Negativity Bias - How Bad Is It, Really? Diabetes Meditation

This meditation is for people who live with diabetes. The session begins with a short discussion on how we are hard-wired to see the worst, with practical strategies to find balance and clarity. A guided meditation follows that offers healing and peace to the parts of the body most impacted by diabetes.

Transcript

My name is Patricia Daker and I'm a registered nurse,

Type 1 diabetic,

And I'm also a board-certified nurse coach specializing in diabetes.

I have a company called Better Diabetes Life and our purpose is to really bring tools,

Tips,

And helpful strategies for coping with diabetes because we all know we're supposed to do all this stuff,

Right?

Eat better,

Exercise,

Do all these things.

It's actually a lot harder to execute than anybody would give you credit for.

And as a nurse,

Before I was diabetic,

I really thought everybody should just go out there and do it,

Right?

When it's you that has to do it,

It's a lot more difficult and you realize there's a lot more to it.

So again,

My company is Better Diabetes Life and if you link in my bio,

There's a link and you can get to my website and learn more about what I do and if you're curious about me and my background and my programs and services.

So as I said,

Tonight's topic is all about how bad is it really and we're going to talk about our negativity bias,

Which is something everybody has.

But again,

Nobody talks about that so you probably haven't heard too much about it.

The format of this talk is a little bit of education and insight up front and then we'll do a guided meditation and I have a new one for you tonight.

I'm always trying to make something new so this one's kind of special to me and I'll share that later.

It is all about diabetes so if you know someone who is struggling with diabetes that could use some support,

Just some compassion,

Some new perspective and a little bit of softness around how to deal with diabetes,

Please use your little forward link and call them,

Text them and ask them to join.

And there's a little donate button somewhere and so Insight Timer asked me to ask you to please support my programs and this platform with your donations if you feel called to do that and it would be very special if you did.

This is being recorded and so if you don't get it all or you want to come back and listen to it again,

It'll be on my page and I also have several others that I've been doing every Monday night at 7pm.

So I always like to gather.

That's my first stop is,

You know,

We're all together and let's take a breath.

We're going to come together and as we imagine us gathering in a room in a cloud above our heads,

However we want to think about it,

I want you to feel and get the idea that you're among friends,

You're among people who understand.

We'll just relax and feel comfortable.

The point is that we don't feel judged,

We don't feel embarrassed that we have support among other people who understand that living with part of your organs not working and trying to do it manually is not so easy.

So just imagine that you're gathered among friends,

Relax.

Let's take a deep breath together,

Big inhale through your nose and exhale.

Just let it go and soften,

Relax.

We'll do some more deep breathing later.

One of the things that we do and I'll talk about this is we need to shift out of our worry mode and get into a healing and health state and we can do that with our breath.

So anytime you can relax,

Soften,

Breathe into your heart space,

That really does help shift everything.

And before we begin,

We'll set an intention and the intention for tonight is that we find peace and gratitude and positivity.

And I do hope that for each of you.

Okay so tonight,

Is it really that bad,

Right?

When we think about diabetes,

Each one of us can list all the horrible things that have happened,

Right?

There's a lot of high blood sugars,

Low blood sugars,

Expense,

Trauma,

Dealing with doctors,

So many things that we can say it's bad.

But I'm going to challenge you to wonder if your lens is a little bit distorted.

So we all perceive the world through our senses,

Through our eyes,

Through our ears,

Through our feel,

And that happens 24-7,

All the time,

No matter what.

And so for every sense that we have,

Be it hearing,

Sight,

Taste,

Sound,

Any of our senses,

Touch,

When it comes in,

We apply some sort of logic to say is it good or bad.

If we see something,

Is that a danger or is that a safe thing?

If we taste something,

Does that taste good or does that taste bad?

If we feel something,

Is that pleasure or is that pain?

So as we sense things,

We're automatically labeling those,

Right?

So we're labeling.

And when we label things inadvertently,

We judge ourselves,

Right?

Is that good or is that bad?

So it's not really a good or bad thing,

It just is,

And so it's important to think that the whole time we're awake and doing stuff,

We've got these filters on that are helping us to navigate the world and it's also relying on past experience to predict future behavior,

Right?

