A warm welcome.
This is a meditation for leaders who choose presence over chaos.
So let's begin by taking a long,
Slow,
Deep breath in through your nose and exhale gently through your mouth.
One more time.
Long,
Slow,
Deep breath in and gently exhale through your mouth.
And with your next breath,
Allow your eyes to soften or gently close your eyes if that feels right.
Feel your body settle.
Feel your breath moving slowly down into your belly.
Notice how your chest rise,
Expand and soften in its own natural rhythm.
Let yourself land right here,
Right now.
And if there's anything you need to shift to feel more comfortable,
Allow yourself that small act of care.
And as you breathe,
Imagine yourself sitting in a spinning teacup ride at an amusement park.
Everything is moving fast.
You're turning,
Being tossed this way and that.
It can be dizzying.
It can be overwhelming.
And this is how leadership can feel sometimes,
Like being trapped in a ride.
Difficulty to get a clear view,
To get a pause,
To get a breath.
But here is the truth.
You don't need to stay in that teacup.
With the breath,
With intention,
You can always find a moment to pause,
Even if it doesn't feel that way.
You can step off the ride and you can find your place outside of the spin as the one guiding it.
Sometimes you become the carousel keeper.
From here,
You can see clearly.
You can lead instead of reacting.
You can breathe.
And when life pulls you back in,
When the demands swirl around you,
When emotions rise and the mind starts to run with fear,
Remember,
You can always return to the still point.
The storm may rage,
But in its center,
There is always stillness.
You can be the eye of the storm,
Grounded,
Centered,
As the best version of you,
Fully present in this moment.
Fully present,
Whatever arises.
Feel that now.
Feel the calm within you and let each breath carry you deeper into that space.
Right now,
There is no need to fix,
To solve,
Or to rush.
Just be.
Just notice your breath,
Your natural breath,
That happens without you having to do anything.
Your inhale,
Your exhale,
And see if you can lengthen that exhale.
Just a little bit.
That is a simple way to calm our nervous system,
To tell our body that it's okay,
Everything is okay.
To calm yourself.
To lengthen your exhale a little bit.
And as thoughts come,
As they always do,
Notice them without judgment and gently return to your breath.
And out.
In every single moment,
Even though it might not feel that way,
But you always have the choice to spin or to center,
To react or to respond,
To fear or to trust.
So I invite you to let this be a moment of trust,
A moment of remembering who you are beneath all that noise.
You are not the storm.
You are not the spinning.
You are the stillness inside it all.
And you can return here anytime to the stillness that you always have deep within you.
So stay here as long as you like.
Rest in the calm.
And when you're ready,
Gently open your eyes.
Bring the stillness with you back into the world and back into your leadership.
