How To Trust Yourself Again

Join me in a breathing, visualization and gentle movement practice to remember how to trust your inner voice and more confidently take the next step. So often we can second-guess ourselves or think we don't know what we want, but when we tap into our values and remember to relax into what it feels like to trust ourselves, we can carry that energy into any scenario.

Note: Please do not not listen to this while driving or operating heavy machinery.

Transcript

Hi everyone, My name is Jen. There are times when we feel like there's so much to do or say. That we don't know where to begin. There are also times when it feels like we're overcome with emotion. And everything that comes out of our mouth. Is not what we would know would be in our best interest and not even really necessarily what we think. But it's our emotions just kind of garbling what it is that we know to be true. There are also times when you're just not sure what next step to take. To take. Quick practice that we're going to do today will hopefully address any one of those issues. Or at least take you one step forward. Toward addressing them. The thing is, Is we get in our own way when we overthink and we fall into patterns that are not supporting us. And a lot of times those patterns are emotional. So what we're going to do is we're going to release and relax our body. And in so doing, Allow our mind to relax a little bit. So we'll start with just a little bit of movement, A little bit of breath, And then we'll end with a meditation to just really center. And think about what it is we want to say. This is all about finding our authentic voice and being true to that authentic voice and not getting caught up. In moment-to-moment shifts, External pressures, Or our own emotional patterns. So let's go ahead and find a nice comfortable seat. You can do everything we're going to do seated. We are going to do a little bit of movement, But it's subtle. It's gentle. All right, So go ahead and find that nice tall seat, Close your eyes, Sit up tall, Feeling the sit bones rooting down into the earth and the crown of the head reaching up, Up, Up toward the sky. And take a couple breaths in through the nose, Out through the mouth, Just slightly deeper than your normal breath. A little bit more intentional. And from here, Go ahead and bring that breath in past the lungs all the way to the belly, Letting the belly get big and round like a big balloon. Hold it for a moment. Taking just a little bit more air through the mouth. Hold and exhale through the nose nice and slow. We're going to do four more rounds like that. So we're inhaling through the nose to the belly. Letting that belly get big. Taking a little bit of breath, Hold, And then out through the nose. Three more, This time as you inhale, Feel the breath going all the way down into the belly. And just imagine that there's a churning happening there. Pulling in that extra little bit of breath, Just cleansing your energy. And as you exhale through the nose, Release any blocks. Any muddled thinking, Any patterns that are no longer serving you. Three more. Letting that clean energy churn when you need to, Releasing slow through the nose, Noting the way that the breath is warmer. Letting go, Letting go. Last one, Inhale. And let go. You can keep your eyes closed or you can open them, Totally up to you. We're going to bring our shoulders up to our ears and let them go, Dropping down. And as we do this, We're just going to let the breath move with the movement. So we're inhaling through the nose, Exhaling through the mouth. Like we're blowing out a candle, A big candle. I'm going to move back a little so I don't shake the screen too much. So inhale. And add the shoulder. All the way up to the ears so there's a little bit of tension and then Three more. Now hold those shoulders up to your ears. Squeeze, Squeeze, Squeeze. Feel any tension, Any stuckness. Any uncertainty, Not knowing what to do next. Then exhale. And just wiggle that around a little bit. Shake out if you need to. In fact, We're going to all shake out here in a moment, Just starting with your hands, Shaking out through the hands. And you can shake them up, Shake them down, And then shake through the arm. Just let it be a nice gentle shake, Nothing crazy. You can allow those shoulders now to bounce. I'm going to stand. You can stand with me. You absolutely do not have to stand. I'm mostly just standing because this chair is squeaky. So totally up to you. So we're just going to shake, Shake, Shake. And go ahead and let those shoulders get in there. And go ahead. Through the waist. Shake however you want. Shake through the legs. Shake out one leg. Shake out the other leg. Do whatever you need to do. You might find yourself moving side to side a little bit. And we're here for 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Seven. Bye. 4, 3, Slow it down, 2. One, And just take a moment, Keep your