And that's a good and healthy thing.

But here's the bad thing.

We have this thing called the negativity bias,

And so I'm going to talk about that tonight because I think it can skew,

And I know it has for me personally,

It can skew what we really believe about ourselves in the world.

So the definition of the negativity bias is saying that even if all things are equal,

Things that are perceived as negative have more severe impact on your psychological state,

Right?

So let's say that again.

Even if all things are equal,

Things that are perceived as negative have more severe impact on your psychological state.

Well,

What does that mean,

Right?

So let's unpack that a little bit.

So it says,

You know,

Things that are perceived as negative.

What things are perceived as negative,

Right?

So those are the things we feel,

Sense,

Things we believe,

That we understand.

It might be negativity,

Fear,

Danger,

Worries,

Bitterness,

Insecurity,

Right?

It's all the heavy emotions.

So things that are perceived through the senses,

Things we see,

Things we hear,

Things we remember,

Things we physically experience,

And they're negative,

Right?

They hurt,

They're painful,

There's danger,

There's worry,

There's some sort of anxiety.

So that's right,

Perceived as negative.

It's the bad stuff.

So it says they tend to have a more severe impact.

What does that mean?

When things are severe and you have a more severe impact,

We pay more attention.

We remember those things.

We remember the impact of decisions that we've had.

It occupies more of our thoughts.

They feel bigger.

They outweigh anything else,

Right?

So a more severe impact means it's bigger.

It sticks with us.

It has more lasting power,

Maybe,

Than something else,

Right?

So it's bad,

Perceived as bad,

And then it sticks with us longer.

It stays around.

It has a negative connotation.

And then it says more severe impact on your psychological state.

So what's that?

That's how you see the world.

That's how you see yourself.

That's how you see events.

It might even be how you see God,

Your spirit,

Your higher power,

Your psychological state.

And if we think of body,

Mind,

Spirit,

So our body's our physical state,

And our mind and our spirit kind of twist in there with our psychological state.

But it's how we see the world,

How we see events,

How we see things.

So you look at that.

So things that are bad feel bigger,

And they affect us mentally in how we see the world.

So negativity bias absolutely does color our world.

What's that mean again,

Right?

A little bit on background is it's an evolutionary process.

It's how we keep safe,

Right?

So if you're looking at cavemen,

Animals,

You have a bad experience.

You eat some food that makes you sick.

You burn your hand on fire.

You remember those things so you don't do them again.

So from an evolutionary perspective,

We're hardwired to do this.

And it happens in childhood.

When children,

You know,

There's a magical time when kids are toddlers,

And everything's possible.

There's only love.

And then they start learning the world is painful.

And those lessons they learn color their worldview.

So what does that mean,

Color our worldview?

It means as I go out into the world,

I see things differently because of my experience than maybe what's actually there.

That's that negativity bias.

So the bad things color our worldview.

The bad things make us see life a little bit differently.

They stick around longer.

They,

You know,

If we have a good event and a bad event,

We'll remember the bad one.

The good stuff kind of goes away.

So that's what the negativity bias is.

It's an evolutionary hardwired condition that we have to remember the bad stuff.

So add diabetes on the mix and what does that look like?

So now we're talking,

You know,

It's easier to believe the bad.

And so when we go to our doctor,

What do they do?

They look for problems.

We actually have a problem list,

Right?

So we go to the doctor and their first thing is they're going to find all the bad stuff.

That's their job.

Their job is to look for everything possible that could be wrong and give you a plan to help correct it.

That can feel like that's all they do.

And like the only thing they see is your badness,

Your misbehavior,

Your wrongness,

Your inability to do it right.

So a,

Their point,

Their job is to look for bad stuff.

And we're so hardwired with this negativity bias,

It feels bigger than maybe they intend.

So it's just easier to believe that things are bad,

That you're bad,

That you're doing bad,

That the world is bad,

That your diabetes is bad.

So let's say that we have,

We'll just use blood sugars.

We have 10 things that happen.

And let's say there's 10 blood sugars and there's one that's bad,

Right?

