[0:00] Hello, everyone, and welcome back. It's Pete Williams here, and it's nice to have you tuning in. Well, today, we're going to start you off by asking a couple of simple questions. Well, in fact, I'm going to read you statements, and then I'm going to ask you
[0:19] to check with yourself whether they relate to you. So, let's get straight into it. Have you ever thought or said to yourself or you've probably said to a friend or a family member, we might be going like, I can't meditate or I don't have time to do this or my mind never switches off. Now, if you have said yes to any of those statements, then you really fall into the category of, number one, you don't like meditation, but then the category of, that's why you should be doing meditation.
[1:03] Presentation, they are the common phrases that I come across a lot. And it is also the answer to the common question that I receive when obviously doing a lot of events or doing Q&As is a lot of people do ask me is like, well, how do I begin this journey or how do I start to connect or how do I start to work with the energy? And-
[1:29] I hate to say it, more often than not, that answer is meditation. The trouble is meditation has taken on a lot of different kind of styles and meanings, more so in recent history. And of course, that's kind of thrown a lot of people in a spin and it hasn't really been taught or adapted to kind of suit our very fast moving society, let alone the way that society is programming us now. It really is. Let's face it. Like, you know, every time I'm switching on and I'm trying to do posts or even do a podcast or whatever else, you know, there's always something think new there's always talk about like you need to do this food to suit the algorithm so the good old people at you know social medias obviously like meta facebook instagram tiktok it's always forever changing and of course this changes the way that we are thinking this is changing the way that we approach things in society so we're becoming a very very quick society you know You know, reels, I believe, were, when they first got introduced, were limited to a minute. They've been extended a little bit. So, when you're watching those reels,
[2:50] you know, they were literally 60 seconds.
[2:53] TikToks were also based on a very, very short space of time. And now, even YouTube has also gone to YouTube Shorts. And that just goes to show you that our business, concentration span and our capacity to focus has diminished significantly. And unfortunately, when we are embracing and taking on all of these things within social media realms and obviously the internet realm, we are only backing that up and reinforcing that in our subconscious that we only like to take things on for a very short period of time. And of course, you take people who have this concept of where we're being trained and programmed to do things in such a short space of time, then you say to someone, let's meditate.
[3:44] Like, usually going to get, no, no, that doesn't sound fun. That doesn't sound interesting. That takes too long. That's boring. And again, then you come back to those statements like, well, I can't, I don't have time. My mind never switches off. So, what's the point? I give up. Or every time I do, I just fall asleep. sleep. So, it's all of these common, you know, situations that do happen.
[4:06] And I'm just going to take you through here in this episode, some of the struggles that I have found with people and you might relate to these, but then I'm also going to outline the insights. I'm going to give you a real quick fire cheat sheet to benefit, set yourself up right to maximize and, you know, So, adopt meditation practices that can help you in more of today's society and quick, fast moving and, you know, our attention spans down, helping us with that. So, looking at it, but it is really important. If you're looking to do this, it is really important to understand it does help. If you're looking to do energetic stuff, like I'm not saying you have to do it all the time. That's not the case and I will put my hand up. I definitely don't do it all the time, but I will be aware of when I need to do it. And when that calls...
[5:00] Boom. I'm there doing it and it's very, very powerful. But I'm also at a point where I am aware of that, whereas a lot of people aren't because so many of us are so distracted, hence the good old social media, or we're just so busy and we're busy not just in our lives.
[5:21] But the busy I'm talking about here is that people are so busy in their minds. They're so so busy and stuck up in their head, that's what makes it harder to reach that level of awareness. So, it's a key factor that kind of jumps in. I was very fortunate because I began my meditation journey almost by accident when I was 14, 15.
