Mindful in Minutes Method

[Music] hello everyone welcome to this episode of the Mindful and minutes podcast I'm Kelly and today I'm going to be just sharing like my personal General beliefs around meditation how I do it a little bit differently than other meditation teachers and then I'm also going to to share like my personal kind of mindful in minutes formula for like how I create so many meditations um why I do it this way and then I'm also going to share kind of why I made the choice to close my meditation teacher training for a little bit and then I will share at the end if you do want to join before it closes how you can do that and also how you can apply for a scholarship it just kind of occurred to me the other day that I've never really talked about my meditation philosophy or like how I do things differently and sometimes I joke and it's not really a joke it's for real and I'm really happy about this but sometimes I joke that like I am people's like meditation gateway drug what I mean by that is I know a lot of people come to this podcast and they are using it when they're just starting to meditate or maybe they've tried a few times before and it just didn't work for them and I just get so much happiness and fulfillment when people say like you helped me build a meditation practice or your meditations felt approachable or digestable or they had to do with like real everyday life stuff they were short they were simple and that makes me so happy because one of my life missions is to kind of demystify meditation and show that it's not that serious and it's not that hard and I just wanted to share like one how I came to that conclusion and also how I kind of formulate I think I'll probably call this like the mindful minutes method which sounds sort of serious but it's really not it's really not it's just like how I do it and why I do it differently than a lot of other meditation teachers so what I'm thinking for today my little outline is I'm thinking I will start briefly with my meditation origin story I've shared it before in depth on this podcast like a few years ago so I'm just going to kind of share like the bits that are relevant um to what I'm going to be talking about and then I want to share my personal meditation beliefs I want to share what I do differently for meditation the mindful minutes kind of guided meditation method and why I do it that way and then I want to share why I'm closing meditation teacher training for a while and yeah that's what I'm thinking so before we dive in let's do our quick little checkin how are we doing how are you doing I'm personally not that you asked I'm personally doing pretty well we are we're doing pretty well over here you guys know that like one of my highlights in the week is just getting to like sit in this little booth it's not even a booth this closet s in this tiny little closet crisscross on the floor and just create this podcast and it just brings me so much joy so much life so much fulfillment um so I am doing pretty well we are having a good day and the household pork chop has been having a little bit of a struggle I'm not quite sure why we're still figuring out why I think part of it is that I think he's still adjusting to becoming a big brother um you know we've had just like some small changes and also like he's three pork Chop's getting ready to start preschool you guys if you've been with me for a while you remember the days when we were all locked in in 2020 at home and I was shared that I was pregnant we talked about like pork chop for the first time all that he is getting ready to start preschool in the fall and I have to say there is like nothing cooler to me than when even though it's like you know Bittersweet I look at Poppy and she's already getting so big and so old already like it goes so much faster I think with your second but to be able to have conversations with pork chop to me is like the coolest thing like he's talking and we just get to like chat about the I don't know it's just like it's just something that has been so surprisingly amazing and pleasant but anyways we're having a good day around here um pork chop has been struggling to you know not get mad at his little okay need to wrap this up was really a tangent but basically things have been a little tumultuous the last few weeks poppy is crawling around she's moving which means she moves over to pork chops toys and then he gets mad sometimes he tries to throw a toy at his sister you know just typical like siblings stuff it happens but you know what there is so far sibling Harmony in the house today I am making this podcast I'm feeling great but how are you feeling check in with yourself I hope that you are doing well all right I'm wrapping that up thank you for listening to me and my you know few minutes of sharing there uh we're just going to dive in let's talk about the meditation origin story so again I know some of you have heard this before but to me it it just it's so important for me to share how I got to where I'm at in meditation because it really is why I do things differently so I started in the yoga space when I was a teenager I was always doing yoga as this form of like cross training for sports I was a sporty gal I was an active kid and I was there 100% for like the stretch I would skip out on shavasana I certainly wasn't doing meditation I wasn't there for any of like the woo woo stuff that maybe a yoga teacher would sprinkle in here and there and for some context this would have been I think I started yoga when I was like my mom had to like drive me to class at like gym at like Lifetime and like me off so I would have been probably 14 or 15 so this probably would have been this would have been early 2000s and so like kids weren't really doing this but I was there for the stretch for you know the cross training and I remember the first time that like I ever even learned what yoga was I was really young and I came across this book my mom had on the bookshelf and just had all these different like yoga poses and it was like that classic like 90s she was in kind of like um I don't know like a you know like a little bodysuit um just do these like very bendy like very big expressions of yoga poses and then there's also like a little DVD of yoga and a meditation practice that I saw my mom doing once no it wasn't even a DVD you guys it was like a VHS anyways