Family Therapy Podcast
Two cousins get together to discuss recent events & hot topics with insight from their generational differences and outlook on today's society & culture. Warren and Erica offer commentary on entertainment and music industry news. This podcast welcomes listeners a peak into their unique upbringing with hilarious stories and general life survival guides.
Family Therapy Podcast
Deep Dive | MEDITATION & NEW AGE PRACTICES
We dive deep into meditation—demystifying what it is, sharing personal journeys, and revealing how this simple practice transforms daily life. From reclaiming control over anger responses to disconnecting from overwhelming anxiety, our candid conversation explores meditation's tangible benefits in a world that never slows down.
Discover the surprising simplicity of starting a meditation practice. Whether you're skeptical or curious, we break down practical first steps that take just minutes of your day but yield profound changes. Learn how focusing on something as simple as the sound of a fan or ticking clock can anchor your mind when thoughts inevitably intrude.
Through personal stories of transformation—from reactive anger to calm responses, from anxiety to clarity—we demonstrate meditation's power to change not just moments of stress but entire life perspectives. Our journeys reveal how meditation cultivates the ability to observe your thoughts rather than being consumed by them.
Hey, beautiful souls. So today we are going to deep dive into meditation and new age practices, what it is, how to do it and how it can change your life. So take my hand and let's deep dive into meditation. Hey, warren, hey.
Speaker 2:Erica, what's up? How are you?
Speaker 1:Good, good. How are you?
Speaker 2:Good, good. Are you excited for today's topic of meditation? I am so excited.
Speaker 1:I feel, like I'm a professional at this. Oh yeah, in my own opinion.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I feel like I am too, but I feel like we're professionals in our own ways.
Speaker 1:Yes, exactly, ticked the words right out of my mouth yeah, yeah, yeah, cool, awesome. So let's, uh, let's deep dive let's get right into it yeah, all righty so what is your definite or what is the true meaning of meditation?
Speaker 2:yeah, let's definitely take a look at the official definition of meditation. Meditation is a practice that involves focusing or clearing your mind using a combination of mental and physical techniques. Awesome, okay. So what kind of physical and mental techniques do you think those are?
Speaker 1:As far as mental, it would be to slow your brain down. Just pretty much practice to slow down your mind.
Speaker 2:So basically what that definition is is taking the time to just breathe first, silence the mind, because throughout the day we can accumulate so many thoughts and so many emotions and feel all these different kind of pulls from the day, like work and our social life. It can be stressful. So meditation is a way of focusing on what you want and what you need in that moment, especially when you're feeling like you're pulled from different aspects of your life. Right, I think that's what meditation can, what that definition means.
Speaker 1:To you, to me, yeah, or what I get from it.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and meditation to me, or my definition, is just basically depending on the day it's. For me, I like to start the day in meditation because you, it just brings clarity to me, um, and throughout the day. So we will get further into into that later. But for me the definition again is just to slow my mind down, to help me focus, to help me function in just a different state of mind.
Speaker 2:In a calmer state of mind, right, in a calmer state of mind, exactly In a calmer state of mind, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's my definition of meditation. Your take on meditation, my take, yeah, okay awesome.
Speaker 2:So let's talk about the benefits of meditation. What are some benefits of meditation that you know of that people usually get from meditating?
Speaker 1:Yeah would be peace of mind, um to focus, being more calm throughout the day and, uh, just mental clarity mental clarity, self-awareness I think self-awareness, yeah, that's a really good one that's a good one because, like we talked about last week, about um reaction, and I would think you know self-awareness is a benefit, but it's also a reason why which is what we're going to get into next is why do people meditate? I think it's self-awareness falls into that for me because, like you mentioned, I want to be able to control my reaction, especially when I'm having a shit-ass day and somebody comes along and they're having a shit day and now there's two people that just are having a shit-ass day and you know, I want to be able to react with calmness.
Speaker 2:You know right, exactly because you want to be able to radiate good energy rather than bad energy. Because if you do mix two people having a bad day together, it can be a clash. It can be a clash, you never know, depending on who the people are.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so yeah, definitely self-awareness, I think is a good one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this is a good benefit of meditation.
