Embrace The Week Ahead

Hello and welcome to this guided meditation.

Thank you for joining me for this practice that will help you get ready for the week ahead.

This is an especially useful practice if you tend to feel a little anxious or nervous or uncertain going into a new week,

Especially if you know you'll have a lot on your plate or stressful things coming up.

So as we prepare for this guided meditation,

Find yourself in a comfortable seat.

And I recommend you can do this in a chair or sitting on something like a yoga mat with some support.

But make sure that at least part of your body is making contact with the ground.

So if you're sitting in a chair,

Make sure your feet are firmly making contact with the floor.

If you're sitting on a yoga mat or cushion,

Then you'll feel a solid base beneath you.

But find the seat that works for you.

If you'd like,

You can have the support of a wall behind your back or the back of a chair or find yourself sitting upright without any direct support behind you.

Once you've found your seat,

If you'd like,

Close your eyes.

If it feels better to keep them open,

Then keep them open.

But let your vision blur a little bit.

Let your gaze get a little softer.

Whether you've chosen to close your eyes or to keep them open,

Let your eyelids get a little softer,

Let them relax.

So if the eyes are closed,

They're not squeezed shut.

If they're open,

You're not squinting,

Not overly focused.

And let that feeling of softness from the eyelids permeate through the rest of your face,

Letting your forehead relax,

Leaving your tongue relax.

And let yourself settle into this seat.

So taking a moment just to kind of land here in this space,

You might take a few moments,

Even if the eyes are closed,

To notice your surroundings,

To become more aware of them.

So tuning into the sounds around you.

Maybe you're listening with headphones or maybe not.

So it's possible you're not hearing much other than my voice.

But if there are other sounds you're hearing,

Let yourself take them in,

Let yourself acknowledge them,

Become aware of them,

And let them be around you.

No need to think about them or analyze them.

See if you can just let them swirl,

Let them be.

Notice any scents in the air,

Any smells you can detect.

Notice the temperature of the room,

The way the air feels against your skin,

The way your clothing feels,

Even the way it feels to sit here in your body as you today.

And as you take in your surroundings and acknowledge them,

Allow for them,

We'll let them be and start to turn the attention more inward to yourself.

And the way that we'll do that is by starting to notice your breathing.

So you don't have to change anything about it.

Just take a few moments,

A few cycles of breath to observe.

See how your breath is naturally flowing.

It might be the first time today or the first time all week that you've really stopped and noticed this process of breath that is really automatic,

But you'll find that also you can play a role in it.

You can have some influence,

But to start,

We'll just notice.

Notice if by default,

You're breathing through your nose or your mouth,

Maybe a combination of the two.

Notice how long each inhale takes,

How deeply you can feel the air entering your lungs.

Observing the length of the exhales,

Observing the length of the exhales,

And really approaching this with curiosity.

There's no wrong or right.

The idea is to observe,

To gain more awareness of how you are,

How you're breathing,

Especially when you're not really thinking about it.

Now that you've become a little more familiar with your default state or even just current state,

We'll take this opportunity to be a little more intentional with the breath.

So unless you're stuffy and congested,

Closing the mouth and directing the breath in and out through the nose,

If you weren't already,

And as you do this,

See if you can both slow the breath down a bit and deepen it.

So this will start to feel like longer inhales that are more expansive and slower,

Longer,

More intentional exhales.

Take a few moments of this deep breathing cycle.

Notice how it feels in your body.

Experiment with the length and depth of the breaths as you see fit.

And then find a rhythm that feels sustainable for you,

That feels comfortable,

That you feel like you can continue for the duration of this practice.

And of course,

Attention will shift,

And so will your body.

You'll reach points where you realize you're not thinking about the breath at all,

And that's perfectly fine,

But we will keep guiding awareness back to the breath as we practice.

There will be that invitation.

So as you find that rhythm that works for you,

The ground is there supporting us,

Holding us up.

So depending on how you've set yourself up,

You have your own particular rhythm that you can use to help you find that rhythm.

So I'm going to take a few moments of this deep breathing cycle,

And I'm going to take a few moments of this deep breathing cycle,

And I'm going to take a few moments of this deep breathing cycle,

On how you've set yourself up.

You have your own particular relationship to gravity at the moment,

Your own relationship to the ground.

So maybe the soles of your feet are planted firmly.

Maybe you feel your legs contacting the ground.

Whatever part of your body is touching the ground,

And by ground,

Of course,

That can mean a floor,

It could mean a cushion between you and the floor,

Really whatever surface is holding you up with the most stability.

Notice where you're making contact with it.

Feel that contact.

You might even press your body a little more firmly into it.

And notice how this connection with the ground provides you with a sense of stability.

A sense of safety,

Knowing that you're being held up.

Gravity is doing its job,

Pressing you down.

And there is this support,

This structure beneath you that is ready to hold you up,

And that you can count on.

And this feeling of groundedness is a tool you can always come back to throughout your day.