That one is the one that's going to stick with us.

If somebody makes a comment about your diabetes and 15 people tell you how great you're doing,

But one person comments on your weight or should you be eating that or whatever the scenario is,

Right?

Let's say you do great on making food choices all week,

But you kind of go off the wheels off one day and you eat something you don't really correct for and you have a really high number.

We forget that we did it right 99% of the time and we beat ourselves up to the 1%.

Same thing with doctor visits like I talked about.

And I think the worst one is self-judgment.

We're all very hard on ourself because we remember and we're thinking about all the things we did wrong and how we're going to fix them and we don't spend a lot of time thinking about what we did right.

I like analogies too.

So the bad things take up more of the pie.

If we have a pie,

A pie chart,

Right?

And it has 8 pieces of pie in it and let's say one bad thing happens.

In our brain,

The bad stuff is 6 out of 8 pieces,

But in reality it's only 1 out of 8 pieces,

Right?

So the bad stuff crowds out the good stuff,

Takes up more of the pie,

Takes up more of our memory and once again it's clouding our worldview because we think everything is so bad.

And what happens when we think things are bad?

We get into,

As I've talked about before,

This fight or flight syndrome.

So our bodies automatically happen in two states.

One is fight or flight,

Which is danger,

Worry,

911.

The other one is rest,

Restore and repair.

And so if we have a predisposition to remembering the bad stuff,

Then we also have a predisposition to being in this hyper-alert,

Vigilant 911 state,

Which takes away time from rest,

Restore,

Repair,

Which is what we all need because our bodies are already undergoing a lot of stress from diabetes.

A couple other things,

Let's see,

So women tend to internalize.

So if we feel bad about ourselves or we have this negativity bias,

We kind of turn inwards,

Categorically,

This isn't true for everybody,

But sadness,

Depression,

Eating,

Self-loathing,

Bad stuff inside,

We're bad,

Bad,

Bad,

Bad.

Men tend to,

In,

Not everybody,

They externalize.

So you might see them anger,

Alcohol,

Action,

Running,

Extreme things,

Right?

So just in general,

That's kind of something people notice.

Men kind of tend to go outward,

Women tend to go inward.

So we believe we are doing worse than we are,

That diabetes is worse than it is.

What happens to that?

Well,

When we have,

Then we feel like we don't have choices.

And so diabetes is bad,

We're doing bad,

We feel like it's worse than it really is.

Well,

That's the opposite of motivation,

Right?

So if you feel like you're doing all this work and you're not getting the result and it's skewed to think it's even worse than it is,

It's a recipe for give up.

How many people have felt like,

Why even bother?

I can't do it right,

I'm never going to get this,

It doesn't make any sense,

I'm never going to get it right,

No matter what I try,

It's too high,

It's too low,

I eat the wrong food,

I don't like the food,

The medicine makes me sick,

There's all this stuff,

We have that,

Right?

But when that kind of gets magnified and we forget the good stuff,

We'll talk about the good stuff in a minute,

It leads to disappointment,

Right?

And we get burned out,

We're like,

I don't want to do this anymore.

And so what we need to do is bring back balance,

So you'll hear me talk all the time about balance,

So fight or flight is great if you're in danger,

If a bear is chasing you,

If you've stepped on a snake.

It is not so good when you want to rest,

Repair,

Heal,

Get your blood sugar back in balance,

Give back to your body,

Let your body do its natural thing.

So this negativity bias,

One is just being aware.

So know that that happens.

So what do you have to do?

Because if it's genetic and we're predisposed and we're going to remember the bad stuff anyway,

What do we do?

So what we need to do is intentionally go a different direction,

Right?

So we've got to fill ourself up a little bit more with all the good stuff.

Let's see,

So what do we do?

Notice and pay attention to your self-talk.

This,

You know,

We're all,

It's a condition,

We have this person in our voice,

I've called it my inner roommate before,

Right?

And they're really the chief.

They really will tell you what's going on.

So one of the things that you can do is to notice your self-talk.

What are you saying to yourself?

How much are you beating yourself up?

