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The Power of One Minute · Spiritual Sense: Practical wisdom to quiet an overthinking mind and recharge your soul

• 0:00
  Speaker A: Today we're diving into a one minute method to change your mind and your feelings. Would you like to learn something that you can do in one minute that's going to shift how you feel and what you're thinking? Isn't that wonderful? So we've been doing this sort of thing for many, many, many years and there's something very special about one minute. You know, we can easily tell ourselves, I haven't got an hour for meditation. I haven't got half an hour for meditation. I'm too bus. But we don't need an hour. We can do a lot of magical things in just 60 seconds. So let's dive into this fascinating topic.
• 0:42
  Speaker B: Yeah, let's dive into it.
• 0:44
  Speaker A: All right, here we are. Tell us all about it. Shreem, what's your experience with this one minute practice?
• 0:54
  Speaker B: You know what happened one time I, at that time, right, in my life, I was taking care of three things, like three full time things. Right. I was taking care of the center and we had a commercial space and was taking care of that and I had a full time job.
• 1:17
  Speaker A: 9 to 5. Job. Yes. Wow.
• 1:21
  Speaker B: 8 to 5.
• 1:22
  Speaker A: 8 to 5.
• 1:23
  Speaker B: 8 to five.
• 1:25
  Speaker A: That's more than full time. 8 to 5. My goodness. Wow.
• 1:29
  Speaker B: 8, 5.
• 1:30
  Speaker A: That's crazy.
• 1:30
  Speaker B: Full time job. So one day in a meeting, what happened was it was just getting to me, right? Everything was getting to me. The deadlines were getting to me and my job. I was working as a scientist and I had to do a lot of papers and you know, peer reviews, this or that. You had to meet a certain quota. You write certain things. You know, it's not like you just go and punch in a clock and you know, it was not like that.
• 1:59
  Speaker A: Would have been easier with chat back in those days, wasn't it? Write this paper for you.
• 2:04
  Speaker B: Right, right. It would have been a lot easier if Chad was there. But also, you know, it was not like, you know, like I'm at a cashier, right. It's like a mindless job. You don't need to think much. Anyway, so there was this one meeting and I really thought I was going crazy. I was so stressed and I was so stressed by the deadlines, I was so stressed by the responsibilities. I was so stressed by whatever was on in my life that I could not have like one thought to another thought. I couldn't have in the meeting, right. Because I was just so very anxious about everything. So in the middle of the meeting, I just got up and I went to my office. Thankfully I had my own office with you. Know, doors and stuff. It was not cubicles. It was the door. Sitting, the door. Thank you. Thank God for small mercies. So I went into my office and I sat. Tried to sit down for meditation. I was like, this is not working. I mean, I've been meditating maybe at that point, maybe for about 10 years. I'm like, I'm meditating for 10 years. And why are my thoughts so all over the place? Right? And so I went to my computer and I took our lesson from that day, and I took one sentence from the lesson. It was something, I am peace. I come from the land of peace or something. And because I couldn't really think straight, I started typing it. I am peace. I am from the land of peace. I am peace. I am from the land of peace. I started typing it, right? Would you believe it? In a minute, maybe my thoughts. My thoughts started calming down. That is when I really understood the power of a minute, because it just took one minute for the thoughts to calm down. It was wonderful.
• 4:10
  Speaker A: Wow. What a shift from totally losing it in the meeting to being like, oh, I feel.
• 4:15
  Speaker B: Yes. And then I, like, gathered myself and then went back into the meeting.
• 4:19
  Speaker A: Oh, thank goodness.
• 4:21
  Speaker B: Because I left the meeting in the middle. Right?