this tell this is really dating myself and I like one time saw my mom like doing it and I was just like so intrigued and I would look at you know this yoga book and be like what is this Wild Thing um and then when I was 16 and my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer which you all know is a big turning point in my life and something that I've been thinking about and you can let me know what you think about this I'm thinking about doing some interviews on mindful minutes but only like my friends I made a list today and there's like six people on that list should I have should we have Mama Smith on the podcast I kind of want to I don't know if she would do it I really don't know if she would do it but I'll float the idea Pastor when I see her this week and and see what she thinks but I've been thinking about doing some interviews like I have just these really special beautiful friends like I have Gina who is a past life regression specialist I have Ashley who is like that's like astrology Queen I just there's so many people that I know that are doing really cool things that I kind of thought maybe I could have them on and like the woman who taught me how to do sound bath maybe she could do like a sound meditation 101 I don't know it's an idea that is sitting in there but I'm thinking about asking my mom would be on the podcast but anyways when I was 16 and I was her primary caregiver this was when I really started to dabble in like the non-physical aspects of yoga I didn't know it at the time but some of the things that I was doing to care for myself CU it was it was extremely hard I thought my mom was going to die I thought I was going to lose my mom and be this like teenager and not have my mom there I was worried that like you know I I think it's hard for me to like say that and not get emotional because I think about now you know two big things come up like one I think about you know going back to my younger self and just like wrapping her up in this hug and being like it is all going to be okay like this is such a hard hard hard moment in your life and a defining moment in your life but like it's temporary I promise you're going to get through this like you know I wish I could go back and just like hug my little 16-year-old self um but also I think about like what a beautiful presence my mom is in my life and now in like my children's life life and just like I don't know I was just so scared that I would never get to have that moment like she wouldn't get to like meet her grandkids anyways I'm going to take a deep breath but like in this moment I I didn't know it at the time but a lot of the things that I was doing for my own care and also I saw my mom like obviously like engaging in like prayer but also like visualization like her doctors recommended you know that she do like relaxation techniques things that we know helped to boost the immune system help us to recover it wasn't even called meditation I didn't know that's what I was doing at the time but now in hindsight I know that's what it was and it was so helpful for me it was helpful for my mom and you know after her surgeries and things like that you know we dabbled in like some restorative yoga instead of doing like a really fiery vyasa practice like my eyes were just open to how something like yoga and meditation and mindfulness can help support your mental and emotional wellbeing and it's not just something that gives you quote like a good stretch and then after this once we leave the I was really scared my mom was going to die era then we enter the era of uh loneliness and the era of loneliness that to me is very much like finishing High School I didn't feel like I could really relate to my peers that much because I was still kind of going through this thing like with my mom and I just a lot of high school stuff just felt kind of like trivial at the moment cuz I had this big life thing that I was dealing with and then when I went to college I was so lonely but it wasn't even just like I didn't really have a lot of friends cuz I didn't like I was lonely for other people but I was mostly lonely like for myself like I didn't really know myself I didn't feel connected to who I was and this was really like that I think was the deepest loneliness was like I was truly like lonely for myself and I didn't know who I was which I think is common I think you know that's not necessarily something that's unique to me like we all have to take this journey of like finding ourselves and turning Inward and a lot of us are currently on that journey and maybe we have different life things like I had to kind of refind myself after motherhood like what is this iteration of me like like who am I now who is she and I really felt that like during college and things even though I didn't have like a lot of friends and I wouldn't necess say that was like the best part of my life I still had yoga and meditation and there's a small local Studio there that I would go to and it just really helped me um kind of find Stillness and connect to myself and it gave me just like this fun special thing that I did I did it alone um but it really just time and time again like mindfulness and meditation yoga it was there for me when I needed something it was like that that Lifeboat for me when I felt like I was I was drowning and so when I graduated college that yoga studio was doing a summer yoga teacher training and I was so intrigued and I really wanted to do it and as you know I had a hard time wanting to do that because I didn't have a lot of support again like a few things weren't really popular so this would have been what this would have been 2011 2012 I think I I graduated college in 2012 yeah that sounds right um like people weren't just pursuing their dream as a job and w't just being like I want to go be a yoga teacher I want to find myself I want to do these things I didn't really have a lot of support except for of course Mama Smith but I didn't really have a lot of support people were like that's a waste of your college degree that's a waste of you know they people just were acting like this dream of mine was beneath me and that was so hard for me to reconcile Within Myself of feeling pulled to pursue something that just felt so right and so fulfilling and uplifting to like my spirit and then have people around around me be like why don't you go get an MBA