What percent of the things that are going on inside your brain are fueling the negativity bias?

You know,

If it's a little fire,

Are we pouring gasoline on it,

Right?

So we can think about that.

And it just requires a pause.

We've talked a lot about pause.

It's an intentional interruption of the thoughts in your brain.

And a good way to do that is to go,

Hmm,

I wonder.

Wonder and curiosity are fabulous,

Fabulous tools.

They don't hurt.

They're not painful.

You're not obligated.

It's just curiosity.

You can be curious and you go,

Hmm,

I wonder what those thoughts I'm thinking,

Are they true?

Is that my negativity bias?

Is it really that bad?

Have I overinflated something or is it really,

Really that bad?

I wonder why am I thinking this?

Is it true?

And that wonderment is the pause where you can look and kind of get a different perspective,

To step away from your thoughts and notice them.

And number two is say,

Is it true?

Is it really true that all my blood sugars are bad?

Is it really true that my doctor hates me?

Is it really true that everyone thinks I'm bad?

Is it really true that I never eat perfectly?

Is it really true that I can't do this?

Is it really true that all the negative things?

Because I bet you if you think about it,

You look at your day,

Did you have a nice time?

Did you enjoy somebody?

Did the sun come up?

Did you get a little sunshine on your face?

Did you have the opportunity to look out the window and see a tree?

Could you breathe and relax?

Can we be grateful that we have insulin and medications and we're all still here?

And if we're here today,

That's a win for me.

I'm looking at 30 years.

Like I always say,

If it weren't for,

I keep all these little bottles,

But this little guy,

These little guys have kept me alive for 30 years and I could choose to be bitter and think,

Oh,

I have to take this stuff.

It's horrible.

I hate it.

Or I can choose to be grateful and it's switching to gratitude and being humble and like thankful.

Oh my gosh,

What would life be like if I didn't have this?

And if you've ever run out of your medicine or supplies or test strips or whatnot,

Think of the panic,

Right?

Of how that feels.

That's when the negativity bias is not a bias.

It's really true.

Like,

Oh my gosh,

I don't have my stuff.

Right?

So that compared to,

You know,

Some of these other things.

So it's good to put things in perspective to really think,

Is it really true?

Is all,

Whenever you use the words all,

Every,

Never,

Right?

Those are triggers or keys that you're probably over-exaggerating.

So the voice in your head,

I have another tip for that.

So we have a little talky guy in our head,

Right?

You should do better.

What are you doing?

How come you're not better?

This is,

You know,

You got the voice.

Everybody has the voice.

So the voice is part of our ego.

It's a psychological phenomenon.

It will never go away.

It will always be there.

But its intent is to help you.

And so one of the ways to help calm the voice,

Think of the voice like a toddler.

There's a lot of analogies I make between diabetes and toddler,

But the voice in your head is certainly one.

So the toddler just wants to be heard,

Right?

They want what they want when they want it,

And they want it right now,

Right?

They want the thing.

So the voice in your head,

Its point and its purpose is to warn you of possible danger,

Because it wants to preserve itself.

It wants to keep the body going.

So when it's being that way,

If you try to shush it,

It just makes it louder,

Right?

So if you're like,

Hey,

You're being negative,

You're too negative,

Hush up,

It actually does the opposite.

It gives more fuel to the fire.

So what you do is you acknowledge.

So this is a little crazy because you talk to yourself in your head,

But it actually works.

So,

Hey,

Negative bias,

Hey,

Crazy voice in my head,

I know you want to help.

I know you're pointing out all the possible pitfalls.

I know that you've seen this in the past and you know it's possible.

It will help.

You know,

It could happen in the future.

I got it.

And thank you so much for being vigilant and keeping that,

You know,

That thought and being mindful about it.

But right now you're doing more damage than good.

You're killing my joy.

You're not letting me have fun.

And I got this.

I am okay.

Like right now,

Nothing is bad.

So even though it's a possibility,

Thanks for letting me know,

But it's not true right now.

Right now it's okay.

Right now,

Yeah,

I did something boneheaded or it didn't work out perfectly.

That's okay.

Thank you,

Voice in my head.

