EPISODE 110: Meditation for the Real World: Practical Tips with Ann Swanson

Discover the transformative power of meditation in this insightful episode of Psychic Matters! Ann Théato sits down with Ann Swanson, author of Meditation for the Real World: Finding Peace in Everyday Life, to explore practical techniques for busy minds and debunk common myths about meditation. Learn how meditation can fit seamlessly into your life—even during your busiest moments—and how it can reduce stress, improve focus, and connect you to your intuition. With over 75 evidence-based techniques, Ann Swanson shares her journey from chronic anxiety to peace and her collaboration with Harvard neuroscientists to make meditation accessible for all. Don't miss this conversation packed with inspiration and actionable tips for finding calm in the chaos 

 This Week’s Episode

What we focus on grows, so if we’re focused on negative things, we’ll bring more of those into our lives. But if we focus on love, joy, and gratitude, then those are the things that will grow and expand." Ann Swanson

 

Episode 110 Resources
Here are some resources which you may find helpful.

Connect with Ann Swanson

Ann Swanson website
Ann Swanson Science of Yoga
Ann Swanson: Meditation for the Real World
Ann Swanson YouTube
 
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Ann Théato, CSNUt, Psychic, Medium and Spiritual Tutor, investigates psychic development, mediumship techniques, and paranormal science, so that you can come to understand your own innate psychic ability and expand your knowledge, whilst learning to develop a curious mind.

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EPISODE 110

You’ll Learn:

• Why meditation is possible for anyone—even those with busy, wandering minds.
• How to integrate mindfulness into everyday moments, like waiting in line or commuting.
• The science behind meditation and its benefits for anxiety, productivity, and well-being.
• How to debunk myths about traditional meditation practices.
• The secret to finding the right meditation technique for your unique needs 
   

Transcript

 

VO: Psychic Matters with Ann Théato. The top ranked spirituality podcast. 

 

Ann: Today, we have the pleasure of diving into the world of meditation with Ann Swanson, author of a wonderful book called Meditation for the Real World, Finding Peace in Everyday Life. And this book, I'm just holding it up here in my hand for those who are watching on YouTube and, those who are listening, I'm going to describe to you, it's got lots of different pink post it notes in there, for little questions that I want to ask Ann all about meditation throughout this interview. So do keep listening because this book offers a roadmap to integrating meditation into the busiest of schedules. It's got over 75 techniques. It promises to be a guide for anyone seeking mental and physical wellbeing. And the author, Ann Swanson is joining us today to talk about her work. So, Ann, welcome to Psychic Matters.  

 

Ann Swanson: I'm so glad to be here with you, Ann.  

 

Ann: Oh, bless you. Tell us where you're, you're calling in from today, Ann.  

 

Ann Swanson: Well, I'm in Hawaii, but I'm looking out the window right now and it's raining. It's not usually raining here, but I'm in Hawaii. 

 

Ann: Oh, bless. That's a long, long way from the UK, that's for sure. And of course there's a big time difference, isn't there, between our two countries. So, I'm seven o'clock in the evening. You must be in the morning. Is that correct? 

 

Ann Swanson: Yes, early in the morning.  

 

Ann: Bless you. so, we're going to be speaking all about your wonderful, wonderful book Ann, and I was just wondering, as I was reading through it, you know, what, what is it about your journey that inspired you to begin writing this?  

 

Ann Swanson: Yeah, meditation did not come naturally to me. I was not a chill person and through my path, I feel like if I can meditate, anyone can. My mind wanders a lot. I go to worries. Those, those are the typical things that I've, I've dealt with as well as, you know, anxiety and chronic pain. And so, I feel really sad when people say, oh, I've tried meditation, but it didn't work for me. My mind wandered too much, or, you know, I just can't do it. I can't find the time. And that's what this draft, this book really addresses is number one, we debunked all the myths about meditation based off of science. So, I teamed with Harvard neuroscientists, Dr. Sarah Lazar. And she and I integrated the most cutting-edge science to explain why we as humans are mind wandering machines, and that mind wandering is a part of meditation. So, if you feel like your mind wanders, then, you know, that's just the second step of meditation, even the most advanced meditators have mind wandering. So that really shouldn't be a barrier. And then the other aspect of the book is that it's, you know, finding peace in everyday life. It's even when you feel like you're busy, you know, you can integrate meditations into times when you're waiting. When you have that time where you typically would scroll, like on the cover of the book, we have somebody sitting on a subway or a bus and she looks super chill, uh, but all around her are people that are hunched over their computers, their laptops, their cell phones, scrolling, social media, you know, we tend to scroll while we wait and that's not so good for our brains. But instead, what if we meditate while we wait, what if we integrate these one-minute meditations to reset and realign and get back in touch with ourselves and our intuition, how would that change our lives? How would we show up in the world. If we did that. So that's what this is about. It's for busy people with busy minds.  