why don't you get a real job why would you go to college just to go teach yoga things like that it was so so hard for me to reconcile these things and I remember being so scared when I told my mom we were like driving in the car coming back from like a doctor's appointment and I remember being nervous and I was like Mom I don't I don't know what I want to do after college but I think I want to teach yoga I think I want to do a yoga teacher training and I was so scared to tell her cuz I was worried that maybe she would judge me or that you know she would say the same things that everyone else was saying and she was so supportive and so loving and was like if you feel like that is what your heart needs to do then you should do it and she's always been my biggest cheerleader in all of this and it was in that moment that I realized you only need one person in your corner and it can feel like you have like a million people in your corner like if you have one person that says I believe in you that is like the best feeling so if anyone needs that person I'm happy to be that person I do believe in you anyone sitting there and you have a dream in your heart I do believe in you and like you just need that one person that knows you can do it and it just feels like amazing so amazing and so I just I don't know I felt like 50 lbs have been lifted off of my shoulders my mom was like if that's what you feel like you want to do like do it go do that yoga teacher training and the thing is is my mom had to help me pay for my tuition I could not afford it I was like nanny I was you know kind of working this like after school daycare but yoga teacher trainings are expensive I want to say tuition was like $3 to $4,000 and my mom helped me pay for it which is why I've always wanted to do scholarships for my programs when I could and I haven't really like financially been able to offer that um but if you listen to the first episode of this month this community mini um all the ad revenue is being set aside for scholar ship so I've decided to set aside two $300 scholarships for meditation teacher training and this is very much inspired by like I I could not financially afford my first training and if I wouldn't basically have gotten the mom scholarship to help I maybe never would have started this path that changed my life and now let me do this so I do have these2 $300 scholarships for meditation teacher training up for grabs before I close it um applications close on May 30th of 2024 I will put the link in the show notes so if you are someone who wants to do meditation teacher training but you're not financially able to um fill out an application and yes it's closing May 30th I cannot make any exceptions on that so if you're listening in the future and you're like a I missed it I'm sorry maybe you know this will come around again um but I'll put the link in the show notes but anyways I got the mom scholarship and even though I did a yoga teacher training and I loved it it was truly just like life-changing so great I still wanted to check all the boxes I started working in management um you know I I moved in with my boyfriend who's now my husband like I did the things that I felt like I needed to do and like just you know check those boxes do the things in the quote like right order but then when my husband got into medical school in Ral Missouri I you know decided that I was going to move with him and that I was going to leave everything and you know we were going to go there and we got engaged and you know all of this stuff and I said all right let's do it and when I first saw this town good old Kirksville Missouri if anyone is still listening from Kirksville Missouri hello you were like the The Originals of yoga for you before mindful men even existed I cried when I saw this town I had never quite seen anything like it it was very small it was very different than what I was used to and I remember we were driving through town like the main road I joke it's a one bar one Walmart Town it was like a three bar one Walmart town and we're driving through the main road and I was like crying and my husband was driving and I was like I just don't know what I'm going to do here Ben for work I I just I don't know what I'm going to do like who here is I was working in management who here is hiring managers and all this stuff I'm like crying and we both look there's this Long John Silvers which if anyone is not familiar I don't even know if they exist anymore it's like like fish and chips fast food kind of I don't know I've never actually eaten that one and on their little like Marquee it just says hiring managers now and my husband and I make eye contact and I just burst out crying and I was like I'm going to move here and there's nothing for me to do the only job I'm going be able to get is to be a manager at Long John Silvers which if anyone is a fast food manager you know what that was so judgmental of me but there is nothing wrong with that at all but I saw that Long John Silver and that sign that they are hiring managers and I all I saw was just Doom I was like what am I going to do and we were there trying to like find an apartment and it all just it was just one of it was really hard and like scary and anyone who's moved like for family or for their partner or anything you know that it's really hard to be the one that gets moved and not the one that's like moving for their thing because you basically are just letting everything go and not like moving to start something new like you don't really have anything waiting for you you're just starting all over so I cried when I saw the Long John Silvers Marquee and we ended up finding an apartment I went back home like I sat with it for several months before I actually ended up moving down there and once I did move down there and we had MAA the queen that was my you know like ultimatum I was like but I need a puppy I need a friend and I didn't really see my husband he was in school I didn't know anyone I had to leave my job I didn't have anything and I was really sitting with what am I going to do with my life like sitting meditating and I just felt I just I don't know I just felt this pull and I was like you know what like screw it screw what everyone has been saying I'm unemployed I have no friends I have nothing to do I'm going to pursue my dream and that's when I decided you know what I'm