fingers apart from each other, Keep your arms out so they're not quite touching your body, And just feel that gentle pulse throughout your body. Take a moment to notice that. And when you're ready, You can go ahead and find your way back to seated or if you are already seated. Perfect. So we're going to do a little visualization now. And what I want you to do is let this be a physical practice. Really focus on your eyeballs moving with the visualization itself. So I want you to imagine, And we do this in Kirtan Kriya, If you're familiar with that particular Kriya, I want you to imagine light coming in through the crown of the head, Coming down all the way here, And then coming out around where the third eye area is just above and between the eyebrows. And what I want you to do is with your eyes closed, I want you to bring the eyeballs up as though you're looking up through the head, Trace it down and then forward as though you can see a beam of light coming out in front. And it's really about the eye movement as much as it is the visualization. So close your eyes, Get comfortable and just begin to move with that visualization. Just looking up and then tracing a line of light down. And out. Through that third eye area. So this takes a little getting used to. And if you have trouble with visualizations, You can just look up. Imagining best you can that a light is coming down and then looking forward and slightly up. So it's just looking all the way up through the crown of the head and then looking slightly up and forward. Couple more times. And as you do this, Just imagine that there's a clarity that's coming in, As though your highest self, The best version of you imaginable, Is just feeding you all of the correct answers, All of the truths that live within you. They're coming down in through the head and then just beaming out into everything you do in your life. Couple more times. I want you to keep your gaze up here just above and between the eyebrows and just focus here as though there's a dot there of dark. As though there's a small dot there that you can focus on, A dot of light. And then see if you can look right in the center of that dot right here. And then see if you can look right in the center of that. And then right in the center of that. Just trying to focus for a moment. We're going to keep working with the eyes. So you can open your eyes here for the next exercise. We're going to take our finger and we're just going to simply watch the finger go. To right, Right to left, As far as you can. Extending your gaze. Watching your finger, Nice and slow. Couple times. And you might notice there's a little bit of strain just because you're not used to moving your eyeballs. And our ocular nerve is connected to the brain. It's very important. It's important to our vision. It's also important to blood flow in that area. So you can close your eyes now and continue to look right and then left. Just allowing that to be nice and slow. This is also what you do when you're in REM sleep, Your eyes just naturally kind of drift right to left, Left to right, As your body is resetting and repairing everything it needs to. To ensure that your rest is restorative. As it should be. Go one more round. And then just settle your gaze. If you want, You can blink your eyes a couple times and then close your eyes. Now bring all your attention to your breath. We'll return to the subject we're talking about, Which is finding our voice, Remembering what it is that we stand for in the world, How to articulate what we mean to say in the world, How to know what next step to take. So I want you to just sit for a moment with whatever brought you to this meditation. As you breathe. I want you to, With bravery, With courage, Self-love. Just allow whatever it is that blocks you or that feels like the barrier for you. Allow it to come up and look at it squarely. So it might be fuzzy thinking or just a pattern of thought. Some of us have recurring thoughts. That perhaps no one wants to hear what we think or. . . We don't know what we want. We don't know what we want. Whatever it is. But the fact of the matter is, You are here. And you do have values, You do have things that you want to accomplish in the world. There are ways that you truly shine as an individual, As a human. Ways that you can best give without depleting yourself. And so whatever block came up, I want you to simply acknowledge it almost as though you can just nod to it. I hear you. I see you. And then allow a different Focus to Arise. Bring up what it is that you really love about life. What it is that fills your cup makes you feel whole, Makes you feel. Loved and worthy. So for some of us that might just be being in nature. Cultivating a beautiful space. And round them. A peaceful space. For some of us, It's connecting with certain friends or certain people that just lift us up. But what is it about those people that lifts us up? Is it that we can truly be