Embracing Change - Meditation & Coffee

Can you BELIEVE it’s October?! I can’t. But this year, just as every year, time marches on, and it can be so easy to get caught in what that “means”. We’ve “wasted the year”, we “haven’t done enough”, etc. But, like gravity, change is constant. If we embrace it, & get comfortable with that sense of uncertainty, we can be more resilient in the face of change, time, and discomfort (even though I am definitely struggling to let go of summer, not gonna lie). Try this meditation to start now :)

Transcript

Hello! You are listening to Meditation and Coffee, The weekday meditation podcast that helps you start your day off calm, Aware, Intentional, Focused and most importantly, Awake. Because did you know that the word Buddha actually means awakened one? I'm Hannah, Your host and founder of the online meditation community Breathe Like a Badass, And I am obsessed with starting the day with good coffee and seriously simple meditation. As a trained meditation teacher and a female entrepreneur, My mission is to help anxious yet ambitious women cut through overwhelm, Negative self-talk, Constant comparison and fear so they can get the calm, Clarity and focus that they need to build happy, Fulfilling, Freedom-filled businesses and lives. Meditation is not magic, But it's a pretty good place to start. So whether your coffee is a shot of espresso, A latte decaf or even a tea or a chai, I invite you to join me every weekday to start your day off right. FYI, These sessions are recorded live on my Instagram page, At Breathe Like a Badass, So if you'd prefer to join in and watch them live, You can do so there. The videos are also available after the lives on my IGTV page. Now on to the meditation and coffee. Good morning friends, It is Hannah here with another session of meditation and coffee. I'm just posting what this is about today. Today my meditation is going to be on the topic of embracing change. Now the reason for this is inspired by, As very often with my meditations, By the weather outside. Beautiful day in London today, As ever the weather changes on a regular basis in the UK. And yeah, Absolutely gorgeous sunshine outside. And so today in honour of that, I've got my massive mug with butterflies all over it in honour of what might be one of the final days of summer. Hello, Thank you for joining. And so my mug is basically a representation of the beautiful sunshine outside, The blue sky, The animals and the birds and the butterflies that are flying around enjoying what could be one of the final days of summer as we go into autumn and winter. So I am sipping my first cup of coffee of the day and that's why I decided to get my mug out with all the butterflies on it. This led me to thinking about how this can be quite a difficult time of year for a lot of people, Especially I would say for me. It's the first of September today. Summer's basically done. I mean, It depends where you are in the world, Of course, It depends on the weather, La la la la. But hey, September start of a new year for many schools, Start of autumn and winter. And this is kind of the time when people sometimes even start to think about Christmas, You know, Like it's basically the end of the year. And that to me feels crazy, Especially this year, Because of everything that's been happening with COVID. You know, We've basically gone from March to September. Like, How did that happen? And I think that for many of us that can bring up feelings of anxiety, Feelings of I haven't done enough, Where's the year gone? How is this possible? You know, What have I been doing with my time? There's all of these questions that can come up. And so today, We're going to be doing a meditation that helps us to embrace change, And helps us to realise that time is always marching on. And that that's not actually a bad thing. It doesn't have to be something that's sad. Or it doesn't have to be a marker of time lost, But can actually be a marker of just the way that life is and allowing us to embrace it and learn to appreciate the fact that like I say, Time does always move forward. And one of the only things in life that is constant is change, And is moving forward. And we can get very attached to things we can we can want time to stop, We can want to freeze moments or freeze memories or freeze our holidays or whatever it may be, But I actually think that we're never going to be able to do that. I've historically always wanted to stop time, Be in the moment, But make the moment last forever. And actually, We can't do that. So one of the most powerful life lessons that mindfulness and meditation has taught me is that we can be in the present and appreciate the present moment and love it without feeling the need to hold on to it and cling on to it. And this is kind of the Buddhist principle of detachment and how nothing stays the same. But it can be really difficult for us mere mortal humans to find that level of like Zen, You know, Like, Oh, It is actually fine to let things go. We are able to embrace change to look to the future, To appreciate the past, But also appreciate that we can't freeze time. So how about we try and embrace the changes? How about we look to the future, And also, Very crucially, Just be happy in the moment, Because the moment is