Hello!
Welcome to this meditation that will hopefully help us to refocus and help you catch a break in your day.
So often we are back-to-back in meetings,
Have so many things in our to-do list.
We're either waiting for a response from somebody or feeling pressured to give a response to somebody.
We have Slack messages,
Teams messages,
Emails,
DMs,
Not to mention all the notifications personally on our phone.
We have a lot going on,
That's for sure.
Sometimes we feel like we just can't catch a break.
So that's what we're here to do today,
A short little practice to help you take a moment for yourself.
I invite you now to move yourself into a position where you feel really comfortable and relaxed,
But also alert,
Uplifted,
And aware.
Letting your shoulders drop,
Letting your forehead soften,
Maybe noticing that your hands are in a fist.
Just letting that open and relax.
Maybe even your toes are curled under,
Letting those come out and just feel soft.
We'll turn our attention here to our breath.
Take a second to notice how it feels when you breathe in and how it feels as you breathe out.
On your next inhale,
Notice where you're actually feeling your breath in your body.
Is it around your nostrils?
Maybe in your nose,
Your throat?
Maybe you're feeling it more strongly in your chest or your abdomen.
Wherever it is,
Is right.
There's no wrong answer here.
Just take note of where you do notice your breath.
On your next inhale,
What we're going to do is what we call a 360 breath.
So allowing your breath to expand all the way through into your belly and kind of sideways out around your abdomen,
Around your ribs,
So that you're breathing out sideways to the front,
As well as into your lower back where your ribs are back there.
So a 360 degree breath in your abdomen.
Let's give it a few tries here.
Letting that go and breathing in once more,
Releasing.
We'll rest here in silence for a few breaths so that you can try it yourself.
Really let yourself sink in to the breath.
Notice how you feel.
What's coming up in your mind?
Feel a little bit more chilled out and perhaps relaxed?
Or are there thoughts that are fighting for your attention right now?
The key here is that if there are thoughts popping up in your mind,
That's okay.
First of all,
It's totally normal.
But when you do notice that your mind has wandered or a thought has popped up,
Instead of letting that thought carry you away,
Gently and kindly redirect your attention back to that 360 breath.
And know that every time you redirect your attention,
We are often critical or judgmental of ourselves in that moment.
But how about we reframe that?
How about we reframe it to be an opportunity to strengthen that muscle of attention?
We are quite literally wired to be distracted with so many things happening around us.
It's no wonder it's so easy for us to get distracted and feel overwhelmed and frazzled,
Like there's just too much going on.
But every time we gently and kindly redirect our attention back to the breath,
We're strengthening that muscle.
Kind of like you're holding a dumbbell in your hand,
And you're doing a bicep curl.
You're working a little bit against that resistance to strengthen your muscle.
So the thoughts that pop into your mind is the resistance.
So there's an opportunity here to overcome it.
So welcome that in every time your mind wanders.
Just notice,
Okay,
My mind's wandered.
I'm going to be kind to myself and just bring it back because this is an opportunity to quite literally rewire my brain right now to be more attentive,
Less distracted,
And a bit more focused.
Taking note of how you're feeling right now,
After these 360 breaths,
Allow this practice to go and checking in with yourself.
See how you can carry this practice with you for the rest of the day and the felt sense that you might be noticing right now.
Perhaps being a little bit calmer,
A bit more centered or focused.
Hopefully this has helped for you to catch a little bit of a break for yourself today.
Thanks for practicing with me.
