Getting Started with Mindfulness: Hypnosis & Meditation Tools and Resources

What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is a state of awareness of the present moment with acceptance. I like the dictionary definition: a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique. Both meditation and Hypnosis can bring us into the present moment and offer opportunities for deep acceptance. They also offer additional benefits which I cover below.

What is Meditation?

While there are many, many different kinds of meditation, usually the goal of meditation is to achieve a state of mindful awareness with no preconceived goal. It’s a state of passive attention: noticing what arises and letting it go. This can be done with many different meditation tools: for example, focusing on the breath, silently repeating a mantra (a sacred word, phrase, or sound), chanting, listening to a guided visualization, and more.

What is Hypnosis?

Hypnosis is more strategic than meditation in that you’re focusing on a specific outcome or goal, for example, quitting smoking, alleviating anxiety or pain, increasing confidence, or overcoming a phobia or fear. You’re actively exploring making changes in how you’re feeling so you can make positive changes in your behavior, beliefs, and/or mindset and thoughts.

While many forms of mindfulness and meditation are focused on observing the mind, with Hypnosis tools you’re using positive suggestions of what you want to redirect your attention to preestablished outcomes.

You can find out more about Hypnosis and the kinds of issues it can assist with here. 

Can You Combine Meditation & Hypnosis?

Yes, meditation and Hypnosis can overlap in interesting ways. Both involve focused attention and awareness and can easily be combined, potentially doubling your state of relaxation and the positive benefits you’ll notice.

Many clients tell me how difficult it is for them to meditate, and how they often find Hypnosis (as well as Reiki, Tao Hands, and/or Kuan Yin Quantum Healing) to be a good way to quiet their thoughts and feel more peaceful. This can be an easy entry point to starting a meditation practice, and I often make personalized suggestions in my virtual 1-on-1 Soul-Powered Breakthrough Program to help them find a way of meditating that works best for them.

1.  The Big Compassion Mantra: Weekly Live Daily Meeting

The Big Compassion Mantra (also known as the Da Bei Zhou related to Kuan Yin, the Buddha of Compassion) is a very powerful mantra whether you chant along, or sit quietly, listen, and receive the special frequency and vibration that is created.

You can be in the field and chant or listen to the Great Compassion Mantra, the Da Bei Zhou, as part of this free daily meditation at 7:30am ET on Zoom. I help lead it and join every day.

You can listen to Master Sha chanting the Da Bei Zhou here.

You can learn more about the origin and history of this special mantra here.

2.  Love Peace Harmony Healing Mantra: Free App & Download

This seemingly simple mantra has many layers. Align yourself with this healing frequency and vibration of love, peace, and harmony. It’s been translated into numerous languages from around the world and thousands of people commit to singing it daily.

Love Peace Harmony in 51 Languages

You can download the free Love Peace Harmony app or MP3 here.

Many people like to play it at low volume 24/7 to create a healing field in their home. Here’s how one teacher is using it as part of the curriculum in the Toronto school system.

3.  Insight Timer: Free Meditation App

The free Insight Timer app offers free and paid meditation resources, including workshops, courses, and groups. Join the 365 Group to commit to meditating daily—this is what finally got me meditating every day instead of sporadically.

While I’ve personally used the timer feature for many years, there are many, many live and pre-recorded guided meditations tools and other features.

It also shows you how many people are meditating around the world at the same time. Inspiring!

4.  DIY Reiki

Taking a Reiki class with a qualified Reiki teacher offers a structure and foundation to give you confidence and a deep understanding of what Reiki is and how to do it (especially if you’re considering becoming a professional Reiki practitioner),

However, here are some simple and effective Reiki meditation tools you can do on your own whether you’ve taken a Reiki class or not.

• Place your hands on your heart and lower abdomen and breathe slowly and deeply while imagining Reiki energy flowing through your hands and balancing your body.
• Meditate and reflect on the Reiki precepts (rules to live by).
• Practice dry bathing (an energetic cleansing ritual based in the ancient Shinto tradition in Japan).

I describe how to do these simple DIY Reiki techniques and more here.

5.  Moving Meditation

Moving meditation can be especially good if it’s hard to sit still and quiet your mind and is something you can do on your own:

• Pick inspiring music—for example, sacred or  classical music, or simply songs that make you feel happy.
• Set an intention if there’s something you want healing for: a physical health or emotional issue, a challenging relationship, career goal, etc.
• Ask your soul to guide you to move and transform this, or simply move your body and enjoy the music, getting out of your head and into your body.

This can be as short as 1 minute or as long as you like.

