Resilience Meditation During Coronavirus #2: Begin Again

In these stressful and uncertain times, it's specially important to find ways to boost our resilience and give ourselves the grace to "begin again". This guided practice will empower you to begin again in each breath, in each moment.

Transcript

Welcome back. Welcome to week two of Life in Coronavirus Times. You've made it. You've made it to another Friday. So give yourself a pat on the back. Good job. And I know it probably hasn't been easy at times. I think it's safe to say that all of us are living under what seem to be at times very heavy clouds of gloom. There's so much uncertainty during this time. So much uncertainty about how long might this last. And how much suffering will I undergo, Will our country undergo, Will family or friends. There's a lot of fear, A lot of uncertainty. And whenever there's this much uncertainty in life, It can go hand in hand with increased anxiety. Uncertainty seems to be the twin of anxiety in lots of ways. A sense of powerlessness, A sense of not knowing what's going to happen. And we are all encountering that in our lives day by day, Moment by moment. And when we feel anxious, We often feel a sense of restlessness, Agitation, Physical restlessness, Mental restlessness. Our mind is bopping from thought to thought to thought. A lot of worry, A lot of worrying in our heads. And we get kind of separated off from the moment. We can become really preoccupied with worries and anxieties. So a huge resilience support that we are going to meditate about today, And I'll do a guided meditation on, Is the grace of beginning again. So we are stumbling in lots of ways. We may get anxious, We may get agitated, We might get frustrated. We might be caught in the grip of, The icy grip of fear around our hearts. And it's really hard to be with those sensations, Even of boredom, Right? We're encountering all of these different uncomfortable sensations as we go through our days and as we navigate our various obstacles from the day to day stress of finding a balance between, I'll speak for myself, Homeschooling and working and just trying to find a new rhythm in our days, Make sense and make meaning out of this whole time. Or whether it is deeper uncertainties, Deeper fears about what does this mean for our country as a whole, Our financial situation, Those of others. I don't even need to outline them all because we know them well. We carry them daily. We are kind of bearing the weight of this uncertain time and all the stressors that come about. So in a way I think of resilience as always a dance between risk factors that are weighing down on us, And we always, Or stressors, That might be a more accessible term, We are all battling the weight of all these stressors that are weighing down on us in this time. And resilience is always about this dance between stress and supports. How do we more effectively weave in our supports? We might think of it like there's just a lot of stressors raining down on us. We are under stormy skies a lot. We may be just kind of caught up in this worry that's clouding our days. And so how do we weave in little bits of gleaming sunshine, Blue skies? Or how do we weave in the panels of our umbrella to kind of protect ourselves from the weight of all these stressors to help buoy our spirits back up? So I was reflecting on the importance of giving ourselves the grace to begin again. When we are anxious we are often separated from a sense of being really present in the moment, Being really present in our hearts. Because of these uncomfortable emotions that swirl up, We may kind of like feel overwhelmed, And then our mind just kind of separates off and is just in a swirl of its own, Swirling around with uncertainty and worries, Ruminations, Whatever. So one of the keys is to reset ourselves, To reset our nervous system, To bring us back to a place of center and calm. And meditation is a wonderful way of doing that, Especially giving ourselves the grace to begin again. And that's what our meditation today will focus on, And we'll get to it in just another few seconds. But I do want to say that resilience is about stumbling. We are stumbling all the time. I know I stumble in all kinds of ways, And I get caught in a group of anxiety, Agitation, Frustration, Fear. So that's what's happening, And that's what's going on in our lives right now. Resilience is about picking ourselves back up and just beginning again, One step at a time, One breath at a time. So in today's meditation we'll give ourselves the grace to begin again. So taking a moment to find a comfortable position for yourself, One where you can feel supported, One where you can feel grounded, So letting yourself feel the support of your chair. You might be sitting, You might choose to lie down, You can choose to stand, Or maybe you're walking. Maybe you're even lucky enough to be walking in the woods right now. Being outside in nature is of course a wonderful way of building in a resilient support for ourselves. But you're here, You're ready to do the meditation. That's another huge support to uplift, To buoy you when we have stressors raining down. So finding your comfortable position, If you like letting your eyes gently close. It's just a helpful way to kind of screen out external distractions in the visual field so we can tune in more easily to our inner world. And then we're just going to begin to ground ourselves in sounds that we're hearing in this