This audio is the copyright of Catherine G.
Lucas.
It is for personal use only.
The Selfie Hug Welcome Self-compassion and self-nurture are essential aspects of mindfulness,
Especially if we want to move from patterns of self-harm to ones of self-care.
I've called this practice the Selfie Hug because we quite literally give ourselves a hug.
Now,
It might feel a little bit strange,
A little bit silly at first,
But I certainly recommend persevering with it.
When we hug ourselves,
We release a hormone called oxytocin,
Also known as the hormone of love and bonding.
Now,
Research has shown that oxytocin soothes painful emotions and calms stress.
Now,
Some people take to this practice very readily.
My husband,
For example,
Absolutely loves it.
At the moment,
He's doing it at the end of his meditation practice every morning,
Whereas I haven't found this practice quite as easy,
Quite as natural as he seems to.
So if that's the case,
Be kind to yourself,
Be gentle with it.
Explore what any resistance might be about.
So let's have a go right now.
Let's dive straight in there.
So if you're sitting down,
Take a moment to sense into your body.
How is it feeling right now?
Notice your contact with the ground through your feet,
Through the seat of the chair,
And notice your breath.
What's the quality of your breathing like right now?
And then when you're ready,
In your own time,
We're going to wrap our arms around our upper body and give ourselves a hug.
Just squeezing as tightly as you want.
Don't worry,
You won't break any ribs.
And you can stroke your arms if you want.
Give your arms a nice stroke.
Or even your face.
Now it feels particularly lovely,
That skin-on-skin contact.
I suspect that releases even more oxytocin.
And of course,
That's the bonding between mother and baby,
That touch,
That skin-to-skin contact.
And then you can touch your face.
And then when you're ready,
Just letting your arms drop back down again.
So when you're first getting used to this practice,
I recommend you do it several times a day for the first couple of weeks.
That way,
When you really need it,
When you're struggling with something,
It'll be that much easier to do.
And then when you're ready,
Just letting your arms drop back down again.
And then when you're first getting used to this practice,
When you're struggling with something,
It'll be that much easier.
If you notice any resistance,
And that may be for all sorts of reasons,
Do you find it difficult to be kind to yourself sometimes?
I think that's a good way of doing that,
To explore what's going on.
And then the beauty of this practice,
Of course,
Is that you can do it absolutely anywhere,
Anytime.
If you're in public and you want to be discreet,
Then you can just casually fold your arms and give yourself a little squeeze.
What could be simpler?
So give it a go,
See how you get on with it.
And thanks for joining me today.
I look forward to sharing many more Mindful Sundays with you.
We've got plenty more great mindfulness practice coming up.
Bye for now.
