Hello friends,
My name is Stella Billery and I'm a Senior Occupational Therapist working within the NHS and this meditation is specifically for people who work in very demanding roles and that might be in a healthcare setting,
It might be in a school setting,
Any place where you are facilitating care for other people and your stress levels and your productivity levels are very high and when we find ourselves working in caring roles that are quite stressful,
Sometimes there is a difficulty or a challenge when we leave work to actually switch off and not take our work home with us and it's really important that we're able to do this so that we can rest and we can be nourished while we're not at work and so we can return to work feeling like we're able to serve our service users or our students and so this meditation might be practiced after your shift and you could practice this meditation seated or lying down and so we'll begin now.
The invitation is to find a position where your body can feel supported and your muscles can relax and you might want to just scan through your various different body parts especially ones that you know are prone to holding tension.
Some places might be the base of the tongue or the jaw,
Other places might be just between the eyebrows,
The corners of the eyes,
Letting the space around the navel relax so the breath can move through you more freely and the shoulders relax and the glutes relax and if you feel comfortable and safe enough to close your eyes,
Invitation to close the eyes and casting your mind back at the day's work behind you,
All the different tasks,
Responsibilities,
Perhaps the faces of the people that you work with and casting your mind back on parts of the day that have gone well and also acknowledging in your mind's eye any parts of the day that were more challenging and having a sense of the day overall,
Perhaps the flavour of the day,
Any emotion or feeling that's closer to the surface when you consider this.
The invitation now is to take a long,
Slow,
Nourishing breath in through the nose and let the inhale feel the belly,
The sides of the ribs,
Breathing all the way up into the collarbone and as you breathe out,
Breathing out through the mouth,
Maybe with a sigh or a sound and we'll take one more round of breath like this,
So breathing in through the nose,
Acknowledging the day that's passed,
Feeling the belly,
Sides of the body,
Up to the heart and the collarbone,
Breathing out through the mouth,
Letting go of the day and in your mind's eye,
Have a sense of the building that you work in and have a sense of all the people that are housed in that building,
Who spend time in that building,
Resting,
Tucked up in bed and all the people that you serve,
Rested and comfortable and at peace and have a sense of the hustle and bustle that might normally fill the corridors and the rooms in your workplace has been very calm,
All the inhabitants tucked up in bed and content and imagine now that one of the high windows in the building is opened and there's a gentle breeze that blows in through this opened window and this breeze is crisp and clearing and soothing and calming.
Tune in to the rhythm of your own breath as you see or feel in your mind's eye these cooling winds dissipating throughout the building that you work in and you might visualise this wind as a colour or a sense of moving of air and the wind continues to fill the building as you continue breathing into your belly and the wind travels through the building,
Cooling and soothing all of the rooms that it enters and the inhabitants who are tucked up in their beds in the building feel the cool breeze on their cheeks and their fingers and they in turn feel calm and relaxed.
Continue breathing into your belly and having a sense that the breath that you're breathing in and out is connected to this cool soothing breeze that's penetrating your workplace,
A reciprocal breath,
The connection of all things and after your next exhalation have a sense of this little window being closed but the cool air still flowing freely in your place of work negotiating consent with yourself first and foremost.
The invitation now is to bring the palms so that they touch and to start to rub your hands together the eyes can stay closed generating some heat between the palms perhaps noticing the sound that the palms make as you rub them and once the hands are warm invitation to bring both of your hands just to the left of your breastbone where your physical heart is located noticing the warmth or coolness of your hands or your body just having a sense for a moment of all the things that your hands do for other people all of the tasks that your hands complete every day for those around you writing emails activities chores or anything else likewise have a sense of all the things that your hands do every day for yourself holding the cup that you drink from washing faces and bodies brushing teeth even when you're asleep your hands will be there for you to pull the blanket up and over you should it fall off your hands do so much every day for others your service users patients your friends family members of the community yourself with the next round of breath breathing into the hands breathing into your heart receiving the breath there and breathing out from your heart and in a moment we will close our time together knowing that you can always stay and rest should that be useful to you thank you so much for carving out this time to separate your work from your home with love and compassion stella
