Mindful Mondays|Week 8: Hope

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Begin by finding a quiet space to sit with no distractions just for a few minutes. Sit comfortably but alertly with a spine that is straight and supportive. Take a nice long slow deep breath to help your mind recognize that we are sitting for some mindfulness now. Get any last wiggles out of your fingers and toes. Slowly roll your head from side to side or in circles or looking left and right. Whatever helps bring you to a place of stillness.

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If it’s safe to do, close your eyes. To calm your mind, spend a few moments just watching your breath. Find a focus point of your inhale and exhale — perhaps the rise and fall of your belly, the cool air going in and warmer air coming out of your nostrils. Just place your attention somewhere inside or around your body that helps you stay anchored to the present moment.

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It’s completely normal to have been swept away by thoughts or worries or fantasies. Just take another slow deep breath, and without judging yourself come right back to the focus point of your breath and body.

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We humans are known for being preoccupied with thinking, listening, and figuring out problems. Our mind is wired to keep going, even when we are sleeping. This space is time for your brain to practice attention by staying steady on the breath. So come on back to your focus point and let the breath keep you sitting in the present.

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Today I want to ask you, while sitting here in the present moment, to think about how you got here. Take a moment to contemplate the path you’ve been on, the struggles you’ve had, the diagnosis you’ve received, the old life you’re healing from. To get to the place where you have joined me today sitting in your mindfulness spot focusing over and over on training your mind to come back to your breath and body, there was a journey to get here. Something turned you on to meditation, or maybe you still don’t love it, but you do it because you know it’s helpful. Where you’ve been and how you are here now — that is to be celebrated.

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Now that you’ve imagined that past self and watch yourself coming to who you are today, I want you to place your hope in yourself. Trusting yourself that you are on the right road back to your authentic self. Just like with this practice, you are bringing yourself home over and over again. This feeling, knowing how far you’ve come, this can give you hope that growth is possible and that you are only going to heal more, love yourself more, and continue on this trauma recovery road. You’ve done it this far; have hope that your practices and goals will continue to thrust you forward with momentum. Hope will help you keep coming back to your true self whenever you stray. Hope will give you the energy to push forward even when it’s a dark day. Think on this Hope for a few moments.

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Coming back to the breath, take one more cleansing breath. If you feel okay to do so, allow a smile to wash over your face.

Congratulate yourself for being hopeful for a healthy future. Let hope guide you in your journey when it’s hard to keep going.

Feel your sit bones on the seat below you. Wiggle your fingers and toes. And when you’re ready, come back to the room and open your eyes.

Enjoy the rest of your hopeful day, and cheers to your hopeful tomorrow.

Mindful Mondays|Week 7: Gratitude

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Take a moment to let your mind know that today you are going to be focusing on gratitude. Allow your mind some space to take that in — even if it’s grumpy, feeling opposed to this, or thinking of it as a chore.

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Let be whatever is there, whatever comes up. If any resistance did come up for you, ask that resistance if it can step aside just for ten minutes so you can be present in gratitude.

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Before we begin, settle down into your seat or cushion and feel the earth below supporting you. Trust yourself to listen to your heart today. Close your eyes if that feels safe. See if a small smile can find its way in the corner of your lips. Let’s take a deep breath and let our bottom nuzzle down into our seat. Sit upright with a tall spine without rigidity — alert by relaxed. Now just observe your body for a moment and see if anything comes up for you.

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If nothing did, that’s okay. If something in your body was giving you a sensation, focus on that for just a few breaths and see if it wants some attention.

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It’s okay to trust yourself here. This is a safe space — inside your mind, only you know what’s going on. Allow your breath to be calm and flowing freely. See once again if anything is coming up for you.

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Today isn’t just a gratitude practice. Today I want to practice self-focused gratitude. In your trauma healing journey, learning to trust yourself is a milestone. Listening to your body and staying present in difficult emotions is a big deal. In a moment, I am going to give you a while to find things to be grateful for. However, I want you to try to focus on yourself when you think about these gratitudes. What can you see in yourself, your body, your wisdom, your life, your accomplishments, your choices, your healing, your path for which you can thank yourself. Maybe it’s for doing this meditation or for hearing and paying attention to the sensations in your body a moment ago. Maybe you’ve hit a sobriety milestone that deserves some praise. Maybe you can recognize a boundary you adhered to with a difficult person recently. Maybe you finished a self-help book you had been putting off for a while. Maybe just that your body is here, allowing you to talk to it and celebrate it. If this is too difficult, that’s okay. If self-gratitude is too challenging, just focus on your breath for a few moments. If you are able to allow yourself to focus on your worthiness, think on those things. Allow gratitude to wash over you in a soul-cleansing way.