Speaker 2:So why do you think people turn to meditation nowadays, Now in 2025, why do you think people turn to meditation nowadays, now in 2025? Why do you think people meditate today? I mean, what with, like, there's so much better things to do?
Speaker 1:Why do you think people do it today? I think our world is more chaotic today. I think it's because I think people meditate for stress relief to heal from parts that they need healing.
Speaker 2:And I'm again going to throw the self-awareness into the why, because we interact with so many people and it's hard to cope sometimes, yeah, yeah. So I would say, like, maybe looking for answers, like if you have, if you're just stuck on an issue or on a problem, a circumstance in life and you just don't know where to turn, you meditate, you know, because if you uh just dig in your mind, you can figure it, it out. You can figure things out that you didn't know. You could figure out if you just take time to just sit there and think.
Speaker 1:Think about it, think, and it's not really. I don't.
Speaker 2:I would have to disagree with the think because meditation you shouldn't have to think, but you should be able to slow your mind down right so the your thoughts, clearer thoughts or, you know, guidance enters there you go see guidance, which is what answers, which is where you get answers from right so like meditation is you? You're sitting down to silence all the noise around you, all the voices, so you can connect with your inner self for the guidance, for the answers that you need to just.
Speaker 1:To process life, to live, yeah.
Speaker 2:To process life. So I think, yeah, to get answers, and I don't think, yeah, I don't think it's maybe more thinking, but it also does take some sort of internal will. Yeah, I don't think it's maybe more thinking, but it also does take some sort of internal will. It's more of a thought process, yeah internal will to silence those thoughts, because some of those thoughts can be noisy, yeah, you know, depending on who those voices are coming from.
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 2:Alrighty. So now we got that out of the way, we know what meditation is generally. Now let's talk about what meditation means to you and I. Let's get personal with the topic. How does that sound? Yeah, yeah, absolutely good, all righty. So let's talk about I'll go first. I'll go first. Um, why do I meditate? I meditate because, again, going back to the self-awareness thing and kind of going back to what we talked about in the previous couple episodes I have an issue with anger, or acting out out of anger, or saying things out of anger or saying things out of anger, and that's something that I haven't really conquered yet.
Speaker 2:So it's a proper dragon in my life that I'm like everyday facing Because I'm a driver and being a driver alone can really initiate some pretty tense feelings with how people drive and just traffic in general. So I meditate to just, or when I find the time to meditate, which sometimes could be during work, like we make a park outside of Walgreens and just meditate work, like we make a park outside of walgreens and just meditate. Um, it helps me a lot because it reminds me of what I'm doing, why I'm out there, why I'm doing this door dash, why I'm doing this podcast, why I'm sitting here doing an outline, why I'm sitting here making art work. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:So like because otherwise, if I don't meditate and remind myself why I'm doing this stuff, I can do two things. I could set it aside and just forget about it and not take it seriously at all and just let it go away. Or I could like be tense about it and do it out of anger and rush through it and be like half-assed at it.
Speaker 2:You know, I'm saying right uh, which I don't want to do. I don't want to do both of those things. I want to do it right. I want to be creative, and I can't do that unless I take the time to meditate and just turn everything off. That's why I do it okay that makes sense yeah yeah long story, rant but whatever. But that's why you I meditate. Yeah, okay, yeah. So what about you? What's your relationship like with meditation?
Speaker 1:um, my relationship with meditation is I do it so I can disconnect from the world, from my physical body, from my mind Well, not necessarily mind, because I'm going into that deep dive within myself, within my soul. So I do it so I can just slow down, because my life is chaotic. If it's not one thing, it's another, and I get a lot of anxiety. And so meditation really helps me, kind of like you know, get rid of the anxiety. Kind of like you know, get rid of the anxiety. Um, disconnecting from everything, everyone, is something that I feel like I've mastered because, um, it just brings me so much peace of mind and clarity. But then it also gets me in a place where I'm just like a light switch. Um, a place where I'm just like a light switch when I go into deep meditation and I practice it daily. When I'm in deep, deep meditation, I have no emotion, and I don't know if that makes sense to you, but I'm so disconnected from people in just everything, so nothing phases me yeah and um.
