In today's mindfulness session,
We'll practice flipping the script on how our brains tend to process negative situations.
We'll use a practice called taking and sending to turn the tables on our tendency to push away negative feelings.
By making space to let those feelings in,
We can be more effective at managing them and at sending out care and support to others.
To start,
Take some time to settle in.
Sit up nice and straight and shake out any wiggles.
Do whatever you need to get comfortable.
Check in with yourself.
And if this practice at any point starts to feel too intense,
Either physically or emotionally,
Just take a step back and you can go and get any space or any help that you need.
As part of our practice today of self-compassion,
Take the extra time to really tune in to what your body is asking for and how you can make yourself especially comfortable.
If you need to put on a sweater or remove your glasses or adjust your seat,
Or any other small gestures that would make you settle in even just a little bit easier,
Go ahead and do it now.
And then take a few moments just to breathe naturally and settle into this moment.
This practice will use the breath to acknowledge the difficulties we would normally turn away from and to send out positivity and support instead.
Our natural tendency is to push away the negative and welcome the positive.
Today,
We're going to switch that up by welcoming in the negative and pushing out the positive.
We'll breathe in space for any difficult feelings or emotions,
Then breathe out positivity or support to share with others.
As an example,
You might think of the anxiety you feel at caring for your children while they aren't attending school as usual.
Breathe in however this feels for you.
It might be worry or stress,
Uncertainty,
Or many other different things.
And then while you breathe out,
Focus on what kind of support you would wish for others in a similar situation.
You might exhale a sense of patience or a feeling of confidence for every parent learning to teach or maybe even a wish for the health and safety of all in this new normal.
So go ahead and bring to mind a difficult situation that you're dealing with.
It could be something where you feel frustration for yourself or on behalf of someone else or even a group of people.
Try not to pick anything too distressing to focus on while this muscle is building up,
But call to mind a challenging situation and recall any negative feelings that you've felt or witnessed.
And now take a nice deep breath in.
And as you breathe in,
Focus on the reality of how this situation and these negative feelings felt.
You don't need to spend any energy trying to run from the negativity or trying to chase it away.
Instead,
Just acknowledge that it's there and try to make a little space for it to sit there just for a second.
And then let out a nice deep sigh.
And as you breathe out,
Picture any support that can make the situation more manageable and imagine sharing this support out to others going through it now.
On each inhale,
Breathe in an acknowledgment of any difficult emotions,
Letting them sit just for a minute.
Then on each exhale,
Send out a picture of the support you wish to share for others.
This could be health or healing.
On your next inhale,
Acknowledge and make space for the difficulties of the situation.
And on your next exhale,
Send out the support that you want to share with the world.
And as you breathe in,
Picture any support that can make the situation more manageable and letting them sit just for a second.
And then let out a nice deep sigh.
And as you breathe out,
Picture any support that can make the situation more manageable and letting them sit just for a second.
And as we finish up with a few last rounds for this practice,
Continue to focus on the intention of each breath.
Breathe in with the intention to acknowledge the challenges that you or others are facing.
And then breathe out with the intention to provide support.
Maybe remembering,
If it resonates with you,
That the more space we create to acknowledge the negative,
The more we can transform it into something positive to share with ourselves and with others.
And now we'll start to wind down our practice.
So go ahead and slowly start to come back to being present.
Hear any sounds that are taking place around you.
And start to make little movements with your fingers and with your toes.
Moving eventually to your arms and legs.
And finally,
You can gently open up your eyes and take in the space around you.
Your call to action for this session is to practice this breathing whenever you witness something distressing or frustrating.
You can't control much of what's happening in the world,
Especially the way others respond due to their own stressors and pressures.
But you can work toward cultivating self-compassion to help navigate these situations more effectively.
This will help you to be a more compassionate caregiver toward yourself and toward others.
