Hiten Vyas - Mindfulness Meditation For People Who Stammer (Stutter)

http://hitenvyas.com

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I dedicate this eBook to you thereader, for refusing to allow stammering to hold you back.

I also want to express my gratitudeto the monks at the East Midlands Buddhist Association for theircompassion and for teaching me the techniques Im passing on insidethis eBook.

Table of Contents

Hiten Vyas is the Founder ofStuttering Hub Limited, a company specialising in providingcoaching services for people who want to improve theircommunication. As a life coach, he is passionate about helpingother people increase their self-confidence and overcomecommunication related fears.

Hiten is based in Leicestershire inthe UK and is available for private one-on-one consultationlocally, and internationally through telephone coaching. He is anNLP Master Practitioner and uses NLP-based techniques in hiscoaching practice.

He has personally experiencedtrauma and pain caused by stammering, and has faced and overcomesome of his own deepest communication fears, to lead a successfullife. He has reached a position where he now believes that a personcan achieve all they want in life, no matter how they communicate.He loves and embraces change, and is passionate about helpingpeople change and live fulfilled lives.

Hiten also has a PhD in BiomedicalInformation Systems from Loughborough University in the UK.

There are two main purposes of thiseBook. The first is to explain the benefits of the technique ofmindfulness meditation to you and how you can use it to bring peaceand harmony to your mind and your life. Secondly, is to teach youthe actual technique so that you may start using it today.

I gotinto mindfulness meditation in 2008. A friend who attended mypublic speaking class told me about it. I mentioned to him how Ireally enjoyed my yoga practice. However, I was a little frustratedby the primary emphasis on the postures during classes, as iscommon in the UK, as opposed to focusing on the meditative aspectsof yoga.

My friend recommended I attend aBuddhist meditation session at the local temple on a Saturdayevening. I did. During my first session, the monk who lived at thetemple taught me how to practice mindfulness meditation. Although Ididnt quite know it then, this practice would be something thatwould help me to transform my life.

Before I explain how to do thetechnique of mindfulness meditation, I want to explain why thistype of meditation is helpful, if you stammer. If you stammer, thenyou may experience a lot of anxiety associated with your speaking.Underlying this anxiety are unhelpful thoughts you have about yourstammering, yourself, certain situations and other people. Thesethoughts may consist of scary pictures and movies you create inyour mind about struggling to speak in particular contexts.Associated with these thoughts can be negative words you say toyourself.

Such thoughts then create fear andworry which you feel in your body. Also, they are usually quick andfrantic. One negative thought about stammering leads to another andthen another one. In Buddhist philosophy this is known as themonkey mind.

Mindfulness meditation allows youto calm your monkey mind. It allows you develop a sense of peacein your mind and improve your wellbeing, so that you are no longergoverned by your thoughts about stammering. And when you do havesuch thoughts, you no longer take them that seriously and can bringyourself back to feeling peaceful.

Letsgo back to the nature of anxious and fearful thoughts aboutstammering for a moment. They usually have a key characteristic.They are either about times when you may have stammered previouslyand felt bad about doing so. On the other hand, they are aboutfuture, possible speaking situations you may go into, where youanticipate you will stammer. So, emotional pain is caused bystammering thoughts about either the past or the future.

There is a middle ground when thispain ceases. It is in the present moment. Some call it presentmoment living. When you are totally focused on what you areexperiencing in the here and now, both inside you and yoursurroundings, you no longer lost in the past or the future. In thepresent moment, there is no thinking that leads to worry or anxietyabout stammering.

There is one way you can use tostay in the present moment. It is by becoming aware of yourbreathing. By becoming aware and focusing on your breathing, youreno longer thinking about stammering. It isnt possible to betotally focused on your breathing and have stammering thoughts atthe same time.

The essence of mindfulnessmeditation is to focus on your breathing. Through regular practice,you can develop the ability to live more and more in the presentmoment and less and less time in the fantasy of previousexperiences about your stammering and future speaking scenarios,which havent even happened yet.

The technique of mindfulnessmeditation is simple. Below are the main steps:

1. Find a quiet place, perhaps a roomin your house or apartment where you wont be disturbed. If otherpeople are around, request them to keep the noise down and closethe door of the room in which you are in.

2. Place a comfortable pillow on thefloor, which you can sit on. A proper meditation pillow works best,but if you dont have one then a regular one will do.

3. Sit on the pillow with your legscrossed and place your hands on your legs, just above your kneesand on your thighs, with your back straight. If sittingcross-legged is too difficult, then you can sit on a chair withyour back straight and place your hands on your thighs.

4. Close your eyes.

5. Now begin to focus on yourbreathing, observing as you inhale and you exhale. Keep yourattention only on your breathing. Just observe the natural flow ofbreath going in and out. There is no need to regulate or controlyour breath in anyway.

6. As you begin to focus on yourbreathing, take your attention to your two nostrils and observeyour breathing as you inhale into your nostrils and exhale throughyour nostrils.

7. As you begin to focus on yourbreathing, after a little time you will start to notice your mindwandering into a thought about something. As you notice your mindbeginning to wander, just observe it doing so in an unattached andobjective way. Just observe the thought, which has arisen withoutjudging it and gently bring your attention back to your breathing,going in and out of your nostrils. Again, as your mind begins towander into thinking, or perhaps you start to talk to yourself,just observe this has happened and gently bring your attention backto your breathing.

8. Now you have read the above steps,have a little meditation sitting for 5 minutes.

9. After you have finished yourmeditation notice how you are feeling.