Hi,
I see you.
It's been one of those days with one of those colleagues,
But you are making a choice for you to strap on those shoes,
Put in those earphones and play on this meditation and send yourself around the block to connect back to you.
So before we begin,
Just take a moment to make sure you have what you need to return to what you are leaving.
Shoes on your feet,
Appropriate clothing and a key.
Don't forget your key unless you really want to create a narrative about what this day is becoming.
And if you have all of those,
Shut the door,
Leave whatever has prompted you to push play on this meditation,
Leave it behind for a moment and begin to walk one foot in front of the other.
And just really for the first bit,
Let's just observe all of our senses and allow them to just land for us that we are no longer in that triggering situation with our colleague.
So let's start with sensation with touch.
You might have just put on some shoes if you've been working at home.
So how does that feel?
Your feet,
Your toes,
Your ankles to be in in shoes.
It might be that you've been in them already for a little bit,
But this is the first time they're really being called into action for walking.
So just noticing how they feel to be enclosed in shoes,
The feeling of walking,
Are you walking heel to toe,
Toe to heel,
Flat,
Bouncy,
Just noticing all the ways that your physical body meets the physical presence of something else.
What about the sensation of touch as the weather?
If you're outside,
How is that interacting with you?
If there's sunlight,
Can you feel the specific parts of your face,
Your arms,
Different parts of your skin that are being warmed by that sunlight right now?
And if it's rainy,
As it's want to do in the UK where I'm recording this,
Can you feel each of those individual raindrops as they find their way onto your skin?
Just really noticing all of those sensations from a touch or kind of physical capacity as your physical body interacts with the physical environment around it.
Breathe in,
Inhale through your nose and notice what you smell.
Is it a familiar scent of your neighborhood,
Of the neighborhood around your office or your home?
Is there anything different if you stop and pick up the different threads of scent?
Breathe in again.
What do you notice now?
What can it tell you about the time of day,
The weather,
The season,
Just from scent?
And then listen,
Not just to my voice,
Maybe take a headphone out or notice what you can notice even through two headphones.
Is there the noise of traffic where you are?
Is it busy,
Slow?
Maybe you're somewhere in nature already.
What are the noises and what can they tell you about where you are right now and the fact that you are no longer where you were when you picked up this meditation?
What can you see?
What do you notice?
What colors?
What things stand out as new that you've never noticed before?
And what things are so familiar that only on a third,
Fourth,
Fifth glance are you noticing them?
What's different from how it was last time you walked along this path?
And all just bringing you back to the fact that you are not where you were and you are here now.
Turn your attention now to your breath.
Notice where your breath is and notice where you notice it.
Are you breathing in from your belly?
Is the energy and exertion of the walk and of the feeling and emotion that you've just come out of,
What's that doing to your breath?
Can you feel it radiating and resonating around your chest?
Maybe you're aware of it on the inhale,
Really pulling in,
Pulling in that breath.
Maybe you notice it on the exhale as it dances out of your nostrils and onto your upper lip.
And wherever you are,
Wherever you notice it,
The invitation is to take a few breaths,
Pulling right in from the depths of your belly,
That real anchoring point that just says,
Hey,
I'm okay.
Knowing that if we really were in a life threatening danger situation,
We wouldn't be able to breathe like this.
But if you are safe and you are okay,
I invite you to really take a few deep belly breaths in and to just really savor and enjoy the exhale,
To just release anything that by this point feels like it's worked its way through and no longer carries the energy that needs to be held onto.
Release it.
Your instinct to walk was a good one.
The act of walking in itself is a wonderful metaphor for moving us on from feeling stuck,
From not wanting to progress,
From being absorbed,
Obsessed,
Wallowing,
Being in somewhere.
And what we want with a feeling or an emotion is to allow it to work its way through and to be stuck,
To be stationary,
To be stagnant in it is exhausting and can really just lead us to hold onto things longer than we need to and to burn out when we get in a state of emotional exhaustion if we can't process,
If we can't work things through.
So your instinct to walk is a wise one.
The metaphor of moving forward supports us,
Symbolizes change,
Symbolizes momentum.
The act of walking,
Of movement,
Of physical activity is something we know from research is powerful to move the stress response cycle through our body.
We aren't fighting,
We're not in flight mode,
This isn't running away as if your life depends on it,
This is creating some space and some movement.
And of course we're not frozen,
We're moving.
So just congratulate yourself for a moment,
Just some gratitude for instinctively knowing that what you needed in this moment was to just take a walk around the block.
We talked about space.
What we want to do is create that space between the trigger,
Our colleague,
And whatever our response may be so that the response becomes that,
A response and not a reaction.
And with each step forward,
At nearly 10 minutes,
Every step forward,
Every breath in and out we're creating space,
Space for us to choose,
Space for us to decide to anchor back into ourselves and really actively select how we want to respond.
And in selecting and choosing that response,
It opens us up to growth of new ways of seeing the world,
Of making sense of it,
Of holding safety,
But also holding strength and space to grow and freedom from reaction.
So as you're moving along,
Grounded in this present moment with all of your senses anchored in through your breath and your belly,
Aware of the forward momentum and the power that that's creating,
Aware of the space you've already created for yourself by getting this far in the meditation.
And I offer you some wonderings at this point.
It'll no longer be a reaction.
So how are you going to respond?
What is in your control?
What is in your influence?
What action or active lack of action feels aligned with the person you are underneath it all?
How would you move forward in a way that aligned with your values?
What strengths,
Realized or unrealized,
Could you draw upon to navigate through this situation in a way that feels authentic to you?
What feels aligned with the person that you are on your way to becoming?
And as you're wondering these things,
Wonder also what would it mean to you if you were able to respond in this way instead of the reaction that felt present 10,
15 minutes ago?
How would it feel if you were to move forward,
Aligned and actively deciding your response?
Remember each step forward,
Each breath in and out allows us more space to pause,
To reflect,
To gather ourselves,
To gather our thoughts and choose how we will respond.
Your instincts were strong to take that moment to put on your shoes,
Put in your headphones and hit play on this meditation.
Your instincts again will be strong in your response.
Go well.
Seek the space.
Move forward.
Choose your response.
