Welcome to this calm your mind,
Open your heart meditation.
I'm Victoria and today we're going to work with the STOP acronym.
STOP is a practice you can do at any moment throughout the day to really come back and check in with yourself.
This is not a practice you have to do while you're sitting down and it's not a practice you have to do formally.
It can happen at any moment literally as soon as you realize you would like to STOP.
STOP stands for Stop,
Take a Breath,
Observe,
And Proceed.
So we'll go through STOP quickly and then we'll actually practice it.
So when you STOP,
You don't have to actually physically STOP.
You can if you'd like,
However it's more about stopping the mental chatter and just tuning in.
So as soon as you STOP,
You take a breath.
You can take a deep slow breath or you can just breathe normally.
Either way is fine.
Then you observe.
You start by just observing your breath.
You notice the quality of the breath.
And if you'd like,
You can use a rhythmic counting technique such as breathing in for four,
Holding for four,
And releasing for eight.
After you feel grounded in your breath,
You move on to observing the body.
Notice how your body feels.
See as you breathe where you notice it.
See what else is coming up in your body in this moment.
Then observe your emotions.
Check in with how you feel.
Just see what emotions might be there in this moment.
And finally,
You proceed back to reality.
It's a very simple short practice you can use to really ground yourself in the present moment and be aware of what's happening.
So let's try it now.
Just go back to thinking about something,
Just anything,
Whatever comes up.
And now stop.
Take a breath.
And now observe.
Observe your breath.
Do you feel it most strongly in your nostrils?
Or perhaps in your chest?
Or maybe in your abdomen?
Try using the rhythmic counting technique.
So we'll breathe in for four,
Hold for four,
And release for eight.
In,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Hold,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Release,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Five,
Six,
Seven,
Eight.
You can just do that once.
Or perhaps you want to do it a few more times.
Once you feel grounded,
Allow yourself to move on to observing your body.
Notice what you feel right now in your body.
Perhaps where your legs are making contact with your chair if you're sitting,
Or maybe where your feet are touching the ground.
Noticing any subtle sensations,
Perhaps hunger or fullness,
Or any strong sensations like a pressure or any kind of pulsing,
Tingling,
Warmth,
Cold.
And now observe your emotions.
Turn inward.
How do you feel in this moment?
Perhaps there's a sense of calm.
Maybe you feel some anxiety or worry.
Maybe a sense of joy,
Equanimity,
Or maybe you've noticed you have a lot of emotions.
Whatever's coming up,
Just allow it to be.
And now proceed.
If your eyes were closed,
You can open them.
If your eyes were open,
You can go back to whatever it was you were doing.
And just go back to your day.
When we do stop,
We're not trying to change anything.
We're not judging anything we do as right or wrong.
We're simply allowing whatever is there to be,
But we'll give it our full attention for a few moments.
So I invite you today to practice stop a few times and just see what happens.