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Take a moment to feel how your body feels in this space of focused self-gratefulness. How does it feel to shift your attention inward at your amazing self?

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Part of our trauma recovery is learning to trust ourselves, hear our body and spirit, focus on our self-care, be kind and loving to ourselves, and truly be thankful for our stamina on this long healing road. In an effort to negate the painful, harsh, untrue words that were spoken and self-beliefs that were formed in our trauma, it’s paramount to affirm our love for ourselves and be thankful to self that we are still here plugging along in this path. I’m grateful you shared this space with me today. I’m honored to have guided you to a place of self-reflective praise. I applaud your self-celebration and encourage you to do it as often as you can. Until next time, keep on loving and caring for yourself.

Mindful Mondays|Week 5: Everything & Nothing

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Let’s begin by settling into your space.  Let’s ground together.  Take one slow, deep, grounding breath.  Before you close your eyes, scan the room in some detail.  Count a few things, find something new you haven’t seen before, or set your gaze on something that you really love.

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If your comfortable to do so, close your eyes.  See how the room looks on the other side of your eyelids.  Can you remember most of the things you scanned?  What was that one detail you noticed?  Do you remember the feeling you had as you gazed on that one object?

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Now let’s come to our faithful breath.  The breath that keeps on going, whether we are aware or not.  The breath that moves at the right pace for sitting to watch tv to climbing stairs to mowing the lawn.  The breath that always regulates itself just as we need it.  Just watch it in your mind.  Follow it like a puppy follows its human around.  With no desire to change it or force it, just to be with it because you want to be.

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If you wandered off like a stray puppy, come back to the breath and just enjoy following it with every inhale and exhale.  Use all your effort to stay with each breath, yet don’t do anything special at all.

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If your mind has slid off the path again, that’s okay.  With all your strength, pull it right back on the breath.  However, the more relaxed you approach your wandering, the easier to slide back into the lap of the breath.

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Meditation, if you think about it really, it is everything.  It creates an awareness that, when practiced enough, can follow you through your whole day, bringing you back to the moment, back to reality.  Mindfulness is the almighty buzzword that is helping millions of people be conscious of their energy, emotions, mindset, lifestyle choices, words, and actions every day.  And … it’s nothing.  It’s just sitting here.  Effortlessly watching something that we do every moment of everyday.  We are choosing to sit here to observe ourselves doing the most obvious, unchallenging thing we do in a day – just breathing.  You aren’t focusing on the breath right this second, and yet there it still is just keepin’ on keepin’ on.  You don’t have to do anything to your breath; it’s a reflexive thing.  All the while, whenever you want, it’s this anchor that you can sit and watch.  You can even force your breath, hold it, change its pace.  But you don’t have to, and it will be just fine without your interference.  Without judgment, you can easily slide your mind back into the focusing practice, and then without demand, you will inevitably loss track of it again and again.

Mindfulness is training brains all of the globe to be aware of themselves and their surroundings – to be fully present.   What you are doing right now is a huge key to allowing you to be fully present in your day-to-day life. It’s reteaching your mind to be connected to your body to be connected to your spirit.  It’s helping you find purpose and accept your emotions.  It’s regulating your life.  Yet, it’s not really anything.  It’s just sitting, observing ourselves.  Sometimes we make really big deals out of things.  I know I do.  Meditation is a big deal that isn’t a big deal.  The effortlessness to return to your breath over and over is work, without working anything.  It’s being mindful of mindless breathing. 

Keep watching your breath.  Just try to focus on the next 3 breaths, from the inhale to the end of the exhale. 

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Isn’t that amazing?!  You were watching yourself as a human being minus the human doing.  Taking away the doing and just being for just a few moments.  That’s incredible!  Sit here as long as you like after this meditation is over and just keep being.  Meditation is the most important thing you’ll do today, and yet it isn’t anything at all. 

When you are ready, open your eyes.  When you are really ready, feel free to get up, and carry that state of Being into your day as you are Doing all the other important things.  Congratulate yourself on doing the thing that is nothing and everything.