And I panicked like you probably had moments of that this week, And I hustled straight to a Dollar Tree (store) knowing that they had canned goods on their shelves and also frozen food items.

So, I filled up three carts worth of food. I wouldn’t call it possibly the healthiest things, but I got a lot of canned vegetables. I got frozen cheese, frozen fish, wild salmon. I don’t typically eat that, but I got it for me or for anyone.

So, I know that I panicked. I went to another store and got some more items. We are probably feeling panic.

So, let’s think of this thought, “Emotions are more contagious than any virus.” That’s from Deepak Chopra, He’s on YouTube lately, a lot. He’s doing very mindful conversations during this Covid 19 epidemic (PANDEMIC). I recommend the ones that say Covid 19 (ACTUALLY THE TITLES SAY ‘CORONA VIRUS’)

He’s a calming voice in a storm.

So, the plan is to talk to you for five minutes and then we will always go into a ten-minute meditation.

There’s a promise in Goldie Hawn’s book, 10 Mindful Minutes, that if you meditate 10 minutes a day for eight weeks you build the prefrontal cortex—that’s the more mindful part of your brain. And you decrease the gray matter in areas like the amygdala that are the fight or flight response. (Here’s the actual quote: “By sitting and mindfully breathing for ten minutes a day, in as little as eight weeks you strengthen the part of the prefrontal cortex involved in generating positive feelings and diminish the part that generates negative ones.” Richard Davidson, PhD, 10 Mindful Minutes by Goldie Hawn and Wendy Holden, pg 61.)

(click here for a link to the book on Amazon)

So that’s how we are going to spend our time together.

Next time we meet, I have a very professional video on posture my son did (for me) way before Covid 19 became a big face. So, I’ll put that out there because posture’s an important aspect of meditation, and it’s something I would like you to learn.

So, in the meantime, like Deepak Chopra says, we are in a time of concern and rightfully so, we should be concerned. There seems to be time to do something about our fears and we need to act appropriately. However, our minds—our egoic minds—travel to a future that hasn’t happened yet. Which (could be thoughts like), “I’m gonna starve.” “I’m going to get the virus.” “I’m going to die.” “I don’t know if I can take care of myself.” These are worries and anxieties. (Maybe they) are legitimate concerns eventually but right now you’re with me in some room with a plan to meditate. You’re hearing my words right now and those concerns in the future, they haven’t happened yet. If you’re here now listening to this all is well. Now.

And so now the next aspect of this will be a guided meditation. In this meditation I’ll guide you through breath. Not so much a breath anchor specifically but (instead) a whole experience of our breath—its expansion and its contraction.

Okay so, let’s meditate.

Of course, let’s get in meditative position. You’re going to want to have feet flat on the floor, vertical (at calves), horizontal (at thighs), vertical (at torso). Short people might need a pillow behind their back for the chair they are in. Tall people might need cushioning (ON THE SEAT) if their chair’s too small.

Some women might need a pillow (ON THEIR LAP). This will be explained in the next video. So, there’s no stretch in the neck. So, we have comfort happening now.

So, what I want you to do (and I will close my eyes, too, but I’m also going to make gestures. Maybe the first time you see this (the video) through, you’ll be interested in the gestures.

But there’s an area that is here (AT THE NOSTRILS) where our nostrils are. I want you to pay attention to this as I guide you.

There’s an area that’s triangular that includes our sinuses. Pay attention to that as I guide you. And then we will go further down the airway into the abdomen where there’s an expansion and a contraction.

So, I’m letting you know ahead of time that this is where I am going to guide you.

So, you’re situated?

Close your eyes. Meditation is going inward and the reason we close our eyes is to go inward. In one sense you are anchoring at your ears hearing me, but the primary anchor in mindfulness meditation is at the breath. We are going to do a breath guiding meditation.

So, normal breathing. Just breathe in normally and breathe out. Keep your mouth closed if you can.

Breathe in through your nostrils and out.