  

Ann: It's great to hear that you say about the busy mind and for people that feel they can't meditate because I think perhaps, we've got in our own minds that meditation has to be sitting quietly on a yoga mat, focusing on the breath, looking into an imaginary candle or a real candle or something like this, and we can't live up to that expectation. So, can you say a little bit about that for us?  

 

Ann Swanson: I'm glad you brought that up because that would be really my third intention of the book is to debunk that myth. You don't have to sit on the floor on a cushion with chanting in the background, you know, the person on the cover is, you know, eyes open in a public space. You don't have to do it the way you're imagining a monk would do it. Cause guess what? You're not a monk. This is not meditation for monks. This is meditation for the real world. How can we use it to help us with intuition, productivity, lowering our blood pressure, depression, anxiety, when we're feeling overwhelmed from zoom scrolling. 

So, the book is really organized as a handbook for those situations in life. You find that situation you're dealing with. And there's a meditation to help you through that.  

 

Ann: Yeah, you've got so many different meditations, we'll come to them, but just going back a little, um, you said earlier on, and we've only been speaking for a couple of minutes, I know, but you did say you found it difficult yourself to still that mind. So going back before then. Well, tell us about your earlier life where you and, and how you came to write this book. What's your background here? Because I know you've got another book called the science of yoga, so that must be part of your experience as well but go back to your earlier life if you would and talk us through what brought you to this rather than going to be, I don't know, a biology teacher or a mathematician or a lawyer. Why are you a writer of such things?  

 

Ann Swanson: Well, I was a biology teacher, anatomy and physiology instructor and ran a cadaver lab. But that was part of my path. My path started really as, you know, being an anxious child really into art. And I went to art school originally and studied illustration and ultimately documentary film. That led me around the world and I was able to do filmmaking in South America, China, and eventually I ended up going to India to study yoga. Um, this was because I started to feel the impacts for myself, for my own chronic pain and anxiety. But even at this point, the meditation practice was the harder part of yoga for me. You know, by the time I would get to that portion of the class, I'd be looking at my watch like, all right, it's time to go. I have things to do. I already did the, the quote unquote yoga part. So, you know, when I went to India and I really dove in and was able to understand more about the philosophy. As well as the science, my teacher, my guru was self-taught in anatomy, physiology, and science. And that sparked something in me as somebody that had that, you know, art background, I knew that if I wanted to be the best yoga teacher possible, I needed to understand the science also to meld the worlds of the therapeutic art in the East with the West. And so that it can be accepted in and integrated into our lives and, and to policies. 

So, I knew that this was the path I needed to take. So, I went back and I thought I would, you know, to go into something in the medical field. So, I did the pre-med course load, worked in a cadaver lab, became a massage therapist at night, just explore the human body from that other perspective.  

 

Ann: Hang on, hang on, hang on. You worked in a cadaver lab. That is interesting, a slightly off topic, but what did you do there?  

 

Ann Swanson: Yeah. So, at first, I, I was an assistant in a cadaver lab, and then I also ran my own when I taught anatomy and physiology. And so really just teaching future nurses, um, about the body and what's going on.  

 

Ann: So, these were human body parts that you would take out of the formulin or whatever you had them preserved in. 

 

Ann Swanson: Yeah, we had, we had full bodies and then we had, um, you know, go in the back and grab me a jar of hearts or testicles to be completely honest, anything we had jars of anything back there. And, you know, I remember the first time that I held a human brain. 

 

Ann: Wow.  

 

Ann Swanson: It was. for me, spiritual, not clinical. Everybody else was just, you know, writing down. It wasn't the spiritual experience for them. For me, I was like, in awe! That brain had once computed mathematics and felt love. That was a real human brain. And it's so dense, but also, it's, it's fairly small, so much in it. Uh, so. For me, it was always a spiritual experience to explore anatomy and physiology, and then, and then apply it to yoga and massage and body work. So, that's what I studied and I thought I would go into the medical field, but I ended up, you know, joining the Master of Science in Yoga Therapy program, I was the very last person to join this first cohort of this very first master's degree. And that was perfect for me. That was exactly what I wanted. So, from, from having my master's degree in yoga therapy, I got the first book, Science of Yoga, which explores the science behind the practice, how yoga affects every single individual system of your body. And I worked with some of the best illustrators and designers in the world. Uh, Aaron Lewis did these amazing illustrations and this book, you know, it has a lot of beautiful poses in it, you know, and most people like me came to yoga for the poses first. 

 

Ann: And this is, uh, sorry, just to describe to those listening on, uh, keep showing us the pages, uh, the audio listeners, of course, who can't see the pictures, uh, Ann is just flicking through her beautiful book, the science of yoga and showing us these beautiful illustrations of yoga poses, but those illustrations show the muscles of the body do they not?  