If you feel like your mind is spiraling,

Like you're lifting up out of your body,

Like you're starting to float,

Become aware of your connection with the ground.

Feel into it.

See if whatever part of your body is touching the ground,

See if you can visualize roots growing down from your body into the ground,

Stabilizing you,

Providing you with a solid foundation.

And from this solid foundation,

From this connection to the ground,

Along with this practice of steady breath,

Practice of steady breath,

We'll turn our attention towards the week ahead,

Towards what's coming,

What's next.

So with awareness,

Again,

Into that connection to the ground,

With awareness on your breath,

Let your mind start to wander a bit and think ahead to the week that's coming.

Let yourself think about the appointments,

The meetings,

The interactions you're going to have,

Whether these are things that you're feeling positive about or nervous about,

Regardless of any emotion associated with them.

Let your mind take inventory.

Let yourself think through what's coming.

Spend a few more moments running through the week,

Letting the thoughts come and go,

Let them swirl,

However they arrive is fine.

And then if there's any certain event,

Any certain part of your week that you're realizing you're getting a bit hung up on or you're feeling stressed about,

Anxious about,

Let that thought bubble up.

Let that feeling bubble up.

Notice if there's anywhere in your body that that emotional feeling manifests as a physical feeling.

So that could be a sensation of butterflies in the stomach,

Maybe a tightening in the chest,

Or perhaps your shoulders start to tighten up and creep up towards the ears.

There's no right or wrong,

And maybe there's not any one physical place where you feel that.

But if there is,

As you take your next inhale,

Visualize your breath going to visualize your breath going to that area,

Wherever it may be,

And creating some space,

Creating some expansion.

And with your exhale,

Revisit that contact with the ground,

That stability beneath you,

That groundedness,

That feeling of support.

We'll do that a couple more times.

Inhale,

Directing the breath wherever you feel you need more spaciousness.

Exhale,

Re-establish that connection with the ground.

We'll do that a third time.

Inhale,

Directing the breath wherever you need it.

Exhale,

Reconnect with the ground.

Allow your breath to soften.

Allow yourself to release that thought,

Release that scenario,

Opening yourself up to however it may unfold.

We'll move on to any other thought or stress that might be creeping in,

Any other parts of your week that you might be dwelling on.

So if there is something else that's giving you anxiety,

That's making you worry or hesitate about what's to come,

Let that come to mind,

Let it surface.

Allow the scenario to play out in your head,

Allow your thoughts to wander,

And again,

See if you can notice where that manifests physically,

Where you feel that in your body.

And we'll use the tools of the breath and the ground to see if we can alleviate some of that tension,

To see if you can come away feeling a little more confident,

A little more sure,

A little less in your head,

A little more supported by the ground.

So as you notice where you feel tension or unease in your body,

Inhale into that space.

With the exhale,

Press into the ground,

Feel that stability,

Feel the rest of your body soften.

Inhale again,

Wherever you need it,

Directing the breath with your mind.

Exhale as you release the breath,

Release the tension and maintain that contact with the ground,

Root down.

One more nice deep breath in,

Finding spaciousness.

Exhale,

Rooting down as the rest of your body releases.

Exhale,

Rooting down as the rest of your body releases.

And of course,

If you need to repeat this with any other parts of your week that are causing you trouble,

It's fine if there are more than two.

It's perfectly normal.

You can always pause or after the recording,

Go through this practice again on your own.

But as our next step together here,

Notice if there's anywhere you're holding any extra tension.

Again,

Maybe it's raised shoulders,

Or maybe you're still pressing into the ground.

See if you can let go of effort,

Even as you maintain your seated posture.

Place one hand over your abdomen,

The other over the center of your chest.

Notice the weight of your hands on your torso.

Maybe you notice how they help you establish even more deeply that connection to the ground,

That feeling of gravity,

Pressing you gently down the ground,

Supporting you,

Lifting you up.

Soften again through your forehead,

Through your jaw,

Through your shoulders.

Envision your week ahead again,

But this time keeping in mind the support that you have,

The stability of the ground,

Your connection to the earth,

Your connection to yourself.

Knowing that when you need it,

You can always return to your breathing.

You can always return to a feeling of groundedness.

And you're prepared now to enter the week with a feeling of stability,

Of confidence,

Ready to handle whatever may come your way.

Ready to handle whatever may come your way,

Knowing that you are equipped from this inner sense of yourself.

Let's take a final deep breath together in through the nose.

This time,

Open your mouth as you exhale fully.

Allow your hands to come gently back into your lap or by your side.

If you close the eyes,

Gently blink them open.

If the eyes were open but softened,

Refocus your gaze,

Coming back to the room you're in,

Tuning in again to your surroundings.

I wish you a wonderful week ahead,

And I know you can handle whatever comes your way.

Thank you for setting aside the time for yourself to root down and approach your week from a place of groundedness.

Take care.