Speaker 1:So I have to not meditate that hard because I'm still human and I don't want to, you know, have people around me think that I don't give a shit about them when I really do. But it's just that meditation for me just disconnects me from everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then I go into the world and I'm disconnected from everything. You can be, you know, telling me off, and it won't faze me. The world can be burning, it won't phase me. So for me I go into a really deep, deep, deep place when I meditate like that. So I don't do that anymore just because I was told that I was a cold person when I do that. So now I meditate like just throughout the day. Um, I take like I have like a every hour I do a pause, it's just, uh, my prayer pause, and so I just stop, take like a minute, reflect, silence my mind and then just say like a quick affirmation or prayer or a positive word or whatever it is whatever it is in that moment, because I do it every hour on the hour and that just helps me kind of like.
Speaker 1:When I don't do that, I feel like I feel more stressed, yeah, and I need to, yeah, I just need to balance that more, I feel like, because it's like a. My meditation is kind of like a roller coaster. It's just kind of it's just a mental break for me and it helps me focus because I have, like I said, so much going on we all do and sometimes I just have to like regroup and like okay, erica, this is what we're doing Just like you mentioned earlier, like you're like what the heck am I doing?
Speaker 1:I'm doing this, I'm doing that, blah, blah, blah. Same thing with me. So that's when I have to be self-aware. And okay, erica, you need to just stop. And you need to take time and you need to go into that state of mind where you're just going to function with clarity. But I just need to learn that balance. I still haven't got that balance right where I'm like I'm either hot or cold and I want to be warm, not hot or cold.
Speaker 2:You know, let's talk a little bit about how we started meditating, when, when we started, how you felt when you started and maybe, yeah, like how you started.
Speaker 1:I started meditating in 2021. It was like right after covid was in like 2020 and then I kind of started fading and life started kind of becoming normal, mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:So back to 2021, I was just in a horrible place mentally. Um had a lot going on, of course, in a totally different from what's going on now, but um, just a lot going on dealing with craziness, and I felt like I was losing my fucking mind. And I was on YouTube and I was just like, okay, what am I doing, like you know, and I'm praying, I, I don't know what to do. So I met this girl on Instagram and she was from India. I don't know how we became friends, but we would always chat, like you know, and she was from India, yeah, and so we just connected.
Speaker 1:It was so weird how we just connected and vibed. And, you know, I reached out to her and I was like, hey, you know I'm going through this. I see that you're into meditation, help me. So then we started chatting and she started teaching me how to meditate and it was so hard, but, anyways, just kept following her guidance. And then she introduced me to a whole group of of people that in India that um would teach you know, meditation. So then I joined the online, the YouTube, and I would do it like every day, every day. I even got to the point where I cut like food. I became a vegetarian.
Speaker 1:I cut like onion garlic because it's deep. Meditation is deep depending on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I feel like that's like a nice level meditation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's what I'm telling you. Like I mastered I don't want to say master, I feel like I did, but maybe I didn't in my own opinion.
Speaker 2:Or your practicing.
Speaker 1:My practicing yes, I meditated, so I followed their guidance so well and I did everything that they do and I'm telling you it was unbelievable. Like an unbelievable experience but that's how I got introduced to meditation is by somebody I met on Instagram. We connected like we were solely connected. It was crazy and yeah, and I just kept and I just did that and it was life changing.
Speaker 2:I feel nowadays, when you connect with somebody on social media, it's got to be, there's got to be some sort of like deeper connection there.
Speaker 1:How did you get introduced to meditation?