For those of you with colds or have a problem breathing nasally you are going to breathe through your mouth and that’s okay, too. We will have a discussion about that as we travel. (I didn’t discuss it further in the video, but note that when you breathe through your mouth, there will come a time when you need to swallow. The saliva in your throat will travel down the esophagus but the flap for breathing closes off your airway so food saliva or food don’t get into your lungs. I am very conscious when that happens. I have noticed getting a slight anxious feeling when I can’t breathe at the mouth when I swallow. So, if I have a cold, I choose to anchor with my attention at the abdomen area.)

This is where the rectangle comes in. (The video shows two thumbs touching horizontally right under the nostrils above and two index fingers touching horizontally above the nose to make a rectangle.)

I want you to pay attention to the air as you breathe it in at the nostrils. It’s as if our noses are straws and they are sucking air gently into the body. And there are two straws. And as they pull the air in, how does it feel at the nostril opening? Can you feel the sensation of the air? Pay attention at the nostril—at the air coming in.

And now shift to the air coming out. Pay attention at the nostrils every time you exhale. What does it feel like at the nostril?

There’s an in-breath and an out-breathe. An in-breathe and an out-breath. Can you hold your concentration there? That (location) in one sense is an ideal primary anchor point. Right there at the nostrils. Because you are concentrating very hard at feeling the sensation of the air going in at the nostril and the air going out.

But let’s journey back into the nasal cavity and go toward the sinus area. That’s the triangular portion (of your nose and face). (The two thumbs and two index fingers form a triangle. Thumbs are under the nose. Index fingers come together in a triangle shape near the sinuses.) As the air goes in and hits the sinuses, do you notice a coolness? Anchor at the sinuses with every in-breath. Do you notice the coolness?

And at the exhale at the sinus area, do you notice a more neutral sensation? I wouldn’t necessarily call it, in my experience, a warmth although you might. But it’s definitely different at the inhale at the sinuses. Do you notice the difference at the exhale past the sinuses?

Some people anchor at the sinuses because they can feel it so well. That becomes their breath anchor. You can discern that at the end of this meditation.

Let’s continue down the nasal cavity to an area of the body called the pharynx. This is an area where the nasal air hits the back of your throat and if you were breathing through your mouth, it also hits the back of your throat. Those two airways meet at the pharynx. You can open your mouth and breathe in a large breath and you can feel a coolness hit the back of your throat—hit the back of that pharynx. And there’s even a way where you could kind-of nasal breathe and throat breath just to get the sensation that air is hitting at the same spot at the back of the throat called the pharynx.

You’re simply being mindful. Paying attention. On purpose. (Sorry for my videographer son’s sneeze.) As an experience with your airway.

And let’s travel further down our airway into the chest. (Notice) on the in-breath the expansion of the chest.

And on the exhale, a collapsing of the chest. It’s not huge but there’s a collapsing. Notice that happening on the out-breath at the chest. Expansion ribs open, because of lungs expanding. Collapsing as the lungs collapse and air leaves our nasal passage.

And then go further down the airway. It’s the diaphragm pushing against, I’m not exactly sure what. It feels as if there’s an expansion going on at the abdomen. It’s because the diaphragm is pushing down making more air for the lungs to expand. So, notice the expansion at the diaphragm or really at the abdomen. It’s not like your stomach is expanding. It’s just that it feels that way only because of the diaphragm pushing down so there’s a general expansion on the in-breath and a collapsing on the out-breath.

And then another thing to notice is that at the end of the breath, there’s a pause. Do you notice a pause at the end of the breath?

And then things collapse, abdomen, chest, out past the pharynx, out the nasal cavity (nose) and there’s a noticing at the other end of the breath. There’s a pause. There’s a pause before you drink in the air and there’s a pause before you exhale.

Now, all of these things are kind-of interesting. It’s mindful awareness. Let me remind you that you can anchor at the rectangle under your nostrils. You can anchor at the sinus area. It’s a triangle. You can anchor at the expansion and contraction of the abdomen. Those are common areas people use to anchor at the breath.

Now the time will be going off very soon. You figure out your (breath) anchor spot.

If you do it at the nostrils, that’s very fine concentration. Feeling the air gently touching the nostrils (on the in-breath) and gently going out.

The next time we meet, I’ll discuss posture. And if you want to continue silently (to meditate) with your breath anchor, continue to do so.

Thank you for watching.