Restorative Mindfulness Meditation For Helpers & Healers

This restorative mindfulness style meditation uses breath, awareness to sensation in the body, and a gratitude practice to allow you to calm your nervous system and move through your day nourished and refreshed.

Transcript

Welcome, Beautiful ones, To this restorative mindfulness meditation for helpers and healers. Begin by getting into a comfortable position, Sitting up or lying down. Sitting up does allow you to be more attentive. Having your head, Neck, And spine straight, Or your hands in your lap or by your sides, You're sitting in whatever way feels good to you. Just begin by taking a nice full deep breath in and letting it out with a sigh. Then take another full deep breath in and let it out with a sigh. Then breathe in whatever way feels good to you. When we let our breath out with a sigh, We send a message to our sympathetic parasympathetic nervous system that helps us to relax. So as you breathe in, Breathe in oxygen and nourishment and comfort and breathe out tension or tightness or stress. Then as you breathe, Just find your breath in your body, Perhaps the rise and the fall of your diaphragm or the way the air enters and exits your nose. Notice the gentle movement of your sides or the rise and the fall of your shoulders. And if you find that your mind wanders while you're doing this, That's okay, That's what minds do. Just notice where it went and gently bring it back to whatever you're focusing on right now, Your breath. And as we begin to breathe slowly and easily, Our body slows down and enters a more restful state. And as our body slows down, Our mind does too. And so whatever your experience is right now, Just notice your breathing. And if you get pulled away by some sort of a thought or a distraction, Just notice that that's happened and then just bring yourself back. No judgment, No criticism, Just the ebb and the flow. And then releasing your attention from your breath, Bring it to your body right now, Noticing what's happening in your feet, The tops of your feet, The bottoms of your feet, Your toes, Your heels. And then notice your ankles, Then up into your lower legs, Bringing your attention to your knees, The backs of your knees, The tops of your knees. Moving up into your thighs and up into your buttocks and your pelvic floor, And up into your hips. And just noticing, Being curious about how the lower part of your body feels. Do you notice discomfort or pressure or tension? No need to fix anything, Just noticing. And coming up into your lower back and your belly, All the way up your spine and your rib cage and your chest, All the way up to your shoulders. And down into your arms, Around your elbows and your forearms, And down into your hands, All the way to your fingertips. Coming up into your neck and your jaw and all the muscles of your face. Maybe noticing what's happening between your eyebrows. If your brow is furrowed, Try to relax it. Coming up into the top of your head and down the back of your head, Just getting this general idea of how your body feels right now. And if you noticed any areas of tension, See if you can do the very interesting task of allowing the warmth of your breath to soothe and ease any areas of discomfort in your body. Sending the nourishing warmth of your breath to any part that's uncomfortable so that your body can feel as comfortable as it wants to feel right now. When we have very stressful jobs, We often are in fight or flight very frequently. And so we hold a lot of tension and tightness in our muscles. So this body scan is a very wonderful way to release some of that, The built up tension over days and weeks and months. Just right now allowing as much of it to dissipate as you can. And then releasing the awareness of your body and becoming aware of your emotional state. What sorts of emotions are rocking around in there for you? Perhaps some anxiety, Burnout, Stress, Sadness, Or maybe you've hit the spot of numbness. Just check in with yourself right now and see if you can notice what you're feeling and where you're feeling it and what that's like for you without really getting attached to it or engaged with it. Just being curious about what sorts of emotions are happening for you. Making space for them, Not trying to push them away or change them. Just becoming mindful. It might be a large step, But maybe even befriending them. Emotions are designed to send us messages about how our internal world is doing. They can be our allies if we let them. And then releasing your focus of your emotional state and coming up into your mind and just noticing the thoughts that are on that movie screen of your mind. Just notice them as mental events, Not something that you have to engage with, But just be curious about what you're thinking about. Some people like to imagine that their thoughts are like vehicles on a highway and they're sitting on the side of the road and they can just watch them come and go. If you do find yourself kind of getting hooked on one and you notice that an emotion's coming up, That's okay. Just notice that that's what happened. And then bring it back to your breath. Many helpers and healers are noticing thoughts like, When is this going to end? I can't do this anymore. I'm so tired. So honoring those thoughts, But just noticing them for right now and just being with yourself. Now letting go of the thoughts and returning your attention back to your breathing. Take a few deep re-centering breaths and then bring to mind someone or something or being that you would like to care for you to give you some nurture and just visualize for a moment what that would be like. Maybe it's a simple hand on your shoulder and a smile. Maybe it's a long, Warm embrace by a very trusted friend. Maybe it's sitting on the floor and playing with your dog. Whoever and whatever is nurturing and caring for you. If it feels okay to do so, Take your hand and place it over your heart or on your cheek and just see if you can send some of that nurture and warmth and caring to yourself. Or if that's hard to imagine, Imagine that person that you want to care for you, Sending that warmth to you. See how much of it you can soak up like a sponge, Allowing that warmth and that caring to ripple through you like ripples in a pond so that that warm, Loving, Nurturing feeling can touch every part of you. Your skin, Your heart, Your organs, Your bones, All the way down to the cellular level. And then becoming mindful of what it feels like to allow yourself to experience this nurture and this caring. Maybe it's hard. Maybe this is a difficult task for you. That's okay. Just be gentle with yourself. Or maybe this is wonderfully rejuvenating for you and that's okay too. Enjoy. And then allow yourself to bring a sense of gratitude to some big things in your life. Maybe there are people who support you and who encourage you and that you can talk to, Send some gratitude their way. Maybe some gratitude for the space that you're in right now that's holding you safely and comfortably. Maybe you'll get to take a walk today and you can have some gratitude for nature and the outdoors. Perhaps some gratitude for your hands, Your helping hands that have done so much hard work. Some gratitude for your legs that have worked very hard. Gratitude for your back. Gratitude for your core that has allowed you to do hard yet important things. And if gratitude is hard to find, That's okay. Have some compassion for yourself. But whenever you can, Trying to bring up this sense of gratitude can be pretty helpful. And now just returning your attention back to your breath. Bringing a deep breath in and letting it out. Returning your attention to your body. Wiggling your fingers and your toes. Just noticing whatever you'd like to bring with you from this experience today. And then whenever you're ready, You can open your eyes. Thank you for joining me. I'm Kelly. Namaste.