• 4:24
  Speaker A: Yeah. Sometimes you. That's the best thing to do, isn't it? You got to get away and just refocus, regroup. And that goes show, doesn't it, the power of these short amounts of time. I think that when I first first came across it was when I was in India in 2005, and I was in. I went there for five months to just meditate and eat mangoes. I had so many mangoes, and I. I don't know where I got this idea from, but I had this little timer, and it was my alarm clock, and it happened to have a timer on it. And I had this picture, the light God. It was like, representing the soul or God. And I used to sit on the floor with this picture. Like, the picture was leaning against a chair, and I was just sitting on the floor with this timer, and I was like, can I just focus on just being a spiritual being and remembering God for one minute at a time? So I sat on the floor and I pressed the button, and it would, you know, 59, 58, 57. As I'm like, okay, just this one practice. And we're going to be doing a lot of practices in this session that we're gonna. We're gonna do together with you, so you can practice this. So I was just practicing, and some of the Time I was having all these thoughts, and then the timer would go off, and I'm like, that I wasn't even focusing at all, pretty much. Then I'd do it again, and then I'd do it again. And. And it got to the point where I always find this absolutely fascinating that they got to this point where I genuinely thought something had gone horribly wrong with my timer, because I know what a minute feels like. And all of a sudden it expanded into like seven or eight minutes worth of time. And then I'm like, this. Something isn't right. And let me just check. Did I not press the button? And then it's like 24, 23, 22. And that was such a fascinating experience for me because it made me realize that even in one minute, we can enter into this alternative reality where we go beyond time and enter a totally different world where we're. We're outside. Like, the time literally expanded. And I couldn't believe how powerful some of these meditations were, actually, because I was just doing one minute at a time. One minute at a time, one minute at a time. So that. That's when I realized how powerful this is, because one minute can be a total game changer. And then the other thing I realized around this time was think maybe the reason I was doing this because there was a. There was a program called Just a Minute that was in England, and I was involved in that program. And I. There was like, leaflets I designed, and I was like this whole thing, Wembley arena. And it was this big, massive project. So this is what all everyone was talking about for like, like a year. And so there was all these one minute practices. So someone would start some, you know, start a session, start with a minute, and then there might be another minute halfway through and then another one at the end and then another one. So there's all these little breaks in the dates. Just see if you can go deep in one minute. And there's some really good meditations, actually we can put a link to from Sister JNT called Just a Minute, which are like one minute long. And so I just really got into this whole minute thing and it. And it works extremely well. So let's. Let's go into how they. Someone else can practice this. Shirin, what's your thoughts about that? How can someone do it? How can we get into works? It works great.
• 8:18
  Speaker B: It works. It really works. I have so many stories of how it works, but let's talk about how to do it first before I share more stories. So you can either have a Your phone. So use your phone. Or you can have a timer, right? So either way, so you put a timer, one minute timer on your timer or your phone. And what you do is you pick one thought, right? One thought. It can. It should be a elevating. I am thought. For example, I am peace. Right? Let's take a thought. I am peace. So that's a beautiful thought. I am peace. Or you could say I am soul. I am peace. Right? Beautiful thought. So you put a 1 minute timer on your timer on your phone or this. And then you start really getting into it very gently. I am thought. I am peace. I am soul. I am peace. I am soul. You visualize yourself and you see yourself and you keep repeating that thought. And what happens is there are two things you have to be aware of in the time or meditation is one is the amount of that you have a specific focus and you focus on that. And the second one is you have to keep track of when your thoughts are wandering. Because when your thoughts are wandering, it's not just about concentration but also observing your thoughts enough to see when your thoughts are wandering. And if your thoughts are wandering, you have to bring it back, right? This whole idea of focus and bringing back your thoughts again and again to the focus is really like your building spiritual muscle. So the soul becomes very strong because not only are you focusing, but you're also, every time your thought wanders, you're bringing it back. And so that's the method. And it can be simple things. I am. So I am peace. Or it. Another one that I do is breathe, right? I breathe and the first breath is just, I'm breathing in and out again. You can use the timer or you can just approximate a 1 minute in this case. You breathe in and out and you see your like you in your periphery, right? You're noticing the breath. You're noticing it going in and out very gently. You're noticing your stomach fall in and out or your shoulders or whatever, right? You're noticing all of that. That and suddenly from noticing the periphery like that, you bring in and you go inside and you start seeing yourself as a soul. And now the soul and the body and breath. So the soul is breathing through the body. So now the soul is breathing. You're just gently breathing in and out. But you're aware that the soul is, is the one making the decision to breathe through the body. The soul is the one experiencing the breath. The body is experiencing the breath, of course, but the soul is the one sustaining. You're aware of it. You're able to observe it. And so that's another very good method.