Speaker 2:I think in 2021,. I was kind of going through some pretty stupid shit too.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So what do I do? I just meditate. I just there was nobody that told me about it or nobody that coached me into doing it. I just started, and I think it just started by first. I started by stretching in the morning. I just take some stretching like some simple yoga stuff, like down dogs, up dogs, whatever, and then I would just top it off with just sitting there in the morning in silence. Oh, okay.
Speaker 2:Way like early in the morning, like five or four in the morning, for about like half an hour oh, nice okay and then just started there wow I think, yeah, and it was, for me it was kind of easy, I guess. I mean not easy, but I think it was just kind of just self self-inflicting, I guess you know, like I didn't.
Speaker 1:So when you first meditated, or okay, so when you first meditated, was it easy for you to just shut your mind off?
Speaker 2:And it's not really like a like a threshold. I feel like, for me, like it's not like a like a threshold, you just like pass over and then you're suddenly in this new plane of existence. You, I'm saying like it's just like a, sit there in silence, turn off all. Turn off all of the noise. And it was easier to do it in the morning because there was no noise in the morning. How to wake up fully refreshed? No worries in my mind, the worries of yesterday are forgotten. You know, the morning your mind is so like early In the morning, your mind is fragile.
Speaker 1:When I would meditate and thoughts would enter my mind. You know all, because we have a million trillion thoughts coming in. So I would focus on a noise, so I would let the water drip, or I would have a clock and I would have it tick, tick, tick, tick, and so when a thought would enter my mind, I would immediately go back to that noise, whether it be the fan, the clock, the water dripping. And that's how I would stop from thinking, I would clear my mind because I would practice the focus. So I would focus on that and then that's it, and I would do that and I would time myself and I would do it like five minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes. I would increase every time to where I got to a place where it just became natural for me. So when I would go into that meditation I would have no thoughts so now let's talk about how meditation has changed your life since 2021.
Speaker 2:How do you think it has changed your life?
Speaker 1:meditation has changed my life, um, I think, in Just my perspective on life. For the most part I'm pretty calm. It did help me not like raise my voice, because previously, before meditation, I used to like raise my voice or yell and react in a different way. So it has helped me calm, calm down, like I'm very. When I react, I try to speak with like understanding, like, okay, I don't know what they're going through or you know, I don't know how they're feeling today, so I'm gonna listen and I'm gonna try to understand today. So I'm gonna listen and I'm gonna try to understand them. You know, so it's just changed and I don't know if that's if I'm falling off topic here, but, um, just the way I perceive people, the way I listen, the way I hear things, the way I view life, it has changed my mindset.
Speaker 2:I think meditation has changed my perception of my self-awareness. I would react negatively sometimes, but I would react a whole lot more, like a thousand times more than you, and I'm not proud of it. But because of my meditation I was able to figure out why those actions happened. Thanks to meditation, I can figure out. I'm still on the path of figuring out why it happens and how I can prevent it. I'm not perfect.
Speaker 1:Right, nobody is.
Speaker 2:And, like I mentioned before you, before we go through phases, we could be consistent with something and then just fall off for a bit. But I've been there, I've meditated and I think it's changed my life in a pretty good way.
Speaker 1:That's good.
Speaker 2:I think so.
Speaker 1:That's good.
Speaker 2:Okay, cool. So now that we've talked about meditation and what it kind of means to us and how we kind of done in how it's changed our lives, um, let's talk about some new age practices only because I know meditation is a form of new age practices today yeah, so new age practices would be.
Speaker 1:You know I see a lot of manifestation law of attraction um sound healing yoga. I I did get like a what is it, the sound healing? So I do have like the bowl with the little sound bowl, sound bowl, yeah so, um, when I go into meditation, I do sound healing.
Speaker 1:I also practice manifestation law of attraction. Um, I do daily affirmations and, uh, I did fall off for a little bit but I've been practicing it a lot more lately. So I'm getting back into the groove of not so much meditation, but I think I'm more towards the like, the new age practices, which is very similar. So, again, I'm just trying to find that balance in that space where I can incorporate both in a healthy way, just because I want to be able to balance and not be cold or show how that light of being cold, I guess, or off my emotions, because I can very easily, with the practices, turn off my emotions. So, um, new age practices, I would do like, um, I haven't done yoga in a while. Um, ever since I moved to Arizona I haven't found a spot, but that was nice to just go stretch and and, just, you know, clear the mind yoga is a good one.