 

Ann Swanson: Yes, exactly. And every system of the body is illuminated through it. We have the lungs and the digestive system, the nervous system. So, diving under the skin, but the physical gets people into it. And it's very important. It prepares our body and mind for meditation, but where the magic happens is the meditation. So, I knew the next book, I want it to still be science backed and about now meditation and the more, some people would say esoteric practices, but I didn't want to make it esoteric. I wanted to make it accessible and inclusive and non-intimidating. So, it has both the science, but also step by step. 

So, here's what you do. Here's the technique. And if you've tried a meditation technique before and it didn't work for you, there's one in here that will, because it was actually, you know, you said 75 plus it's because there's 83. We counted and that just  

doesn't sound as good.  

 

Ann: Well, it's incredibly impressive to have that amount of different techniques. And these are very varied techniques, listeners and viewers. May I just say these are techniques I'm just flicking through randomly. Now there's one technique for unravelling headaches. There's one for meditation for pregnancy. There's one for meditating with other people, recovering from trauma, combating anxiety and worry. I mean, it goes on, uh, all of these different journeys and trajectories for different issues. People in the real world will be coming across doesn't it Ann? 

 

Ann Swanson: Yes, absolutely. And for me, I realized as a yoga therapist that it's not a one size fits all, it's not just one meditation technique helps all for everybody. You may need a different technique. And when you're anxious, I would give a different technique than when you're depressed, right? So, it's going to affect your energy therapeutically in a different way.  

 

Ann: So, if you're, uh, thank you for that explanation and I'm thinking if you're a complete beginner, Ann, I love the fact that we're both called Ann, by the way. 

If you're a complete beginner, Ann, would you find from your book here a particularly effective technique for somebody who's just starting?  

 

Ann Swanson: So, I really love the one-minute meditations scattered throughout the book.  

 

Ann: I like the sound of those. One minute. 

 

Ann Swanson: Yes. We're going to do one right now, actually.  

 

Ann: Okay, great. 

 

Ann Swanson: So that your listeners can experience it. Even if you're driving, even if you're walking, you can still do it eyes open in those circumstances. It doesn't have to be seated on a floor, on a pillow. You can sit however you want. You can stand. But what we're going to do is we're going to take this moment, this minute, to reset our nervous systems to come back to ourselves and presence. So this is called the five senses meditation, and I have a longer version of this meditation at meditationfortherealworld.Com, where you can find out about the book and get into the meditation challenge for free. And so, there's a longer version of it too, to practice it. But this short version, all you have to remember to do it on your own is the five senses. So, if you'd like to be sitting, you can sit a little taller. But however, you are just notice your posture and eyes wide open to start I want you to notice what you see, if possible, look outside like out a window or maybe if you're in a larger space look farther away so you're not looking at a screen. 

Our eyes and brain really like to have that expansive view, not this narrow view we tend to focus on so allow your vision to expand, allow your eyes to soften and take in the light, the colours, textures around you. And if you'd like, and it's appropriate, you can close your eyes. And same thing here, you're going to notice the light and colours and textures that you see, even with the eyes closed, if you choose so. And now bringing your attention to the sounds from far away to up close, my voice. Maybe you can even hear, amidst all the other sounds, the sound of your breath in the foreground. Deep inhale through the nose, notice any smells. Exhale slowly, notice any tastes. And then feeling the sensations in your body, your physical body, under your skin. Maybe you feel compelled to readjust your posture, stretch, or move a little. Listen to your body. What is your body asking for? What wisdom is there when you listen? And now taking it all in simultaneously, noticing your physical sense, smells, tastes, all that you hear. If your eyes are closed, gently open your eyes, notice what you see and take in all your five senses simultaneously. And then you'll continue to listen to our conversation with this new sense of awareness, which this one-minute meditation, these five senses. It's a great break when you're emailing, when you're looking at a screen, when you're in between activities to reset your nervous system.  

 

Ann: Oh, Ann, that's absolutely beautiful. You know, having done that with you and alongside you, along with everybody else, I feel very filled with energy actually. I feel like I'm vibrating at a slot on a slightly different level than I was two minutes ago. 

 

Ann Swanson: Yeah, I think that actually, we're always vibrating. We don't always notice that we start getting bogged down with our thoughts. And a lot of times our thoughts are distractible. And you know, if you have a busy mind, like me, it's distractible, as well as perhaps negative. Sometimes our minds go to things that are negative can feel like we're weighing ourselves down. And when we just come to the five senses, we become present, we're able to listen to our intuition. And I think we feel lighter. We feel that true vibration that's always there, right? That vitality that we can just get in touch with.  

 

Ann: I think it's great because it also for me just now, not only did I feel more that vitality, But I felt calmer and clearer and better able to think. When I first started that meditation, you were saying, uh, concentrate on what you could hear. And my boiler kicked in, had to put myself on mute really loudly. And I was just thinking, oh, here we go, distracted already, 10 seconds, um, but, uh, just keeping the focus on your words and, and what you were asking us to do. Uh, I was able to put all that to one side actually, and just in that tiny, tiny meditation, I feel better.  