going to try to be a yoga teacher I'm going to try to to do this and it was in that moment that like all of this was born and like something so special and Powerful happened in that moment it was like so free to just be like you know what forget the list forget the you know society's timeline whatever it is I'm just going to pursue something that I feel called to do and so I did and I just started like this one little yoga class on Friday nights I started growing it over time and it was growing and growing and then during this time was when I really started to explore meditation I felt like although I loved my 200 hour teacher training they did do some work on meditation and you know what the is a real confession I didn't really pay that close of attention when I did my 200-hour teacher training I was still kind of in this mindset of like yoga is mostly the physical and we did have a teacher that you know taught us some different meditation techniques and explained it was one of the limbs of yoga you know all of that but I really I didn't I don't know it didn't stick with me that time and so then like a few years later I'm you know building this and I I I genuinely feel like I can't teach something that I don't don't personally know or do and I started feeling called to meditation and I had my students asking about it like I was curious about it and I just I was like okay like I need to learn about meditation so I started learning I started reading books I started like just diving into everything there like there were some like YouTube videos I just I started becoming this like meditation sponge and I was you know looking at all different types of teachers and styles like I dabbled in everything nothing was off limits and I started to meditate myself and I started like feeling really good and I I finally started feeling like that I could be alone but not lonely and I was just so interested in everything I was you know dabbling in you know guided meditations twim this is when I went and found the monks online and went and stayed with them for a while like studied there um present moment meditation walking meditation when I started doing like energy healing I learned about like chakras and chakra meditation candle gazing body scans I was reading books on like meditation to awaken psychic gifts like you know chanting Tantra which I think sometimes people think like Tantra meditation is like you know sexy time meditation it's like not really um it can be but you know it's not like Kine nothing was off limits and I just wanted to become this like little meditation sponge it was so fascinating to me and I loved practicing and making note of like what worked for me what didn't work for me what resonated with me what did I like like what techniques I felt were like really powerful and I just paid attention to how all these different styles and techniques made me feel and then I started pulling little bits out and like weaving those elements into my yoga classes into my personal practice and Into You Know The Limited meditation that I was sharing with others this took a long time it for like years I did this I would say like really really went head first into meditation for at least like a year and a half and then I ended up doing a um like another yoga teacher training that had more meditation in it and so then I learned more like that way but I was still reading books but at least for like a few years I was really just like all in on this which spoiler alert is eventually then what would inspire me to make my meditation teacher training was basically I wanted to build something where people could learn a strong foundation in like hours instead of years because this is what I needed when I was learning and wanting to share meditation with others but it just didn't really exist like I could only find trainings where they' focus on like like one style was like you'd get like your PhD in like this one really specific style and I didn't want that I didn't want a PhD in like this one specific style I wanted like bachelor's degrees and like all the Styles and then be able to then apply what I learned in those like to my everyday life which is what really led me to not only meditation teacher training and like my personal style of meditation but what I would consider kind of like the mindful in minutes meth this episode is brought to you by Pros have you ever been skeptical about custom Beauty because I certainly have I feel like my feed especially after I had baby Poppy was just flooded with like customize this personalize that and they all promised to fix my very sad postpartum hair um which is a real thing anyone who's had a baby ever since I had 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like there's a student for every teacher and a teacher for every student but not every teacher or every philosophy is going to work for every student or resonate with them and vice versa and that's what makes it so special beautiful like I know some people are probably thinking in a moment when I share like you know my formula for how I make these meditations and be Kelly why are you sharing the secret recipe and it's like I have no problem doing that because not only is there room for everyone everyone benefits from meditation and like helping people facilitate this journey to the self everyone benefits from that but also everyone has their own unique voice to bring to this this space and so anyone could take this formula and apply it but they're going to have to apply it in their voice and it's going to make it unique to them and it will be a different experience so this is what I personally believe when it comes to meditation so first I do not think that there is a one- siiz fits-all approach to meditation having dabbled in all these different styles played around with different techniques done meditation Retreats intensive trainings studied with monks read books watch YouTube videos like the full Gambit and spectrum of like really useful content out there to like maybe not so useful content out there all Styles have pros and cons and they're going to work well with some people and they're not going to work well with other people and it's all about finding my belief is finding like your personal sweet spot I feel the same way about like Health and Wellness in general and like even like with how you eat like everyone's