three folders and come back to not really doing very much, basically a kind of wakeful rest and attentive not doing, just being with our experience as it is right now. Soft body, some amount of sounds around us, and sometimes thoughts. Okay, let's gently bring a little movement back into the body, whatever might feel good for you. Some people like to sway. Some people like to move fingers and toes, just coming back, raising the eyes. Great. Now, one thing that I just want to say as we conclude here is that the most important thing, I'm quite sure of this actually with meditation, is not sort of how well we think we do it or how good a time we might have doing it. And we will sometimes have blissful, peaceful experiences and so on. But actually, the most important thing is just that we spend a little portion of our day being quiet and still and not reaching for common distractions. Just that stillness impacts our unconscious. Just the fact of being quiet and as quiet as we are in our minds doesn't matter so much that we are actually just not talking for that period of time, quiet and still. It impacts. It feeds into our own consciousness, and it gradually changes us over time in beautiful ways that we can really come to appreciate more and more as we go. Thank you very much for joining me. See you next time. 00:20 Speaker A back into homeostasis into more of a balanced state but I've noticed over 15 years of teaching meditation that it's not uncommon for people to get stressed about meditation there's good reason for that in meditation we're still we're quiet and for many of us we just don't 00:40 Speaker A do that in the course of our day we're we're busy all the time engag in activities we also don't have distractions if we're feeling uncomfortable we you know we we can't reach for the phone in while we're meditating or whatever our favorite 00:54 Speaker A distractions might be so It's Perfectly Natural but there's even a bigger reason I think where people get stressed around it which is that we commonly think I did it myself for years that there's something that I'm supposed to kind of 01:08 Speaker A measure up to there's some way my meditation is supposed to be and one of the common misconceptions right there is about thinking thinking that we're supposed to have no thoughts when we meditate basically it's rubbish we are developing a different relationship with 01:27 Speaker A thoughts it's true but our brains natur naturally secrete thought as some people put it so we're not aspiring to have total you know radio silence within when we meditate not at all so in this sit we're going to deal with and address 01:46 Speaker A some of this meditation stress I.E stress around meditation itself particularly when it comes to thinking so let's come into our comfortable seated position get yourself set up seated in a way that feels good for you we want to be 02:09 Speaker A comfortable we want to be able to relax so right now we can close the eyes or lower them if if you prefer keeping them open but lowered just give yourself a moment to to come back to you this is really about you 02:33 Speaker A it's about you as you are right now and you know sometimes we also get inklings that it's about coming back to some sort of deeper sense of myself something that in a way has been here all my life and that I may have 02:53 Speaker A journeyed far from but now we can start coming back and it begins with being here just as we are right now so let's again check how much tension we're holding in our jaw and release the jaw imagine there's a little 03:27 Speaker A sling right under your chin that you're or can res in and let it rest let your arms hang like the sleeves of an old coat totally relaxed see if you can find a certain sense of warmth and softness in the chest 04:01 Speaker A in the belly in the hips and letting legs and feet also be relaxed at rest we're really just coming home to ourselves to this hour life just like like this now as we're resting and being a bit more 04:41 Speaker A present very commonly thoughts will come up and before we know it we're off on a train of thought and then we realize oh whoa I've been far away in another time and place thinking great we recognized that that's 05:02 Speaker A happened we congratulate ourselves we've come back and what we're going to do is just check where we were in our thinking just enough to be able to file the thinking we were just in in one of three files 05:22 Speaker A memories plans imaginings so just check what kind of thinking it was file in either memories planning or imagining thank the thoughts for showing up and come back so as we go I'll offer a few little prompts sitting here in a restful state 06:03 Speaker A present not needing to do anything just noticing when thoughts have come up when we've been carried off by thinking so any time thoughts have Arisen note them welcome them and file them in one of those three folders memories 06:52 Speaker A planning imagining and when there's no thoughts just rest in being present right here sensing your calm relaxed body you might notice some sounds around you resting in the here and now just this as it is and recognizing that thoughts will 08:05 Speaker A arise and filing them according to that little scheme memories plans imaginings when we notice they have arisen so we're not trying to have no thoughts we're just seeing if we can notice thoughts when they arise we acknowledge them and we file 08:52 Speaker A them away in one of those three folders and come back to not really doing very much basically a kind of wakeful rest and attentive not doing just being with our experience as it is right now soft body some amount of sounds around 09:56 Speaker A us and sometimes thoughts okay let's um gently bring a little movement back into the body whatever might feel good for you some people like to sway some people like to move fingers and toes just coming back raising the 10:25 Speaker A eyes great now one thing that I just want to say as we conclude here is that that the most important thing I'm quite sure of this actually with meditation is not sort of how well we think we do it 10:38 Speaker A or how good a time we might have doing it and we will sometimes have Blissful peaceful experiences and so on but actually the most important thing is just that we spend a little portion of our day being quiet and still and not 10:53 Speaker A reaching for common distractions just that Stillness impacts are unconscious just the fact of being quiet in as quiet as we are in our minds doesn't matter so much that we are actually just not talking for that period of time quiet 11:13 Speaker A and still it impacts it feeds into our ownc Consciousness and it gradually changes us over time in beautiful ways that we can really come to appreciate more and more as we go thank you very much for joining me see you next time Topics: guided meditation stress relief Zen Master Henry Shukman Tim Ferriss mindfulness thought awareness meditation misconceptions relaxation techniques present moment nervous system balance Study this video - [Flashcards from this video](https://sozai.app/tools/ai-flashcard-generator/?from=transcript&id=71008) - [Quiz on this 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