 

Ann Swanson: Yeah. And I'm so glad you shared that because I'm sure some listeners experience that now or in other meditations, you know, all the sounds present, whether it's an ambulance, a child screaming, you know, you don't have to have perfect silence to meditate. Those can all be your meditation. They can be part of that experience. And if it is perfectly silent, honestly, that's not great practice because we want to be able to keep our Zen and our chill through the day during chaos. We want to be able to find calm amidst the chaos. And so, when there's sound like that, and you can still be calm, you're truly practicing what we want practicing presence and practice doesn't make perfect practice makes presence. So, I think that it's really important to accept those sounds and not have the expectation that it needs to be perfectly silent to meditate.  

Ann: Yeah, I think they add to it, don't they? I think in some way, um, yeah, that was really great. I think perhaps we've all got, I'm speaking for myself, but I think I speak on behalf of others where you think you have to put a chunk of time aside each day, which is why you never meditate because we don't have these chunks of time. 

 

Ann Swanson: Yeah. So that's why I love the one-minute meditations or even, you know, when you're really frustrated, you're about to yell at your kids, that one breath meditation can make a big difference, right? If we strategically place these practices in those moments, but also while you're waiting, a lot of times you have that five minutes. On the subway or bus, like on the cover, or perhaps you are picking up your kids from school and you're sitting in the car waiting for them rather than scrolling or looking at your email. That could be a time to do a meditation. So, I like to integrate it into those moments into my life. And then if you wanna develop like a practice. The true science backed way to do, whether it's a five-minute practice or a 10-minute practice, I don't suggest starting with 20 or 30 and honestly, 10 minutes, it's going to be a huge benefit. Uh, so if you want to start that practice, you want to integrate it with an activity, you already have a strong habit of. So, for me, for example, I already sit in front of this like red light machine because I have chronic pain and this red light helps with inflammation and pain. So, I'm already doing that. I might as well meditate while I'm doing that rather than scrolling my phone, right? So maybe there's an activity during it you can do, or perhaps before or after, like if you make your coffee or tea in the morning and you have it sitting there brewing and you're smelling it before you take your first step. You do a five- or 10-minute meditation. So, you can integrate it into something you already have a habit of. And it could even be the one-minute meditation. You don't have to do that five or 10. But if you want to develop that there's benefits to that too.  

Ann: Yeah, I think that's great to build it into what you already do. If I had to wait five or 10 minutes for my cup of tea, I like my cup of tea scalding hot fresh from the kettle. I could literally drink it out of the spout. So, five minutes would be too cold, but to do one minute, why, that's so doable.  

 

Ann Swanson: Yes.  

 

Ann: Throughout the day. Throughout the tea. That's a good point. Yeah. Um, so what time do you think is the best time of day to meditate? 

 

Ann Swanson: I think the best time is the time you actually do. That's going to be my answer, you know?  

 

Ann: I love it. Yeah.  

] 

Ann Swanson: Uh, so that's going to depend for everybody. Now, I truly do think that these one-minute meditations and these brief practices fit right in that critical moment when you're about to press send on that email and you're about to think you might regret it. Turn your chair around, look out the window, do your five senses meditation, turn back. Maybe you'll have some edits to that email, right? If you can fit it into moments like that. You're going to change the way you interact with the world, right, a one-minute meditation before you go on stage, rather than scrolling or texting somebody that's going to make you a better speaker. 

So, if you can fit it in a critical time in your life and get in the habit of that or even as a wind down like I know a lot of people you know whether you work from home. Or you drive home and you're about to leave your work life, you know, behind you and start your family life in the car or right before you go to the living room if you work from home, do a meditation so that you can really reset and let go of your day and get back to your family. That's going to make the biggest impact in your life. You're going to see a huge impact in your life in those sort of situations I gave you. Uh, but traditionally it's done in the morning. I think that just like exercise, if you can get it behind you, like that's also a really great thing to set the, the tone for your day. So, for example, if you want it to do that 10-minute meditation challenge, then I would suggest finding something to pair it with the morning, you know, right after I brush my teeth, I'm going to do this. Or perhaps you like to see the suns, that sunrise. I'm going to sit outside on the porch and that's when I'm going to do it. You know, I always sit outside in the porch and listen and see the sunrise, whatever activity you already do, try to fit it in there.  

 

Ann: Yeah, that, that is beautiful. Do you think, um, oh gosh, so watch the sunrise. I never even think about doing that. What a beautiful thing to do. I think it's because in the UK, it's been so miserable and dark and it's been raining forever. So, um, but I must consider doing that because it is a beautiful time of day, isn't it? Before anybody else gets up as you watch the world wake up.  

