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October 1, 2020

Why your meditation practice is not working – Kit Laughlin with Yusef Smith

So many people want to start meditating, but agonise over what school of meditation, or what lineage, or even what type, with what goal. In this two-hour discussion between Kit Laughlin and Yusef Smith – from Propane Fitness – detailed instructions for how to start meditating are given, and the show notes below will help you find any section of interest.

Kit was talking to Dr Yusef Smith, the co-owner of Propane Fitness, and himself a keen meditator. Find him here: https://propanefitness.com.

Time stamped show notes:

00:00 – Intro
00:45 – Yusef mentions “Stretching 2.0”
01:45 – we are here today to talk about meditation
03:00 – what kind of mediation is best?
04:00 – basic instructions on how to start meditating
05:30 – learning styles have changed
07:10 – learning from written word
08:15 – follow along stretching programs vs recipe programs
10:15 – I have been meditating for ~35 years
10:50 – the need for simple, follow-along meditation programs
11:00 – what exactly is meditation?
11:45 – the Four Postures of meditation
12:15 – Yusef talks about the Daniel Ingram podcast
13:00 – Yusef talking about Daniel’s approach
13:45 – Yusef talk about shortening of attention span in modern era
14:15 – the “Six-second Abs” approach to meditation
14:45 – Kit asks Yusef, “What do you think the meditation project is?”
16:10 – Yusef talks about The Big Picture Medics podcast
17:00 – a surface take on different approaches
19:00 – “Undoing the illusion of self!” and the superficiality of modern takes on meditation
20:00 – “a McMindfulness approach is still better than no approach!”
21:00 – inhabiting the body to develop awareness
21:45 – Yusef talks about the unpredictability of psychedelics
22:10 – Kit: let us go into the detail
23:45 – get started in two minutes!
25:00 – “feel your body” does not connect, for many people
25:50 – Yusef describes his experience with Vipassana retreats
26:30 – most meditator’s primary experience on their first retreat is pain
26:30 – the basic instructions continue
27:45 – the “meditation object”
28:15 – “feel the movements in your body we call ‘breathing’”
29:00 – meditation is an *embodied* practise
30:45 – ‘one-pointed’ awareness as alternative; ‘open awareness’
31:05 – “what is happening now?”
31:45 – as you breathe in, what do you feel?
32:00 – a thought will come into your mind
32:45 – “a bad meditation session”
33:30 – “hold your awareness GENTLY on your meditation object
34:30 – “be nice to yourself!
36:30 – stickiness
37:25 – “unsatisfactoriness vs ’suffering’”
38:30 – experiencing sensations IS being present
39:45 – paying attention to what’s actually happening (not what you think is happening!)
41:10 – your body only has one language
41:50 – we are not trained to attend to sensations
42:15 – the most important things in this life are what the body experiences
43:30 – thought as a ‘time stamp’
44:20 – “I’m not a meditation person”
45:50 – “I’m speaking to an audience of typical Westerners”
46:45 – “There’s no such thing as a ‘bad training session’”
49:00 – “I’m a knowledge worker”
49:45 – Kit’s recommendations for Yusef’s practise
50:15 – lying relaxation/meditation
51:20 – why Kit recommends a lying practise
51:45 – learning meditation is about unlearning many habits
53:00 – Kit’s first insight
53:45 – relaxation is just another habit
55:20 – humans are more dog-like, than cat-like
56:45 – Yusef on how being relaxed can become the new norm
57:15 – the thought stream
58:45 – Kit’s experience on retreat in Berkeley
1:03:05 – why it’s so important to be able to relax
1:04:05 – “I don’t have to be, or do, anything”
1:07:00 – a few quick questions
1:08:00 – pay attention to *what’s actually happening now*
1:11:30 – importance of comfort in stretching
1:13:30 – life-changing skills
1:14:30 – not adding anything
1:17:30 – breath counting
1:24:15 – experiencing serenity in the body was life-changing
1:24:30 – mantra
1:28:00 – Yusef mentions “neural down-regulation”
1:29:30 – the difference between being relaxed and deeply relaxed
1:31:30 – sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems
1:34:30 – the importance of being aware that one is relaxed
1:35:45 – engaging with reality directly
1:36:10 – difference between non-attachment and detachment
1:37:00 – anger
1:41:45 – the ‘dis-ease’ of being you
1:43:45 – Yusef’s final question: what should we *not* do?
1:48:00 – what do you want out of your life?
1:51:00 – Kit chastises Yusef’s reading style!
1:51:50 – the book “Essentialism”
1:52:30 – knowing what you don’t want
1:55:00 – being a beginner by choice
1:58:30 – Rousseau’s great quote


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