Hello and welcome.
My name is Julie and I'm glad you've joined us for a parent break.
If your eyes are open,
I invite you to close them and sit comfortably.
Let's take a breath together.
We'll inhale and exhale.
Let's inhale together again and release.
As you continue to breathe comfortably,
Let's notice the sensations in our bodies and begin to soften the body a bit.
So we'll start at the top of the head.
Soften the forehead,
The eyes,
The jaw,
The tongue,
The throat.
Let's soften our shoulder blades,
The solar plexus,
Tummy.
And as we move down the body,
Let's just soften our legs and feel that things are sinking down towards the ground.
And even imagine growing roots from our feet down into the earth.
Today's focus is on finding our courage.
Often people believe that courage is something that lives outside of themselves.
I like to believe that courage can be found within.
I love to think about courage as having two main ingredients.
One of them is fear.
And the second is the strength to do what needs to be done regardless of the fear.
So in the moments where we really need to find our courage,
We can remember that we already have the fear and then the strength we can find in the love that surrounds us.
For many years,
I've been working with children on this process.
And since we all have a little child inside of us,
I share it with you here.
As you're sitting comfortably,
Take a hand and turn it palm up in your lap.
Start to think of five people or things that really love you.
They could be people who lived before you,
Some of your relatives,
They could be religious figures,
They could be imaginary friends,
Family members,
Or pets.
Consider their names on the five digits of your hand.
So on your thumb is going to be the name of your favourite relative.
And on your index finger,
The name of your favourite pet.
On your middle finger,
The name of a really good friend.
All the way through for the five digits of your hand.
There's a lot of love in those five fingers now.
Imagine your name or just visualizing yourself being right in the centre of your palm,
Completely surrounded by these beings who love you.
And now I invite you to very slowly bring those five digits towards the centre of your hand,
Closing your hand into a very loose fist,
So that all of those five individuals who love you and care for you so much are enveloping you in a giant hug.
Spend a moment drinking in the love from those five individuals and notice the strength and power that comes from that love.
You might feel it as a warmth enveloping you and empowering you to do what really needs to happen.
Love is powerful and it can often give us the strength we need to do the scary thing.
And that is a way to find our courage.
We hold the fist and we drink in the love and the power and we embolden our body until we feel that courage in our heart and flowing through our body.
And from there we can step forward and do what we really need to do.
It's time for us to come back into the chair and get ready to begin the next step of our day.
We're going to inhale,
Float and exhale in this process.
So here's breath number one.
We'll inhale,
Float and release.
Inhale,
Release.
For those of you who are staying with us for a parent break today,
We're going to have eight minutes of private personal journaling.
And for those of you joining us on the replay,
I encourage you to take that time for yourself as well.
Thanks for joining us for a parent break.
