Meditate with This Morning and monk Gelong Thubten

After suffering with severe anxiety, Gelong Thubten made the decision to leave his beloved acting career and wild lifestyle behind… to become a monk! Well he’s never looked back, and credits his new-found inner peace for saving his life. He’s even convinced some of Hollywood’s biggest stars to try out the monk lifestyle.

Gelong joins us today to pass on the tips he’s been taught by Tibetan masters, as he helps Phillip and Holly find their inner wisdom.

Give meditation a go!

How to clear the mind

Contrary to popular belief, actively trying to clear your mind is the worst thing you can do for meditation. Instead, Thubten tells us to focus on our breathing rather than our thoughts:“People think you need to sit in a dark room, or sit on the top of a mountain - you don’t. Another misconception is that you should completely switch off and shouldn’t have anything going on mentally. It’s not about switching your thoughts off, it’s a state of focus and learning to let the thoughts go by like traffic and not jumping into them.”

Micro moments of mindfulness

Mindfulness has been in existence for 2,500 years and has been proven to train the mind to respond better to stress and develop greater clarity. Thubten suggests we can meditate throughout the day - even while doing the washing up or the shopping. Contrary to popular belief, you can practice mindfulness during busy and stressful periods of the day: “It’s about focusing on the present moment, feeling less controlled by your own thoughts and having more mental freedom. It doesn’t mean blanking out your mind. People think it’s about going into a trance, but it’s not. It’s about dealing with your thoughts more creatively. It’s easy to integrate meditation into a very very busy day, you can walk mindfully or wash your hands mindfully. By integrating it into a busy culture, you can meditate anywhere. You don't have to be a monk or even be spiritual.”

60-second meditation

Thubten says:“Sit up straight, feel the contact the floor, now feel the chair under your body, relax and feel the weight of your body on the chair - sit with them, turn the attention to your breathing, don’t breathe deeply, just feel normal.”