 

Ann Swanson: So beneficial for your brain and for your circadian rhythm. So, I have a whole section in the book about this. I'm using science to optimize your meditation practice and your life. So, this example. When you are outside, whether you actually see the sunrise or not, say you're in the UK and it's cloudy, it doesn't matter. Just going outside and seeing the light in the morning, it's different than the light in midday and at night. So, in the light in the morning, it has more blues in it. Just the sky in general, the colours, the spectra of the UV rays, there's more blues. And they tell your body to wake up. And you release a little cortisol, that stress hormone, but that's actually a good thing. Cause it's going to help you focus. So, it's going to help you get to it, focus, get some energy. We want our levels to be higher in the morning of cortisol so that they can drop in the evening. Then if you were to do, let's say a walking meditation midday and get the sunshine. So just take 10 minutes, five minutes, go outside and walk. I pace in my backyard, but maybe there's a park or somewhere nearby. You could just walk and do a little meditation while you're walking. I have a section of walking meditation there. Um, my favourite technique is to imagine you're the happiest person on earth. So, you walk as if you were, and you start to stand a little taller. You start to notice the sunshine and the birds a little bit more. So, there's lots of different cues you can do to turn your walk into a meditation, but that's my favourite. 

 

Ann: Oh, I love that.  

 

Ann Swanson: And if you were to watch the sunset, there's reds in the sunset. The warm colours tell your body to release less cortisol and more melatonin. So, it's a great time to do an open eye meditation, or even just take a little moment of mindful praise and gratitude to see that that sunset light. Like I said, you don't have to see the sun actual set the sky itself is helpful. You know, it's the colours that are in the sky at that time.  

Ann: Oh, God, it's so interesting, isn't it? The science behind it. Is it better to do the short bursts of meditation in a day, even if you can only do one, one minute, or is it better and more effective to do 20 minutes, half an hour or an hour? What, what's the best benefit?  

 

Ann Swanson: That's a great question. And we don't have research comparing the two of those yet, uh, to my knowledge. However, we do have a lot of research that's very recent and comparing short bursts of exercise like doing less than a minute, 20 seconds of squats through the day, just scatter through your day versus, you know, an hour of exercise or doing it like how we in the in the modern day, think of exercising. It's going to be like an hour, three times a week, right? Compared to these short bursts. Uh, it's crazy how much more beneficial it is. What the research is showing- huge systematic reviews about how it's better for your blood sugar levels to fit little walks and little bursts of exercise for your day, rather than just doing one long session. It's better for your stress, your mental health. It's better for your cardiovascular system. So, my prediction is that we'll start to do that same research on meditation and that the same is true of meditation. Remember, this is very recent in the exercise world that we're coming to this conclusion. And it's honestly, it's just common sense. Like we as humans are not meant to sit at a computer all day and then go work out for an hour. Like that's not how we evolved to be. We need that blood flowing constantly. So, if you set an alarm for every 20 to 30 minutes to get up. and walk around and move, you're going to get a much better outcomes, your cognition is better too, cerebral blood flow is better. I believe the same is true of meditation. So, when we integrate these little moments through the day, we become more mindful, we become more present, we get those immediate benefits to our life. And that's really what we're supposed to do is to, to be present in our, in our everyday life, to connect, to live a little slower life than I think the modern day pushes us to do so. 

 

Ann: Yeah. Yeah, you're right. I'm sure I read somewhere while I was doing my. Uh, how do I lose weight research about. How we used to be literally chased by lions, tigers and bears, and how that those bursts of adrenaline actually benefit weight loss because, uh, because they're short bursts. Is that kind of what you're sort of saying with these, in terms of using that? I don't really know. I'm not a medical person. Yeah. Am I making any sense to you?  

 

Ann Swanson: I think that's a good point. And meditation helps you come down from those short bursts of stress. So right now, we don't have the sabre-toothed tiger chasing after us, but guess what? We get stressful emails.  

 

Ann: Yes.  

 

Ann Swanson: We have screaming kids. We have things that stress us out and release the adrenaline and cortisol stress hormones in the same way. But if you can train your brain and your body to go from that intense state down to the relaxed state quicker. And that's what meditation does, then you're going to have a lot better cardiac resilience and, um, resilience with your mental health. And so, yeah, I think that's really a good point.  

 

Ann: Thank you. You spoke earlier about having chronic pain and you sit in front of a red light, and I'm sure a lot of people here have back pains or hip pains or whatever their pains are. We all have them. Um, how can you get comfortable doing meditation. What's your advice there? 

