Hey there everybody,
This is Kristin from Teaching Balance and I am here with you for this week's mindfulness meditation practice.
And we are still in the month of saying yes to saying no.
And one of the things that I thought would be helpful for us to take a look at and kind of focus on for today along those lines is to focus on who the people are that you are saying yes to when you actually say no to over committing and overextending yourself and burning out and that sort of thing.
So we're gonna kind of invoke I guess you could say the people in our lives that we care for,
That we are closest to,
And focus on them giving them compassion,
Accepting compassion from them,
As well as really just reminding ourselves why we want to maintain those healthy boundaries and take care of ourselves and make sure that we're functioning at the capacity that we would like to so that we can best take care of the people in our lives.
So I say let's go ahead and get started.
Go ahead and find your seat.
I'll set my timer for 10 minutes.
Closing your eyes or lowering your gaze and let's begin with those three deep breaths allowing yourself to drop into your body feeling what it feels like to be in your skin allowing yourself to relax at least a little bit more into the moment as it is if at any point in the meditation you'd like to just ground yourself in the present remembering you can always come back to your breath or you can come back to sounds or to the body those anchors are always there for you and so to begin our compassion practice I would like for you to in your mind picture all of the individuals for whom you are a primary caregiver of some sort so certainly that could be a child or children you are a parent or caregiver for it could include pets could include a partner or perhaps even aging parents if that is your situation but just bringing to mind these people or these individuals that you care for so deeply and that you so selfless selflessly give of your heart and energy all the time and as you're holding these people in your mind what I'd like for you to do is allow yourself to feel the depth of caring and love and affection and warmth that you have for each of them and in your mind I would like for you to send that warmth and affection and kindness to each of them either individually or as a collective group picturing that person or people and saying in your mind the following which you can certainly change in whatever way makes sense to you may you be well may you feel safe and be at ease may you be happy and if you can even feeling that warmth coming from your heart center as you allow yourself to send those warm wishes and thoughts of love and caring to all the people who you're closest to and for whom you care a great deal may you be well may you feel safe and be at ease may you be happy next I would like for you to as you picture these same people allow yourself to feel all of the kindness and warmth that they have for you the appreciation for your care your love and your kindness knowing that they extend that same level of kindness and caring for you maybe in a similar way maybe in a different way but allowing yourself to have that warmth and compassion instead of going out from you to come to you from them and so hearing in your mind's eye the words from these people who you care for to you where they say to you may you be well may you feel safe and be at ease may you be happy allowing yourself to feel what that feels like to be the recipient of that warmth and kindness from these people who are closest to you and hearing in their voices may you be well may you feel safe and be at ease may you be happy and allowing that kindness and that affection to truly wash over you and through you and next when you're ready I'd like for you to expand that circle of people whom you have a care for so beyond just the people who you are primary caregiver to but perhaps that next level that next circle outward people that you work with your students friends and other extended family knowing that you give them your kindness and your compassion as well and holding them in your mind's eye sending them that same kind of kindness in this more expanded circle way may you all be well may you all feel safe and be at ease may you all be happy and just letting it flow knowing that your kindness and warmth is not a finite resource you have enough to continue to send out holding all these people may you all be well may you all feel safe and be at ease may you all be happy and then lastly allowing that energy and warmth to shift yet again once more toward you from this second level group of people and the original level and also from yourself to yourself saying in your mind's eye as best you can may I be well may I feel safe and be at ease may I be happy allowing yourself to send that same kind of warmth that you sent out to others and that you know others have for you may I be well may I feel safe and be at ease may I be happy and allowing yourself to feel this way letting go of any hesitation any sense that it feels selfish or self-indulgent remembering that you need to take care of yourself and have warmth and compassion for yourself so that you can continue to send that warmth and compassion out to others it's not selfish to want to be happy working towards your happiness your health and your wellness supports you in sending out your kindness and your support to all of those people in your inner circle and beyond and so for the final few moments just allowing yourself to rest in silence allowing yourself to feel this kindness and compassion from you to you until the final bow all right that is ten minutes so just playing a little bit with this idea of the kindness and compassion practice sending it out just easier and then in many cases receiving it receiving it from others and of course allowing yourself to send and receive it from yourself so as I said in the meditation remembering that we're in this month of saying yes to saying no it's those people who you brought to mind during that practice that you are saying no to over committing and doing too much and overextending yourself so that you can say yes to being able to care for them in the way that you would like to and also to be able to sustain that caregiving and not have it be something where you burn out and you get sick and that sort of thing so just a reminder regarding our why that's not being unkind to others and it's not about you know refusing to ever pitch in at work or elsewhere but really it's just about being super clear when it comes to your why and why you say no when it's appropriate and an option and and continuing to do that in a way that doesn't feel guilty so thank you so much as always for practicing with me and thank you so much for taking this time for yourself and I will see you next week take care bye
