Transitioning From Work To Home

Learn how to leave work at the office and be present at home. This meditation guides you through a visualization to create a separation in your day and create boundaries around your work: Whether that’s in an office or taking care of the kids. Make the most of your down time by being grounded and mindful during your evenings. Develop a daily practice of leaving work at the office and switching off!

Transcript

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Welcome to this arriving home meditation by Gabriella Demori.

This meditation is designed to assist you to move from your work to your home part of the day.

Arriving with presence,

A sense of calmness and a true groundedness that will allow you to switch off from your work day or whatever you've been doing.

And really enjoy the rest of your day at home.

You can listen to this as you're driving home or on public transport.

Or you can find a quiet place to sit when you arrive home to become centered and focused.

Transitioning out of the busy mind and coming into a more relaxed body centered way of being for the rest of your evening.

Take some time now to start to extend your breath.

Breathing in deeply as you inhale through the nose.

Exhale through the nose or the mouth.

As you start to tune in,

Your mind may become a little busier.

And just for the next minute,

Allow those thoughts to be there.

Any last to do lists.

Any last things you want to remember for tomorrow.

Any other reflection points from the day.

Just take a moment for those thoughts to be there.

As you continue to extend your breath.

Breathing in as deeply as you possibly can.

Exhaling fully,

Even with a loud sigh that will make you feel better.

We are transitioning away from our busy day.

Starting to let it go.

Telling our mind now that this is the last minute that you get to be in charge.

This is the last minute of the day that your mind gets to be the boss.

Let your mind tell you all of the last things and orders and ideas that it wants you to know.

You might also know that the mind is as usual being critical or fearful or worrisome.

It might be focused on your stress,

Your overwhelm,

All of the things you have to do.

Allow these thoughts to be here just for one more moment.

And notice how you feel physically in the body when the mind is busy and in control.

Taking a moment to notice where the overwhelm is sitting in your body.

Where is the stress in your body?

Where is the tiredness?

Taking one last deep breath as we prepare to move away from thinking about being in our busy day.

Now we're going to take back control of the mind and tell our mind where to focus.

Starting with focusing in great detail on the process of your inhalation and the letting go of your exhalation.

And the mind might put up a fight for you but continue to tell it that I will come back to you tomorrow.

I will come back to you when I need you.

I will come back to thinking and planning when I need to.

But for now,

Simply focus on the breath.

And every time a thought comes in,

Say to the mind,

Not now,

I'm busy,

I'll get back to you later.

My business hours are done,

I've left the office.

Putting the mind to the side,

We'll come back to you later.

But now we're simply anchoring the mind in two simple words.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Be with the simplicity of these two words.

And with each inhalation,

You want to sink a little deeper into wherever you're sitting or laying.

With each exhalation,

Let the shoulders drop and the body become a little heavier.

Remind yourself it's okay to be and simply be with the breath.

You won't forget anything important.

Those thoughts will be there whenever we decide to return to them.

Allow the muscles in your face to become more relaxed.

Almost to the point that you barely feel like holding your head up.

And now that the mind has settled a little more and it has bowed to our beautiful breath.

Everything has quietened down.

Everyone is okay.

Reminding ourselves that everything will be fine when you take a break.

The world will not fall apart if you take time for yourself.

Everyone is okay.

Everything is okay.

Everything will be there when I return.

Validate your stress and your overwhelm.

But now we're going to learn to place it behind us.

As you move in towards the rest of your evening,

We don't want the busy mind to bother us,

To overwhelm us,

To force us to overthink.

So now I'm going to invite you to visualize all that you've done in your workday.

All of your stress and all of your responsibilities that are lingering in the background and trying to get your attention.

I want you to visualize and imagine that they are all physically behind you.

There may still be a monkey on your back,

Someone tapping on your shoulders.

But visualize them being behind you,

Not in front of you.

All of the staff or all of the kids,

All of your family,

Whatever you do during your busy day.

All of your lists,

Your responsibilities,

Your emails,

Your messages.

Put them physically behind you.

You may see them as little visualizations or little symbols or images of people's faces.

Or piles and piles of paperwork or long lists of emails.

Put whatever is busy and chaotic behind your physical body.

Not on the back of your physical body,

Separate from you,

Behind,

Away from your physical body.

Starting to separate ourselves from the chaos of our busy days.

Continue to breathe deeply,

Trust yourself that you can do this and come to it with a beginner's mind every time.

And when the mind comes in and says,

There's just one little thing you need to do now,

There's just one SMS.

There's just one thing you should stop and do now before you forget.

Trust that clever mind to remember that and come back to it later.

Finding peace and stillness and separation.

Putting everything behind you now,

Representing that this is in the past.

This is done for the day.

It's enough.

I've done enough.

I'll come back to you tomorrow.

You may even like to visualize a door or a barrier or a lock or a box.

Even a wall,

If that helps you to contain all of what is behind you when coming back into the front of your body.

Taking back control,

Continue to breathe deeply.