You did your job.

Now you can take a seat.

There's something about that little self-talk that is kind of magical.

So that's another opportunity.

And so the last one I'll leave you with is we counterbalance with positivity.

So I came up with this and this was maybe before I had diabetes,

I think.

It was a long,

Long time ago.

I used to have this little mantra and I came up with these six states of being that I thought were helpful to me.

And I would repeat them.

The more you have goodness in your head,

The less you can have badness in your head.

So they're similar to like we do the I am affirmations or inspirations.

I do a lot of inspirations and texts and on Facebook and Instagram because I think it's you have to constantly be filling your brain with some of the good stuff to balance out this negativity bias.

So you can also look back and think,

Well,

What did I do well?

What went well?

What worked?

Because we're going to,

We're never,

Never going to forget the bad stuff,

Right?

That stuff stuck.

We're always going to have that.

But so sometimes having some intention about I did this good.

You know what?

This week I did okay.

I wrote it all down.

I did my exercise goal 90% of the time.

You know,

I had these things I wanted to do and I accomplished them or I made efforts towards them.

Those are all good.

So we counterbalance with a lot of positivity,

Affirmations,

Inspirations,

Truth about what really,

Really happened.

And I am and we're going to do some I ams in a minute.

But I want to talk about these six things that I came up with.

And again,

I probably did this in my 20s and I've had them with me ever since.

And so I'm going to share them with you and then I'm going to turn it into our meditation.

But these things,

If you're spiritual or Christian,

You'll probably recognize this out of the Bible somewhat.

But I had no,

If I,

If there was any correlation when I came up with this,

It was certainly buried in my brain.

But,

And I don't know the exact scripture,

But my six things are love,

Joy,

Peace,

Happiness,

Health,

Hope.

And there's something very similar in the Bible.

I don't remember exactly what it is.

Hope is one I've changed a little bit over the years because hope is,

Is a future state.

It's hard to be in a future state in the now,

Right?

So I can be,

I can experience love now.

I can experience joy now.

Peace,

Happiness,

Health,

Hope.

I kind of look at,

I've changed that word a little bit to mean possibilities and expectancy.

So kind of hope is wanting something to happen,

But maybe not sure it will.

Anyway,

Love,

Joy,

Peace,

Happiness,

Health,

Hope.

And that is my little mantra when I ride my bike,

When I'm doing meditation,

Those are things.

So it's just something that I try to feel each one of those things.

So what does love feel like?

What does joy feel like?

What does peace feel like?

And so it's just when I'm bored and I'm noticing myself being negative,

A little bit of breathing and a little bit of that mantra,

It helps.

It can't hurt,

Right?

It can't hurt to think about love,

Joy,

Peace,

Happiness,

Health,

And hope a little bit more.

And so we can embody these attributes.

So we can embody them in our physical self and our mental self and in our spiritual self.

And those kinds of things.

So,

You know,

Go back to the topics.

I'm going to recap real quick.

So we have a negativity bias.

We can't help it.

Things that are bad or perceived as bad are going to stick with us a lot longer.

We're going to remember them longer.

They're going to impact our psychological state,

How we see the world,

How we view events,

What we think about things.

So it colors our worldview.

Negative stuff,

The negativity bias colors our worldview and we expect things to be worse than they are.

So we notice all the things that are worse than they are.

It's hardwired.

It's a survival mechanism.

Everybody has it.

It starts when we're children.

We can do something about it.

So some of the things that we talked about tonight were notice and pay attention,

Right?

Just to notice that you're doing it as the first good interrupter and be curious.

I wonder why I'm thinking about that.

I wonder where that came from.

Two,

Is it true?

Really?

Is it true that everything's bad?

Acknowledge the voice.

Talk to the voice in your head.

Hey,

Voice,

I got you.

I know you're trying to help me out.

Thanks.

I need to take a backseat.

You're not being helpful anymore.

It's actually driving me crazy.

And then counter with positivity.

So mantras,

Meditation,

Inspiration,

Looking at what went right.

Not hard stuff.

It just takes focus and dedication.

So you have to kind of make reminders.