internal chemistry is going to be different so maybe different foods will agree with their bodies differently and I don't think there's like one like this is the way also if anyone is telling you that their way is like the capital T the way be suspicious be suspicious of that because the only person that can tell you what the capital T way is for you is you now you can try what they're doing you can see if you know their way is also a great way for you but like if someone's like no no this is like the thing that will work for everyone I'm a little suspicious of that because I feel really strongly that meditation is not a one-sized fits-all approach and that what works for one person may not work for another person and and I really felt this when I was studying meditation I was like I don't want to say okay I'm going to be a vasana meditation practitioner and that's that's all I'm going to do is Vasa and I do I mean Vasa is great or you know I'm not just going to do you know whatever all insert whatever meditation style in there I think that they're all different beautiful tools and techniques that you can put in your toolbox and use them for everyday realistic situations and you can use them and apply them to like what you're experiencing in life like taking these small little elements of different styles and just collecting Tools in your toolbox that then you can pull out whenever you need them for me that's like the magic of meditation and like using different styles using different philosophies different elements and then knowing how to kind of utilize them to either serve your own personal practice or if you're teaching to serve your students right so for example let's say a student comes to me or I'm making a you know podcast episode meditation on sadness I'm going to take maybe the activating of the heart center from kindness meditation right that kind of activating the Heart Center welcoming in those feelings of like warmth and kindness compassion I'm going to take that element from loving kindness meditation I'm going to mix it with some emotional awareness which is kind of traditional in mindfulness meditation like present moment meditation kind of that sitting and just checking like how am I and take elements from that then I'm going to add in some mantras which you use like Transcendental Meditation and then maybe I'm going to do a heart chakra visualization that I learned when I was you know really dabbling in the chakra system and then boom you have this like recipe for a meditation for sadness taking 1 two three four different elements from four different styles of meditation and then using it to apply to your everyday life and the experience that like you're having because I think especially as we're practicing meditation it can be this amazing vehicle to go like really deep and to like unlock these new things these like new elements of your life but it also can be this really great daily self-care practice that takes a few minutes that just is this tiny little micro habit that makes a huge impact on your life and I've done both right now I'm kind of in like meditation maintenance which is just kind of every day committing to 10 to 15 minutes but I've also you know done Retreats I've you know taken vows of Silence I have spent you know hours on hours on hours meditating and there's you know a place for both but like I feel like for so many of us and this is really what I feel like embodies kind of the mindful in minutes philosophy or method if you will is that it's taking these different elements and using them in a way that benefits your real life and your real life things just to help you get closer to yourself also I believe that science tells us size does not matter when it comes to meditation short meditations are both realistic and effective and I think they are something that like we are just more likely to stick with it is hard to fit meditation is my life it is my personal passion and it is also my career and I still am meditating for maybe anywhere from you know 10 15 maybe 20 minutes a day and it is still extremely effective you I think short meditations are so realistic for so many of us and what is the best type of meditation in my opinion the one that you enjoy and you're going to stick with and and fits into your life and doesn't feel like it's this thing that you have to do or this new thing that you know you it it doesn't feel like a chore it's just this nice little micro habit that creates a big value ad to your life and I think that like short meditate like size does not matter also if you want to meditate for 30 45 60 minutes a day that is amazing too I personally am sticking to short meditations right now because I feel like I can fill my cup in that time and get what I need and be realistic about my meditation Habit in this particular very kind of busy Chaotic season of life I also think that the magic and meditation happens when this is I I call it where science and spirit meet so a lot of this is like with meditation it's like what do I feel and what do I believe what does my intuition say but also what does the science say and I love that sweet spot of like intersection between like spirit and science to me that really embodies like mindful in minutes um you know we can have some fun and do some of the the woo woo and do like an aura cleansing meditation because you know we can feel that we have this like energy bubble that sometimes can get a little gunked up right but then also what does the science say of like how does meditation rewire our brain to like have smaller physiological responses to anxiety triggers like really where science and spirit intersect like that's what I love like mindful ad minutes to be U mindful Adit I believe that meditation is a non-religious practice yes it comes from religious Origins and cultures that are more deeply rooted in like a specific religion but the practice of meditation itself is single pointed concentration so taking all of your mental power and focusing it on one thing if your mind was a light bulb meditation is taking that light bulb and turning it into a laser pointer and focusing it on one thing that to me is not a religious practice you absolutely can weave your personal beliefs and you could make it a part of your devotional practice or your spiritual practice or whatever it absolutely can be that I firmly believe that the