| Course Outline: Schedule and Preparation This course assumes that you will spend 20 minutes a day for 8 weeks (in this it follows the example of the Mark Williams-Danny Penman course listed on the mindfulness book review list). Typically you will do one 10 minute meditation in the morning and a second one later in the day. You can choose to do the meditations lying flat on a bed or a yoga mat. Others prefer a chair with armrests. At several points the meditation instructions will ask you to write up your experience in a journal. This can be a paper exercise book. Alternatively you can use a journal app on your phone. In general the journal entries are no more than 5-10 words per meditation. To track your completion of the tasks remember to write the date and whether you did the 1st or 2nd meditation of the day. |
| Music Only Files When You Already Know the Instructions Most of the files below have approximately two minutes of narrated instructions followed by a meditation music recording of about ten minutes. If you have already memorized the instructions and you want a music only option then play the audio recording below. It will last for 10 minutes. |
| Week One – Two Types of Breathing Meditation 1 – Normal Breath Counting This exercise will take 12 minutes. It is based on Psalm 16:11. The writer is speaking to God and says: “In your presence is fullness of joy.“ At the beginning and end of the exercise say the scripture out loud including the chapter and verse (to help you memorize them). Before you start meditating choose a picture of Jesus by clicking on this link: Link to Google Images using the keywords “Jesus” and “Joy”. Pick an image that you think is helpful. Look at it and memorize it for 30 seconds. I am not suggesting that you should print out the picture and put it on your wall. This is partly to respect the anti-idolatry verse (Exodus 20:4) and partly because you should be able to do a version of this meditation anywhere (for example on a bus or an empty classroom). In this version of breathing meditation you do NOT try to change your breathing. You just observe it. Now get out your earbuds and relax in a chair or on a bed. When you play the audio track below try to concentrate on your breath by silently counting the out-breaths: one, two, three etc. On the in-breath just say the word “joy” silently imagining the picture you chose. It may be helpful to try to feel the coolness of the air as it passes into your nostrils. Everyone loses focus from time to time. The key here is to avoid getting annoyed with yourself. Just calmly return to number one and keep counting. As you repeat the exercise you can make into a sort of game by seeing how high you can count in ten minutes. When you are ready click the play button on the audio player below. It is audio only so there is no reason to keep your eyes open. In this meditation you simply sense your normal breathing. You should make no attempt to change your breaths. The track lasts about 12 minutes. Meditation 2 – Peace Breathing This peace breathing meditation is based on Psalm 4 verse 8: “In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, LORD, make me dwell in safety.” As with the first meditation you will be counting your breaths. On the in-breath say the word “peace” and on the out-breath do your count. Peace – one Peace – two Peace – three. This time you will allow your breath to slow down. Try to feel the in-breath go deeper, deeper, deeper into your lungs. Try to follow the feeling of the breath go a little bit deeper into the body each time. Now the instructions will end. Remember silently say the word “peace” on the in-breath and count on the out-breath. If you lose count just gently come back to number 1 and start again. This meditation might be useful in helping you to relax before sleeping. You might also want to consider it if you have experienced an upsetting news item or conversation. Assignment for week 1: On each day do Meditation 1 in the morning and Meditation 2 at some point later in the day. Remember to write entries in your meditation journal. |
 Week Two – Open Monitoring Meditation 3 – Red Light White Light Meditation “Open Monitoring” is the skill of being able to notice different thoughts as they come into your stream of consciousness. Let’s imagine three ways of thinking about sadness. Option 1: You say to yourself “I am sad”. If you say this to yourself the sadness seems like a fixed characteristic like your hair color or your eye color. Option 2: You think “I am having a sad feeling”. This version is better because you know that feelings are temporary. Option 3: You think “I am starting to have sad feelings”. This is the best option of all because if you do this you might be able to change your focus before the feeling has done much to change your mood. In this open monitoring meditation you will develop the skill of noticing different types of thought as they arise. This is to implement 2 Corinthians 10:5 “We take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ.” Now imagine yourself in the courtyard of a beautiful castle on a summer day. You might want to look at the castle on the Web page. You are lying back on a garden lounger. The temperature is ideal. It is warm without being too hot. Next to your lounger is a small table with a light that you turn on and off by a voice command. You just mentally say the word “off”. If during the breath counting you notice a negative thought, something that might cause sadness or worry, mentally say “red off” and the red light will turn off. Any other types of thought, pleasant thoughts or your to do list, cause a white light. Mentally say “white off”. Do the breath-counting again with joy on the in-breath and the count on the out-breath. If you lose count just gently come back to number 1 and start again. Assignment for week 2: On each day do the Open Monitoring meditation in the morning and then do one of the two meditations from week 1 at a different time of day. Remember to write entries in your meditation journal. |