6. Kundalini Balancing Breath

This kundalini yoga breathing technique balances the left and right sides of the brain. It’s great for quieting negative self-talk, alleviating anxiety, and reducing mental clutter.

Here’s how to do it:

• Slowly inhale and exhale through the nose.
• Inhale and exhale through the mouth.
• Inhale nose, exhale mouth.
• Inhale mouth, exhale nose

Do this slowly for 3-7 minutes. If you feel light-headed, stop and work up to practicing this breath for longer.

7. Pray

If you have a spiritual practice or religious affiliation, set aside quiet time each day to close your eyes, go within, pray and reflect.

8.  Cultivate Gratitude

There are many good apps and other resources to help you cultivate gratitude. Here are a few of my favorites:

• 5-Minute Journal is a short and simple way to cultivate gratitude each day.
• Close your eyes and reflect on 3 things you’re grateful for. Better yet, create your own journal and write 3 different things down each day. Feeling down? You can read past entries to help you shift your mindset and pay attention to everything that’s not the problem.
• Create a Gratitude Jar. I do this annually, and it’s such a treat to read them at the end of the year.

9.  Do a Forgiveness Practice

Forgiveness can be vital to transforming any aspect of your life. It doesn’t mean losing the record of what happened. It simply means you’re not going to carry the weight of it with you in the present and into the future. Here’s more about the importance of forgiveness for healing from the Mayo Clinic.

Ho’oponopono: An Ancient Hawaiian Forgiveness Practice

Ho’oponopono is based on taking 100% responsibility for everyone’s actions, not just your own. Wow, right?  Here’s more about it’s incredible effects at a mental institution.

Here are the basics of how to do it:

• Think of something (a situation, a person, etc.) that you’d like to transform and forgive or receive forgiveness from.
• Close your eyes if that’s comfortable.
• Repeat “I’m sorry. Please forgive me. I love you. Thank you.”
• Do this with as much of an open heart as you can.
• This can be a daily practice for a few minutes, longer if you like.

Greatest Forgiveness Book & Practice by Master Sha

Greatest Forgiveness: Bring Joy and Peace to Your Life with the Power of Unconditional Forgiveness is a small and mighty book that offers a powerful and unique way of doing forgiveness practice.

Here’s a shortened version you can use to get started:

• Think of something (a situation, a person, etc.) that you’d like to transform and forgive or receive forgiveness from.
• Close your eyes if that’s comfortable.
• Repeat silently or out loud:
  • To anyone me or my ancestors have hurt or harmed (include the specific situation/person) I deeply apologize. Please forgive me.
  • To anyone who has hurt me or my ancestors I offer my forgiveness.
  • I forgive you, please forgive me, bring love, peace, and harmony.

• Do this with as much of an open heart as you can.
• This can be a daily practice for a few minutes, longer if you like.

10.  Use a Mantra to Focus the Mind

Never let the mantra leave your mouth is an ancient saying and a powerful practice, and offers wisdom at multiple layers.

There are many healing mantras and you can experiment to find one you resonate with, or work with different mantras depending on what’s going on in your life.

• Sit quietly
• Close your eyes if that’s comfortable
• Repeat the mantra out loud or silently over and over.
• This gives the mind something to focus on.
• You’ll find it’s much harder to think negative thoughts because you’re focused on repeating the mantra over and over.

I like to silently repeat a mantra as much as I can as I go about my daily life, in addition to my meditation practice. There’s another famous saying: what you chant you become. Sounds good, right?

Here are a few you can experiment with:

• I believe in the power of love.
• I am a vital part of the universe.
• Source light is in me and I am in Source light. (You can replace Source with God, Tao, Divine, the Universe….)

11. Get Creative

So many people think meditation should look a certain way—sitting in a lotus position with the eyes closed—maybe you think this, too? Especially if you find it hard to meditate, get creative.

Also, when we find it hard to meditate, we are the people who need it the most (yes, I include myself here!) Be assured, it gets easier with practice.

There are so many ways you can do this:

• A quiet walking meditation
• Sitting in nature
• Coloring in an adult coloring book
• Listening to music, not as background while you do other things, but deeply listening with your eyes closed, being present to the sounds, the rhythm, the melody…

1.  Soul Healing Recordings

I created a library of Soul Healing Recordings around the most-requested themes and issues I hear from clients and students. Each recording includes a blend of Hypnosis and guided meditations to help you change your mind for the better. Download and listen again and again to receive deeper benefits.