 

Ann Swanson: Yeah, good question. As I mentioned earlier, you don't have to sit on the floor. You don't have to sit in any way. You can sit in a chair; you can put a cushion behind your back. You, if you need to walk or move during your meditation, the walking meditation is a great option. I have several other movement meditations and ways we can integrate mindfulness into our, our physical movement in the book. So, it doesn't have to be seated. But one of my favourite things to do when I'm experiencing, I get full body chronic pain. So, it's like all my joints at once. So maybe you're back or like full body. Like I get, you lie down and you do something called a yoga nidra. This translated just means yoga sleep or yoga nap. It's like a little nap and it's longer, like you'd think, Oh, 20 to 30 minutes. I could never meditate that way. But when you're lying down and you're guided through this, it's, it's like a nap. You start to, you know, when you're about to fall asleep, you kind of twitch. You start to like to do that and you get into the sleep stage. And when we hook up electrodes of people's. skulls and look at their brain activity. We see that they actually go into delta wave activity in their brain, which is typically only seen in sleep. So, you're getting some of the benefits of sleep from this meditation. So, you feel rejuvenated afterwards. So, I do this a lot for chronic pain. Um, and as a kind of reset when you're in the afternoon and you're like, should I take a nap? Should I have another coffee? What should I do? It's a, it's a great one to like to rejuvenate. So, there's so many different types of meditation to do with pain. You could even put pillows under you, prop yourself up, get super comfy. 

 

Ann: Yeah. I love the Yoga Nidra. Um, I often do those. In fact, I've just released an audio track, uh, of Yoga Nidra. It's only 10 minutes, but it's like having, you know, an hour or two of sleep for those 10 minutes when you just feel so refreshed afterwards. Uh, I absolutely love Yoga Nidra. And in your book, you've got a beautiful Yoga Nidra exercise that you talk everybody through with step-by-step instructions, which is really beautiful and lovely illustration again by your artist. Who illustrated your book, did you say?  

 

Ann Swanson: Michelle Mildenberg Lara, she does a lot of work for the New Yorker and the New York Times. So, it's this like quirky style with beautiful colours. It's a perfect gift book. This is a relaxing experience to flip through for the people that love books. You know, you hear the sound of the page, you feel it. You were saying earlier, you love the size of it. It fits in your purse. So, it's that perfect gift book for somebody who either loves meditation or has been told to meditate but can't quite get into it.  

 

Ann: Yeah, it is the perfect gift book. You're absolutely right. And before we went on air, I was saying to Ann how I loved the colours of the book, how I love the feel of the book. It's got this beautiful hard cover on it. And the design of it is very unusual actually, It's, it's very different to a lot of books out there. And, um, I just love the way it's laid out with a double page for each exercise and these beautiful illustrations, like you said. And, um, I mean, I just, I just love books and this is just amazing. I just, it's the, somebody sent me a book recently, uh, as a gift for something completely different. Um, and it had little things in it like this and it was, I treasure it. So, this is a wonderful book, people, if you want to send somebody a present, um, Ann, people listening to this podcast know that I recently had a bereavement and my mother passed away and um, it was after, um, a long illness of dementia and various other things. So, I feel perfectly fine now, but you did say to me, oh, I've got a meditation in my book for grief and you do. And I went to do that meditation. But what it brought up for me was a lot of difficult emotions. And I just thought, no, I, I'm not going here. No, not going to do it. And I sort of went away from what I should have pursued if you see. So, the question for you, how do we deal with difficult emotions when they come up for us like this? 

 

Ann Swanson: Yeah, so the biggest thing is making sure you're in a safe place for meditation and noticing, you know, when it is uncomfortable and as you did, you know, stopping if it's uncomfortable, you can come back to it when you're ready. So, to cultivate a safe space, I say, you know, perhaps you're at home, it's a time where you feel comfortable to do something a little bit more in depth like that. My example of non-safe spaces, I say. I tried this like anxiety meditation while I was at the doctor's office about to get a procedure and it made me pass out, right? Like it wasn't the time to do that.  

 

Ann: Right. Yes.  

 

Ann Swanson: Um, so like make sure you're feeling safe and comfortable and know your own boundaries. So, it's good that you stop when you're not comfortable. 

Uh, a big part of grieving is understanding where you are in that stage of grief. And it sounds like that, that gave you a little bit of insight of where you were in that stage of grief.  

 

Ann: Yeah. Yeah. It's true. Yeah, it did. And I think that's great to stop if it's not appropriate.  

 

Ann Swanson: Let me give an example of. For me, when I, I would go to the doctor's office and I would pass out. So, I decided I would get a meditation that I could do in that situation. So, I went to a yoga teacher and they said, okay, so what you want to do is notice your body awareness and your breath awareness, really classic mindfulness techniques. A lot of us have done or tried in a meditation. It's probably the most common focal point you're given in a meditation. So, I go there and I'm prepared. I'm like, all right, the doctor is about to start the procedure. I'm going to notice my body and oh my gosh, my heart, it's beating out of my chest. And then I start to go pale, and I taste metal, and then I notice my breath, and it's betraying me, and boom, I pass out faster than I ever have passed out before. 

Now, it turns out, when I looked into the research, that breath awareness and body awareness, like internal body awareness, is not good during acute anxiety like during an anxiety attack when you're really feeling panic or overwhelm. It's very common that it'll make it feel worse. So, this thing that typically makes us feel calm when we're in a safe space. In that non safe space, it made me feel very uncomfortable and made things worse. So, I think I like to tell this story because a lot of listeners have probably done a meditation and they're like, oh, it didn't help. It actually made me feel more anxious because I was noticing all my thoughts coming. Well, it's not that you're bad at meditating. 