Speaker 2:I think yoga is a good practice. It really helps you breathe, or you know that's. One of the big components of yoga is to manage and control your breathing, because that's something that we as humans kind of just forget to do.
Speaker 2:At least I do. Sometimes, when I'm tense or when I'm angry, I can crunch my teeth or hold my breath. Or when I'm driving in a complicated stretch of road you know where there's a lot of traffic I can sometimes hold my breath. And I shouldn't do that. You know I shouldn't do that. I should just that I should just breathe, just keep breathing. So I think yoga really helps with breathing work yeah, that's a very important one too, especially with meditation you want to be able to breathe, breathe in and out and that's a new age practice in itself.
Speaker 1:Is breathing techniques right? It's one of those things that kind of brings us back and that's a new age practice in itself. Is breathing techniques Right yeah?
Speaker 2:It's one of those things that kind of brings us back into like reality, like okay, you're human, you know, I think all of this in today's world, with social media and 24-hour news always going and just our phones, always, we're always on our phones.
Speaker 1:Always.
Speaker 2:Always, everybody. It's that dopamine hit, dopamine hit yeah, for sure, but um, those things can just draw us out of our life, like out of our initial life life.
Speaker 2:I guess you know, there can be draining, those stuff can be draining. Um, some new age practices that I kind of recognize. Not so much, but I think astrology for me. I like to align my personality with the taurus and I kind of have a thing for the moon and stuff and the stars and the cosmos. I don't really look into it as much as I should, but I think it's one of those things that interesting, yeah, like numerology, astrology, things like that.
Speaker 2:Astrology, the stars, another New Age practice I wouldn't really that I could maybe apply is like, maybe like the belief of energy that people have. I think we all have energy or like some kind of like a field and you can really fill it with people. Yeah, like I feel like I could read somebody's energy or their emotions just by looking at them or or or how they carry themselves. So I think energy is a a good, uh, new age practice that some, you know, some people kind of overlook, I guess yeah yeah, so what are some common misbeliefs about meditation?
Speaker 1:um, so I've heard that it can be associated with like evil and um, some of the new age practices as well as like the crystals, astrology, numerology. Some people think of that as just not believing in God and which is hard, because I would practice or I would have. I had crystals, I meditated, I did yoga, I was into numerology, astrology, I was into all of it and I never, not once, felt like evil was overcoming me or like how you said about energy. I've never felt like a negative energy. I've actually felt more connected to god than I've ever been in my whole life and this is in my own practices, um, just studying and things like that.
Speaker 1:Now, with those misconceptions, I did kind of get like an image or I don't know what it is like, maybe a blockage, but I did stop with the crystals, I did stop with the whole like cleansing with the moon, things like that, just because I don't know if something got in my head or or if it's just that meditation or that, whatever it is, whatever source just had me lean away from that, just had me lean away from that. So I don't know if so it's kind of hard for me to say I feel like I don't know. I feel in a weird place.
Speaker 1:I feel in a weird place because of those misconceptions and because of my practices and how I felt. So I just feel conflicted.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And again I'm in that place where I'm trying to find the balance and trying to find my own.
Speaker 2:Your own path.
Speaker 1:Yes, exactly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think that's very important because I felt the same way. That's so funny that you said it, because you worded it the same way. I worded it the whole time. I just I didn't feel any kind of negativity about it.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Not for same way. I worded it the whole time. I just I didn't feel any kind of negativity about it, right, not for me, right, but I know what it is about, right, I can't sit here and say that's just evil, or crystals are evil, or the moon is evil. And I'm saying because I've already done my homework.
Speaker 1:I've done my homework, things like that, yeah that sense. Yeah, and another thing is you and I are not going into that learning or practicing our practices with negative or dark intentions either yes. I'm going into it more so as finding energy and light and happiness, peace.