always changing anyway. So if we can understand how to be in the moment and be okay with that, Then that is surely one of life's greatest, But sometimes really hard lessons to learn. Today's meditation is going to be a practice on how to do that. As ever, My meditations are always kind of metaphors. We'll do a certain mental or physical practice, Which will then allow you to take these principles into the rest of your life. And it's my hope that they will then help you to apply the lessons and the kind of gifts of meditation and mindfulness into whatever's going on wherever you are in your life. So without further ado, Me and my massive mug of coffee, I'm going to put it down. I invite you to join me as usual. Put your cup of coffee down and hold it in your hands, Whatever feels good. And I invite you, As usual, To come into a position. And allowing yourself to be comfortable and relaxed and dropping your shoulders. And I'm just going to stretch out my neck a little bit today. Dropping your shoulders, Allowing yourself to come into a position where your spine is straight. Your back is relatively supported, But you're not leaning back too far into anything and you're able to notice the gravity of how you're sitting. And your thighs on the chair or the cushion. Your shoulders relaxed. And your neck and spine straight and open. Getting into position to be alert. If you like, If it helps you to concentrate, You can close your eyes. But if not, Just leave them open, Lightly gazing just ahead of you. You can take some deep breaths if you like to ground you. To allow your nervous system to slow down, To relax just for these few moments. In through the nose and as you breathe in, Noticing your body filling with oxygen, Allowing your spine to get just that bit straighter. And as you breathe out, Noticing the muscles in your body relax. Allowing your breath to join with your body and allowing your body to melt a little bit gently and easily into the position that you're sitting in right now. So as you sit here, I invite you to check in with your body and notice any areas of tension that you might find. Any areas that might be tight or gripping. Any tiny areas of tension or niggling at you this morning. Just check in with them without necessarily trying to change them. And as you notice them, I invite you to draw your attention to how noticing those areas of tension, Being aware of them, Has an effect on them. Does it change that feeling? If you notice an area in your body and you bring your attention towards it and you breathe, How does it change? Does the feeling become more intense? Does the act of noticing it without judgement actually almost make it go away? Are you able to breathe into that area of your body and allow it to be and kind of work itself out? Like a knot in your back maybe, Allowing it to kind of release itself with a few breaths. Even if you don't have any areas of tension that you can notice, You can perhaps draw your attention to another area of your body, Maybe your hands resting on your thighs. And notice the physical sensations, And particularly notice how they might change as you bring your attention to them. Noticing that our attention is never static. And this is what's so key about this idea that change is always happening because even something as simple as sitting down and noticing our breath in our body is not a static thing. Sensations arise and go away, Tensions are noticed and then diffuse. Different sensations might come and go as you continue to breathe and notice your body. And these sensations are neither wrong nor right, There's no right way of feeling, But notice how we're not trying to hold on to any one particular sensation when we do this. We're not trying to think, Oh that feeling, I must hold on to it forever and never allow it to change. Because we kind of instinctively know that in our body that isn't how it works. It's the same for anything else. Thoughts, Feelings, Sensations, Situations, They'll rise and come and go and ebb and flow like the waves, Just like nature itself. And often a feeling that feels very real to us in the moment and that feels very apparent. A few breaths or a few moments later will no longer be so strong. Sometimes simply giving ourselves permission to notice those feelings and thoughts and be aware of them without judgement is sometimes enough to diffuse the thought and allow it to say, Hey, Notice me. And then when you do notice it, It no longer has as much power. I invite you to draw your attention now to any sounds that you might be able to hear. Just noticing the sounds. Picking up on them without making them yourself. The sounds come and go into your consciousness, Into your field of awareness, Without you having to do anything. And like with everything, Sounds change. And they come and go without your permission, Without you having to do anything. Without your input, Sounds arise, Change and then usually disappear eventually. And as you notice your body today and you bring your awareness to the sounds around you, You're effectively practicing observing and being in a moment without judging it, Without judgement, Without trying to change it, Without trying to hold onto it too tightly. And I invite you to continue to breathe and notice the breaths. Continuing to