[5:49] I did find the exercise in the internet which was connected to me starting to channel. And I believe that was the driving force. It was the thing that allowed me to keep going. It was the thing that pushed me to do it. In other words, my objective was I wanted to connect. I really did. I wanted to, I knew there was something more than this world out there. I really, really, really did. and you know as a 14 year old how do you express that and who do you talk to about that so i was very very fortunate i turned to good old internet so there was you know the search engine of alta vista uh back in those days and i remember those little snow peak mountains that were kind of captured around the top of it so if you if you're back in my generation of like the you know mid mid-90s and late 90s there, you'll be very aware of the AltaVista search engine running on Netscape Navigator 5.0. That were high times, people.
[6:59] So, you might be aware of it. But I searched and I found this exercise. Now, when I found this exercise, which was the automatic writing exercise, and for those who don't or are not familiar with my journey or don't know it, automatic writing is where you do get yourself into a deep enough meditative state, almost trance-like state where spirit will take over your hand and they'll channel through that. It is a pretty cool experience and that's what I wanted to happen. For me or for that to happen, the process was meditate. I needed to learn how to meditate and the And the beautiful thing was that.
[7:43] In that exercise just beforehand, it was a very short, very great, simple explanation of what to do. It was just about relaxing your body and relaxing your mind. It was as simple as that. So, I really didn't see meditation as meditation, not in the way that we hear and speak about it a lot in today's society where we're talking about, you know, mindfulness and all that kind of stuff. It is all of that, don't get me wrong. But for me at that time, it was not about that. It had none of those labels. It didn't have any of those connotations attached to it. I literally simply saw meditation as a step to get me to where I wanted to go. So, therefore, it was like no different to a cooking instructions when you're trying to bake a cake. You know, you've got to take your dry ingredients, you mix them together, then you add your wet ingredients, then you you whisk or you fold it in. It's just a way in order to get to baking the cake. And that was beneficial for me. So, it didn't feel like it was a chore. It didn't feel heavy. It very much felt as if it was just a means to an end to get to where I wanted. So, that really, really did help. And fortunately enough for me, it ended up happening really quickly.
[9:04] Just like I managed to get all through that in my first attempt. I managed to meditate in my first attempt, relax my body enough, and I also connected and started channeling on that very, very first night. Now, not saying that everyone's going to do that. I do that success in that way, I would, strongly attribute to my age because at 14, there's not a lot of stresses, there's not a lot going on in my mind. I don't have a lot of worries, not a lot of that reality.
[9:38] So, my age did play a big factor in that. So, it was just more easier for me to get into that space. So, you know, it'd be interesting because I've seen people take them through the journey at the moment when they're older, but it's still attainable and it doesn't take that long as long as you're willing to have a go. So, it was interesting kind of going through that. And then I was very fortunate because I felt...
[10:02] The benefits of doing meditation at 14. Like I really did. I slept better. I felt greater focus in my life and I started to want to do it. And I saw it as a way of helping me to connect to the other side. And again, that helped me to learn to meditate more as I was actually getting results from these meditations. So, it's very, very, very helpful in that sense. So, that's just- I just wanted to start you off with that and just kind of introduce my journey. So, it's a little bit different but this is where now because of that, it was so uncomplicated for me. That's why I try to simplify this process for people because it doesn't take much to start this journey. It doesn't take much to jump into that energy. It's just a willingness to give it a go. And it's, you know, over the years and I'm saying, I've just helped kind of, you know, break it down. But before we jump into like this quick hit list that I'm going to give you here as well. And at the moment as it stands, like I've actually on my lovely piece of paper here, because I did sit down and really look at this and I'll expand it on what I've already offered before. I've got eight Eight quick steps.
[11:25] So they can have a look and kind of go through it. But before we jump into that, I just want to have a look at some of the common struggles or questions that some people do have around it. And I just want to address this because this is also helping a couple of students of mine who are going through some of my programs. And I thought this is a great chance to bring this up and help them out as much as it can help. And if you guys who are joining me in my lovely little podcasting world here. So, yeah. So, one of the first questions that a lot of people come across when they're looking to meditate is they start asking questions around like, should I do a guided meditation or a non-guided meditation?
