Hey there everybody this is Kristen from Teaching Balance and I am here with you with this week's mindfulness meditation practice.
We are currently in the month of self embodiment and self embodiment tends to really focus on physical health the integration between mind and body self-awareness being in tune with your body and caring for it in general and so we'll explore that from a variety of different angles.
Last time we talked a little bit about healthy micro habits just making tiny changes that feel so effortless there's no need to feel any resistance toward them and of course whatever those might be are entirely up to you.
It could be around sleep,
It could be around hydration,
It could be around movement and exercise,
It could be anything.
Now the other thing that I'm interested in exploring this week is around the idea of food and nourishing ourselves.
So of course when we think about caring for our bodies we want to nourish our bodies in a way that will sustain them,
Support them,
Help them to be well and happy and healthy and you know all the things that one wants from our bodies.
And as I was thinking about attending to this it actually came up for me because I'm part of a like a weekly online meditation group and then people share out and things like that and one of the things that came up was this idea of mindful awareness and presence in moments of eating as a way to attend to in this case not overeat or eat to excess and so it was just really interesting to hear some of the participants take on that and that sometimes while they feel inclined to make healthier choices regarding quantity of whatever they might be consuming or even selection that it can be difficult and then there's also a lot of baggage around that and so I wanted to also attend to the baggage part which is I think it's very helpful and supportive for us to become more aware of the languaging that we have around food and and eating and all of that.
I think you know if we've been around long enough we've got to have developed some kind of a hang-up about eating in some way as a result of societal messages and you know all the latest things.
My point being sometimes I will hear people and even myself sometimes talk about like certain food being bad or good or even being more specific to oneself like oh you know if someone resists I don't know dessert oh you're so good you know virtuous a pinnacle of you know self-control I don't know but there's all of these value judgments that are associated with either food good bad or the person good bad you know that kind of thing.
So I just wanted to first name all of that name the fact that this languaging is important and mindful awareness can help us to notice it when it happens because a lot of times it's just sort of automatic and reinforced societally and also developing this idea of mindful awareness and presence when you're in that moment of making a choice that does or doesn't nourish you and so I like to use the word nourish even so much more than the idea of describing something as healthy or unhealthy because I mean you know anything healthy to excess then becomes unhealthy and you get the idea.
So I like this idea of just tuning in and here's my point to getting more clarity regarding what nourishes us.
What is it that you think your body needs?
I always find that you know I would like to have more vegetables in my life and I'm working on that but that's just the thing that I kind of feel and then I also have found that my body doesn't seem to respond well to for example like dairy things or whatever it might be so it's just about letting go of all the value judgments good bad even healthy unhealthy and more about just tuning into what it seems like your body is asking for and not asking for when it comes to nourishing yourself and just feeling good in your body as it is without all the drama and baggage.
So my invitation to you is to reflect on that think about it and just see perhaps what might come up for you and to hold that with a real quality of compassion and kindness and non-judgment and work with it going forward.
So I think the the meditation space is certainly an excellent opportunity within which to do this so I'm gonna set my timer for 10 minutes as we do and we haven't talked about posture in a while so I think I'd like for us to just do a little quick review.
So as you're settling in and you probably notice I started like rolling my shoulders I really enjoy that sensation of rolling my shoulders back it almost feels like a little bit like you're sticking your chest out but it's not really that dramatic perhaps initially but then it's really just about aligning and thinking of your spine as being upright but not necessarily like ramrod tight it's more self-supported and the metaphor often used is thinking of your vertebrae as coins stacked one upon the other and if it's mostly straight and upright they'll sit just fine without any strain or excessive effort.
If you didn't try that rolling the shoulders back I invite you to do that it might even impact your hand placement so you might find that you put your hands maybe higher up on your thighs or resting them even with your fingers intertwined whatever feels right to you.
In the same way that we just explored this idea of what is your body asking for in terms of nourishment I would also encourage you to explore what is your body asking for in terms of posture unless you're listening to this with the hope of it helping you to go to sleep which of course would be a different context you want to sit in a way that's upright which does help to support us in being relaxed but also being alert and aware.
You can close the eyes or lower the gaze and you may have already explored the deeper breaths but if you haven't yet as I haven't yet let's go ahead and take a few of those very slow deep inhales and exhales and as your body returns to its natural rhythm you may use the breath or sensations associated with the breath as the anchor for your attention for our short practice today.
I've been paying closer attention to my abdomen lately when I breathe intentionally letting expand on the inhale and also playing with having a very thorough exhale really allowing all the air to leave the body empty the lungs.
I think sometimes if you find just resting your awareness on the breath just not quite engaging enough which is entirely understandable playing with breathing perhaps elongating even throughout the remainder of your practice can sometimes help it to be a little more interesting and something that connects you to the present moment with greater ease and I know you're aware but of course other anchors for your awareness can include resting your attention on sounds for instance right now I'm hearing a plane flying overhead and also any other physical sensations just being aware of the body as a whole perimeter mass density and also you can rest attention on just one part like the hands or even just where you feel supported in the chair or cushion or wherever you may be.
Two minutes or so that remains if it's interesting to you perhaps checking in with your posture once again if your shoulders kind of rounded back like mine did rolling them open and backward yet again reestablishing that slightly more upright posture and seeing if you can hold that for the final minute or so until you hear the bell.
That's our ten minutes.
I feel like I really kind of made everything clear at the beginning 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 and I will see you next week.
Take care.
Bye.