| Week Three – The Five Joys Meditation 4 – The Five Joys Meditation 5 Joys Worksheet as a Word File 5 Joys Worksheet as a PDF File The most effective way to do the 5 joys meditation is to print out the work sheet and write complete sentences in the boxes. Then you use those sentences to create your own audio file describing your own specific blessings. If you don’t have time to do that right now you can get a flavor of the meditation by writing down the happiest events in your life from five different time periods. This audio will assume that you are at least in your 20s, if you are younger you might need to stop and use the worksheet. For this audio pick 5 specific events from the following time periods or situations. Write down the happiest event from your elementary school years, your High School Years, From one of your school vacations, your years after High School. Finally you will pick your favorite memory from either a birthday or Christmas day. You might need to pause the recording to write down the five events. Another way to find joyful events from your past would be to review old photo albums. Many of us save the digital photos when we change phones. Reviewing those photos may be a helpful source of information. In this meditation you will try to implement Psalm 103 verse 1 “Praise the LORD, my soul; all my inmost being, praise His holy name. Praise the LORD, my soul, and forget not all His benefits”. Take 10 breaths to quiet yourself and then we will move into the 5 joys. You might need to be able glance at your list of events as we move through the audio. Assignment for week 3: Only listen to the 5 Joys Meditation 3 times during the week. If you have used the worksheet and created your own personal meditation we want to keep this fresh and avoid over-playing it (over-played pop songs get boring don’t they). Instead keep this meditation in your emotional toolkit. When something upsets you and you might start binge eating (or lapsing into some other addiction) why not whip out your earbuds and do the 5 joys instead. For the other meditations in week 3 (two per day) pick from the meditations you have done in earlier weeks. Remember to update your meditation journal. |
| Week 4 – Self-Compassion Meditation 5 – Self-Compassion Meditation In this meditation you will try to put into practice 1 Corinthians 10:24 which says “Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor.” It might seem a little bit strange that this meditation is about self-compassion but many parts of it focus on reflecting love outward to others, but in fact this is the path of true joy. As we try to focus wellbeing on others that goodness cannot help but splash back on to us and bless us. Before starting this meditation you need to write down the names or descriptions of three people for you to bless during the meditation. The first person will be from among your closest friends and relatives. After the close person, pick someone more distant that you see regularly but you hardly know. Perhaps that person serves you food or works at a store you use. We’ll call this the more distant person in the meditation. Finally you need to think of someone who seems cold to you or who has wronged you, whom you can forgive. In the beginning don’t pick someone who will cause you to feel intense angry emotions. Just as a wise weightlifter picks up progressively heavier weights, when building up your forgiveness muscles you start small and then build up. During each phase of the blessing you will repeat these six words: Have peace, Have Joy, Have Health. You might want to say the word “Have” slowly on the in breath and the second word on the out-breath. Assignment for week 4: Do the Self-compassion meditation once a day in week 4 and one of the breathing meditations for the other meditation of the day. You should vary the people who receive your blessing as you do the self-compassion meditation. Add brief notes in your meditation journal if you have been able to implement any of the practical blessings. |
| Week 5 – The Body Survey Meditation 6 – The Body Survey Meditation In this meditation you will survey the feelings you have in different parts of your body. It will allow for you to consider a particular part of your body that is causing pain. If you are not feeling any pain then simply thank God for the gift of health when you reach that part of the recording. One of the main aims of this meditation is to avoid secondary pain. Primary pain is the actual physical sensation itself while secondary pain is the additional baggage we pile up on that pain through negative emotions. We might get angry about having the pain. We might feel sad that it will never go away. To deal with secondary pain try to consider some ways in which the pain might be temporary. Do you have a medical appointment coming up? Then try to be thankful for your future healing. Is it possible that some kind of therapeutic exercise might prevent the pain? Again do those exercises and be thankful for your future healing. The best antidote to secondary pain is to assume that the pain has some good purpose. The Bible verse Romans 8:28 says: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Sometimes you might have to thank God for the pain even if you do not see a good reason. Perhaps you will have a role in helping others with their pain. Towards the end of the recording you will be asked to imagine the perfection of our bodies that takes place between the burial of our bodies and the resurrection. This is described in the Bible verse 1 Corinthians 15:42 which says: “When buried, it is ugly and weak; when raised, it will be beautiful and strong.” The other meditations in this series have not required listeners to have any particular supernatural beliefs. This has been done to make the meditations friendly to people who are seekers but not yet believers. If that describes you then when the recording mentions resurrection bodies then just go with the flow. Imagine what you would feel if you did believe this and let it motivate you to research the topic further. This meditation will assume that you are lying down on a matt, a bed or a sofa. |