moment. Giving ourselves the grace to come out of the busy mind, The busy thoughts. And actually we're just bringing our mind into awareness of sounds. Maybe sounds outside this room, Outside the room that you're in, Or sounds as far as the ear can hear. And then just becoming aware of sounds that are happening closer in. Without the need to make sense of the sounds or react to them in any way. Just kind of allowing the sounds to be little moments that connect us with what's happening in this moment. The sound of my voice rising and falling. The sound of your breath that's rising and falling. At any moment we can draw our awareness into our breath and begin again. Bringing our mind, Our busy anxious mind that's just spinning in thoughts. Just letting it release, Release the thoughts just for a few minutes or even just for a breath at a time. Just release the thought, Let it go and then just bringing your mind into this new breath. Seeing if you can be conscious and aware of the sensations of the breath that are happening in this moment. You might notice the breath more resonantly in your nose or your mouth. Perhaps feeling sensations of coolness or tingling where the breath is entering the nostrils and traveling up. Or perhaps the comparative warmth of the exhale through your mouth or your nose. Following the breath down now into the chest or the belly. You might invite yourself to just take a few deeper breaths right now. Allowing the exhale to be a way of softening more fully into this moment. Just allowing yourself to arrive right here. Noticing how quickly your mind spins back up into thinking. Thoughts about the future, Worries, Oh we can really get caught in the what ifs right now can't we? We can really go down some big rabbit holes with that. Or getting caught in thoughts about the past. So our mind likes to skip off of the present moment, It's just the nature of the mind to be busy so we don't judge ourselves. We don't judge ourselves for getting caught. The lesson of resilience is that we just give ourselves the grace to begin again. So just every time you notice that you've gotten pulled away from the moment. No problem, No need to judge yourself, No need to feel like oh I'm a bad meditator. It happens to all of us over and over again. And actually what's really cool is that the more times that we bring our minds back down into the moment through this next breath. Let's just be present with the breath. Or through sounds that can also anchor us in the moment. Or just the feeling of our body sitting here on the chair. Noticing where our feet are making contact with the floor. That sense of groundedness, Just the gravity pulling down rooting us here in this moment. So the cool thing is that the more times we begin again, The stronger that mindful muscle in the brain becomes. And there's so much research that shows the power of meditation for shifting us out of frames of mind or brain states in which we are worried, Anxious. And into brain states that have to do with greater resilience, Well-being, Creativity, Insight, Calm. So the more times our mind skips off and goes down on one of these paths, Especially right now of uncertainty or dread or worry. Don't judge yourself too harshly. Don't judge yourself at all if you can. It happens. It's happening to all of us. The grace is the beginning again. So however that's taking shape for you to give yourself the grace to begin again. To shake yourself off and to just start over. We can do that over and over again in our meditation practice. We notice our mind is a million miles away and we just gently pull it back down into our breath that's happening in this moment. You might just, If you have uncomfortable feelings that are coming up right now, It can be really hard to be present in our bodies when we are grappling with feelings of fear, Worry, Dread, Uncertainty, Boredom. It runs the gamut. It often shows up as a sense of restlessness in the body or just a sense that something's off. So we'll give ourselves the grace to just be here even if it's just for a few conscious breaths. It's really valuable. It's time well spent. So perhaps moving your awareness now into the heart space. Just kind of letting your breath make connection with whatever it finds there, Whatever mood or feelings are showing up or mixture of body sensations and emotions. And just give yourself the grace to connect with the breath on the exhale allowing just a little bit of softening just to greet whatever's here with compassion, With connection. You might let your hand make connection with your heart space. Just sending a sense of connection and comfort even through the warmth of your own hand. It's okay. This is a hard time. Let's give ourselves the grace to begin again, To recenter ourselves. So with that, Letting your eyes flutter open and realizing that I'm about to begin again. I hear my kids coming inside. So we're right at 15 minutes. It's a good time to say goodbye. Good luck. May grace be with you in this week. Give yourself the grace to begin again, To shake yourself off, To recenter. One step at a time, One breath at a time. We got this. I look forward to seeing you here in this space or wherever we are. Maybe we'll go for a walk in the woods sometime together. I look forward to seeing you in week three. Be well, Be safe, Take good care.

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Your words & insight , it's really helping

Wonderful and soothing. Thank you so much.