Welcome to the weekly insights post for this week.
I post a Weekly Insights article each week. Each article is a compilation of the insights I posted the previous week across all my social media platforms. Each insight is a micro-learning post offering practical guidance on mindfulness, meditation, and resilience.
This week, I continue am explore insights from the Frictionless Way framework with a section on Pranayama and Present-Moment Reminders.
I have also included some segues into the key practices and concepts of Clarity and Switching Focus.
This week's article includes links to my podcasts, which support the article's sections.
Clarity
Dzogchen is a Tibetan Buddhist meditation tradition that focuses on revealing our awareness as a space where thoughts, feelings and experiences arise and subside.
Clarity is like noticing the sky rather than watching the clouds.
Dzogchen means ‘The Great Perfection’. This isn’t a perfection of the mind but the perfection of our experience when we have released all the baggage that becomes attached to our lives.
Dzogchen realises that this clear, calm awareness is always there. You don't need to create it or achieve it. You simply need to recognise it.
This is my favourite Clarity technique, which I taught last Saturday:
- Begin with a soft gaze on a single object — ideally one that carries personal meaning or memory. At first, associations will arise in our experience: judgments, narratives, feelings, labels.
- We continue to rest your gaze on the object.
- Eventually, the mind will settle down on some visual element of the object. Often something with no meaning: a reflection, a texture, a play of light.
- At that point, the object and any meanings related to our eventual point of focus will have deconstructed into a collection of visual elements, which is what the object actually is.
No baggage. Just the calm, clear clarity that underlies all our experiences, but which, in the modern world, we have become blind to.
Clarity Meditation Podcast Episode
I have several podcasts that include this clarity meditation. This is the most popular.
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-meditation-course-podcast/id1434349351?i=1000642231230
Switching Focus
✨ We only have one awareness.
To regain our attention from the narratives, stories, and constant demands placed on us, we need to learn how to return our awareness, so we can then choose what to focus on.
🔁 The Process
In mindfulness meditation (also called focused attention meditation), we learn to interrupt the current thought process.
This isn’t willpower.
It’s a skill built through regular practice.
Why practice matters
Most of the time, the mind is running a well-worn narrative:
• Repeated many times
• Emotionally charged
• Often urgent (“I must fix this now”)
• Filled with resistance, obstacles, or other challenges
That’s why trying or wanting to stop thinking doesn't work.
🌱 There’s no silver bullet.
We must practice to learn how to make meditation work for us.
Pranayama
The Power of The Breath in Action
What is Pranayama?
Your body has a built-in stress dial. It's called the autonomic nervous system (ANS)
This system runs in two modes:
- Sympathetic⚡ – alertness, stress, action
- Parasympathetic 🌿 – relaxation, recovery, calm
You can move this dial in either direction by regulating your breath.
Each time you inhale:
❤️ Heart rate increases
⬆️ Blood pressure rises
Your body shifts toward alertness, and your stress increases.
Each time you exhale:
❤️🩹 Heart rate slows
⬇️ Blood pressure drops
😌 Stress is reduced, and you relax...
Pranayama is an ancient yogic practice for regulating the autonomic nervous system through breath control.
It is mainly focused on extending the exhale to reduce stress 🌱
Pranayama is Sanskrit (प्राणायाम).
- Prana = breath or spirit
- Ayama = to extend
✨ Simple as that. Extend your exhale, reduce your stress. You already do it. It's built into your physiology from birth. It's called a sigh.
When you practice pranayama, and you reduce your stress, your body sends a clear message to your brain: "Everything's okay."
Everything *is* okay. 🙏
Pranayama is the simplest and easiest way to reduce stress and anxiety and calm your mind. 🌊
The Softest, Gentlest Introduction to Pranayama Practice
This is the easiest Pranayama Breathwork practice there is:
❌ No counting
❌ No timing
❌ No special technique
Here’s how it works:
Breathe normally, but...
On your out-breath, add a soft, gentle sigh — so quiet that only you can hear it.
✨ That’s it! There’s nothing more to it.
This is Wu Wei in action. (The Daoist Art of Acting in Harmony with Nature - scroll down in my profile to my 22 October social post to learn about Wu Wei).
Why it works
Making the breath audible slows it, and that slowing of the exhale moves you into relaxation.
⏳ Anywhere from a handful of breaths to two minutes is enough for most people to notice the difference.
What you need to know about pranayama
About 50% of people notice the shift immediately. Others don’t feel much at first.
But your body will still respond, and you can see your heart rate will slow down if you monitor it.
Who Is Pranayama For?
Anyone preparing for:
- A difficult conversation.
- A challenging person.
- Any high-stress experience where emotions might take over.
Who Should Be Careful?
If you have cardiac, respiratory, or related health conditions, speak with a healthcare professional first.
Slowing the heart rate is not appropriate for everyone.
How to use it:
• The simplest method: make your exhale gently audible, like an internal sigh
• The most common practice is to regulate the breath by breathing in for 4 seconds and out for 6
• Other options include holding the breath after the inhale or exhale
A two-minute practice is enough to shift your state.
Is Pranayama Worth Practising?
My view after years of practice is that pranayama is indispensable.
It’s a critical life skill that we should all learn.
Pranayama Podcast Episode
Check out my podcast episode on using Pranayama to regulate your Autonomic Nervous System.
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-meditation-course-podcast/id1434349351?i=1000501457035
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