[12:08] Now, to clarify, because when I teach or when I like to explain things, I always come from the angle that I'm talking to someone who who knows nothing about this world. They've literally just walked into my office or they've walked up to me, so, hi, Pete, I've never heard about you, but I saw this thing on Facebook or I saw this thing online and it interested me, but where do I start? What do I do? So, every time I talk about this, I work with that person in mind. So, you could very well be that person talking today and I want to help make sure it gets very clear for anybody who hears this. So, for those who are new or unaware. So, guided versus non-guided. Guided meditation will mean that you have someone facilitating you through a meditation or a visualization. So, meaning that if it's a recording, like whether you're listening on YouTube or you could be listening to one of mine in the meditation library, like you will have my voice Peace.
[13:13] Guiding you through certain aspects whether it's going to be like relaxation could be to do with sleep it could be to do with connecting like whether it's connecting to your guides whether it's connecting with your loved ones connecting more with yourself whatever it may be but you have a voice there facilitating and guiding you to where to go or what the objective objective, uh, should be for that meditation. Now, non-guided is obviously pretty self-explanatory, which means you are meditating purely by yourself. Now, that means you can still have music, that's what I'm not saying, but you don't have a voice. You don't have an objective with, or sorry, I should say, you don't have someone guiding you to the objective. You don't have someone someone else telling you or guiding you to where to go. You will very much decide that, so for me, I will go, right, I'm putting this music on, I'm setting myself up, and this is, I'm going to go to meditate, and this is what I would like to do out of the meditation. But I take myself through that process.
[14:30] Now, which one should you do? This is a very big big questions, a big topic. So, I'm just going to give you my input here. For a lot of people, when they start out, they will always kind of go, guided works for me best. Now, I would say that's around 85% to 90% of people who are trying out meditation for the first time. They will favor a guided meditation purely because it helps them to maintain a focus. It helps them to kind of keep going and it helps them to keep out of their head. It doesn't let their own head and own thoughts get in the way or stop them from meditating or relaxing. So, that's why a majority of people like that. So, it is good and it does help if you're not used to it. Most people struggle with the non-guided because it does take a lot more practice. It does take a lot more commitment to work to feel and understand the results.
[15:40] That said... I always say to every single client or student of mine, start off with guided if that's how you feel, but then always have a go and make a certain amount of commitment to trying non-guided. What will happen is as soon as you get into a non-guided meditative state or you can reach that by yourself, you will find the results way, way better.
[16:13] Like, they are significantly better because you are being one with yourself and that's the ultimate premise of meditation. So, it's about being in the moment and when you're having that, even with background music, that's fine. But as long as you don't have a voice and someone else's voice in your head, you are being one in the moment with yourself. That's the pure outcome. It is magical. I've had some amazing meditations where it's just been me kind of going through it. So, that's a big one. So, that's your guided versus non-guided.
[16:51] So, then kind of come some other questions that follow through from this, right? Now, it's a very good question. So, what happens is when you're being guided, you have this voice kind of prompting you to see certain things. If that voice or that facilitator is doing it correctly, it should be literally just that, a prompt, not a super-duper structured guide. You need a greater deal of leeway to allow the energy to flow through you and of course for your subconscious to come in and show you what it would love to show you so that's what's really important so this is where the question or the struggle comes in about well doesn't visualization or these guided meditations keep you in your head and it's like so the answer to that is yes, technically, they will keep you in your head. However, they will keep your mind focused. It'll keep them off the random thoughts and ideas which a lot of people struggle with. So, if you're one of those people that resonated with the statement, my mind never switches off.
[18:12] Then that's why guided meditations are good. It allows your head to have a focal point. So, yes, it does. While it keeps you in your head, it will help you to bypass that so you can achieve a result or you can kind of come away with some level of insight or feeling from a meditation. So, hopefully that answers that question. So, don't be afraid of it, okay? It definitely is is a great starting point. And if there's different outcomes, then having someone facilitator or guide it is amazing. They are both really, really good. So, you know, it's all about how you feel and what's going to work. But like I said, don't just give up or don't do the non-guided. I really strongly suggest having a go at those yourself as well. Now comes the other struggle.