breathe during these moments is so important because it allows our nervous system to remind ourselves that we are safe. And making your breath as slow and as gentle as feels good to you. And it can help us embrace the uncertainty of change. It can help us to approach these feelings which can sometimes leave us feeling unmoored or unsure. And remind us that even as everything changes around us, Our body sensations, Noises, Sounds, Situations, Seasons, Time, That through it all we can come back to this anchor of our breath. And whatever the uncertainties that life and change may throw at us, We can always remind ourselves that we can come back to this anchor, To this space. Breathe. Slowly and gently. And bring our attention back. And soothe ourselves with our own breath. Just to close out this meditation, I invite you to bring your attention back to your body and your breathing. And I invite you to just breathe in with me. I'm going to do it with you. Breathing in through the nose. Noticing the in breath. Allowing your body to expand. And as you exhale, Noticing the out breath. And your body relaxing as you breathe out. If you had your eyes closed during that meditation, Feel free to open them now. Come back into the room and notice. Welcome back. Allowing your practice to settle. Noticing how you feel now compared to when you started. Perhaps there's a difference, Perhaps not. And I just want to say thank you for being here and doing that meditation with me. Me and my giant butterfly mug are trying to embrace change this morning and recognise that the seasons come and go. And it's kind of cheesy but I always sort of think that when the autumn starts and the leaves start changing colour and drop off the trees and the seasons make themselves very much known and the temperature starts to drop and all of that, It's a reminder that this is what happens. This is the cyclical nature of the world. Change continues, It marches on every year. No stopping it. It doesn't matter how much you love summer, How much you want to preserve those endless beautiful blue sky days, Autumn and winter are still going to come along. Nothing we can do about it. So instead, Maybe we should, I don't like to use the word should, But maybe we can, Maybe we can choose, That's better, Maybe we can choose to embrace it and learn to move along with it rather than trying to grab hold and grip something that we have no hope of holding onto anyway. The meditation teacher Anushka Fernandapule, Who I love, She says that we should think about change as gravity. There's no change in gravity, It's just a law, It's constant. It doesn't matter how much we want to, We're not going to change gravity. It's the same with change. So rather than seeing it as a scary thing or a sign that the year is leaving us or that we haven't done enough with our time or whatever it may be, I'm really working on embracing it and sitting with that discomfort and being okay with change. I think it's so important. And it's particularly easy to do today when the sun is shining and the birds are singing and it's going to be harder for me to do when it's the depths of winter. But that's my goal, That's my aim and I'm really glad that you guys were able to join me today. And I hope begin and embrace your own change no matter what it is that you're struggling with or facing or dealing with in your life right now. I really do hope that today's session has helped you to maybe shift perspectives in a positive, Focused way. So thank you so much as usual for being here with me. And if you're watching the replay, Do let me know what you're drinking. Let me know how that went for you. Let me know what changes in your life you are particularly embracing or indeed struggling to embrace right now. And we can work through it together and maybe bookmark this meditation for moments and transitions in your life when change is necessary. But perhaps you might be resisting it for whatever reason, As we all do. And I will be back with another massive mug of coffee, Of course, As usual, Every single day. Tomorrow morning. So thanks so much for another session of meditation and coffee. I hope this helped you. And as I say, I will be back tomorrow. So thanks so much. Have a great day. Remember changes constant. That's a good thing. So speak soon. And yeah, Thanks so much. Bye bye bye. That's it for today. Thanks so much for listening and spending your morning with me. If you like this podcast, And you are as obsessed with coffee and maybe meditation as I am, Please go ahead and leave a rating and a review on Apple podcasts or wherever you normally listen as it helps spread the word and get the message out to more brilliant women just like us who need it. You can also share with your friends on Instagram tagging me at breathe like a badass. I always love to see you there. If you like this, And you'd like to hear more from me and breathe like a badass on how to use meditation to get the calm clarity and focus you need to build a happy, Fulfilling freedom filled business and life. Head on over to my other full length interview style podcast. Just search breathe like a badass anywhere that you normally listen to podcasts. Thank you so much for listening and I will see you for the next one.

Reviews

Amazing!!! Thank you very much