ourselves around them? What parts of us show up when we're around these people. And what parts of us show up when we're in nature or doing whatever it is that we love? See if you can bring that feeling to the surface now. That feeling of being just completely comfortable in your skin, Completely comfortable with who you are. Feeling fed rather than depleted. And just allow this sensation to expand throughout the body. I'd like to invite you. To imagine. That whatever it is that felt like it was blocking you, Cannot get in the way. Of this feeling. Just let that be a possibility for now. Focusing more on that feeling of being totally you, Comfortable. Totally able to just trust yourself to know what to do next, To know how to articulate what it is that you need to ask for. Or what it is that you need to present. Coming back to these personal values, These things that feed us this sensation of comfort and trust. And I want you to breathe in almost so you can breathe in even more of this sensation, Pulling it all the way into the belly. Breathe in a little bit more through the mouth. Hold it there, Let it churn, Let it expand throughout the body and really slowly release through the nose, Nice and slow, Nice and soft. Two more times like that. Inhale through the nose. Feel the cessation of comfort by bringing up what it is that makes you feel good in this world. What it is that allows you to let go, To trust. Pull a little bit more of that in. And release. Last time, Inhale through the nose. Deep, Deep, Deep. Let the belly expand. Pull in a little bit more. Hold it there, Let it churn and bring up whatever it is, Whatever scenario brought you to this particular meditation, Any blocks, Any particular scenarios that have been bugging you. And feel the sensation of calm, Of self-trust. Of being fed even more. Meet it, Exhale through the nose nice and slow and trust that you can move forward with confidence. With articulation, With whatever it is, You have all the tools. You can trust your voice. Because you can find a sense of comfort. Even in difficult scenarios. A comfort isn't necessarily have to come. From outside, You have it inside. So just sit with this idea, Breathing normally, Breathing naturally. Feeling a place inside of you. That you can access anytime. Allowing a gentle smile to cross your face, Knowing. That you can recenter. When you're ready, Blink your eyes open. Take in the light of the room. If you want to move the body around a little bit, Shake it out. My dog just showed up just in time. Um beautiful beautiful practice so what i invite you to do is do a little reflection maybe a little bit of writing or just a little bit of additional meditation and think about what this really feels like to be totally you to be totally and comfortable and at peace. And I know that it takes practice. Acknowledge that for yourself too. But when you find yourself feeling like you're being depleted, Like you don't know what to do or say next, Like you're just in a very uncomfortable situation or you're falling back into old patterns. Take that scenario. And tell yourself. At the truest and best answer ever. The right thing to say, The right thing to do, The best next step. Is truly what you are going to do. And commit. To that step, To whatever it is you say. Trust yourself enough to let yourself do it. And then after. Trusting that it was exactly as it needed to be. With self-trust. We can find our authentic voice. But it takes practice. And I mean, I'll be honest with you, One time of doing this is probably not going to change a whole lot. It's just setting a foundation. But if you can come back to this meditation anytime you feel off kilter, Anytime you feel like your personal power is being drained, This can become a new habit. Coming back into the self, Resourcing yourself. Readjusting the way that you're thinking. And doing that with breath. With releasing through the body. And then also allowing a nice different thought pattern to happen. So everything we did from the visualization to the calming exercises to the breath is all representative. Of the mind-body connection, Of the way that everything works together, Of a way of just calming us down so that we can see a little clearer, Which is usually all it's about. I hope that you found this incredibly beneficial, And again, If you practice it a few times, It will help you to sort of reset the neural pathways, To find this place of calm a little bit easier, Because honestly, The hardest thing sometimes is just remembering. Remembering what we know we can do. With that said, Wishing you all good things, And I wish you a. . . Special, Special amount of support and love for whatever next step you're going to take.

Reviews

Thank you, Jen; that was wonderful. I especially appreciated that your message evolved throughout the lesson, that you didn’t just touch on an idea and then close, as some presenters have recently done. I’m truly grateful.