Finding the Meditation That Actually Feels Like You
Your Guide
Dr. Femke Bakker is a Selfgentleness guide, meditation teacher, political psychologist and former actor. For decades she was the strong one, tired and hard on herself, until she found a gentler way she now calls selfgentleness.
Journey Description
Many people start meditating with the best intentions, and then stop within a few weeks. Usually it isn't a lack of discipline. It's that the technique never fit who they are. This journey walks you through the basics that sit underneath almost every meditation practice, then introduces eight different techniques, one at a time, so you can try each one and feel what actually works for you. By the end, you'll know eight ways to meditate, and you'll be ready to choose the one, or the combination, that's truly yours.
Journey Tracks
Episode 1 The Basics Of Almost Every Meditation
Before you try any technique, start here, with the handful of principles that sit underneath almost every kind of meditation.
Episode 2 What Is Awareness Meditation
A short introduction to awareness meditation, a quiet, observing style of practice, and who tends to feel most at home in it.
Episode 3 Try Awareness Meditation
A guided awareness practice so you can feel this technique for yourself and notice whether it's a fit.
Episode 4 What Is Anapana Meditation
An introduction to Anapana, a breath-focused technique, and how it works with your attention.
Episode 5 Try Anapana Meditation
A guided Anapana practice, breath by breath, so you can feel whether this technique is yours.
Episode 6 What Is Loving Kindness Meditation
An introduction to loving-kindness meditation and how it uses warmth, not stillness, as its starting point.
Episode 7 Try Loving Kindness Meditation
A guided loving-kindness practice so you can feel this technique in your own body.
Episode 8 What Is Gratefulness Meditation
An introduction to gratefulness meditation and the shift in attention it invites of you.
Episode 9 Try Gratefulness Meditation
A guided gratefulness practice so you can notice how this technique lands for you.
Episode 10 What Is Kapalbhati Meditation
An introduction to Kapalbhati, an active breathing technique, and the kind of person it tends to suit.
A quick note before this one. Kapalbhati is a more active breathing technique, so skip it if you're pregnant or dealing with any breathing problems. If you feel dizzy at any point, stop and just breathe normally until it passes. This technique isn't for everyone, and that's completely okay. There are plenty of other techniques in this journey to find what fits you instead.
Episode 11 Try Kapalbhati Meditation
A guided Kapalbhati practice so you can feel this more active technique for yourself.
A quick note before this one. Kapalbhati is a more active breathing technique, so skip it if you're pregnant or dealing with any breathing problems. If you feel dizzy at any point, stop and just breathe normally until it passes. This technique isn't for everyone, and that's completely okay. There are plenty of other techniques in this journey to find what fits you instead.
Episode 12 What Is Energizing Meditation
An introduction to energizing meditation and how it uses movement and breath to shift your state.
Episode 13 Try Energizing Meditation
A guided energizing practice so you can feel whether this more active technique fits you.
Episode 14 What Is Transcendent Mind Meditation
An introduction to Transcendent Mind meditation and the kind of stillness it invites.
Episode 15 Try Transcendent Mind Meditation
A guided Transcendent Mind practice so you can feel this technique for yourself.
Episode 16 What Is Oneness Meditation
An introduction to oneness meditation and the sense of connection it works toward.
Episode 17 Try Oneness Meditation
A guided oneness practice so you can feel whether this technique speaks to you.
Episode 18 Which One Was You?
You've now tried eight different ways to meditate: some quiet, some active, some inward, some energizing. This closing episode helps you look back over what you noticed in each one and land on the technique, or the combination, that actually felt like yours. From here, you're ready to keep practicing on your own, in whatever way fits who you are.
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