Hello,
And welcome to this meditation on gaining perspective.
My name is Jennifer,
And I'm a recreation therapist and health coach that helps depressed and anxious athletes to feel like themselves again.
This meditation is designed with active humans in mind,
But anyone can use it to help them to gain perspective on challenging situations.
Every athlete has ups and downs in performance,
Whether that's in training or in competition.
But sometimes these downs are pretty substantial and can leave you feeling defeated and even depressed.
It can be difficult to pick yourself back up and move forward again when something like this has happened.
Psychological research gives us insight into powerful ideas that we can use to help to gain a better perspective on these difficult situations so that we can move forward and feel better.
One of the techniques that can be incredibly helpful is visualization.
In this meditation,
I'm going to lead you through a visualization and reflection exercise that will help you to disconnect from the experience.
This is shown to decrease your rumination on the situation and allow you to move beyond it.
You're going to want to have a journal and a pen handy,
So if you need to go and grab that,
Hit pause and get what you need.
Just settle in.
Find a comfortable position for you.
This could be sitting in a chair,
Maybe on a cushion on the floor,
Or even laying down.
When you're ready,
Close your eyes and we'll take a few deep breaths here together.
We'll start by breathing in through your nose and as you do so,
Scrunch your shoulders up to your ears.
When you're ready to exhale,
Breathe out through the mouth and release your shoulders down.
Let's do that a couple more times.
Breathing in through the nose,
Shrugging those shoulders up and breathing out and relax them down.
Last time,
Breathing in and tensing the shoulders and let it out.
Let everything relax.
Now,
Let's keep the attention on the breath by focusing on your ribcage.
As you breathe in,
I want you to feel the expansion in your ribcage.
Notice how the bones seem to move apart from one another.
And as you breathe out,
Notice that they come back together.
Keep watching these small movements as you breathe in and out.
And then,
Switch your attention over to your collarbones,
Noticing any movements you might find there as you breathe in and out at your own pace.
I'll let you keep breathing and I'm going to explain the visualization here for just a moment.
I want you to take note that visualizations aren't always like watching a movie.
This is kind of what people imagine when they expect to do a visualization,
But it doesn't always happen like this.
Some people may only see colors or shapes.
Some people see nothing at all and maybe they hear things or smell things instead.
And sometimes people see literally nothing or experience nothing.
No matter what the experience you have today is totally okay.
And I want you to just let go of any expectations or pressure that you have on yourself to have a certain experience.
I'm going to start to lead you through the visualization now.
So take a moment to think about and imagine a situation in your sport that was particularly challenging for you.
So maybe this is a moment that you suffered an injury,
Maybe you lost an important game or a race,
Or maybe you gave up during practice.
Whatever this moment is,
Choose something that's been impacting your current performance.
This may be a small moment,
Maybe a big situation.
Don't overthink it,
Just whatever comes to you first,
Work with that and find something that seems to be relevant today.
Now,
Before diving too deep into the visualization,
I want you to actually pull yourself out of your body and imagine that you're a fly on the wall watching the situation unfold.
So come into the space that this difficult situation occurred and observe it in such a way that you can actually see yourself in the situation.
What's happening there?
Who's around you?
What are you and others saying or doing?
And what kind of energy can you sense from being at a distance?
I'll leave you here for a few moments to just continue to observe the situation from afar and kind of chew on those questions as you're watching things unfold.
You can just let that image dissolve and come back to your breath,
Taking a few breaths in and out of the nose and bringing yourself back into your body by noticing where you feel your breath as you breathe in and out.
When you're feeling ready,
You can gently open your eyes and grab your journal.
I'm going to give you a couple of minutes here to write about your experiences,
But first I'm just going to ask you three questions to write on.
So I will repeat these a couple of times and then I'll set a timer here for two minutes and I'll let you write.
So the three questions are number one,
What did you notice during your visualization?
Number two,
How does this compare to your previous experience of thinking about this event?
And finally,
Has anything changed for you?
I'll repeat those one more time before I set the timer.
What did you notice during your visualization?
How does this compare to your previous experience of thinking about the event?
And has anything changed for you?
I'm going to set a timer for two minutes and I will call you back when it's time.
One more click.
You you you you you you I'll let you wrap up whatever you're writing,
And then we're going to come back to having our eyes closed.
If you feel like you need a little bit more time,
Go ahead and just pause the audio and press play when you're ready to join us again.
Reliving these difficult times can be really challenging,
And I want to make sure that you leave this meditation with a positive feeling,
Regardless of what you experienced during the visualization.
Let's take a few more deep breaths together.
We're going to breathe in through the nose,
Tense up the shoulders,
And let it all go with the exhale.
Two more in through the nose.
Signing it out through the mouth.
Last time,
Breathing in through the nose,
Tense those shoulders,
And let it all go.
Now I want you to take a moment to show yourself some compassion around this situation.
Whatever it is,
It's caused you pain.
Maybe physical pain,
Maybe emotional pain,
Or maybe both.
Take one hand or both hands and place them over your heart.
I'm going to say a few affirmations,
And you're welcome to join in by repeating them out loud.
Maybe you repeat them silently in your head,
Or maybe you just let them absorb.
Whatever works for you.
I acknowledge that this experience was really hard for me.
I know that this has impacted me as a person and as an athlete.
But this is okay.
I am okay.
I am human.
I know life has peaks and valleys.
I savor the highs.
I learn from the lows.
I trust that even if I cannot see it now,
That this experience is shaping me into the person I am meant to be.
I know that tough times make me stronger.
I love and accept myself during all parts of my journey.
I love and accept myself just as I am.
I love and accept myself.
I love and accept myself just as I am.
I love and accept myself just as I am.
I love and accept myself just as I am.
I love and accept myself just as I am.
I love and accept myself just as I am.