It's not a bad idea.

And the day of iPhones on your phone,

You know,

Pop them up.

If we're having a,

If you find you're really stuck in negativity,

Three or four times a day put a little pop up on your phone that has love,

Joy,

Peace,

Happiness,

Self-hope,

Something like that.

But some little thing that's meaningful to you to help reset,

To keep reframing.

And after a while,

You'll find that it's easier to kind of shift over there and you catch yourself some.

But it does take some effort.

Everything does.

So,

Okay,

So that's the negativity bias and things to do.

So we're going to get into the meditation part of things next.

And so if you want to get yourself comfortable,

I'm going to get a little bit quiet,

Relax,

Close your eyes,

Lean back,

Take a deep breath.

And so one of the things I always talk about these two states of your body,

One is kind of fight or flight and one is rest and relax.

And we can do some breathing techniques to shift us from fight or flight,

Worry,

Fear,

Anxiety,

To our parasympathetic state,

Rest,

Relax,

Restore,

Rebuild,

Renew,

Which is much better.

So we're going to do what we call polyvagal breathing.

And it's really simple.

Just breathe in and out through your nose,

Very intentionally deep.

So we'll do some intentional breathing.

And it's four breaths,

A count of four in and a count of eight out.

So when we do this polyvagal breathing,

We're breathing in and out through our nose.

Somehow that stimulates a center in your body that shifts you to a lower heart rate,

Lower blood pressure,

More relaxed and healing state.

It focuses your resources back internally,

Healing and restoration versus when we're tuning out to our sympathetic 911 fight or flight and all our resources and energy that are going out.

So that's what we're going to do.

So we'll do this breathing.

Can't do it right or wrong.

If four and eight is not a good count for you,

You can change it up.

But basically we're going to breathe out twice as long as we breathe in.

So we'll do several cycles of that.

And so if you're relaxed,

Let's relax our shoulders.

Relax your brow.

Close your eyes.

Remember we're gathered here with friends.

We're gathered with people who understand this is a safe space.

And this is selfish and indulgent time to pay back what diabetes takes away from you to give your body healing and love and care because you deserve that and you get enough worry and you know,

Stress and all that stuff.

So as we gather,

We'll breathe.

We have an intention again,

And that is to find peace,

Gratitude and positivity and to balance the bias of our negative perception of things.

Okay,

So let's breathe in two,

Three,

Four and out two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six,

Seven,

Eight.

Relax,

Let go.

Breathe in two,

Three,

Four and out two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six,

Seven,

Eight.

In and out through your nose.

Breathe in two,

Three,

Four and out two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six,

Seven,

Eight.

Relax.

Deep breath in two,

Three,

Four and out two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six,

Seven,

Eight.

Fully relaxed,

Very comfortable.

We'll do one last one and breathe in fully all the way to your belly.

One,

Two,

Three,

Four and exhale fully and completely.

One,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six,

Seven,

Eight.

So those are called polyvagal breathing and it helps shift you and you should feel a little bit more relaxed and calm,

A little more peaceful.

So we'll start with our mantra and just repeat in your mind or loud whatever you would like.

So I am here,

I am breathing,

I am alive,

I am okay,

I am aware,

I am safe,

I am worthy,

I am lovable,

I am in charge,

I am a survivor,

I am fortunate,

I am grateful,

I am here and I am okay.

So as we do this guided meditation,

I'm gonna take you through the body and I've aligned the different systems,

The organs that are traditionally impacted by diabetes and we're gonna use each of the six states in my mantra to talk about each one.

So as I mention each one,

Move your attention to that part of your body and I want you to feel peace and relaxed and I want you to have an idea of receptivity that you are open to healing,

To receiving,

To restoring,

To renewing for each of these.

Take a deep breath and relax.

Move your attention to your heart in the center of your chest,

Behind your breastbone,

The skin that's been beating since the day you were born.

The heart is associated with love.

Love can feel warm,

Might feel a fullness that's calm.

We might notice angel lights surrounding our heart.

When our heart is full,

We feel accepted.

Imagine your heart beating firmly,

Smoothly,

Strongly.