actual practice of meditation is like training your brain and that is not against like any religion this typically comes up when I speak to my Christian clients that are concerned that meditation is going to be against their religion I firmly believe and I you know grew up um in the Christian faith I do not think that meditation is a religious practice practice in my opinion the actual act single pointed concentration um that's not religious however you could make your personal meditation practice be as spiritually driven or rooted as you wanted so that could be you know on a scale of 0 to 100 it could be a0 100 anywhere in between it's up to you I find a lot of Peace in my own kind of personal spiritual practice and journey through my meditation because I feel like when I quiet my mind and I turn inward that's where I can kind of connect not only within but then connect with anything else that I need to that's just me personally um I think that mindful in minutes and my kind of philosophy to meditation is take what you need and just leave what you don't show up as you are meditation is non-judgmental it is a tool that you can use at any point in your life for anything that you need just take what you need and leave what you don't need I think the best type of meditation is the kind that you're going to enjoy and that you're most likely to stick with and the one that resonates with you and that means that when I teach I'm taking elements from so many different styles and I'm utilizing them in different ways to help set my students up for their customized success based on their real life so what that looks like is um you know for mindful in minutes every meditation has usually like a topic so maybe I'm helping to set up you know back to that sadness meditation example I'm helping to set up any of my students that are coming to do this meditation on sadness I want to set them up for like sadness success if someone works with me individually or maybe we are on Retreat and they're like oh I want to work on meditation for this like every bit of advice or teaching that I give to a student is going to be innately customized and personalized based on the knowledge that I have of like all these different styles and techniques because I think that again we're just putting Tools in our toolbx but then like you're the Builder so you get to decide I want to use this tool and this tool and this tool to craft this thing and that's what I feel like my job is as a teacher is not only help you gather the tools but just kind of teach you like this tool works well for this so then when you need to use it in your everyday life you can so it's always a very kind of customized personalized experience when it comes to meditation it's not just like oh I'm you know I teach this kind of meditation so if you work with me I will teach you this kind of meditation it's going to be a little bit different which kind of leads me into the I guess Mindful and minutes guided meditation formula and again I have no qualms of sharing this publicly at all there is a student for every teacher and a teacher for every student and this comes up in meditation teacher training and people are like I really want to teach meditation but I don't just want to sound like my teacher like I don't just want to sound like you ke I want to find my own voice and that's why there's a whole section of meditation teacher training I'm like finding your voice because the thing that's so important about teaching meditation and all of you know this right is that you find a teacher where you just like their style you could go online right now and you could find thousands of let's say loving kindness meditation practices and I bet like pretty much all of them are really great but like the teacher's voice makes a difference you need to find a voice that resonates with you the way they you know maybe the length of the meditations they create maybe they weave in different elements or maybe they're kind of more like purists when it comes loving kindness meditation they're all doing it a little bit differently and it's just about finding the teacher that resonates with with you so I think that's so important as like a meditation practitioner is that you find someone where their Style resonates with you but also as a teacher I think it's so important that one you realize that it's nothing personal but that you find your own personal voice and share what you feel like you need to share and the students will come and that you can take these formulas or whatever it is um and do it your way and it there's truly room for everyone because we're all doing it with our own voice so for mindful minutes like meditations it's always going to have a topic so I'm going to pick a topic ahead of time rarely do I do any kind of an open-ended or like not really guided or like a do nothing sort of meditation that's just like not my style um it's going to have a topic because again I really believe like meditation is something that you can use to apply like your everyday life stuff stress anxiety sadness connection meeting the true self um um balancing your chakras anything so I've already picked the topic the first thing usually that we're going to do of course there's some deviations I've been doing this for six and a half years so you know sometimes I mix it up a little bit but usually we're going to do something to come into the moment and the body I think of it as like you're out you're living your life I do the same thing in my yoga classes too your mind your body your heart might still be you know outside of the yoga mat or outside of your body or somewhere else with you know some stressful interaction you just had or still still thinking about what you just had for breakfast I don't know but I think of it as like you can't see me right now cuz obviously this is a podcast but like you're out here you're like outside of your body so the first thing that I'll do is just bring you into the moment and into your body just like get into here get into your physical being then we almost always do a breath something even if it's a simple few deep breaths because I do this to calm the nervous system because it is pretty much impossible to go deep in meditation if you're in fight or flight so we always do almost always do some kind of a breath thing to quiet the nervous system so we can get more out of