Exhale

A beginner's guide to meditation

Exhale

A beginner's guide to meditation

Welcome to your beginner's guide to meditation

You want to find calm and quiet

  • You want to find peace and quiet in a loud, demanding world
  • You've tried meditation before and found it a struggle
  • You find it impossible to empty your brain or make it go blank
  • You don't have time to sit on a cushion and chat ohm for half an hour a day
  • You want to know how it can be possible for someone juggling work and life can find time to meditate

Whether you have never tried meditation before or you’ve struggled to meditate regularly, here you will get step by step guidance and the tools you need to begin meditating and create a sustainable mindfulness meditation practice that works in your busy life and allows you to feel calm, in control and at ease.

“I love the practical suggestions and feelings of calm you instill.”
– Angie

How meditating soothes in a busy life and noisy world

You're a deep thinker and like time to consider and ponder. But when you get stuck going over and over the same thoughts without getting to a solution, when you start each thought with ‘what if’, that can lead to stress and overwhelm.

Learning to untangle yourself from the myriad of thoughts plays a crucial part in getting you back to the calm you want to feel. Through mindfulness meditation you become aware of your thoughts without being entangled within them. It’s through this awareness that you can unstick yourself from unhelpful rumination, soothe your nerves and calm your busy brain.

The parasympathetic nervous system (the preferred state for an introvert) is activated by meditation, calming and soothing you by slowing the heart rate and lowering blood pressure. Studies by Stanford and Harvard Universities show that meditation can reduce the reactiveness of the amygdala (responsible for the fight or flight feeling) and so lower stress levels.

Exhale beginners' guide to meditation for overthinkers online course

A few minutes really is all it takes

Mindfulness meditation makes a difference to your life when you're not meditating. The few minutes you spend in meditation teach you how to access calm when you're in the thick of a stressful, busy day. When you learn to notice you're sinking into overwhelm you can interrupt the cycle and take action to help yourself. And by taking a few minutes to meditate you can spend the rest of your waking hours getting on with your life as you want to, enjoying it, because you're better able to bring down the overwhelm.

In this course we will

  • Examine what meditation is, the misunderstandings around it and its relationship with mindfulness
  • Discover how you can benefit from meditation
  • Look at when to use mindfulness meditation in everyday life as well as in daily practice
  • Troubleshoot challenges to beginning a new meditation habit
  • Focus on creating a consistent, sustainable meditation practice that works within your life and gives you the feeling of calm and control you crave
  • Hear from several women who share their experience of creating a regular meditation practice around their busy work and family lives
  • Begin with a simple three minute meditation, alternating with different styles of meditation (stationary and active) and gently experimenting with meditating for up to ten minutes by the end of the course

What you'll receive

  • Instant access to the complete course in the private online classroom
  • Ten guided meditations (nine audio and one video) which include moving as well as sitting meditations
  • Interviews with women sharing their experience of making meditation a part of their busy work and family lives
  • A resource library to support you in maintaining your newly established practice including practical tips from real life meditators, worksheets, recommended apps and more
  • The content is available as written text and audio recordings so you have the option to listen and read

Every other month I hold 1:1 office hours and during that time you can message me through Voxer – a free walkie-talkie app that allows us to exchange voice and text messages – about anything that's come up for you in the course and I'll reply to you with a personalised response. Dates and times for the bi-monthly Voxer office hours, and how to join in, will be shared via email.

Feel lighter, calmer and more free now

Exhale leads you step by step into meditating so you can create a sustainable practice that supports and benefits you rather than overwhelms you. It’s more beneficial to meditate daily for a handful of minutes than to save it all up and do half an hour once a week. This is why we begin with a short three minute meditation and build up to ten minutes later in the course. It’s why I talk you through every meditation and why, by the end of the course, you will have a menu of meditations of varying length, focus and use so you can choose what meditation to follow for your needs at any given time.

Exhale is a self-study course that begins as soon as you join. You can follow it at your own pace without feeling pressured. I know time can be a challenge to establishing a meditation habit so the lessons are a manageable size and the guided meditations are only a few minutes long.

What you’ll need for the course

  • To begin you’ll need three minutes a day to meditate undisturbed. This builds up to five and then ten minutes by the end of the course
  • A phone, tablet or computer to read the lessons and listen to the guided meditations
  • A printer if you choose to print any of the resources
  • An openness to learn and begin creating a regular meditation practice

“Your presentation style is easy, digestible and a pleasure to read. The meditations are wonderful and for me, the perfect way to start my work day at my desk. ”
– Karin

What this course will do… and what it won’t do

Exhale, a beginners’ guide to meditation, will give you the information, inspiration and tools you need, step-by-step, so you can create a sustainable meditation practice, and in doing so empower you to feel the calm, peace and ease you want. It will provide you with a range of meditations of varying length, focus and use so you can choose the meditation that’s right for your needs on any given day.