[19:03] Isn't visualization or visualizing these through guided meditations, the same as expecting an outcome? This is a great question and it can be a struggle. Now, it will become an expectation, especially if you are told that the guided meditation has a very specific outcome. Now, for example, you might have a guided meditation that will say, we're going to like heal a past life traumatic hurt.
[19:43] Now, that immediately puts your brain and mind in a mode going, we're going to like achieve this, we're going to have this result. That sets up a different premise and it can cause issues when you are going through the facilitation. Another example might be going, oh, we're going to go to the Akashic Records, which which is the place where obviously all our knowledge is held in the soul world. And especially your own knowledge, like you can have a look at your personal energetic journals, for lack of a better term, where you can research your past lives and also what's happening for you, what you've got planned for this life. It's an amazing space if you ever have one there. But the whole thing is like if you're saying, we're going to visit the Kashuk Records and we're going to work out and we're going to obtain knowledge about what your purpose is in this life, it becomes very specific and becomes very result-driven. So, it all depends on how it's been set up. When it's very result-focused or orientated, you will have expectations.
[20:56] Expectations, as I've discussed before, will really choke the energy and it really limits the ability for your mind and your subconscious and your soul to guide you to where you really want to go. So, and that's where a lot of people will walk away feeling a little bit disappointed. They might feel a bit deflated and they feel like, I didn't get what I felt like I wanted. That's always a tricky way to walk in to any form of meditation. So, please be mindful of that when you are seeking this out or trying this for the first time, what you're better off doing, so a better way of doing that is to say, if you join a facilitated meditation or a group meditation, they might just go, guess what? In this meditation, we're going to join, we're going to go have a look at the Akashic records. Now, that's beautiful because, okay, you've got an idea of where you want to go, but there's no outcome specifically that you're looking for. That means It's allowing space for the energy, your soul, and your subconscious to show you what you need in that moment, not what you're wanting.
[22:12] So, that's something very important to look for and be mindful of.
[22:17] Now, while I'm on this, okay, because another struggle that comes with these guided meditations when you're facilitated through these things, what will happen is, and this happens to me a lot. So, you're not alone if this resonates with you, is that you're in the group meditation, you're there, you're relaxed and you're doing the whole thing and you're listening to the voice guide you. Then all of a sudden, you're like, they're saying one thing. So, for example, like, oh, let's walk up the stairs. And you're like, cool. And then you're about to walk up the stairs, but for some unknown reason, your mind, your soul, and your subconscious goes, no, we're going to go down the stairs.
[23:04] And it's like this part of you kind of goes, but that's not what they said. They said to do this but we're going somewhere completely different i'm off script oh my god i'm losing it no this is not going to work i can tell you i don't know how many times i've gone off script but here's the best thing if you're finding that you're going off script with the facilitator or the guided meditation you are in flow never question it literally keep going and the amazing thing is even though you might not be following it word for word you will always get what you need. If you've suffered that and you've panicked about it, please don't. If anything else, you are being far more honest and connecting with yourself because you're allowing it to flow.
[23:51] That's a big thing there. There are a couple of the struggles that I just wanted to talk about, give a little bit of clarity on here because I know there's many people that I've talked about, like I said, a couple of students going through it at the moment. I thought I'd do this to help them out. There are a couple of the struggles. If you've got struggles as well, guys, and you like, or this is prompting you to have further questions, of course, please feel free to reach out, email me, DMs, and I can follow up
[24:13] in another episode for you. But now, we're just going to jump into the quickfire points to look at and help with you as well. So, I'm going to make these relatively brief, but if you are looking to explore these or you want to have a go at these and you need that little bit of extra help, please feel free to go and have a look at the meditation invitation challenge that I have on the Start Your Journey page. You can go and have a look there. It just requires like a $1 coin donation. You can have a look at it, okay? And the whole thing is you can just go through it and it'll break these down for you in a very, very simple way. But these are some of it plus a bit extra. So, if you want, you can start off by having it all by yourself here.
