Christmas Mindfulness Meditation

In this session, you will be introduced to, and guided through, the practices of mindfulness meditation and present state awareness. Both of these can be used as a daily practice, a form of self-care, and an in-the-moment response to the stressors of the festive season. This track is taken from my course, ‘How To Stay Sane This Festive Season, available now via my profile.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to session four of staying sane this festive season. I invite you to take a seat or lay down and get yourself comfortable. You can close down the eyes if you wish and take a deep breath in through the nose and out through the mouth. So as we settle into this session I just want to remind you of what we covered in the last session. We talked about the need for self-care. This means doing things that will help us to maintain functionality, To continue to grow, To do the things that we need to do to survive and ultimately to thrive. This means planning ahead. It means taking breaks. It means knowing when we're going to arrive and when we're going to leave. It means working ourselves out to know how we're going to interact, The foods we're going to eat, Things we're going to drink, The sort of conversations we would like to have. It means that we are doing things before and after to regulate ourselves. This could be exercise, It could be reading, It could be playing with a pet or our children, Could be you know doing certain routines or rituals that work for us. So I encourage you to lean into your self-care and embrace it and make sure that you're giving yourself time before and after these events and obligations to you know plan ahead make sure that you've got the resources necessary to not just survive but thrive and enjoy yourself. Some of these resources we're going to cover in this session. The first one is a present state awareness or grounding meditation. Basically when you're feeling a feeling of overwhelm you know during one of these events or in the lead up to an event or after an event or just in life in general you basically turn your attention to what you can feel, What you can see, Touch, Taste and smell. So what I'm going to do in this session is introduce a few different forms of meditation and calm breathing that you can implement. Just sort of give you a mini toolbox. So like I said the first one is present state awareness. This is a variation of mindfulness meditation and we'll touch upon that a little bit later but the basic idea is that you take a seat, Get yourself comfortable, Take a few slow calm breaths and just draw your attention to the different inputs from the senses with the idea being that if you're focusing on the senses you're not focusing on the past, On feelings of being triggered or you know ruminating on the future, Anxiety etc. You're just here and now. If you're feeling what you're feeling, Hearing what you're hearing, Seeing, Touching, Tasting, That's reality. That is the present moment. Your mind wanders, You bring it back. So we're going to do a little version of it together now. Just take a seat, Just take a slow calm breath in through the nose and out through the mouth and just draw your attention to what you can hear. Perhaps you're noticing sounds of traffic or people talking or a bird chirping or friends or family or animals scuffling around making some noise or maybe the sound of some electronics humming or a motor turning on or off We're not trying to hold on to these sounds or judge them, Just trying to accept them as they are, For what they are right now. What can you hear right now? Right now. What can you hear right now? Now turn your attention to what you can see. With your eyes open or your eyes closed, There's plenty to observe. Notice the shapes, The shadows, The textures. Notice how things are changing, How they're staying the same. Notice any movement that is arising. What can you see right now? Now turn your attention to what you can feel. Maybe it's the cushion or the chair you're sitting on. Or the feeling of the clothes you're wearing. Or your feet upon the ground. Maybe it's a sensation of heat or cool or wind. What can you feel right now? Now I want you to draw your attention to the sensation of taste. And smell. Are there any smells that you're aware of? Notice their texture, The quality. Their strength. Are there any lingering tastes sitting in your mouth? What new things can you taste or smell? Let's take another slow, Deep breath in through the nose and out through the mouth. You should return your focus back to hearing the words coming in. So this process of present state awareness is grounding. You can do it as a formal practice and there's plenty of instructionals up on InsightTama. I've released a few, But you can just do it yourself. You sit down, Take a breath and just ask yourself, What can I see? What can I hear? What am I feeling? Tasting? Smelling? Slowly. And you know, This can be done in the presence of others. Just you just think it and just sort of turn your attention and observe it. It can be done more formally, But it is a bit of a tool that you can use at any time to return your attention back to, Well, The present moment. If you're focused on your senses, You're no longer focusing or lost in the thought and the ruminations, The memories of your mind. It's a very good anti-anxiety tool. Now, You can vary the present state awareness meditation to just focus on one thing. To just focus on one of the senses, Perhaps hearing or feeling, That works too. And this sort of leads us to a greater discussion of mindfulness meditation in general. Once again, I've got a collection of courses and talks and stuff out on InsightTama talking about how to meditate. So without going too deep here, The basic practice is this. You close your eyes and draw your attention to the sensations of the breath entering and leaving the nose. As your mind wanders, You gently and lovingly bring your attention back to the breath. That's the act of meditation. Meditation is the returning of focus back to the breath. The idea being is that if you sit in formal meditation, You're practicing your ability to recognize your mental states and return its focus back. That's what meditation is, Right? So what you're aiming to do is, Through your everyday waking life and when you're feeling overwhelmed this festive season, You recognize that overwhelm and you're like, Huh, I see it, You know, Through the practice of meditation. And then just return your focus back to the breath or back to whatever you were supposed to be doing. Back to the present moment, To the conversation, To the food you're eating, All of that sort of stuff. So what I invite you to do for the next few minutes is either sit as a form of mindfulness meditation, Just returning your focus back to the breath. Or if you'd prefer to, To instead of focusing back to the breath, To return your focus back to what you can hear, What you can see, What you're feeling. Because either way, It all amounts to the same thing. When your mind wanders and you notice it, You gently and lovingly bring it back to your point of focus. That's meditation. And by practicing it formally, Like we're doing here, And like you could do every day, Like you could do in response to overwhelm, You're basically just teaching yourself to recognize your mental state and return it back to focus. And that's something that will help you both deal with the overwhelm of the festive season, But also in life in general. So, Close down the eyes if you wish, Take a deep, Slow breath in through the nose and out through the mouth, And just draw your attention to the meditation object of your choice, Be it the breath or the sensations coming in from the senses. If you notice yourself lost in thought, Just gently and lovingly bring yourself back to focus. If you find your mind wandering, Just bring it back. Once again, That's the act of meditation. Remember, Your goal is to observe the meditation object, To sit with it. But if you find yourself wandering, If you find yourself lost in thought, If you find yourself distracted, Acknowledge that, Whatever it is, And return your focus back to the object. You'll always have time to think about those things later. So, Well done. How'd you go? If you have any questions around present state awareness, Mindfulness meditation, About staying sane, This festive season in general, Please let me know in the classroom. I'll be there daily to help you out. And if you have any personal anecdotes, Issues, Insights, Or solutions come up for you during this session, I'd like to encourage you to share them there in the classroom as well. Together, We can foster a community of support, Guidance, And growth, One that will help one another to bring positivity back to our experience of the festive season. I look forward to seeing you there and connecting with you, As well as seeing you in the next session. Have a great day. This track is taken from the course, How to Stay Sane This Festive Season. Available now via my InsightTimer profile.