This course won’t make life super easy and perfect, nothing will do that so don’t believe anyone who tells you otherwise! It’s called meditation practice because it takes time and repetition to establish the habit and feel the benefits of meditation. The more you’re able to commit to this course the more you’ll get out of it.

Give yourself, or a loved one (you’ll get a digital gift voucher for your friend), the gift of Exhale and create a sustainable meditation practice to calm and support you.

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Join Exhale!

£79

(Or Payment plan
3 x £27)

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"I love this course, the time needed is so achievable. I used the mantra meditation on a crowded bus journey yesterday and felt so much calmer when I arrived at my destination. Thank you so much."
– Paula

Exhale FAQs

Exhale is a self-study course so it begins when you sign up. You’ll get access to the complete course in the private classroom straight away. 

For the lifetime of the course, at least 12 months, probably longer!

Click on one of the Buy Now buttons on this page and you’ll be taken to a payment screen. You can pay for the course using your debit or credit card, or with your Paypal account.
Once your payment has been made you will receive confirmation by email. You can then access the private classroom through your account where you’ll find the complete course available to you. 

I am an introvert who's felt overwhelmed for a lot of my life and the meditation practice I’ve built over several years has been instrumental in helping me to feel calmer, in control and simply happier. Exhale is the meditation course I wish had been around when I wanted to start meditating and create a regular habit.

Less than you think. This course isn’t about meditating for great chunks of time, we begin with three minutes and build up gradually to ten minutes. It’s a self-study course so you can read the lessons, or listen to me read them to you, whichever is convenient for you.

You’re not. Meditating is not about making your mind go blank or emptying your head. It’s about moving your attention from the whirlwind of thoughts to a different focus. You’ll dart back to your thoughts over and over again, everyone does, and that’s completely normal, noticing your mind has wandered off is an important part of meditation. Over time and with practice, noticing your attention has gone to your thoughts and bringing it back to the focus of the meditation, makes you better able to unstick yourself from your ruminating and calm your brain and nerves.

Absolutely not! But if you’d like to you are very welcome to. You can meditate sitting, lying, standing or moving, in a noisy or quiet place. All you really need is to be undisturbed for those few minutes.

Meditation practice is personal, what you enjoy and what you get benefit from may be different to the next person. There are different styles of meditating, not everyone feels comfortable sitting so I’ve included moving meditations too. Some people prefer to focus on their breath, others on their body or their senses. There are meditations to help you be kinder to yourself or to calm you down when you feel particularly strung out. By giving you a variety of meditations you can try them out, see what you like and feels helpful, and keep them to listen to for years to come.

Not everyone likes or wants to meditate and if it isn’t for you I completely understand. However, if you would like to try again and feel it could be helpful, perhaps take a few moments to think about what you found challenging last time. In this course we begin slowly with a three minute meditation that can be slotted into a busy day. We explore the benefits of meditation and the misunderstandings, we deal with overcoming the challenges you could face and how to create a sustainable practice that works for you with your unique life. I guide you step-by-step through the whole process so you don’t have to figure out anything alone. And I provide you with further resources and a menu of meditations to enable you to continue and develop your practice going forward. If, after reading all the information on this page, you feel Exhale could be the course to help you start meditating I would love you to join me.

Yes, you can download each meditation as it becomes available so you can listen  wherever you are, with or without the internet.

Exhale course image credit: Alexander Shustov/Unsplash

A bit about me

I'm Gabrielle and I help overthinking, overdoing women who always put everyone else first and themselves last. They've had enough of feeling stressed, exhausted, unappreciated, resentful and guilty for feeling that way. 

I help you feel like you can breathe again, to get back your spark, to have time and space, healthier relationships and more fun.

As an empathetic introvert and overdoing people-pleaser I have been on a long journey to build my resilience, feel more in control (and be okay with what's out of my power) and find calm and confidence.

In my work as a certified international life and positive psychology coach I have supported individuals and organisations such as The Prince’s Trust, CareFirst, Design Nation and Choose to be Healthy Coalition in the US, for more than six years.

As a writer I have written for and being featured in many magazines such as Psychologies, Breathe, The Simple Things, Happy News and the Daily Express newspaper.

I host the Pressing Pause podcast, I’ve been interviewed as a guest on other podcasts and invited to speak at events. Through my one to one coaching, online courses and workshops I've helped hundreds of women find more space, peace, calm and joy in their daily lives.

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