Surrender now to the simple inhale and exhale of the breath.

Now I want you to start to think about the sides of your body left and right as representing where you are now in this moment.

Symbolically,

These are your walls.

This is the barrier from the past to the present.

The barrier from your work day to your evening.

As if you were to open out both of your arms wide to each side and hold everything back.

Allow your awareness of the sides of your body to represent being in this moment wherever you are.

Hold everything back,

Even though it's fighting to come to the forefront.

Take steps away from the stress and the overwhelm.

Move forward.

Keep it in the back.

Now in front of you,

Now we can get excited.

I'm going to invite you to start thinking and visualizing in front of you about your family or who you live with or the silence of living on your own.

Start to think about your home.

The suburb you live in.

Bring people's faces,

Your home to mind,

The garden.

Many beautiful parks,

Beach or nature that's near your house.

Take a few moments to see your personal life and everything you have to look forward to for the rest of this evening in front of your body.

Not on your body or in your body,

But in front of you.

As if we are going to move towards them.

And there might be excitement and stress and noise and things to do at home as well.

There always is.

We'll get there shortly.

But we're still and calm in our body as we mentally and emotionally prepare ourselves to transition into the rest of our evening.

Before we do that and we face our kids,

Our partners,

The chores.

Finding your own place of solitude.

Dropping your own anchor.

Taking time to prepare yourself.

Allowing a system to fully relax.

Calm the adrenaline.

Calm the chaos.

Calm the busyness.

And if the thoughts start to rush in about what you might have to do,

How you have to help others.

All of the things that need to be done.

What you need to do.

Remember that those are thoughts of the mind and we want to simply be with the body and be with this present moment.

So do your best to keep those thoughts at bay and return your awareness to your breath and your body if you become distracted or overwhelmed.

Simply visualizing the rest of your day but keeping the thoughts at bay.

We're not quite ready to get there yet.

I'm not inviting you to start planning the rest of the evening or to write a to do list.

We are simply taking our moment of peace and solitude.

And in these few moments,

I'm going to invite you to bring gratitude to your life.

Starting to think about all of the things in your life and your home and where you live with beautiful gratitude.

When things are really good and you're in flow and the kids or your family members or your friends or your housemates are laughing and joyful.

When you have the house to yourself and it's silent and peaceful.

Just call to mind those beautiful feelings and sensations without focusing on the thoughts.

Think of the feelings of your kids making you laugh or happy.

Seeing your partner smile.

Seeing your friends happy.

The enjoyment of spending quality time with people.

Or the pure enjoyment of simply being with yourself.

Have a look around your house,

Garden or neighborhood.

And if there's any place that you particularly enjoy being.

There's any place you might like to sit or lay or enjoy the view.

Any places in the house that have fond memories.

Stay here with these positive and joyful feelings away from the thoughts.

And every time a thought comes in that wants to ruin this experience for you or tell you there's something to do or worry about.

Tell the mind you'll come back to it later.

Right now,

You're meditating.

Come back to this visualization of everything you have to look forward to for the rest of the evening.

Allow those feelings of gratitude and joy to be there.

Notice how you start to feel in the body as we cultivate peace and stillness and joy and gratitude.

Notice how you feel in this meditation.

How good it feels to be like this.

How good it feels to be present.

How good it feels to find time just for you.

How good it feels to be grateful for all of the things that you have and all of the ways that you could possibly spend the rest of your evening.

How beautiful and blessed you are.

See this visualization still in front of you.

Notice how the workday has drifted off in the background.

You find that space within yourself.

Not needing to move into the past or into the future right now.

But enjoying a few more moments of solitude and silence before we close this meditation.

Come back to becoming aware of your full body.

Focusing on this moment.

This moment.

This moment.

Keep the thoughts,

The future and the past at bay.

Returning your awareness once again to the simplicity of your inhale and your exhale.

Before we close this meditation,

Remind yourself that moving forward into your evening.

Being prepared for this is a conscious choice.

A conscious process of preparing yourself.

Make yourself ready.

Enter the house when you are ready and prepared and grounded.

Make the choice to leave your work,

Your stress,

Your past where it belongs behind you.

Remember that you can always take charge of what you create.

You can always prepare yourself for each moment.

You've just done this by creating this beautiful moment of stillness.

Being grounded,

Prepared.

Taking a few final moments now to scan the body and notice any changes you may feel from when we first started.

Notice if you feel heavier or lighter.

If you feel more relaxed or more aware.

And when you're ready to enter the rest of your day.

Slowly start to come back to full presence.

When you're ready to face the rest of your day in control and from this grounded place of calmness and stillness.

Total peace.

Total choice.

Total control.

When you are ready,

Start to become aware of your own body.

Your hands and your feet.

Your eyes.

Come back to wherever you are.

In this exact moment,

Very gently and very slowly.

Breathing deeply for one final round of breath.

Committing to taking this feeling of peace and power and control throughout the rest of your day.

Every day.

Every moment.

From now on.

Thank you for listening to this meditation.

Thank you.