[24:59] So, let's get into this part. So, number one is start small, right? What I mean by this is so many people want to kind of overcorrect, go too deep and overcommit in the meditation journey. They feel like they need to be sitting there or laying there for at least half an hour to say to themselves, I meditated. That is not the case. When you're first starting out, doing shorter bursts and shorter meditations are going to benefit you way, way, way more. So, for example, in the meditation challenge, you'll have five for five. And what that means is five minutes for five days, right? How hard is that? So, none of those excuses that I listed at the very beginning of this episode come into play. You will ignore those. And it's amazing how powerful a five-minute meditation can be and how much you can receive in a five-minute session. It's amazing. So, start small. Don't overcommit. Don't overwhelm yourself. So, so important. Number two, set yourself up for success.
[26:08] This is really important. So many people feel like they're going to just do meditation on a whim. No. Meditation, of course, you can if you feel like you can. But what you'll do is setting yourself up for success is about prepping your mind. Your mind is the powerful tool. And the more you kind of set yourself up and kind of prepare yourself to just even have that five minutes, it will help you because you are telling your mind, block everything out for five minutes. And when you do that, and after like the third and fourth day, you are ready to jump into that. And that's what brings me to step three. Routine equals readiness. So, the more you can find that time of day or after another activity where you find it will help you, that is again going to gear your mind to get into that meditative state much, much quicker. cut. So, again, you're going to have to experiment with yourself here to find out where these things are. So, setting yourself up is like finding your place, getting the room right, selecting your music or selecting your guide of meditation, whatever it may be, that's setting yourself up.
[27:28] Routine is about like when you are doing it. So, are you going to do it after you've had a shower? I've always found that like after a shower, kind of like, you know, get changed, get in the comfy of your clothes and then doing it, much easier because you're not already in a relaxed state because a bath or a shower is very, very relaxing. For some people, doing it first thing in the morning. As soon as they wake up, really sets them up for the day. They get super focused. They have a lot more energy. So, you've got to find what you want. But the routine equals readiness, which means your mind will be able to drop in to that state so much quicker. So, less effort, maximum results. Awesome tip, okay? Love that one so much. Number four, leave expectations at the door, right? We can't touch on this in the struggles. It's really important to leave that door. Expectations choke the energy. They choke what's going to come through, and you're getting too focused on the outcome.
[28:26] Remember, meditation is about being, and it's about being in the moment, not about expectations and not about the outcome. So, let that go. If you need to, you can do a quick visualization before you start. So, if you really struggle with these expectations, in your mind, you can close your eyes, picture like a duffel bag or, you know, depends on how much you want to get it. You can almost go like a suitcase or, you know, backpack. Some people even go to the point of an actual rubbish bag or a trash bag and they take their expectations in their mind and place them in this bag once you've placed all your expectations in this bag zip it up tie it up and visualize yourself going to the outside of door your front door or your back door and leaving them outside the house and then visualizing yourself walking back to where you are and then start your process really helps gear your mind okay see a theme here guys everything these steps we haven't even got to it yet, but we have to gear your mind for the best possible outcomes, right? For the best possible experience and that's what we're looking to do. So, that was number four. Number five is, know what you want from the meditation. This is huge. This is the biggest and most common mistake, and this is why most people give up, is because they're going, I'm meditating because it's good for me. In what way?