the meditation then we'll do some kind of a technique um this part is really broad it's like you know I mean it could be anything you guys know you listen to these meditations like it can be anything it could be Mantra maybe it's a more specific breath technique maybe it's a um activation of you know the heart maybe it's some loving kindness techniques maybe it's something from like you know Zen meditation I'll just take some kind of like a technique that I think works well for the topic and then we'll usually end with some kind of imagery now doesn't always have to be like a visualization right but it's something that maybe you will think about imagine um it'll be kind of an imagination piece and then I'll leave you there for a certain amount of time a few moments to really connect and go deeper and then we're done and that's it that's pretty much what I do for every time and it's going to be completely different even if that's the framework each practice is going to be different because I'm pulling in different techniques different breaths different ways to calm the nervous system different imagery um and you know I I think kind of the mindful am minutes method is just very much like we're just here to dabble and to meditate and to feel better and to just create this little micro habit that makes a big impact in our day and to show up as we are so that's kind of like the mindful minutes method so if you're listening to this and you want to take that framework go for it um it's going to be different CU it's going to be in your voice and I think like when people do meditation teacher training which I'm going to talk about in a moment yes I teach you like so many different techniques and tools and things like that but a big part of it is kind of like how do you find your voice because that's really the important part here so why did I create meditation teacher training and why did I spend so much time talking about things that weren't meditation teacher training to lead up to it basically it's because after I started mindful of minutes and I was kind of known for using meditation and imagery in my yoga classes people started asking me to teach them how to teach meditation and so much imposter syndrome came up when people started asking me this I was like me I cannot teach you how to teach meditation I feel like I'm sometimes just flying by the seat of my pants and I'm still figuring it out and I very much had this imposter syndrome of like well if I don't know everything like how can I be a teacher and I had to sit with it and through my own meditation I realized that it's not about knowing everything before you become a teacher it's about knowing enough information that what you have mastered whatever portion that is that you feel like you can then share it with others and kind of like expedite their process do you know what I mean it would be like the image that I have in my head is like a glass of water and if someone is like thirsty for example like the knowledge that I have if that is kind of filling up my meditation glass of water maybe there's someone who like just wants a sip and I have you know this halfway full cup I'm like oh well I can certainly help you with that like I don't need to have it all the way filled up to then be able to give anyone just like a sip I don't know that's maybe that makes no sense but that's kind of what I think about like the image that comes in my mind is that a teacher is someone who is still walking the path and still learning and still Gathering tools for their toolbox but also has these tools that they've kind of mastered that then the people that are further back on the journey you can kind of look back and help them along based on what you've already learned so I had to really sit and work through my impostor syndrome and I was like you know what I want to create the thing that I wish I would have had when I wanted to be a meditation teacher when I wanted to share this I want to create the thing like I could feel that there was this hunger and it's much more popular now but at the time I when did I first release meditation teacher training I want to say it was like four or five years ago I think 5 years ago and I was before I think I was even pregnant with por jop so probably 5 years ago and there was like this hunger people wanted to know like how to write guided meditations like I was doing a mindful of minutes like how do they share meditation with their patients their clients their teenagers like massage therapists being like how do I incorporate this yoga teachers how do I incorporate meditation School teachers well how do I incorporate meditation into this and they didn't want to go live with monks didn't want to go to Bali for 7 weeks to study they didn't want to spend years reading and digging through all of this information just to pull out the relevant bits they just wanted to know how can I start sharing this special thing with people like in a way that's simple and easy to digest and in a professional way just regular people who want to know how do I share the magic of meditation with others what is the foundation where does it come from how do I do it and like this this is what I wish there would have been something that would have taught me the foundations and someone have said okay Kelly here's the foundation meditation here's the history of it here's what's happening neurologically and physiologically when we meditate here's the different positions you can meditate in here's all these different styles here's all these different techniques here's how you use them here's what students tend to resonate with them here's how you can put them together to create a really special thing you know this is like I I needed the crash course like here's how you write guided meditations this is a mantra this is how you can use it here's how you actually teach meditation like how do you put together a workshop an event all these things that like took me years to figure out I was like I want to create the thing that I wish I would have had and that's what I did when I put together the 30-hour meditation teacher training like fiveish years ago and since then about a year and a half ago I added 10 more hours so it's now 40-hour teacher training I added a whole module like Advanced Techniques a lot more on like teaching on the back end like the business part of it like