• 12:00
  Speaker A: That's great. The key thing with observing the mind is to do it with, with the intention of pulling things back. That's the reason we're doing it. We're not interested in how many negative thoughts we're having and why are we having them and what is the purpose of that and where are they coming from and how come that's related to my childhood and all the rest of that sort of thing. It's not. We're just saying I wanted to focus on this and I'm focusing on that. And so let's just come back to what I wanted to focus on basically without. So we're not getting into the thoughts about other things. We're just saying, oh, that's interesting. Back it comes down now, now, right? It's like you have to talk to it like a, like a child. Now, now, now you can bring it back. There it is, easing it, easing it back. And not to expect miracles right away because I think one of the things that causes people stress in meditation is that they say, well, if I'm going to sit here, I should be experiencing like divine joy and bliss straight away. And, and if I'm not, then that means I've failed and I'm no good and it doesn't work and you know, the world's out to get me and I'm a terrible person. That doesn't help. It doesn't help. So we say, look, let me just consider it a success if I sit down and practice and, and then the next time it's easier. Next time it's easier. Next time it's easier. And so 10 minutes of one minute sessions is way more powerful than one 10 minute session because the concentration is at a higher caliber. So let's do a practice. Yeah, okay, go ahead.
• 13:49
  Speaker B: About a couple of years ago, there was a, you know, someone who had a big business came to visit the center and they were complaining that, you know, this person was complaining that he had severe anger issues. Right. And what he was saying is he couldn't really tell when he would go off. It was not like in his control, right. He would just go off like totally scary. Right. And, and he was saying that, you know, he first came and he said, okay, it's all these people, they don't do what they're supposed to do. I'm paying them, they're slacking off. This, that, right. All of that is going on. So he initially went through that phase and then at Some point he realized that he needs to do something about this because he's really not having control over when he's going to have an outburst. Right? And so we went through this, right? We went through this one minute technique. I said, you either, you know, you can use the phone or you can just breathe or you can, you know, whatever it is, take a pause, one minute pause. And he told me, like the first 10 days or so he told me his assistant first noticed, oh, yeah, this is really working, right? Like, he's much calmer. And then about two, three months later, he came back and he said, you know, it really worked. And he said, it's not that I'm a different person. This is what. It was very interesting with what he said. He said, it's not that I'm a different person. It's not that, oh, I transformed any, you know, great shakes or anything, but the time between what has happened and my reaction, right. The stimulus and the response. That time he said, I stretched that. And, and that time, because I stretched that, I was. I'm able to see that I actually have a choice. I don't have to do this. I can just do my breathing or I can just do an. I am, you know, I am peace. I am peace really works. So I am peace. Because there are two things that happen when you do. I am peace. Right. First, not only are you really peace, that's your original quality, but also there's a cognitive dissonance that happens if you go out of being peace, if you start getting angry, the brain doesn't like it because you are like you're telling yourself you're peace. And the cognitive dissonance of getting angry, the brain, you know, the soul doesn't like it, so it comes back into peace. So two things happen. So, so those simple things, how much it helped that soul, it really helped that soul.
• 17:03
  Speaker A: It works miracles. It really does. And it's 60 seconds we're talking about. And. And it's just getting in the game, Getting in the game and that. Then it builds and builds and builds. So this guy, if he did one session and that was all he did, it wouldn't work. But he did it for 10 days or however long he did it. And it started to expand that gap the more he did it.
• 17:27
  Speaker B: Right, right. He did it for a month. Right. And the other one was very interesting. The other one, they just started doing the one minute, you know, put a timer, you know, the traffic control timer and all of that on their phone. And he was a doctor, right? Cardiologist. And so he decided that if he's with the patient, he's not going to pause. You know, he will just take a break. He will go outside and he'll pause and he'll come back inside. So now this patient. So he went through a bunch of tests with this patient. The patient is sitting here, and his timer goes off, that it's traffic control time. And so he's about to read, you know, the diagnosis for his patient, right? And he looks at the timer, the timer goes off, and he just goes out and he does his traffic control and comes back in. And he was saying his patient was sweating. Let me know what happened. What did he see? What did he see in my chart? What. What is so wrong with me? Right? Like, he was totally freaking out.