The blood vessels are open,

Healthy,

Pink.

Any plaque,

Any irregularities,

Any abnormalities dissolve and melt away.

The only thing that remains is coherence and love and peace and we thank our heart for its job,

For the work it does and the benefits it brings to our body.

Breathe into your heart and relax.

Next we'll travel to our stomach.

We have our digestive organs,

Stomach,

Intestines,

Pancreas.

In the seat of our abdomen in our digestive system also lives our immune response and also many of the hormones that are part of our mood and wellness balance.

So we'll associate joy with our digestion.

I think that the word that goes with joy is enjoy,

Right?

When we're doing something we like,

We enjoy.

And if we can imagine being inside ourselves,

Our digestive system is a magnificent place because it transforms.

It's a place of newness,

Of recreation.

It takes things that we eat and ingest that are not living and turns them into living cells,

Into living tissue.

We can feel joyful in our insides.

We might feel it in our stomach.

We might feel purpose and direction deep in our gut and our truth may live deep in our gut.

And when we are truly residing in our truth,

We are in a state of joy.

As we think of our digestion,

A warmth and a rhythmic feel can roll across your abdomen,

Healing any irregularities,

Any pain,

Helping the foods to propel through your system,

Allowing every part of your digestive system to absorb,

Digest,

Transform the food that you eat,

Including your pancreas that works to some degree or another.

The pancreas we never probably assume or correlate with joy,

But I want you to feel joy for your pancreas,

For its ability to persevere and continue on despite its injury and illness.

Breathe in deeply.

Enjoy the feeling,

The calmness,

The warmth,

The things that take place in your abdomen to make you well and whole.

We thank our digestive system for doing that work to keep us nourished and healthy.

Love,

Joy,

Peace.

I want to offer peace to our kidneys.

Our kidneys reside above our waist,

Towards the back,

Underneath our ribs.

Our kidneys can often be associated with anxiety,

Blood pressure,

The state of fight or flight.

So offering peace to these organs,

Imagine them relaxing,

Open,

Full.

Imagine blood flowing easily and effortlessly,

Filtering any toxins,

Offering stable fluid levels,

Bringing ease to the body with an effortlessness.

Let the kidneys relax and open to healing,

To immune products,

To normal blood pressure and regulation.

Imagine them floating,

Safe,

Full,

And filtering every possible little particle at the smallest level in the most perfect way.

And we thank our kidneys for the work they do,

For the extra glucose they have to deal with,

For the extra protein,

For the damage that diabetes can cause.

And we redirect our healing resources from our immune system to the repair parts of our body that are most active when we're in a relaxed state.

We ask them to protect and heal our kidneys.

Love,

Joy,

Peace,

Happiness.

So move your attention to your liver.

It's in the right upper quadrant,

The right side of your belly button,

Above your belt line.

Think about happiness with our liver.

So the liver is a multifunctional organ that does so many things.

It does help with glucose control.

It helps with blood clotting factors,

With digestion,

Many,

Many things.

As you move your attention to this organ,

Imagine happiness,

Lightness,

Positivity,

Expectancy.

Think of how you thought of things as a child,

Full of possibility,

Hope.

Your liver is an amazing organ that renews itself and renews the body on many levels.

You can be glee and joyful for this renewal and for this experience and for this protection,

All without a thought.

Relax into this area,

Breathe.

Imagine the blood flowing easily,

Effortlessly,

Bringing waste products to be cleared,

Carrying the nutrients and different things produced by the liver to the correct parts of the body,

Detoxifying anything we eat that's not good for us.

Bring a sense of happiness and joy to this area,

To this process,

To this function of your body that keeps you renewed and healthy.

We thank our liver for its tireless and effortless unending work.

So love,

Joy,

Peace,

Happiness,

Health.

We're going to think of our upper and lower extremities for health,

For strength,

For power,

For vitality,

For movement,

For flexibility,

Dexterity,

Fluidity.

Remember what your arms and legs felt like as a teenager,

Strong,

Able,

Fluid,

Supple.

Remember your body knows what this feels like.

Take a breath,

Exhale any worry,

Any tension.

