Inspiration Meditation

This quick exercise is designed to help you connect to your inspiration, give you a burst of motivation and help you focus on your goals. Studies show that using exercises (like this one) help your brain feel more confident and grounded, so use this when you feel disconnected from your desires or craving inspiration. And remember - as long as you don't give up, you can't fail. Your success is inevitable.

Transcript

Hey friends,

Thanks for joining me for today's mindfulness session.

We are going to jump right in and get into inspiration and helping you connect to yourself and what inspires you.

But before we get going,

I always love to move the body before we try and quiet the mind.

So if you want to roll your shoulders back,

Roll your neck,

Maybe roll your hips,

Whatever feels good to you.

We want to start every mindfulness opportunity by moving our body.

So once you feel centered and grounded,

Today we're going to do a standing meditation.

And so if you're not already standing,

Please feel free to do so.

If you'd rather sit or lie down,

Totally fine.

But I'm going to stand.

And if it feels good to you to close your eyes now or zone out,

If that feels more comfortable,

That would be amazing.

We want to just focus internally and turn your eyes inside to see what's going on.

And so let's start with a breath in and letting it all go out.

We're going to take another breath in and let it all go.

And every time we focus on the out-breath,

It's one of the easiest ways to connect to your vagus nerve,

Your big nerve that goes through your whole body.

In-breath doesn't have to be deep in order to get the benefits of that.

It's all about focusing on pushing all the air that you do have out of your lungs in the exhale.

So we'll do that one more time,

Breathing in and letting it all go.

Beautiful.

Now let's ground into your feet.

Maybe you wiggle your toes.

Maybe you notice how your feet feel on the ground or in your shoes.

Just connecting to what's underneath you to know that you're safe and held here in this moment.

And now it's time to play.

Today's focus is all about inspiration and finding inspiration in ourselves and creating the life and lives that we love and that we're excited about.

For those of you who don't know me,

I'm Liesl Drought.

I'm the burnout coach,

And I focus on helping people find themselves again,

Listen to themselves again,

And get out of that burnout place and into a place that is more comfortable and more fun and more exciting for them.

I find oftentimes our creativity is stifled when we're in burnout,

And so being able to open up and play today is what we're all about.

That's where we find the inspiration.

I teach a three-step process,

Discover,

Play,

And execute,

And today we're going to play with the discovery part,

That first part in order to define what it is you want.

And even if today you don't know what you want,

That's totally fine.

We're here to just play and dream.

Your brain doesn't know the difference between past,

Present,

And future.

It doesn't know the difference between what's actually factually true and what's going on in your head or in your mind's eye.

And so today we're just going to play and imagine whatever comes up for you.

Have fun with it.

It doesn't have to be the true dream.

It doesn't have to be what you actually want,

But we're just here to help your brain be creative and think of something different and challenge yourself to not feel stuck in the box,

Whatever box you're currently in.

And so when we can be creative,

When we can feel inspired,

When we can dream big,

All of these things allow you space to learn what it is you do want next.

And our brains hate dreaming.

Our brains hate thinking of change,

Which is why we talk about it as play.

We're like pretending for right now,

And that's amazing.

And so we're just going to play.

It doesn't have to be serious.

I'm not going to hold you to any vision that you have,

But I'm going to try and help you stretch your brain,

Stretch your creativity to see what it is that you could want or what could be fun.

And then later on,

You can decide if it's something you actually want.

But that's what inspiration is,

Right?

It's just the opportunity of like,

Ooh,

What could be?

And that's what we're playing with today.

So don't let your brain get stuck in the how or the what ifs or the whens or all of the,

You know,

Things that could get in your way.

Just focus on play.

There are no rules here.

I want you to feel like we're in Harry Potter or you have a magic wand or you can create anything that you want.

You can rewind,

You can fast forward.

It doesn't matter.

You can be a one-person show,

You can be thinking about your whole family.

It doesn't matter.

Today we're here to just play and be in that inspiration.

So let's breathe in one more time and let it all go.

And I want you to imagine what could be possible.

If I could give you anything,

If I had a magic wand,

If I could grant you any wish you wanted,

What comes to mind first?

Something comes to mind and you hate it.

There are no rules here,

So you can move on to the next one.

But I want you to imagine,

Like,

What would life be like if you had a magic wand?

If I could give you anything,

If you could be,

Do,

Or have anything,

What would you want?

Sometimes that question is hard,

And so if it feels hard for you today,

Totally fine.

Maybe there's a glimmer of something.

Maybe you know you want to paint,

But you don't necessarily want to do that for your career.

Great,

Fine,

That's great.

Stick with that.

Maybe you don't know what you want at all,

And that's okay.

I wonder what could you want,

What feeling would you want?

How do you want to feel in the future?

Maybe it's calm,

Or peace,

Or happiness,

Or adventure.

It doesn't matter what it is so much,

As much as it is about how it feels.

Again,

We're just playing.

Come play with me.

Now that you have the start of your idea,

Let's see what details you can put in.

What do you know already?

Maybe there are things you know you don't want.

That's awesome.

Put that in too.

Imagine what it would be like to be in that life,

To be living it that way.

What would it smell like?

What would it look like?

Where would your feet be right now?

What would you be doing?

See your hands doing that thing.

Imagine what's around you.

Breathe into it.

Put in as many details as feels good,

Like you can walk around in this world.

Again,

This is just pretend.

And notice,

How does it feel to be here?

What does it feel like?

What do you notice is different?

