Nourishing Your Body & Soul

What would be nourishing to you right now? Perhaps a warm meal sounds good. Perhaps a nap, or even some time with loved ones. Nourishment can take many forms, and in this final week of our self-embodiment month, I invite you to reflect on what you feel would be most nourishing for your body and/or soul right now. Kristin

Transcript

Hey there everybody,

This is Kristen from Teaching Balance and I am here with you at this week's mindfulness meditation practice.

And we are in the final week of our self embodiment month and we've explored this idea of softening,

Listening to your body so that it doesn't have to raise its voice,

The power of a full stop and the advantages of how that can really in some cases be the best medicine.

And then for this week because we haven't really talked much about it,

I thought I would just touch on this idea of nourishing yourself and I think I'll probably title this nourishing your body and soul.

And so by expanding it in that regard that you're not only nourishing your body but also nourishing your soul or spirit or whatever terminology you prefer to use,

It is about certainly consuming the foods that are going to literally nourish you and give you the nutrition that you need to be healthy and for your body to work at its best capacity.

And I really feel like the word nourish and I chose that word intentionally has a lot more layers to it because a nap can be nourishing,

A hug can be nourishing,

Time spent alone can be nourishing and all of those things are basically feeding us in a way that is a little bit more abstract,

Perhaps even to go so far as to say metaphysical,

Emotional,

Mental,

Spiritual,

Whatever it might be.

And so I do want you to just reflect on in this last week of October which I think is kind of fun,

All of the harvest things associated with that and of course Halloween candy and things like that.

You know what does that mean for you?

I mean does nourishing mean to allow yourself to have a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup?

That would be my choice or candy corn or whatever it might be or does nourishing take a different form for you trying to bring in some more you know cruciferous vegetables or something like that.

So there is no right answer obviously this is very much based on what you feel is going to be most nourishing to you but also striking that balance between what is nourishing and what is perhaps a side of yourself that is perhaps driving you to make choices that are actually not nourishing but are sort of momentarily psychologically distracting or giving you a pleasure response that allows you to take a moment from dealing with your pain or whatever it might be and I don't want to get too crazy heavy on this but there is a real subtle difference and what I would say is trust yourself regarding the knowledge of knowing what the difference is and that even you know trusting and also coming back to that word of nourishing.

I think we really know like yes of course have the damn Reese's Peanut Butter Cup the world isn't going to spin off its axis but should you eat like a whole bag of them?

No you're probably not going to feel very well and that's not going to be very nourishing so I know you know the difference but I just want to put that out there as we come into this continuing season of shifting from the light into the dark and foods that might feel a little bit like you're really drawn to things that are heavier which I think is fine stews and soups and you know all of those types of things that's a part of it and those might be exactly what you need right now and what you need to nourish yourself so honoring that being willing to intuit what that is that you need and being willing to honor it so that's my invitation to you this week.

Let's go ahead and do our 10 minute meditation and I know you know this but it just sort of came up for me so I thought I would mention it.

The beauty of these meditations is that by practicing we literally refer to it as practice you are becoming more and more acquainted with your internal experience and the parts of your psyche if you want to call it that that perhaps are more inclined to serve you and those that are less so and I think it's really important that we honor all of it.

I'm reading a book right now I know I'm always talking about books but there really is this whole concept of the parts of the psyche like for example the inner critic we've talked about that many times before the inner critic while it can be really rough and bordering on abusive it served a purpose you know it was something where we developed it psychologically as a way to protect our vulnerability we criticized ourselves first before we perhaps made ourselves vulnerable to the criticism of others so that inner critic which is a part of you is looking out for you but unfortunately it's not always doing so in the way that's most nourishing supportive and healthful so it's really useful for us to begin to to notice that.

All right we're already a little ways into our meditation so let's get to it.

I'm gonna close my eyes roll my shoulders back taking those deep breaths.

And just allowing yourself to settle.

We were pretty silent last week so I'll do a little more guiding this week.

If I may I'd like to bring it full circle to that first practice of this month of softening.

And after all that talk about nourishment noticing if there might be any triggers that came up for you around eating.

Some people there are others there aren't.

And if so just allow yourself to be present with that.

Going towards the truth of that possible presence not shaming yourself or feeling bad about the fact that topics relating to eating might stir some things up for you.

Just being soft and gentle with it.

Just like you are invited to be soft and gentle with yourself.

I'm not worried about you becoming too soft or too self-compassionate.

So if anything let's hold ourselves a little bit more loosely in this meditation.

And allow that front of the body to soften belly to expand and using that breath to just settle in.

I'm really feeling called to invite you to focus on grounding yourself.

There's a variety of ways to do this but for all intents and purposes if your feet are flat on the ground just feeling that connection with the soles of your feet with the ground beneath you.

Even if you have shoes on.

And if you're sitting in some fashion really feeling the support of the chair or the cushion beneath you.

Feeling that base,

The sitz bones and the pelvic floor.

Everything that's making contact with whatever is supporting you.

And if you're lying down having that same quality of focusing on wherever your body's making contact with the bed or the floor.

And if it's appealing to you I'd encourage you to allow yourself to feel as though a thread of energy is connecting you to the earth.

Perhaps even below the earth to its center.

You can visualize it as a golden thread,

A cord.

Some people see it as roots like a tree.

Really just allowing yourself to be grounded,

Connected to the earth that is underneath you even if there's a little space between your body and the literal earth.

When you feel this sense of grounding there is a nourishing quality to it.

You feel supported,

Held,

Energetically connected to something more than ourselves.

Something that will always support us no matter what.

So whether these cords or threads are through your soles of your feet,

Through the bottom of your torso.

Just feeling what that feels like.

There may be very little literal sensation where you might actually feel a quality of energy connecting you.

Whether it is constant or pulsing there's no wrong way to experience this.

So just noticing.

This idea of grounding isn't appealing to you.

Just go ahead and rest your awareness on whatever you'd like to for the remainder of this practice as we sit together.

Allowing ourselves to just be present to how things are.

Our interior experience,

Our sensations and just allowing things to be until you hear the final thought.

Allowing ourselves to just be present to how things are.

Allowing ourselves to just be present to how things are.

So as always thank you so much for taking this time for yourself and thank you for allowing me to accompany you on this journey.

I hope you have a wonderful week and I will see you next time.

Take care.

Bye!