• 18:38
  Speaker A: Oh, dear. Dear. So you have to be careful. That is hilarious. Yeah. The other. He think he could have done it with his patient. Let's have. That might have freaked him out even more. Okay, before I tell you what's on this piece of paper, we're gonna have to take a moment's silence together. Let's just take a few breaths. Probably would have been even worse. Oh, dear. Yeah, we have to be. Have a sense of humor about all these things. So. Yeah, so let's. So what we're going to do today is we're going to do some drills with you. Right? Drills means just we're going to do a practice and we'll do a few together. Shireen is very good at this, and I do a lot of these as well.
• 19:25
  Speaker B: You're good at this too. No, I am, Michael.
• 19:27
  Speaker A: I am good. I just. I like to, you know, it's good to give Serene. Shireen's. Shereen's better than me at it, but that doesn't mean I'm not good at it.
• 19:35
  Speaker B: Oh, that's very sweet of you. I don't think so, but that's very sweet of you. That's your generosity speaking.
• 19:42
  Speaker A: We have to, you know, we have to put in the. Put in the work. You know, there's. There's always a hundred other things we could be doing other than our practices. That. That's what it is. And so having that, there's a moment where we're like, I could check my phone. I could do this thing. I could do this thing. I could eat something. Or I could do a practice. And that's like a magic moment right there, isn't it, to say, no, no, let me just. And that's why it's good to do. Have a Minute, because I. Most of us can say, all right, I'll eat, but I'm going to do one minute first or I'm going to take care of this thing. But I'll just do a quick minute now.
• 20:17
  Speaker B: So this one. Let's do the breath.
• 20:19
  Speaker A: All right?
• 20:22
  Speaker B: Take a deep breath in. And just breathe in and out. And I want you to, while you deeply breathing in and out, be gentle. Don't force the breath. Let it be natural but deep. You will start noticing your shoulders moving a little bit with your breath, your stomach moving a little bit. It's the periphery. You're just noticing this. And now just go deeper and come into the awareness of being a soul, just a being of light. And now this soul. You, the soul, you're in this body, and the body is breathing in and out. Just the soul is watching the breath. The soul is observing the body breathe in and out. The soul is observing the body breathe in and out. Om shanti. So what happens in that case is the more you become an observer, the more you realize who you are as a soul, and the more you become an observer, the more there is a power that comes, right? That sense of detachment brings power.
• 22:24
  Speaker A: It does.
• 22:25
  Speaker B: And you will notice this. Like, it's like doing reps in exercises. You know, like, you go to the gym, you hardly do any rep for more than a minute. But if you keep doing it over a period of time, you will notice how your body starts responding to it. It's the same way here. You keep doing this very simple exercise, exercise over a period of time, and you, the soul, start responding to it.
• 22:53
  Speaker A: Yeah. And everything gets easier. That. That's. That's how these things work. Like. Like the gym example. I went to the gym yesterday, actually. I had been for like, five months, right. And I have a trainer. So I was like, okay, what am I doing? And then I went to the store afterwards to get some groceries and. And I just noticed, like, just doing weights, right? Just picking, like, vegetables up and putting them in the cart, even though nothing had happened. But just that the contrast between heavy weights and, like, fruit would. Made the fruit feel lighter. Do you know what I mean? And that's the equivalent of what we're doing with these drills that you do the drill and it kind of gives you this extra power. And then when you go and do something else afterwards, you've got more energy and more capacity. So that something that was hard before now feels easier than it was. So it's almost exactly like gaining strength, except in the mind.
