THE FOURTH STATEHow do I start meditating when I'm busy and my mind won't slow down?
Bailey Guilloud, who has meditated consistently for 10 years, opens her 60-day meditation training with one definition: meditation is watching your natural breath. No breath control, visualization, or quiet mind is required. Sit for two to ten minutes a day and return to the breath whenever you wander. She chose 60 days because studies showing physical changes in the brain and nervous system ran about eight weeks.
Hosted by Bailey Guilloud · The Fourth State Podcast
Bailey Guilloud's instruction is two to ten minutes a day of watching your natural breath and returning to it each time you wander. A busy mind is not a problem: even if your mind wanders a million times, you are returning a million times, and that builds the meditation muscle.
Watching your natural breath: your natural inhale and your natural exhale. It is not breath control, visualization, self-improvement, optimization, aligning your chakras, or needing a quiet mind.
She says practicing consistently for 10 years completely shifted her nervous system and her body, which is why she hosts the challenge.
Bailey says many studies that found significant physical improvement in the brain and nervous system took place over 60 days, or eight weeks.
Bailey says this is not about the most optimized meditation each time. The slow cadence of showing up every day, even when it feels boring or ordinary, is what creates the biggest transformation.
Bailey asks you to drop the guilt and shame. Each day stands alone, you don't need to make up missed days, and you can always return with as little as two minutes.
Meditation and embodied practice, Nervous-system regulation and presence
Day 1 of a free 60-day training, about 7 minutes long, ending with a two-minute practice. Bailey previously ran one-month and 21-day versions before moving to eight weeks.
Transcript of The Fourth State Podcast episode “Intro to Meditation Training” with host Bailey Guilloud, lightly edited for readability. Learn more about Bailey’s work at fourthstate.net.
Hi you guys, welcome to this 8 week meditation challenge. I want to invite you to join us inside this 2 month container where we are embodying a very simple meditation practice that we return to every single day. I host this meditation challenge because meditation truly changed my life. I started doing it consistent 10 years ago and it completely shifted my nervous system. It completely shifted my body. And I previously was hosting one month meditations and I even did a 21 day meditation practice because honing this skill is really important.
But after doing further research, I noticed that a lot of the studies that saw significant physical improvement in your brain and nervous system, they happened over 60 days, they happened over 8 weeks. And I wanted to bring this meditation challenge to you guys to be here to hone a meditation practice, not a perfect one. This is not about doing it right, and especially if you're someone who feels like you haven't gotten the practice right in the past. This is not about having the most optimized meditation each time.
This is about sitting down and or, you know, having your own meditation practice, even when it feels boring, even when it feels ordinary, because this slow cadence of showing up every day is what creates the biggest transformation. And so for the next 60 days, we're going to be doing a very simple meditation and I want to define meditation to you right now. It is watching your natural breath, not breath control, not visualization, not trying to fix anything, but just being here and watching your natural inhale, watching your natural exhale.
So let me say that again. Meditation means watching your natural breath. Watching your natural breath. Not about having a quiet mind, not about needing to be peaceful, not about doing it right, not about self-improvement or optimization or aligning your chakras. It just means being here and watching your natural breath. So what success looks like when it's meditation is finding a time that you choose, it can be as little as 2 minutes to 10 minutes, and it means simply returning to the breath anytime you notice you've wandered.
So as you watch your natural breath, you'll notice naturally thoughts come up. Naturally, you'll think about, oh, I need to do this today. Oh, thinking about that conversation, thinking about how, you know, do I need to wash my hair today? Whatever naturally shows up. Meditation is just returning back to the breath, watching your natural inhale, watching your natural exhale. And it's showing up again the next day. So even if your mind is wandering a million times, you are returning a million times. And that is counting towards your meditation muscle that we are building.
So, go ahead and commit to this meditation practice by replying to this email meditation so that you can sign up for the 60 day practice. This is not a very strict practice. We are here to let the human be in this practice. And so I want you to go ahead and remove any guilt, any shame you have around, you know, I can't meditate. My mind is too busy. I'm too ADHD. Oh, I'm going to miss days. Oh, I'm going to fall behind. You don't need to make it up. You don't need to worry about falling down behind. Sometimes you are going to miss days, but each day stands alone as you are returning back to the practice, even if it just is 2 minutes long to come back into that breath and let that simple, quiet, imperfect practice be something that really grounds you.
So you're not trying to become someone else, you're not trying to become a monk. You're just practicing being here. Having that neutral curiosity, having that in back to that return back to the breath. And so I want you to end this recording here now and just invite yourself to practice. And again, there's no doing it right. So the practice is simply watching your natural breath. And we'll do it here together for 2 minutes. Just noticing your breath. Noticing inhale, returning back to the breath. Noticing the natural inhale, noticing the natural exhale.
If your mind wanders, simply bring it back to the breath. Without shifting your breath, simply watch it. Noticing the inhale. Noticing the exhale. And slowly bring your awareness back to the space around you. That's all meditation is noticing your natural breath. That's all for today. We will continue to deepen this training and practice. Again, reply meditation to this email if you'd like to join us for the 60 days. Thank you for being here. I'll see you tomorrow and day 2 of this free training. I'm excited to begin.