Mindfulness Meditation Exercises

Permanent stress, as well as sadness and negative thoughts, end up affecting our body in

many ways. The following exercises are equally beneficial for those who suffer from anxiety,

depression or for those who are simply going through moments of stress, worry and/or sadness.

When we practice states of deep relaxation, we give our body the opportunity to recover,
regenerate and heal itself. The body has an incredible capacity for self-healing, all you need
is the opportunity to do so by controlling negative mental states to the best of your ability.

These exercises, either single or combined, serve equally to practice self-hypnosis, deep
meditation, to relax your body-mind or simply to sleep.

You need only space and time in which you will not be interrupted; You can accompany
the exercises with relaxation or meditation music and anything else you like candles or
incense to make your practice more enjoyable.

I have tried these exercises on countless occasions to guide people into a hypnotic trance,
and despite their apparent simplicity, they are as or more powerful than many other seemingly
striking hypnotic induction techniques.

Further on you will find a complete sequence of self-hypnosis to reach a hypnotic state for
yourself.

Following Your Breath

This exercise is the most basic and universal but is in itself sufficient to reach the
hypnotic state or states of deep meditation once you have enough practice.

1. Close your eyes and pay attention to your breathing.

2. Feel the sensation of air when inhaling and exhaling.

Listen to the sound of your breathing at all times, both when inhaling and exhaling.
Do not try to control the process, let your body do it without your conscious intervention.

3. Only observe and follow your breath.

Do not try to stop and just observe any thought, image, memory or sensation that arrives
without judging, analyzing or criticizing what happens in your mind, just observe what happens.

4. When you get distracted by engaging in some thoughts and become aware of it, return
all attention to your breathing; Do this as many times as necessary.

Breathing and Mental Counting (synchronization)

This exercise is the same as the previous one, it only adds that we mentally count the
exhalations we make.

1. Follow the same exercise instructions Following your Breathing.

2. Start focusing on your breathing and count the exhalations from 1 to 10.

3. Without pause, continues now counting backward from 10 to 1.

As in the previous exercise, if you feel that you lose your concentration by being distracted
by thoughts, images and/or sensations, just continue counting on the number you remember.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Progressive muscle relaxation is a technique that involves tensing specific groups of
muscles and then relaxing them.

1. Sit relaxed in a comfortable chair or armchair where you can keep your back straight.

2. Close your eyes; breath deeply and slowly 3 times.

3. Keep your eyes closed and perform the Breathing and mental counting exercise with the
the variant that works best for you.

4. With your eyes still closed, direct your attention to one of your hands until you have some
feeling of heaviness, lightness, tingling, warmth, etc. and focus on the feeling without doing
anything but feel it. A moment like this remains.

5. Open your eyes and perform the eye fixation exercise.

6. Perform the exercise Perceiving Sounds and try to capture everything you can, including
your own breathing.  

7. When you feel that you have reached a state of deep relaxation, visualize that you are in
a place that you imagine or know but that floods you with peace and serenity, or simply let
yourself be enveloped by silence, darkness or images that arrive and let yourself go; There is
nothing else to do,  your unconscious mind takes care of everything.