• 23:55
  Speaker B: What scientists have Found, Right. There's a lot of research on neural pathways. Neuroscience, Right. And what scientists have found is, let's say you have a certain thought pattern, like a negative thought pattern, right? The same patterns get created. It's like taking. If. It's like going on a trail in a forest, right? If you keep going that trail, you'll keep going that trail, and they will be like a walkway that you can follow, right. The trail will have like a beaten path. Right. It's the same way the neural pathways in the brain are also right. There's a certain set way that we think, and those create neural pathways. And sometimes those neural pathways are not very good for us. They create stress hormones, you know, because those are the things that are creating these stress hormones. And so we. We change that and we create a new neural pathway. And we keep doing this. We keep doing this so that these stress hormones go away, that we are, you know, more relaxed, more peaceful. The, you know, our body is in balance. Everything is good. So that's what happens.
• 25:16
  Speaker A: And it all starts with the reps doing the reps, doing the drills. So let's do another round, and this time we can. We can do one on this. My personal practice. For favorite practice, we're going to do that. So what it is. Okay, well, one of my favorite practices is so one minute we're aware or one second. Not one minute we haven't got. We. Hey, these have to be short time. So first of all, you become aware that you're here. You're a spiritual being in your body, in the world, and it's wonderful. Hooray for being alive. And then we go up into the light, the spiritual light. So you can imagine above you is this golden light beyond the universe in your mind, you can imagine anything you want in a second, go into the light and then come back. And I personally like to do it where I breathe in, go up and breathe that. Breathe out and come down. That's what works for me. But you might feel that breathing out is good to go up. I mean, I just feel that when you breathe in, it feels like it's pulling up for me anyway. What do you think about that shrine? Do you feel any difference breathing in? When it comes down to it, our final breath will actually be an out breath. And from the out breath, then we'll leave. So my only concern about this is that it's the wrong way around, but nonetheless, not going to have to worry about that later. So. But we'll just do that for a minute. So. So you're going to breathe in. Imagine going up into the light and then breathe out and come back in your body. So we're just going to do that very gently for one minute. Can you start the timer? And let's know when you're starting.
• 27:08
  Speaker B: Now.
• 27:09
  Speaker A: Okay. So just breathing in, going all the way up into that beautiful golden light beyond the world, completely free, and then come back here as you breathe out and then going beyond very gently at your own pace. So you're just going all the way up into the light, completely free, and then coming back. It's like, like a beautiful break. I mean, we, Shereen and I have been doing this sort of thing for years and years, so it's easy for us to get in, in the zone because of so many previous practices. So if you're new at this, may be just theoretical to start with, but as you do it again and again and again and again and again, it goes from theory to experience, basically. And then you can feel it. And then you feel like you went on a vacation and came back and everything, all the whole world is better now, everything's all right again. Ah, it's like having a nap in a way, these practices. So, yeah. So let's do another one. What else have you got for us? We have. Shereen actually has this long list. I'm going to try and encourage her to write her list out, but she.
• 29:09
  Speaker B: Has been giving me a hard time just now about it.
• 29:12
  Speaker A: I think she's got the thing is she. You already have probably about 10 versions of various things related to this. You just have to put it all together into one one thing. So when it's ready, we'll let you know. And everyone can have Shireen's magic drills list. But until then, you're gonna have to tell us directly.
• 29:34
  Speaker B: This one is good, right? I am light. I am immortal. Just two things. I am light. I am immortal. And this one, you can put a timer. And every time you say I am light, you see yourself as light. And every time you think, I am immortal, you identify with being an immortal soul, immortal being of light. So I am light. I am immortal. Keep saying that, keep saying that till you're able to really identify with it. You have to keep doing this till you become comfortable with that concept. I am light. I am immortal. I am light. I am immortal. That's all right. And then when you put the timer, you see if your mind is wandering during any of those thoughts, then you bring it back and again you start, I am light. I am immortal. I am light. I Am immortal. This is very profound, right? This identity statement is very profound. It might sound simple, but it's a very profound. You keep practicing and you will see such a huge difference in the way you feel about yourself. And this one is, I am light. I am weightless. And when you see yourself as light is wonderful. And when you see yourself as weightless, you have to see yourself like as a weightless being. You're just rising, right? There's nothing holding you back. You're free, you're weightless and you're free. And then again, you come back into the body, see yourself as light. Then again you leave. You see yourself as weightless, flying again, come back, see yourself as light in the body, again, leave, see yourself as weightless.
