Mindfulness Mode

Brian Berneman is a wellness leader and facilitator, who has helped hundreds of people around the world lead more balanced and meaningful lives. With a background in neuroscience and more than 15 years of experience teaching and practicing yoga, meditation, mindfulness, and different healing modalities, Brian is able to synthesize modern scientific knowledge with ancient wisdom to help his clients get the results they desire.

Brian has empowered people from all walks of life to realize their full potential and enable them to live a stress-free and meaningful life.
Committed to conscious lifestyle practices, Brian founded Conscious Action, a movement of people inspired to live more intentionally.

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Contact Info

• Company: Conscious Action
• Website: https://www.consciousaction.co.nz/
• Podcast: The Conscious Action Podcast

Most Influential Person

• His Mom
• His teacher

Effect on Emotions

• I have learned that emotions are very different than feelings. So emotions are how I am actually thinking about feelings. So how I'm dealing with life is actually by looking at my feelings, the sensations in the body, and processing that instead of the story that I tell myself about what that feeling means. And that's how I'm able to actually be with the experience.

Thoughts on Breathing

• Breathing is super important; when we stopped breathing we die. So it's kind of a big deal. I have learned so many different techniques for breathing. And I know that nowadays, I see much more of the Holotropic, faster briefing that is really popular, I am much more inclined in my own practice, to the slowing down of the breath.
• One of the main practices for me has been to change the way that I'm breathing by allowing breathing through nose and mouth at the same time in and out, and to be able to slow it down so that it goes to a place that is settled. 
• So, for example, like, as a practice, it was breathing in, in and out for at least 20 seconds each of them. So breathing in for 10 seconds, breathing out for 20 seconds. And then sometimes, the box breathing, which is the same length for the inhaling, holding, exhaling, and call them. I think that the most important thing about breathing for me is to actually implement it, and try it out.
• If you're listening to this, you can implement it. You can do that whilst you're listening, which is the key to the practice of working with the breath. We can use it as long as we are doing anything else. Living Consciously

Thoughts on Meditation

• Meditation is about the state of being. I understood at one point in my practice when I was sitting for many, many hours, that I wasn't getting into this place where my experience shifted. And when it shifted to that place, I felt peace and stillness, and an openness of awareness. And due to the nature of the practices that I was doing in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, a lot of it is about bringing the teachings alive. I was studying to play an experiment, how can I bring that experience to that state of being throughout the day? Living Consciously
• Regardless if I am sitting or not, regardless if I have my eyes closed or not. Nowadays, it's about keeping that state of being with everything that I'm doing, I'm talking to you now, and keeping that awareness, I am then going to see a client, I'm giving that away, and I'm going to go to university, then I'm going to give that awareness. Everything that I'm doing is just about that. And of course, I lose that, at different moments, I am not enlightened.
• So I'm going to catch myself and come back to it. And yes, sometimes that means centering back by sitting down just as taking a moment. Yet, because of the fact that I have purposely chosen to live my life a little bit slower, I don't lose that as much as I used to. Because I am not going so fast that perhaps I do lose sight of it so I can stay in that state. And yes, every single day, I still do my sitting meditation, and I still do my movement meditation. And I use a lot of sound meditation and we use a lot of sound healing as well, and vibration to get to that place. And when I am also sharing that, I get that for myself. So whenever I'm sharing, teaching, and facilitating, that's also for me. Living Consciously

Suggested Resources

• Book: Gesture of Balance: A Guide to Awareness, Self-Healing, & Meditation (Nyingma Psychology Series) By Tarthang Tulku

Bullying Story

• I do remember that as a little kid, six, or seven years old, I was both on the receiving end of bullying and on the giving end of it. And looking back, if I would have had this understanding and been more mindful of the way that I can experience it, and the way that I will be more compassionate towards others, if I would have had these practices, that wouldn't have happened. Living Consciously
• I know how traumatic it can be for lots of kids, and even for adults, it is quite strong, because it keeps them happy. And this is not just for kids. Yet, at that moment, as a six, seven-year-old, I would have not acted in that way. And I wouldn't have been able to actually not act in that way. Because if I would have been more mindful of how when someone else was willing, I would have been able to experience it in a different way. I wouldn't have been moved to in a sense that for someone else.
• Hurt people hurt people and definitely, that is the word. The importance of bringing awareness and mindfulness into every piece of life is paramount to creating changes in the world because the more that we can catch ourselves, and the more that we can understand what has happened, and how I can process that, then I'm not going to repeat certain behaviors that are not supporting life in general. Living Consciously

Related Episodes

• Breath and Fire; Michelle Hillier
• Live An Educated Life; Jellis Vaes

• Learn To Meditate The Easy Way; Mani Vaya

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