Speaker 2:Positivity and spreading that positivity.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and grounding myself to Mother Nature, because I would do a lot of groundwork too. I would just drive to the ocean, drive to the forest and take off my shoes, dig my feet in the dirt, sit there, meditate and connect with the universe and connect it and it was such a beautiful feeling and there was not once of I didn't have no negative thoughts, no negative.
Speaker 1:I prayed and that's how I connected myself to God, because to me that was more of a connection than me attending a church and, you know, no disrespect to any religion or culture, because I've been open to it all.
Speaker 1:You know I've been to. I was born and raised a Catholic. I've been to a Christian church. I've been to, like I, what was it just different? I'm very open and I'm I, I want to learn and, uh, I could never and and I was religious, like going to church every single day, practicing everything as I should, but I didn't feel the connection and it was. It's kind of disappointing to me myself and I'm like you know. So I found it in in these other sources and, um, I feel extremely blessed and I feel guided and in I mean, I came into the room earlier and was just like, oh my gosh, I had a day. But I don't know, if you observe my personality, like you know, do I feel like I'm stressed out and I can't like do this anymore? Or, you know, I think I've got to a good place where I'm just like I know how to control it myself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm very self-aware and it's because of the different things that I've incorporated um in my life and on my journey. Just to have that connection.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it's important to be open-minded about other kind of other. I don't know like what is it like religions or like other ways of?
Speaker 1:comfort Practices.
Speaker 2:Other practices Right, exactly Because, when it comes down to it, your connection with God is personal.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:However you get to it, you know. However you get to him, it her, whatever, whether it's sitting connected with the earth, energy or a room full of people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a spiritual.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. So long story short, meditation is not evil. At least I don't think it is. I don't think so I could honestly say 100, 100 it's not evil. It's a way of just getting the mind clear and just getting that self-awareness and that guidance and just maybe connecting with your inner conscience, I guess. So basically, meditation is just a way of just silencing all the noise, all the voices in your head, so you can get to your destination, whether it's solving a problem or getting to a goal or just having better days, changing your life, and I think meditation is a good starting point. I think meditation is a good starting point if you're looking to change something about your life that you've kind of been wanting to change but not sure how, wouldn't you say Right?
Speaker 1:Wouldn't you say yeah, sure, how wouldn't you say right, you say yeah, and and?
Speaker 1:With that being said, if you're not sure where to start or how to start meditation, um, just from personal experience, start with five minutes, you know. Start in the morning as soon as you wake up either lie, sit up in bed or sit up, sit on the floor, cross your legs, you know, and just sit there and close your eyes and just try to focus the whole noise thing, like the fan going or water dripping or a clock ticking. That really did help me when thoughts would enter my mind and I was trying to meditate. It helped me focus back and then I would just, okay, go back there and then, each time, just increase the time and by the time you know it, you'll be sitting there in silence within yourself and just listening to thoughts, rather than all this craziness going on. What am I going to do today? What am I going to eat? Did the kids get fed? Blah, blah, blah. You know all these different things. So if you learn to shut that down, you'll have clearer thoughts come in, and that's where you get your answers.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yep, okay, right on. I think we've talked it out all about meditation and some new age practices.
Speaker 1:So we did cover a lot today.
Speaker 2:We did.
Speaker 1:And, with that being said, I hope you are able to start meditation or whatever you took from today's episode and practice it in your life next week. In our deep dive, we're going to be talking about culture and traditions that's a good one.
Speaker 2:I'm excited for that one.
Speaker 1:I'm excited too, because I love culture.
Speaker 2:Uh, I hope what we talked about today, um, hopefully inspires you to meditate, or at least look into it, or maybe do your own research about some new age practices that you'd like to apply to your own life if you feel like nothing else is working. If you want to change, you gotta change something in your life. Okay, but I think that's about it for today, erica yeah, that wraps it up we'll catch you all next week for traditions and culture thank you all for listening.
Speaker 1:We appreciate your support appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Bye, bye, everybody bye.