2.  Uncommon Knowledge’s Hypnosis Downloads

Have a very specific health or emotional issue or habit/behavior you’d like to change? Uncommon Knowledge is a UK-based Hypnosis company offering hundreds of recordings, as well as a great app to easily listen. [affiliate]

You can use the search to find a recording specific to a wide range of issues. I’ve used it for several issues over the years and even gave one as a gift to help my Dad improve his golf game (it did!). While not as personalized as one-on-one Hypnosis sessions, this can be a good starting point, or a way to prolong the effects between your sessions.

3.  Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)

EFT stands for Emotional Freedom Technique, and involves tapping on key acupressure points while talking/venting about what you want to release. It’s based on the idea that every emotional upset causes an imbalance in the body. 

EFT helps you reset your nervous system and dissolve and resolve the emotional intensity. It’s easy to learn, and it’s one of the most powerful Hypnosis tools I use with clients.

Learn more about how EFT works, tips to maximize its effectiveness, and additional resources and books about EFT.

4.  Heart Breathing Technique

The Heart Breathing technique is a wonderful way to synchronize and balance your heart and brain together. It only takes a minute or two (or you can do it as a longer meditation).

It sends powerful signals to the brain and creates positive changes in your heart rhythms. It’s a wonderful breathing Hypnosis technique to use when you’re feeling stressed.

Here’s a simplified version:

• Drop your awareness to your heart.
• Imagine the breath passing in and out of the heart.
• Think of someone, a pet, or a place that you love easily and unconditionally.
• Imagine breathing this love for the person, pet, or place into your heart. Let it fill your heart.
• Send all your love back to the person, pet, or place; imagine filling the room you’re in with all of this love.
• Continue with the inhale and exhale for several minutes (longer for deeper effects, again you can turn this into a meditation). Notice the shift that happens as you do this.
• Send this love to any areas in the body or your life that need healing.

You can read more about how to modify this Self- Hypnosis technique to help you connect to your intuition, as well as the role of the heart in Chinese medicine, and the best flower essences for intuition and the heart.

5.  Stop the World Technique

Stop the World is a quick and dramatic way to drop into a deep state of relaxation. Sometimes it takes much longer to achieve this state by meditation alone, so this is a favorite Self- Hypnosis technique. It’s also good for quieting negative self-talk.

• Focus on a specific point.
• Keep your eyes focused on that point but notice the area around the point.
• Still focusing on that point, allow your gaze to expand to see the ceiling and the walls on either side.
• Still focusing on that point, become aware of the space around you and imagine you can see behind you.
• Notice what this does for your awareness, how things shift, and what your body feels like.

This is what writer Carlos Castaneda called “stopping the world.” It’s also known as a state of peripheral vision, or the “coaching state.”

Learn Reiki

Reiki is easy to learn and practice, and while many people learn it for professional practice, many more learn it as a 10-15 minute daily self-care tool. You can also use it to support friends and family. I found the practice of Reiki a form of meditation that got me into my body and out of my head.

I put together this Beginner’s Guide to Reiki Training to help get you started.

Learn Tao Hands

While Reiki is an energy healing technique, Tao Hands is a soul healing technique. It’s one of the highest forms of holistic healing I’ve encountered after taking thousands of hours of trainings.

It’s similar to Reiki, in that it’s easy to practice and can be a powerful tool for self-healing, as well as a tool to help loved ones. It can also be something you can incorporate into any kind of professional healing arts discipline.

You can read more about Tao Hands training, watch an interview about it, and even receive a one-time remote healing Tao Hands Blessing for one request. 

Learn Hypnosis

I first studied Hypnosis to use in my own self-healing, and loved it so much I completed many professional Hypnotherapy trainings and eventually incorporated it into my existing healing arts wellness business.

Here are a few instructors I’ve personally studied with and highly recommend:

• Melissa Tiers, Center for Integrative Hypnosis
• John Overdurf
• Shawn & Sarah Carson, The Intelligent Hypnotist

Best Books on Meditation

Here are some of my favorite books on meditation.

Best Books on Hypnosis

Here’s my list of favorite books on Hypnosis.

Best Books on Reiki & Tao Hands

My favorite books on Reiki.

And the best book about Tao Hands.

I hope these give you some creative ideas and ways to experiment with using meditation and Hypnosis resources to  help you quiet and focus your mind and heart and better deal with stress.

I work with high achieving women from all over the world through my virtual 1 on 1 Soul-Powered Breakthrough Program. 

I’ll help you personalize ways you can quiet your overactive mind so that you can feel calm and confident as you go after those goals you’ve been wanting for quite some time.

I look forward to supporting you!