Introduction To Meditation - Trauma Informed

Discussion and introduction to meditation from an approach aimed to develop embodied awareness. As always, practices are trauma-informed offering guidance aimed to create nervous system regulation. Audio from a youtube series you may hear a reference during the intro minute saying video- visual is not required to fully experience this talk and practice.

Transcript

Hey,

Y'all,

Danielle here.

Welcome.

So excited to share some space together virtually.

What we're going to do in this video is an introduction to meditation.

So if you have never meditated before,

Or you've only meditated a few times,

Or perhaps you're coming back into your practice or just looking for a different take,

You are in the right spot.

Before we get started,

I want to remind you that when we come to our mat,

Our pillow,

Our chair,

Our meditative walk,

Our goal is not to empty our mind.

It is not to be completely devoid of thought that is impossible.

We can never stop thinking.

I like to tell people about the first 10 day silent meditation retreat I did on day eight.

I was like,

Oh my God,

Is my brain ever going to shut up?

I really thought after eight days of not talking,

Not looking at people and just sitting on a meditation pillow and sleeping,

I would run out of things to think about,

But that is not the case.

So especially when we're new,

Our minds can go,

Go,

Go.

It's called monkey mind.

Think of a monkey jumping from tree to tree.

So that's not our goal.

Our goal is to pause.

There's power in the pause in the moment that we're in right now.

And then our other goal is to know our thoughts better,

To understand ourselves sometimes on our pillow,

Our meditation pillow.

That's where we really are able to kind of dig into conflict.

We've had with people dig into compassion for ourselves and for others into why we might feel fear or love or shame about certain situations,

Because we're able to be quiet and really notice how things show up in our body.

So those are most of our practices we'll do together all about an embodied awareness,

Which means awareness of how things show up in our body and noticing our thoughts is a big part of that.

So let's get started with a simple breath awareness meditation.

So for all of our practices,

You are more than welcome to keep your eyes open,

But I want to ask if you feel comfortable to close your eyes.

If you're in a seat,

Go ahead and sit back,

Let your chair support you,

Right?

If you're standing,

That's okay as well.

But if it's possible for you to just stand in a way that is soft for your body,

And then either close your eyes or lower your gaze.

Let's start with a breath or two just to bring us into the space,

Breathing in through the nose.

Open your mouth,

Let it go.

Again,

Breathe in through your nose,

Fill all the way up.

Tie it out.

Now I want you to come to your natural inhale and exhale.

Breathing in through your nose,

Breathing out through your nose.

Take this first little bit just to notice your natural breath.

So just observe it.

Is it shallow,

Maybe staying just right in the top of your chest or is it deep all the way into the belly?

Are your inhales short?

Are they long?

Are your exhales the same?

Where do you notice your breath the most or where is it the most pleasurable?

Does it feel nice coming in through your nose?

Does it feel good when your chest rises?

Are you able to really notice when your belly fills?

Just pay attention.

Now can you stay with your breath?

Even when your mind starts to wander,

Can you notice your mind wandering?

That in itself is a practice of mindfulness,

Paying attention,

Acknowledging your mind has moved away and bringing it back.

I'm just trying to stay with the breath.

Staying with how it feels in your body.

Knowing you can catch those thoughts and bring them back as many times as you need to.

Then gently bringing some attention back to something physical,

Maybe your fingers or toes before we open our eyes or lift our gaze.

When you're ready,

Just looking up or opening your eyes gently.

All right.

Simple mindfulness of breath meditation can help to reset our nervous system,

To help us be present,

Calm down.

And as you practice more,

Just becomes such a wonderful way to just sit with yourself and notice your thoughts,

Notice how you're feeling.

So what I would recommend is right now,

If you have time to journal just for a moment,

Just one minute,

What came up a lot?

Were you able to sit with your breath or did your mind constantly go to certain things?

And if so,

Can you write down what they were?

All right.

Well,

Thank you so much for joining me.

Have a wonderful rest of your day,

Evening,

Et cetera.