Number one. It's that you were doing the wrong meditation technique, either for you or for that situation. You weren't ready for it. It wasn't right for you. So, if anybody's listening, they're like, okay, well what do I do if I feel panic or if I'm at the doctor's office and I have that same situation I'm almost passing out or whatever, um, situation might make you feel that overwhelm. 

Well, rather than. Internal body awareness. You want to bring your awareness outward so you can still do a meditation. Meditation is critical for me in those moments. And now I don't pass out because I use this, these techniques. So, one of them is to notice what's on the outside of you. So, I noticed three things I see. You know, okay, doctor, the chair, and the nurse, three things I hear, all right, I hear this, these three different things, and then I will move three different body parts, or if I can't move, you know, I'll feel my feet on the ground, the outside of my body, press my hands, turn them palm facing down to feel more grounded. Now, that's if I have to be present and answer questions. If I don't have to be present in a situation like I'm getting a dental procedure, I am definitely going to use a visualization meditation technique. I'm going to imagine I'm at the beach. I'm curling my toes in the sand. I'm feeling that sense of ease and calm of how I feel at the beach and so that's another technique you can use to just kind of go elsewhere for a few moments and feel at ease. There's different techniques and that's what this book is all about is what technique would be helpful for you in that situation.  

 

Ann: Yeah, that's fantastic. There's a meditation for every situation, I'm sure. What about creating a daily habit then? What can you tell us about that?  

 

Ann Swanson: Well, I would re-emphasize the pairing it, habit pairing. Pair it with something, think of actually as you're listening right now, think of something that you already have a strong habit of. And whether you want to do the five- or ten-minute practice or fit those one-minute meditations in, where could you fit it in? And you want to think of something before, during, or after that activity you're going to do. So that's the tried-and-true way to develop a habit. However, if it doesn't work for you, you iterate, you change it. You have permission to change it. It doesn't mean you're a failure. You know, life changes. Sometimes I don't, when I'm traveling, I don't have my red light. I can't do my meditation during my red light. I have to find something new to pair it with in that situation. So that's a really critical thing is to be self-compassionate and be willing to change it. And for these one-minute meditations, I like to integrate them into lots of different activities in my life. And, um, I can give you a few more examples that you can integrate. So, everybody might have some water or something to hydrate them nearby. If you do, grab it and take a sip. Feel the coolness or warmth, the temperature of the water moving down through you. Feel the nourishment, the cleansing of that. And just take a moment, and if you need more. Take more water, listen to your body. Does it need more water? So, I call that the hydration meditation is less than a minute. It's actually something that therapists do a lot. So now you're going to notice your therapist taking sips of water in between challenging things that you may say. It's a cleansing technique. It helps you kind of cleanse and reset and onto the next thing. So perhaps one email and then do your water and on to the next task. So that can be a really helpful one. So, I like to integrate them through like activities. I know I'm already doing like sipping water or I have my medication meditation to ... 

 

Ann: hold on to the medication one, because the cleansing technique is interesting for those of us that do mediumship because when we're demonstrating mediumship in front of an audience of people, we will do a link from a spirit communicator. And deliver the, uh, messages and then when we're finished, we will take a sip of water to energetically break that connection. But it's interesting. I'm just going to take a sip now because my throat is dry. But what's interesting is I take a sip of water to sort of energetically disconnect from that spirit communicator and wait for the next one to come in, but I never think about what you've just said, which is listen to your body as you just feel that cleansing and that release. And I think I'd like to incorporate that now into my demonstration. So, thank you.  

 

Ann Swanson: Yes. Bask in it, you know, do what psychologists call savouring it.  

 

Ann: Yes.  

 

Ann Swanson: Really feel the nourishment and the cleansing from it. And you'll set that intention and get more cleansing from it and on to the next. I love that example and I learned something new. I knew therapists did it, but I didn't know that it was helpful in that situation. I'm a massage therapist. Another technique we do is that when we walk into the room. Uh, to work with a new client. When we touch the doorknob, right about to walk in, I take a mindful moment. I let go of anything from outside of the room, let go of any of my stuff. Cause I don't want to bring that energetically into the client. And the second I touch it; it tells me to do that. And then I walk in the room and I'm in a new space. I'm in a new, uh, healing and focus mindset. So, finding those little ways you can use your present moment awareness to reset and come back into, into whatever you want to do and to focus and to connection, whatever the intention may be. 

 

Ann: Yeah. Beautiful. You were going to tell us, and I interrupted you about medication technique.  

