You are listening to the Motherhood Unstressed podcast and I'm your host Liz Carlyle.
Thank you so much for joining me for another guided meditation.
If you've been doing these week after week hopefully you're beginning to expand your sense of confidence in your practice,
Your sense of self,
And your ability to remain calm when unforeseen situations or you know aggravators in life trigger you.
That's really why we do this work.
You know so much of it is the doing but you have to understand why you're doing it to keep coming back and for me it's so that I can be less reactive to situations.
I can see a situation,
Breathe through the initial trigger that comes up and then just flow and make the best decision in that moment because my you know my brain is working and I'm not reacting you know I'm not reacting from the amygdala which is that deep reptilian process that you know has us reacting in fear.
So let's begin.
This is a meditation that's going to strengthen your gratitude practice.
Again it's very grounding meditation so that when you're done you can go into your day and be thankful for all of the miracles that you see but also be like I said grounded like a tree so that no matter what happens throughout your day,
Throughout your week,
You can be solid in your reaction to it and make the best decision for yourself and for your family.
So let's get settled.
You can do this meditation lying flat on your back or you can sit cross-legged with your hands gently resting on your knees,
Palms facing up or down.
Really the point is to be relaxed but alert.
This is a form of play so don't feel bad if you need to lie down mid meditation or change your position just get settled and start to tune in.
Your breath should be gentle in through the nose,
Out through the nose,
Nothing forced but probably deeper than you normally breathe.
Just a short series of breaths already are having a physiological effect on your body,
The calming,
The centering,
Resetting of processes within your body that perhaps were out of alignment from stress or worry or fear.
The breath is an amazing equalizer and luckily one that you can control.
So let's take a deep breath in together.
We'll do a series of four.
Breathe in,
Hold,
Breathe out,
Hold.
Deep breath in,
Hold,
Breathe out,
Hold.
Deep breath in,
Hold,
Breathe out,
Hold.
Last one,
Deep breath in,
Hold for longer,
Breathe out for longer,
Hold and breathe in.
Return to gentle rhythmic breathing,
Bringing your awareness to your lungs,
Bringing awareness to the top of your head,
Trickling down past your eyes,
Your nose,
Your jaw,
Releasing tension to your chin,
Down your throat,
To your collarbones,
Your shoulders,
Dropping them away from your ears,
Down your arms,
To your wrists,
To your thumbs,
And your fingers.
Coming back up,
Trickle down your spine,
Vertebrae by vertebrae,
Going down until you're in your hips,
Releasing tension there.
If you're sitting cross-legged,
You can press your knees closer to the floor to stretch out your hips and switch position.
If the other leg was underneath,
You can switch it out and press down again.
Coming down your legs,
Your hamstrings,
Your quads,
To your knees,
Down your shins,
Releasing tension in your calves,
To your ankles,
To the tops of your feet,
To the tips of your toes.
Keep breathing as you sink in deeper to this relaxation,
To this knowing of your body and love of your body.
Give thanks for everything your body has done for you,
How it's carried you through since you were a baby and enabled you to experience this life.
Bringing that sense of gratitude now to the forefront of your mind,
I want you to imagine something or someone that you are grateful for.
It can be from the past,
From the present,
Or even from the future.
Maybe a situation or a person that you haven't met yet or experienced.
You can send gratitude to that as well and quicken your manifestation of those things.
Your body doesn't know the difference.
So take the next few minutes or so to visualize the thing that you are most grateful for in your life right now or will be grateful for and focus on that and feel the emotion of happiness,
Of gratitude for this person or thing in your life.
I promise it will start a spark of you being grateful for more things in your life as the mind tends to focus and expand on what we pay attention to.
Again,
Just like the breathing,
You can direct your mind any way you choose,
So why not focus on the good?
I'll let you know when to come out of this meditation on gratitude.
Thinking.
Come back into your body.
Take a deep breath in all the way to the top of your lungs and let it all go through your mouth.
Feel the sensation of peace,
Of gratitude,
Of calm.
You can open up your eyes,
Look around your room and notice perhaps things you never noticed before and send gratitude to those as well.
Carry this feeling in your heart today and for the rest of the week so that you can be a positive light in your life to everyone that you touch.
Thank you so much for doing this work.
You are an important light in the world just by being you and working on this.
So thank you,
So much gratitude for you from my heart.
I'm Liz,
Motherhood unstressed.
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Which is to say hi and be sure to subscribe so that you never miss another guided meditation,
Which new ones are uploaded every week.
Have a great day.
Namaste.
