Hi everyone,
It's Michelle from Create Space Meditate.
Welcome back to Eight Crazy Nights of Meditation.
Tonight we're exploring the topic of family in relation to Hanukkah.
And we're going to do a little guided visualization and a little drawing activity.
You can either draw it in your mind,
On your hand,
Or if you want to grab a piece of paper as we're getting started with a pen or a marker or whatever you like to draw with,
That is an option as well.
So that we can use that to deepen our breath and learn a little bit more about the practice of deep breathing.
Because we breathe all day every day.
But how often do we actually slow down and pay attention to how that breath feels and breathe deeply.
This has a whole bunch of benefits for our brain and our body to do some deep breathing.
And really it can help us feel a lot more calm,
A lot more connected to the present moment.
So we're going to try a couple ways to connect a little bit more with that today.
So when you're ready,
Sit down,
Find a comfortable spot.
If you want to close your eyes for this first part where we're going to go through the guided imagery.
Imagine snow gently falling to the ground.
Imagine looking out the window and seeing it pile up.
Gently falling.
Just building up into piles.
Imagine that spark of excitement you get when you decide you're going to go build a snowman.
You run outside.
And when you build your snowman,
You start with a big strong base.
You build up the body.
Build up the head.
Go find some sticks and you put in the arms and some some rocks or whatever you want to make their face with.
Maybe you throw on a hat or a scarf.
And you sit back and you look at your snowman.
He looks pretty happy,
But you think,
Hmm.
He looks a little lonely.
So you decide to build a whole snowman family.
Your snowman family could be imaginary or it could be based on your family.
Who you're celebrating Hanukkah with.
Or other special people in your life.
Maybe aren't quite nearby right now,
But that you could build in your imagination to be part of your snowman family right in your front yard.
So you build them up.
Maybe even you have a snowman pet.
Maybe you'll build a dog or a cat or a fish snowman.
Stand back.
Look at your family and look up at the snow falling gently around all of you.
Take a deep breath in of that cool,
Fresh air.
And as you exhale,
Just relax.
Gently soften your shoulders and your eyes.
Go back inside your door and shut it and go look out the window again at your snowman family.
Take one last deep breath and wiggle your toes and your fingers.
When you're ready,
Open your eyes gently.
Now when you think about that first snowman that you made with the really strong foundation bottom and the middle body and the head.
There's three parts of that snowman.
And there's the lower part that's usually the biggest than the middle that's more like a medium size and the top that's a little bit smaller.
So if you have a piece of paper,
You can draw out that snowman.
And in each circle you label them.
So the smallest is a one.
The second one in the middle is a two and the one on the bottom is a three.
If you don't have a paper and you want to just imagine this in your mind,
Or you could trace it on your hand.
That works too.
So now after you've drawn that.
Go to the first.
One right on top,
The smallest circle.
The one with the one.
Put your finger at the top of the circle and slowly trace the circle and as you as you trace the circle one full time.
You take in a slow breath.
When you get to the top you pause.
And then you trace that circle again as you exhale.
And then let your fingers settle.
Down to the top of the second circle,
The middle body of the snowman.
And this time,
Again trace that slowly and inhale.
Pause.
When you get to the top.
You trace it slowly and exhale.
You notice that it got a little bit deeper.
That circles a little bit bigger so you take a little bit of a deeper breath and a little bit longer of an exhale.
Then when we go down to the bottom the biggest circle.
Put your finger at the top of the circle and trace it slowly and take an even deeper breath as you inhale tracing that circle.
At the top you pause and trace slowly as you let that breath out.
You notice when you traced the first circle.
It was already what you thought was a deep breath and a slower breath than you would normally have.
But then when it got a little bit bigger and a little bit deeper.
You were able to deepen and lengthen that breath.
So this is a good tool to remember.
A good easy picture to keep in your head.
Or that you can even draw whenever you want to work on deep breathing.
You just learn that you can keep deepening and slowing that breath down and making it bigger and bigger.
And the deeper we breathe the more effective it is for our mind and our brain to tell our body that we're safe and we can be still and just be present in this moment and enjoy it.
And sometimes people like to draw out their whole snowman family that they built in the front yard.
So maybe you have a whole piece of paper you can draw your whole family and you can practice your snowman breath on each family member.
Or maybe your family's with you and you want to practice your breathing together you can trace the snowman that represents you and practice that breathing together.
You could color the snowman in or you could add glitter to make it look more like snow and then when you're tracing it your finger can feel that different texture.
Another idea is that you could roll up play-doh and put it around each circle.
So that you can feel that soft squishy play-doh as you trace each circle or a piece of soft yarn around each circle.
Or you can try all of them.
So then your body and your brain gets to try these different textures and feelings that are relaxing or maybe they make you feel something different than that.
Maybe they just make you think of a memory or they help you just feel a different sense.
You get to experience that and work on deepening your breath.
And also thinking about your family and being together and celebrating this Hanukkah season together.
So thank you for celebrating and meditating with me tonight.
Shalom,
Light and love.
I look forward to connecting soon.
