Whether you have a small infant going off to daycare,
A young child starting school,
Or a young adult stepping out into the world,
At university or in their career,
This time of transition can be a flood of emotions for every parent.
But as a conscious parent,
You want to be the peaceful parent.
And so today we're going to practice our craniosacral zones of awareness to help reset our nervous systems so that we can be that peaceful parent for our children,
So that we can hold space for them to go through their own process and transition.
And so that we can then begin to find new ways to connect with them,
Encourage support and guide them in the new situation.
And even better,
I love to see how parents explore filling the new void,
The new space with time and personal growth for themselves.
But today we're going to start at the beginning and we're going to go from the moment of feeling like a hot mess to being the peaceful parent.
Sitting,
Lying down however you're comfortable,
Allow your awareness to come to the present moment.
Allow yourself to take a nice deep breath.
The noisy exhale that comes out of the mouth with the sound from the back of the throat as your nervous system naturally begins to calm down.
We allow ourselves a few moments to simply stop receiving stimuli and information from the world around us,
Allowing the body and the nervous system to process the backup of information that has occurred up to this point and just letting it naturally on its own process and dissipate that information.
Not forcing any intentional focus,
Awareness or observing right now.
Or simply holding space,
Formless unintentional space for the brain and the body to do what it needs to do,
Allowing thoughts to pass through.
Perhaps our body needs to fidget or find a different position.
Just allowing the body to fulfill what it needs in the moment for now.
If you feel you need some more time,
You can press pause now.
Otherwise if you can feel your body beginning to settle and your awareness beginning to focus in the body inward into yourself.
We'll move on to zone A.
Find your skin,
The container for zone A.
It is what separates your physical body from the space around you.
As you explore the space with curiosity and discovery,
Allow your body to take those nice noisy deep breaths as you settle down.
If you drift off and get distracted,
That's fantastic.
Really invite your awareness back to your skin and either start at the beginning again if you're starting at the top of your head or wherever you choose to begin or pick up where you left off.
When your body stumbles on information that needs to be processed,
You'll often drift off into unconscious processing,
Which is a success,
A win,
Not a failure or a loss.
But it is important to simply bring your awareness back and continue on.
This is the difference between a very productive processing and healing meditation versus just relaxing and disconnecting.
Take one more minute to be present with your skin as the container for your physical body.
Realizing the space inside your body,
What it might feel like or look like if you feel calm when you explore it or if it feels busy.
Just notice that we're not doing anything to fix it or adjust it,
We're simply noticing and allowing our bodies to take those nice deep breaths.
Next we bring our awareness to the space just outside of our skin and about one to two feet off of our skin.
We're noticing a boundary or container for our personal space,
Our zone B.
We're noticing how our body softens even as we go into the zones that aren't our physical body.
You may notice waves of emotion passing or presenting and that's fine.
This is the safe space for them to release and dissipate so that they're not releasing in an unfortunate moment when you're supposed to be more present with your child's transition into their new space.
And again check back in with the space outside of your skin,
Seeing if you can find that invisible boundary or container of your personal space one to two feet off your skin.
The goal is to explore and observe not to master.
Mastering happens with practice.
It doesn't happen in the first or fifth attempt.
But that doesn't mean that it's not helping the nervous system,
Processing and healing and putting you in a better place than if you hadn't spent the time to process.
Now moving on to the space in the room.
Finding the walls and the ceiling and the floor.
Even with your eyes closed you can sense where they are around you.
Perhaps you can sense light or darkness in that space,
Maybe other people,
Furniture,
Perhaps pets,
Whatever else is going on in that space.
You're simply observing and noticing and allowing your nervous system to reset that zone,
Zone C.
Being curious and just breathing as your nervous system processes whatever is left over in that zone of perception so that when you go into a new space you have a lot of capacity to process and shift into a new space with calm clarity.
And now gently allow your awareness to drift outside of the room,
Out into nature,
Passing through the natural environment.
It might be trees,
Mountains,
Water,
And the natural environment,
But that also includes people moving about their rhythms and patterns.
Some simply living unconsciously,
Driven and guided by their unconscious rhythms and patterns and responding to them and acting upon them.
Other people recognizing the unconscious patterns that drive them and then making conscious choice,
Mindfulness,
Decisions,
Taking action according to conscious choice.
Everyone on their own path,
Out in the natural world,
Extending out into the sky,
Into the horizon,
Beyond our atmosphere,
Out into space,
And the natural world that exists far beyond.
Seeing the vast expansiveness of what we have access to and how we're just a drop in the ocean,
Feeling safe enough to drop all of our thoughts,
Fears,
Worries,
Concerns,
Excitement,
All of our charges dropping it out into nature where it'll be processed and repurposed.
Taking the time for ourselves to dissipate our own charges so that we can set an example for those around us,
Including our children,
Of healthy self-care,
Mindfulness,
Awareness,
Healthy boundaries,
And calm clarity.
Now taking these last few minutes to drift back in towards the space in the room,
And then our personal space outside of our body,
And then back to our physical body,
Our zone A.
Noticing how each of the zones might feel a little bit different because of the healing space that we've held for them.
Bringing our awareness always at the end of a meditation back to the present moment before we continue on.
Bring your awareness to the next week or two of what is coming,
What we need to do,
What's already committed to,
And what we want to do.
Seeing all of it unfold gracefully in our schedule.
Going all the way back to the present moment.
Always ending meditation,
Being present where you are right now.
What you're about to do next,
Being mindful and settled.
And you can press pause now if you need more time and space to be present.
You can begin to move your body with mindfulness in your body,
In your personal space,
And in the room you're in while also functioning and doing what needs to be done next.
Until next time,
Stay awesome.