the teaching potential like even the earning potential if you've been following me along on like Instagram that's something that I have been I've been talking a little bit more about I've been feeling a little uncomfy with um just because we don't talk a lot about like money and meditation and things like that and um you know I I basically have more Tools in there for people to be able to quickly make up their investment in meditation teacher training because I get it it is $479 that is not Monopoly money I totally get it that is why one I'm you know have scholarships and two that's why I added more content on like here's how you can make up this investment quickly cuz like realistically to make up like $400 teaching meditation what that looks like is maybe you do maybe you create like a meditation ebook or let's say you do meditation like scripts that you write and you sell them and you sell them for $10 and you just have to sell 40 of them and then there you go there's like 400 bucks like a lot of ideas of like how do you quickly and efficiently make up this investment back like cuz I mean it it is an invest from someone who has spent a lot of time and money investing in learning these things um is a real thing it's a real investment um so I added more of that like I said Lots like Advanced Techniques uh more breath techniques like I just you know the more that I do this and the more that I learn I want to put more into that training um so yeah so that's basically why I created meditation teacher training and then to kind of wrap it up if you're like okay well if it's so great and you love it so much why are you closing it I am not closing it for forever um but basically I've had open enrollment all year and this course is done at your own pace you can do as much or as little as I have people who have signed up like two years ago and they're just slowly working through it I have had people that have completed this in like one intensive week it's totally done at your own pace but at the end I do you have to submit a final project and I review that final project and I get feedback on it and I take my time with it I also do monthly office hours where anyone who is in the training or is in Alum can show up they can ask questions they can send questions ahead of time it's very much just like office hours and going into the summer I want to focus on the students that I have in the course because I also want to focus on my family this summer is the first time first summer being a mom of two also pork chops getting ready for preschool like these Summers I know are like so fleeting and so I just decided that I am only I'm going to close enrollment um on June 1st so you have through May 31st uh to join and that's also why I'm doing scholarships and everything now and then I'm just going to close it for the summer because the summer I'm focusing on my family and I am focusing on creating a virtual version of Yoga Nidra teacher training which I'm really excited about I've really been wanting to do that but as I do that I mean it takes a lot of time to put that all together and also I'm really diving into even more yoga ner right now continue to expand and learn so I can just make like the most just I don't know so I can just do the absolute best I can also with yoga NRA teacher training and I want to give that you know my full attention um so I'm going out with a bang and if you do want to join meditation teacher training again I can't extend this so if you're listening in the future maybe it's open again maybe not I'll open it again I think fall or winter I'm not quite sure it'll be one of them I'm kind of thinking maybe I don't know maybe winter but we'll see um I do have some bonuses if you want to join so again you can click the link you can apply for one of two scholarships which is definitely an option um but anyone who joins before June 1st so through meditation meditation through May 31st which is also Mama Smith birthday so happy birthday Mama Smith um I have a PDF of 50 meditation topics so if you teach like one meditation class a week for a year that I'll have you covered a access to the replay of the double your students master class so anyone who teaches meditation um yoga Pilates any kind of um like a studio setting type class I did this Master Class A couple weeks ago on how you can double your students and enrollment in that I will give you a bonus module five extra hours on leveling up your teaching so it gives you like the four elements of an abundant business I teach you how to do um virtual Retreats successful ways to weave meditation into yoga classes there's five extra hours of bonus content in that module um and also access to a Master Class I'm going to be doing live tomorro is um but it's like totally full on how you can make up your investment in a few hours so I'm calling it how to make $400 an hour teaching meditation and yeah and if you're just here to learn and you're like I want to learn about all this stuff but I don't want to teach meditation that's totally fine just do learn all the things I would say the first like seven of 10 modules is like all just like learning about meditation the history the foundations the techniques guided practices all these things and then you don't ever have to touch the teaching modules or like submit a final project to get your certificate if you don't want to um definitely you could go and get the absolute like crash course in meditation if you want to do that like this summer that' be really fun and then you unlock access to like those monthly office hours um like I said and then any a lot of like bonus trainings like the double year students master class I just said hey anyone who's in meditation teacher training why don't you come for free um so you get some bonus learnings like periodically too so that that is that on that um I just wanted to I don't know share like my I don't don't know what to call this that this is how I feel about meditation like this is my method my my thesis I guess on what meditation means to me and the mindful minutes method so thank you for being here I appreciate you and and thank you for giving me almost an hour of your time I really really appreciate that and I hope wherever you are that you're having a wonderful beautiful day and everything I mentioned all the links to everything is going to be in the show notes okay bye