Welcome to today's meditation on Sunday blues.
Sunday blues is very much a real thing for many of us in experiencing sensations of anxiety and fear for transitioning back into your work week.
So useless meditation anytime you're feeling nervous or strong emotions towards going back to work.
This can be on a Sunday or whenever you start your work week or transitioning from not working to going back to work.
So we'll begin in a comfortable seat of your choice.
Feel your body connected with the chair or earth below you.
Your sit bones connected to the chair or mat.
And let your body rest here with a nice long spine.
Imagine a crown,
The crown of your head with a string attached.
So there's length in your neck but not rigid,
Still relaxed.
Begin to notice your breath and the sensation of your inhale and exhale.
Bring yourself into the present moment by deepening that inhale and exhale.
Breathing in through the nose deep into the belly and slowly out through the nose.
Inhale,
Bring the shoulders up towards the ears and exhale.
Bring them back and down.
Just releasing tension in the neck and shoulders.
Again inhale,
Bring the shoulders up towards the ears.
Exhale,
Back and down.
Now that we're in a nice posture,
Continue to breathe,
Deepening and lengthening your inhale and exhale.
And now we'll begin to connect with the feelings that we had coming into this meditation.
So just noticing what you're feeling.
Notice your body if it's being tense or rigid and just try and breathe in some space into those areas of tension.
Let your forehead relax and melt tension away from the eyebrows.
Remind yourself that in this moment you are safe.
You are here and this is exactly where you should be right now.
And as we bring up difficult emotions,
Remember you can come back to the safety of this moment in this breath.
And feeling safe,
Notice what worries or what you've been thinking about that's been scaring you about going back to work without getting too immersed in it.
Just notice if it's the paperwork or unfinished things from the week before or just a level of uncertainty.
Notice maybe how the body responded when you began to think of the week ahead.
And just tell yourself that these feelings are normal.
It's okay to be scared.
It's okay to have a challenging time with the transition.
We're human.
Going from one state of your calm and maybe restful weekend to your busy work week is tough and it's a normal feeling.
But where we want to stop it is stopping those feelings from bleeding into our Sunday or our time of personal or relaxation time.
But allow those feelings to be here.
Notice how they feel.
Our mind is such a good storyteller.
It may be catastrophizing what could happen,
What might happen,
All those what-ifs.
Thank your mind for being so creative with almost a sense of humor.
And know that things don't have to be resolved.
We don't have to know exactly what's going to happen when we get back to work because that moment hasn't arrived.
And Mark Twain talks about how what we think in the stories we create in our mind don't actually come true.
So we can begin to rest in the fact that it's most likely going to be okay.
And we can slowly,
After we've finished noting and feeling those emotions,
The next step is to engage in the present moment.
So rather than just escaping to a fantasy state of mind or escaping to a beach,
Which can be helpful at times,
We are going to engage in the present moment.
Coming back to the breath.
And we'll end with a visualization technique that you can use when you begin to worry about the future.
And that is a method from acceptance and commitment therapy in which we envision ourselves near a peaceful river or stream,
Gently sitting at the edge.
And colored leaves,
One at a time fall into the stream from the trees above.
And one leaf at a time,
Whatever is on your mind,
You can place that worry gently on the leaf.
And then watch as it floats down the stream,
Slowly blurring in the distance,
And maybe turning a corner until it's no longer visible.
So go ahead and practice for the next few moments.
Letting your mind be blank and clear like the gentle stream.
And when something comes to your mind,
Let a leaf float down to the stream as if it's arriving to pick up that worry,
That thought,
And gently guide it away for you.
Continue to bring to mind any thoughts that are on your mind and gently letting them go down the river until we can no longer see them.
And if one worry keeps showing up and showing up,
Don't judge that mind pattern.
Just continue to let it go on the stream and float away.
Exhale as it becomes further and further away.
We can notice how we're thinking and that's perfectly healthy,
Perfectly human to have these patterns of thinking that aren't helpful.
Where it becomes a problem is when we continue to think of the same thing over and over again.
And that's where using a stream or clouds passing by to let our worries drift away until the next time they show up and we become aware of them.
And with practice,
Hopefully we can feel more gaps in between the thoughts,
Longer spaces of nothing,
Of stillness.
And some days that will be easier for us than others,
But especially when we're caught in this trap before returning to work of these constant stories.
Just remember that you are human and it's perfectly normal to experience these feelings.
And simply noting what it is,
Feeling that emotion,
Maybe bring our hand to our chest and saying to ourselves,
I know this feeling is tough right now,
But I choose to let it go.
Let it drift away.
And if it comes again,
Welcome yourself back home because you've noticed the thinking which is the first and most important thing to do.
And repeat.
We'll end by taking three nice deep breaths together,
Breathing in through the nose.
Exhale,
Sigh it out,
Letting your shoulders drop down.
Inhale fully,
And exhale release.
Last time,
Inhale fully,
Exhale let go.
Thank you for joining me in today's Sunday blues meditation.
I hope you have a wonderful week ahead in not letting your thoughts become stressors or areas that are difficult.
Just breathe,
Acknowledge and let go.
Thank you so much.