 

Ann Swanson: Yes. I'm glad you interrupted me. That was fascinating. So, another one I do, I do this with a lot of my clients is, you know, taking your medication, even if it's just my vitamins can be hard to remember. So, we turn it into a meditation. So, as I take each pill, I feel it going down. And then afterwards I feel the nourishment from it. And I feel a gratitude that I have this, that I have, you know, the healing from it. And I visualize it healing me. I visualize it working.  

 

Ann: Yeah, beautiful. I love that. I love, love, love it. I love it because it's so easy to integrate into our everyday, which is think, you know, that example and all the others that you've mentioned so far. You have also in your book, you do cover or explore unconventional meditation methods, such as incorporating movement or art. What inspired you to include those as alternative meditation? 

 

Ann Swanson: It's all about the real world, right? So, I went to art school originally, and when I go to an art museum and I stop and pause and take it in, it, is this present moment awareness that just I naturally experience, you know, I learned it, I guess, in art school, but I've always had that all of art. So perhaps you have something in your life that already brings that present moment awareness. Maybe you play a musical instrument and it gets you into that flow state. Now, how can we use that to enhance our meditation and use our meditation? To enhance that activity. Right. So, uh, that's a lot of what I integrate into the book is like making it personalized for you, whether you're into art or guitar or swimming, how do you integrate your meditation into that effectively so that you become a better swimmer, so that you are more creative when you're doing your art. 

Ann: It's interesting because again, with mediumship, it's not just about bringing messages through from spirit communicators, but it's often working with the spirit world that we might channel, um, the minds of the many from the spirit world in order that we can focus in on something like playing the piano or doing art, et cetera, and allow spirit to work with us to produce with us that piece of art or that piece of music. So, it's very interesting. It's similar.  

 

Ann Swanson: Yes, absolutely. It sounds like you're integrating a lot of meditation techniques in getting in touch with that, uh,  

 

Ann: being present. Yeah, being very, very present and just allowing, again, the flow from the spirit world to just flow through you, through your higher self, though, uh, like I say, the minds of the many within the spirit world, the great artists that are dead in the physical, but alive in the spirit world. In the spirit realm, that they might be able to work through us, their energy flowing through us. So yeah, great musicians, great artists.  

 

Ann Swanson: It sounds like, you know, psychic mediumship as well as meditation is the act of deep listening.  

 

Ann: Yes, correct.  

 

Ann Swanson: And we think of prayer and we even see it neurologically when we put people on brain scans is that it's, It's the act of speaking to God. It lights up areas in your brain similar to having a conversation and speaking. And then meditation lights up areas more similar to listening and visualization. And I would predict, although we have no research of this, that the psychic mediumship does the same thing. It's that listening aspect that your brain is going into that activity, then lighting up those areas and practicing deep, intuitive listening. That's what meditation is for me. It's listening to my body and the intuition and whether that's, you know, my, mine or the whole spirit world coming through me, uh, it's, it's an act of listening.  

 

Ann: Yeah. Beautiful, beautiful, wonderful similarity. Ann, thank you so much for coming on and sharing all of these beautiful meditation techniques. Your book, Meditation For The Real World, Finding Peace In Everyday Life. Where can people buy it?  

 

Ann Swanson: Yeah, you can buy it wherever books are sold, but if you go to meditationfortherealworld.com, you'll see the links and you'll join the meditation challenge. And it's just five days, less than 10 minutes a day, science backed meditations that incorporate music and sounds that have been engineered to optimize your brain waves. So, I add extra levels of that science backed, benefits to it. And it's really accessible. You know, I give those tips for the one-minute meditations to throughout the challenge. So, I would highly recommend it and meditationfortherealworld.com.  

 

Ann: That is beautiful. So, does that come directly to you? Can people contact you if they want to, I don't know, ask you anything. Um,  

 

Ann Swanson: yeah.  

 

Ann: They go through that web, through the website, meditationfortherealworld. com? 

 

Ann Swanson: You'll get an email every day, uh, for the next five days after you sign up of the meditations. You'll continue to have access to them if you want to go back to them, but, uh, you can reply to the email, ask me a question, but I also recommend, you know, take a picture of the book when you get it and post it on Instagram. 

And then we'll talk over DM on Instagram or in message. So, my Instagram is @scienceof.Yoga. That's the channel that you can tag and connect with me there too. That's another way we can chat.  

 

Ann: Fantastic, so that's Instagram and your website. Are you on any other social media platforms?  

 

Ann Swanson: YouTube it's An Swanson wellness, and I have a yoga nidra actually, I'll give you to link below that specifically for chronic pain, since we spoke of that. And it's one of my most popular videos.  

 

Ann: Fantastic. Ann Swanson Wellness on YouTube, everybody go and subscribe to Ann's channel and give her a bit of support there. And uh, that way you'll benefit because you'll benefit from all of her beautiful videos and content Ann, it's been fabulous. And thank you so much on behalf of everybody listening and watching for your time and generosity. Thank you so much.  

 

Ann Swanson: Thank you.  

 

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