• 32:03
  Speaker A: Yeah. So I just want to mention something before we get into that and we'll. And it's good to do it with the timer so that everyone can like just focus, right? Is I had this complaint from someone who's in one of my meditation groups the other day who said something along the lines of she was studying a somatic healing course where the, the teachers she had for that course were basically saying that that's not okay to be out of your body. Everyone's floating around out their body, and you need to be in the body and feeling yourself in the body right now. Because I know some people think this is going on at the back of some people's minds when we start talking about leaving the body, coming back. Right? So we have to address this and it's a couple things here. One is that most people are not going out of their body, they're just in their head. There's a huge difference between stuck in our head thinking about stuff and actually becoming bodiless. Hardly any Bodiless is a very advanced spiritual practice that, that people don't normally do. So that doesn't happen by itself naturally, unless you have a near death experience or you're practicing meditation. And the other thing is that these practices are not at odds with somatic healing methods either. Because actually what happens is that when you distance yourself from the attachment to all this stuff and the obsession with all these things, it actually brings a profound sense of peace that you feel in your body, right? So this is, this isn't like denying life or trying to escape life. This is about coming into a higher state of awareness which then comes back down and then you feel like you're a powerful soul in the world. So that's a very, very different thing from people who are doing astral projection and Trying to escape life and sort of spiritual bypassing. So I just wanted to mention that because I know some people probably thinking some of these things at the back of their head, and we wanted to address it directly.
• 34:22
  Speaker B: All right, thank you for addressing.
• 34:24
  Speaker A: There we go. That's a little disclaimer here for you.
• 34:27
  Speaker B: All right, one minute starts now. Deep breath in. Now see yourself as light. Just breathe naturally. See yourself as light. And then see yourself as weightless. Just feel weightless like a feather. And when you see yourself as weightless like a feather, you're just gently rising above, free. Then come back into the body and then see yourself as light again. Then leave and see yourself as weightless. You're weightless now again, see yourself coming back into the body as light. Then see yourself as weightless. Rising. Three. Come back in. See yourself as weightless. Light, weightless. I am light. I am weightless. Om Shanti.
• 37:01
  Speaker A: It's amazing what can happen in a minute. It's like really, this very, very, very powerful, extremely potent, these things. Because even in that minute, just then, I felt like I went somewhere else totally different. And time expanded into a different reality. Just in a minute. It's incredible, actually, the power of these practices. So. And that's just a minute, right? You can do another minute.
• 37:30
  Speaker B: I know, right? Just a minute.
• 37:34
  Speaker A: So this is the. The whole game is do just a minute you. I think there's a website, justaminute.org I think it's called, or it used to be Just a minute Meditations. It was a long time ago, about 20 years ago, I think. And whether you listen to those, whether you do some of these other practices or when Shereen finally gets her drills booked together, we can give you a copy of that. I'm giving you more work to do, Shereen, and all that. You need it. But we can. But you can just pick any practice you want and just do it for 60 seconds, put it on your timer. So the mind says, I'm busy, busy, busy. And you're like, yeah, sure, you're busy, but let's just do 60 seconds or even 30 seconds. And if you can't do that, do a 15 second. And if you can't do that, then just take a few breaths. So this is the secret. Less, less, less. And it builds and builds and. All right, it's time for our blessing enclosure. What have you got for us?
• 38:45
  Speaker B: This blessing is from God for you. And pick a. Pick a number.
• 38:49
  Speaker A: 76.
• 38:53
  Speaker B: 76. Positivity.
• 38:58
  Speaker A: There we go.
• 39:01
  Speaker B: Your mind is tranquil, allowing you to see the hidden truths in the ebb and flow of life. This serene clarity unveils the silver lining in all scenarios, enabling you to appreciate that everything unfolds for the greatest good.
• 39:28
  Speaker A: Yay. Everything is unfolding for the highest good of all. Isn't that wonderful? For the greatest good. Yay. So thank you for your presence. Thank you, Shereen. Thank you everyone for watching.
• 39:39
  Speaker B: Thank you, Michael.
• 39:40
  Speaker A: It's a pleasure to be here and enjoy One minute at a time. It's little things that all add up to profound shifts. Lots of love and talk to you soon.