| Week 6 – The Survey of Yesterday Mediation 7 – The Survey of Yesterday Meditation The Bible verse 1 Peter 5:8 says “Be sober-minded; be watchful.” In this meditation you are going to try to keep a close watch on what happened to you during the previous day. In this exercise you will try to replay the previous day in your mind as if it is a movie. You will try to discern if you felt any particularly strong positive or negative emotions during the day. This meditation assumes that you have certain typical events in your day such as breakfast, lunch and an evening meal. It also assumes that you travel to a place where you work or study. If this does not fit your experience then you might need to create your own audio recording or simply do the exercise using the music only file at the top of this page. The purpose of this meditation is to help in the process of discerning any temptations to feel negative emotions like worry and depression and to develop a plan to defeat them. If you do this meditation for a week and fill in your journal entries you might notice some patterns of behavior to avoid. If this meditation raises questions about things you might add or subtract from your daily routine then check out this Web page on “intentional activities”. It has links to books that discuss how your mood might be affected by exercise, social media usage and a variety of other activities. |
| Week 7 – Defeating Negative Self-Talk For this week’s meditation there is no audio recording because you have to create your own audio recording based on your own specific character strengths. Before you complete this worksheet, it is necessary to identify your top five character strengths. Using an online survey at this Web address: www.viacharacter.org Click the “Take the Free Survey” button. You will have to complete 10-15 minutes of online questions and then you will download a report that will list your character strengths. When you have downloaded the report on your character strengths you are read to fill in the 5 Strengths Worksheet. The Five Strengths Fill-in-the-Blank Worksheet as a Word File The Five Strengths Fill-in-the-Blank Worksheet as a PDF File Please download the version of the worksheet that is most convenient for you and follow the instructions to fill in the boxes. Next read out the sentences using an audio recorder on your phone or whatever audio-recording method you prefer. If you are not fully satisfied with your event list don’t think of it as a fixed product. Can you think of ways to bless others with your character strengths? Perhaps you could make someone the focus of your blessing in the self-compassion meditation and then carry out a good action that you could add to your Five Strengths meditation. The key thing with this meditation is to keep your focus on the best side of your past life. As it says in Philippians 4:18 “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” Assignment for week 7: Listen to your Five Strengths meditation three times in week 7 and use one of the breathing meditations from week 1 to complete the requirement to meditate twice a day. Keep the Five Strengths meditation in your toolkit and play it to yourself at times when you feel susceptible to negative self-talk. |
| Week 8 – The Your-Best-Self Meditation For this exercise you will need to use the VIA Character strength report that you used for the meditation in week 7. Use it to fill out one of the two worksheets below. The Your Best Self Fill-in-the-Blank Worksheet as a Word File The Your Best Self Fill-in-the-Blank Worksheet as a PDF File While in week 7 the meditation was looking back into the past the Your-Best-Self meditation requires you to look forward and imagine your best possible life in different areas using your various character strengths. Since this is an entirely private exercise there is no reason to limit yourself. If your dream is to be an astronaut or the President of the United States then give yourself the freedom to dream that dream. Your default expectation is that God has a better plan for you than the one you design for yourself. As you start the audio recording of your meditation say the Bible verse Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Assignment for week 8: Listen to your Your Best Self meditation three times in week 8 and use one of the breathing meditations from week 1 to complete the requirement to meditate twice a day. Keep the Your Best Self meditation in your toolkit and play it to yourself at times when you are tempted to do activities you want to avoid or when you feel you need to motivate yourself and you feel short of energy. |
| After the 8 Weeks – What is a Good Maintenance Plan? Different meditators will have different answers to this question. If you think you have made good progress towards your goals then 10 minutes a day might be enough to maintain the benefits. If not then stick with the 20 minutes a day. If you think this process has been helpful why not try to pursue it with a group of people? There is a set of free resources for small groups called www.TheCharacterCourse.com Try to find a group to go through the course with you. |