Maybe different about you,

Or how you talk to yourself,

How you talk to others.

Maybe it's how you spend your time.

Just notice.

Soak it all up.

And now we're going to do a body scan.

Basically,

It's like an x-ray moving from the top of your head all the way to your toes.

And I want you to just notice how your body feels in this dream,

In this play place.

If you need to bring up that feeling again,

What it feels like to be here.

And then starting at the top of your head,

We're going to scan down through your brain,

Behind your eyes.

Just noticing how your body feels here.

Moving down through your jaw,

Behind your ears,

Your sinuses.

Moving down your neck,

The front,

The back,

The sides.

Into your shoulders and your upper chest.

Moving down into your hands,

Your lower arms,

Your elbows,

Your upper arms.

Just noticing how they feel in this place.

Moving down through your chest and upper back,

Into your belly and your lower back.

Just noticing how they feel here.

Into your hips,

To your upper legs,

Your knees,

Your lower legs and your feet.

Just notice how it feels to be in this play zone,

To be in this dream.

Maybe you see something in particular.

Maybe your chest feels lighter,

Brighter.

Maybe behind your eyes feels a little fuzzy.

Maybe you're tingling all over.

Maybe there's a tightness in the back of your neck.

Whatever it is,

Just notice that for a second.

And we're going to turn the volume up on that feeling.

Take it from 0 to 160.

And if it doesn't feel good,

That's okay too.

It doesn't have to feel good right now.

But what we're going to do by turning the volume up is just teaching your body that it's actually safe and okay to feel however it is you're feeling.

If that's feeling good,

Great.

If that's not feeling good,

That's okay too.

Doesn't mean something has gone wrong.

Usually that means there's a block of some kind or your brain's getting in the way saying you can't have it for XYZ reason.

Maybe it's a good reason.

Maybe it's a bad one.

We're not here to worry about that right now.

We're just here to feel and teach your body that it's okay to have feelings.

It's okay to feel however you are feeling.

And so we'll take that volume,

Turning it up 160.

See if you can make it even brighter,

Even bigger,

Even denser,

Even more tingly,

If that's what you were feeling.

And we're going to hold it for 5,

4,

3,

2,

Make it even bigger now,

1,

And let it all go.

See if you can just turn the volume down to 0.

If it feels good and you want to shake it out,

Totally awesome.

Sometimes we need that.

You can shake your legs,

You can shake your arms,

You can shake your belly,

Your butt,

Whatever you need.

Shake it out,

Let it go.

And if it feels good to open your eyes,

That's totally fine too.

If it feels good to keep them closed,

Right on.

But I want you to look at the dream and see what stands out the most to you right now.

Take a mental note.

Maybe it's the way you felt.

Maybe it's the way you would dress if you were in that situation.

Maybe it's how you would spend your time,

Or maybe you came up with a creative,

You want to be a singer,

Or a dancer,

Or a painter.

Or maybe it's that you would take Fridays off during the week.

Whatever it is.

Maybe you would feel more refined.

Maybe you would feel more chill.

Who knows?

But I want you to notice just one little thing.

Then I want you to bring that one little thing into your life today.

Maybe that life felt more playful.

How can we play more in your current life?

Maybe it's dancing to a silly song once a day.

Maybe it's choosing to have a squirt gun fight with your friends.

Maybe it's wearing crazy lipstick.

I want you to find something that feels really easy and doable.

Maybe it's as simple as changing your coffee order.

It doesn't matter what it is.

But I want you to bring one thing from that dream into your current space.

And I want it to be easy and doable.

So if you're like,

Well,

I would wake up at 6am,

But right now you wake up at 10 or 9.

Maybe you're like me,

You wake up at 9.

30.

Maybe that's not where we want to start.

We want this to be fun.

Remember,

We're playing.

We're having a good time.

And so what is it about waking up at 6am that sounds interesting to you?

Is it that you have time to journal or time to drink your coffee in peace?

How could we get that just a little bit more?

Even five minutes to journal or drink your coffee.

Or maybe if you got up early in the day,

You would read.

Or you get to do something for yourself.

Maybe that's all it is.

Having five minutes to do something for yourself every day.

When we can take those big inspiring dreams and imagine them in your brain as if they're happening right now.

You're teaching your brain that you can have those things.

Because you can.

I know you can.

Because if you can see it,

You can do it.

And even if there are things you can't see,

If you want it,

You can do it.

So helping your brain see those things in your mind's eye is step number one.

Feeling those things in your body is step number two.

And then bringing something small and tangible into your current space is number three.

If you think about a straight line,

If you change that line just by one percent,

It totally changes the end trajectory of that line.

That's what we're doing here.

You're getting one percent closer to where you want to be.

This is what I focus on with my clients.

We do it with lots of tools.

We do it in lots of different ways.

But I know because you want it on some level,

Maybe it's not that exact vision.

Again,

We were just playing,

Right?

So who knows what you came up with?

But there's something about that vision for you that's exciting and fun and energizing and inspiring.

And you can have that.

And so that's what I'm going to leave you with today.

Just knowing that you can have what you want.

You can have what you want.

You can dream.

You can dream big.

It is possible.

And if your brain gets in the way,

That's what brains are here for,

Right?

They hate change.

They were designed to keep us from change.

And so know if your brain's fighting you on that,

That's okay.

But just play with this.

Bring in that one percent and celebrate yourself when you do it every single time.

Okay,

Friends.

Thank you so much for spending this time with me.

I will talk to you soon.