Breathe in the memories of what you felt like as a teen.

Ask your body to bring these feelings back to restore vitality,

To bring health to all aspects.

Your arms and legs are pivotal and influential on the food that you need,

On shopping,

On exercise,

On cooking,

On taking medicine,

On going to the pharmacy,

On climbing stairs,

On picking things up and setting things down.

Often our extremities are the source of finger sticks and maybe monitors and meters and CGM.

We are strong and we are able and we are capable.

Feel the strength in your extremities.

Imagine any tightness,

Any edema or swelling,

Any pain or tingling that shouldn't be there.

Let it go away.

Imagine it dissolving into the mist and all you feel is your strength.

We thank our upper and lower extremities for this health and vitality they bring to us.

Love,

Joy,

Peace,

Happiness,

Health,

Hope.

For hope we're going to focus on our neck up,

The place where we have our throat and our voice,

Our brain and our eyes,

Places that can be impacted by diabetes,

But they can also be the place where hope happens.

Possibility,

Curiosity,

Expression,

Creativity,

Expectancy,

Openness.

All these things can happen with our vision,

With our voice and with our thoughts and our mind.

What we choose to think,

What we choose to see,

What we choose to say.

All of these provide us hope.

It helps us understand the possibilities and create an expectancy that better is possible,

That today is good,

That just for today I can be grateful I'm here and tomorrow I expect even better because I'm mindful,

I'm watching and I'm worth it.

Give yourself permission to look forward to this hope and expectancy.

I like to think of this state of mind like field trip day,

So if you remember when you were a kid and you had a field trip and you woke up that morning and you were so excited,

Maybe it's on Christmas morning,

It might be a similar expression.

Hope feels like that.

It's an excitement and anticipation.

It's a great way to be because that hopeful state,

That desire and openness to possibilities brings newness.

It gets you out of the rut that helps you to expand and overcome.

Let's all take another deep breath together.

Big deep breath.

Love,

Joy,

Peace,

Happiness,

Health and hope.

These reside in you,

In your physical body,

In your mental body and in your spiritual body.

I want you to turn inward to the spot between your ears,

Behind your eyes,

The very center of your brain.

Move your attention there and from the center,

From this place of authority,

Command all the resources that you have while in this rested,

Relaxed,

Renewing state.

Command those resources to do their work.

There is no danger.

There is no worry.

Everything now is fine and all your resources are safe to heal,

To repair and to turn inward.

Linger in the state a little bit.

This is your parasympathetic state.

This relaxation,

This place of wellness.

This is not being lazy.

This is not doing nothing.

This is giving your body a gift.

It counteracts the negativity bias.

It counteracts the stress you face.

It counteracts the toil that diabetes takes on your body.

This is good for you and you need it and you deserve it.

Linger here just a moment.

Relax and enjoy.

Notice how you feel.

Remember this feeling.

Remember this feeling so you can call it back later when worry,

Anxiety,

Fear,

Frustration and those negative feelings bubble up.

Remember this moment and by simply remembering,

You can shift back into a healthier state.

I want to repeat our affirmations again.

In your mind or allow whatever is best for you.

I am here.

I am breathing.

I am alive.

I am okay.

I am aware.

I am safe.

I am worthy.

I am lovable.

I am in charge of me.

I am a survivor.

I am fortunate.

I am grateful.

I am here.

I am okay.

I am love.

I am joy.

I am peace.

I am happiness.

I am health.

And I am hope.

As we wrap up this meditation,

Bring your focus back to the room.

Notice how you feel.

Does it feel better?

Are there places that feel more healthy now,

More vibrant?

Are there places that still need some TLC?

Breathe in.

Let that breath wash across you.

Move your arms and legs.

Move your hands.

Take a breath.

And when you are ready,

Blink open your eyes.

And we'll come back to the room.

So that concludes the meditation portion.

I want to thank everybody for joining me.

I want to thank you all for joining.

Be well.

And go be positive because you're going to remember all the negative stuff anyway.

So go grab on some positive and hang on to it.

Thanks.

Thanks all my diabuddies.

Thank you.

Take care.

Bye.