Day 20: Feel Into Your Day

Welcome to Day 20 of the Mindful Mornings Challenge. Regardless of what's taking place in our external world, we have the capacity to nurture our internal world, cultivating peace and calm within first thing in the morning. So instead of checking the news or social media as soon as our eyes open we will check in with the body, connecting to the calming affect of our breath while meditating on how we want our day to feel. Emails can come later.

Transcript

Good morning everyone and welcome to day 20 of the mindful mornings challenge here on Insight Timer.

My name is Sarah Clark.

I will be your guide this morning as we take a comfortable seat together and explore the power of starting our days mindfully.

I used to be the type of person that would wake up and right after a loud alarm clock would ring,

I would pick up my phone,

Check my messages,

My email,

Maybe even the news.

And this brought me into a very stressful fight-flight state versus the rest and digest state that I now recommend to all.

When we wake up and disconnect from ourself,

It can cause a lot of dis-ease in the body.

And as I just mentioned,

We really want to call in rest and digest first thing so that we feel alive,

Vibrant and balanced throughout our day and our nervous system will thank us.

So if you are that type of person,

Which is normal,

Who goes to their phone first,

I really would challenge you to go inwards first,

First thing in the morning,

Wake up,

Sit up,

Find your breath and breathe.

Check in with how you're feeling versus what you need to do.

Your feeling will be your guide throughout your day.

Feelings will fluctuate,

But the more we can tune into them,

Especially early on during the day,

The more efficiently we can care for ourselves with compassion and empathy throughout our day.

So I invite you to sit with me as we call into this day how we'd like to feel.

Find your comfortable seat,

Whether you're sitting upright in bed or in another comfy place in your home.

Once you found that comfy place,

I invite you to close your eyes.

And as you close your eyes,

First and foremost,

Thank yourself for saying yes to mornings of mindfulness.

And once you said thank you,

Bring your awareness to your nostrils.

And see if you can begin to feel how the breath enters and leaves the nostrils.

Notice if you can feel it.

As you're tuning into the breath flowing in and out of the nostrils,

See if you can notice the temperature,

If there's any shift from when you first inhale versus when you exhale.

Dropping the mind immediately into the focus on breathing will also drop you into the present moment.

And this moment right now is all that we have.

And it's also the only opportunity where we can call in how we want to feel.

So keep focusing on your breath,

Leaving the nostrils only to enter back in.

Invite the very backs of your eyes to soften.

Relax the jaw and relax the tongue.

See if you can feel the teeth gently parting as the tongue rests heavily in the base of the mouth.

Already the body is finding ease.

Let your shoulders fall a little heavier away from your ears.

And relax your belly.

Notice how the body is expanding as you breathe in.

See if you can feel it as you breathe in,

Expanding.

And see if you can feel it relaxing and surrendering as you breathe out.

Breathing in,

You're expanding,

You're calling in new energy,

New life force.

Breathing out,

You're releasing what the body no longer needs,

Only for you to breathe in again.

Keep going.

As you're with your breath,

Notice what could soften and relax a little bit more in your body.

Just feeling into the body and noticing what could relax.

Now imagine that you have control over how you show up today.

Imagine that you have the capacity to choose how you want to feel.

And so with this,

The question for you is,

How do you want to feel today?

How do you want to feel?

Trust the first word that comes into your mind.

How do I want to feel?

And then I invite you to feel this feeling as if it is already yours.

And if it's tricky to connect to this energy,

Recall a time in your life where you were feeling this way.

And then connect to that feeling.

Take breaths as if you are calling it in to reside in every cell of your being.

And if it helps,

Recall a time when you were feeling this way.

And if it helps,

Silently say this word to yourself three times,

Connecting it to your inhale and exhale.

If you'd like,

I invite you to turn the very edges of the mouth up ever so slightly as if your higher self is smiling down on the energy that you have just called in to support your day.

Whenever you feel thrown off today,

If that even happens,

Come back to this meditation and remember how you want to feel.

You've already called it in.

You just have to reconnect to it.

And this is the practice.

Remember that every breath is an opportunity to begin again.

If you'd like,

You can place your hands on your heart,

Maybe one hand on heart,

One hand on belly.

And I invite you to just gently bow to yourself.

Gently bow for making you the priority this morning,

For making sure that you start the day the best way you can.

Big congratulations for completing day 20.

Day 21 is up next.

May you have a mindful morning.

Thank you for practicing with me.

Reviews

Very nice way to start this new day. This meditation helped me focus and ground myself looking forward to the day ahead. I'm glad this meditation found me. Thank you very much. Have a wonderful day 🙏 ❤️ 🙂

Very grounding and wonderful way to start my day✨ 🌠thank you🌀

This effectively summed up the actions to do in order to be peacefully effective. Pure, simple healthy and helpful. My meditation and morning habits strengthened because of this particular practice. I’m grateful!

My takeaway: Call the feeling. Remember another time you experienced it. Align it with the breath. Reconnect with it during the day with the mini resets. KEY: 5*Insightful 4*Interesting 3*Okay 2*Not For Me 1*Irritating

This was an absolutely fabulous way to start the day. Thank you for the guidance, the pacing, and the reminder of the power of the breath.

Perfectly beautiful! I felt such reverence for my spirit and body during and after.

This morning meditation is simply awesome, thank you so much ☀️🙏♥️

Such a gentle and nurturing practice. I really loved when she said “Every breath is an opportunity to begin again.” Whew so good.

Thank you. Its really a very good idea to ask ourselves how can we feel in the rest of the day!
Ill try to do this more time!

Very pleasant, positive voice with a mindful message to start the day. Nice!
🙏🏽😌

Thank you for the reminders and encouragement for my morning🧘‍♀️🙏❤

Very nice and useful way to start my day reconnecting with myself... thank you so much

Thank you for sharing your wisdom. What a wonderful feeling to notice and acknowledge the body that carries my spirit along this plane. I had forgotten all about it, leaving it to care for itself. Receiving love from others to bring its essence alive. Now I can truly begin by acknowledging me when I start my day.
‘God is within me, I am within God’ ❤️ 🙏🏽❤️

I’ve been on Insight Timer for over a year and, while there are many excellent teachers here, I always find myself going back to Sara Clark whenever I need to reset my morning ritual.
Thank you Sara 🙏🏾

After being on a two month hiatus from meditating, this was one of my first meditations back and gave me a sense of hope and clarity and peace about restarting this journey. Thank you

Such a great practice. Thank you for sharing your gift with everyone on insight time & mindful mornings. 🙏🏼🌸🦋

Brilliant n that beautiful face was just a bonus ❤️🙏

On day 20, mindful mornings. I attempted this meditation a few times, distractions. I am feeling. Tears. Trauma. All here. Now. 🙏

Lovely. Breath awareness, simple mantra. Delightful way to start my day. Thank you

Lovely meditation to check in with yourself and set an intention for your day. Thank you!