[29:55] If you don't know what you're wanting from it, then how are you going to feel when you're done, right? Now, what I mean from this is like I was saying before about like like a Keshek Records, you can say, I want to visit that. Cool. If you visit, it's not about what you see, what you get or whatever else, you know you've visited it. So it's a win. You see it as like, I got there. That's what's key. Or it's like, oh, I'm going to go experience this. This is great. Now, in more general terms, what do you want from your meditation? Do you want to just switch your mind off? Do you want to relax your body? Do you want to connect? Do you want to do some self-healing. See how many different objectives there are for when you're actually setting yourself up to meditate. This really helps guide your energy and it's huge, right? So please, even before you begin, know what you want from it. Don't just sit there and go, I'm going to meditate when you're first starting out because you'll find it very hard. You'll find yourself almost having a massive episode of ADHD because your mind is going to jump onto every little thought possible, okay? So, know what you want from it. Number six, give yourself permission.
[31:11] Oh, big one. Give yourself permission. Don't feel guilty for taking time out for yourself. This is a big one. I tend to find this very much more geared towards like parents because, you know, you might have kids and you're thinking, oh, by taking five or ten minutes out for myself. They're at home. I should be with them. No, I can guarantee you by practicing to give yourself the permission and time, to take time out for this, you will actually be far more present with them later on and throughout like the day. So, don't make yourself feel guilty because you're setting yourself up for failure and not feeling good about the process, okay? Again, it plays a big part to prepping yourself. This is good for you. This is going to be benefit, you know, a benefit for you and it's going to be a benefit for your family as well. So, please be mindful of that. Give yourself the permission. Number seven, allow.
[32:12] Huge word, allow. Allow things to pop up. Allow things to flow through you. When you're in a beautiful meditative state, even for a short period of time, like five minutes, things will pop up, as we say, or things will flow through to you. What's important is let them flow. Allow them to keep going. Don't latch onto them. Don't get into your head. Head don't try and analyze them right there and then on the spot because you're going to choke the energy and take yourself out of that beautiful vibration in that meditation don't slip it takes a bit of practice but always remind yourself allow so if you struggle with this if a random thought it could even be a thought about like tomorrow like oh daughters dance schools on tomorrow i've going to be up at 7.30. Allow that thought to pop up and then allow that thought to go. It's not saying you're going to forget it. You're just allowing it to flow, all right? Huge, huge word, allow.
[33:15] And number eight, right? This is the last one. Number eight, journal and reflect. This is huge. This is something that a lot of people don't do enough of. As soon as you are finished, take another five minutes and journal and reflect on how you felt, how you're going through it, what came to your mind. So, it's not always about what you saw in a visualization.
[33:39] What's important is acknowledging your feelings, acknowledging what you're feeling in your body. Are you feeling more relaxed? What kind of came up for you? You will get so much more when you journal and reflect after you're done. It is huge. And then this also helps you to process thoughts, emotions, and energy, which in turn preps you for a better meditation session the next time you do it. So, it's really important. It's a big follow-up process of the allowing and also just processing it for yourself. So, they're the big questions and queries that I've faced over this.
[34:20] They're the eight kind of tips that I wanted to outline for you. And hopefully, by understanding those, they'll help you as well. But like I said, you can go and have a look and have a go at the five for five. Believe it or not, it's not that. And it's all done via email. So, you can do it in your own time. But schedule that time out and have a go. So, I highly recommend if you're not sure you need that bit of extra help, go for it because I drop a little video link in there for you every day. You can hear me speak like this and I guide you through it step by step. So, you can have a look at that. So, hopefully this has helped you with the meditation, some of the struggles and some of the insights wherever you're in the journey.
[34:57] And I just want to finish off by leaving you with this message, okay? So meditation is always about raising your level of awareness in your body, mind, and soul. It is about being one with yourself in that moment so you can do that, raising that awareness. And the more you do this, the greater your awareness to everything with yourself, how you're feeling, and how you're connecting with the people around you, the people that you love. And also the environment around you the more you do this the more you start to get in flow in life and that's obviously you know what i want for all of you so hopefully it's helped if it has let us know i'd love to know how it's helped you and again thanks for listening.
