Hey,
Hi,
I'm here.
Your mind and body might be in a lot of turmoil right now,
But I'm going to be here with it,
With you,
And we're going to calm your nervous system together.
What position are you in right now?
What if you tried to get a little more comfortable?
Find a comfortable,
Safe place to sit or lie down.
During meditation you can close your eyes,
But it's also okay to keep them open if that feels safer.
We're going to start by deep breathing and humming.
When you inhale,
You'll inhale slowly through your nose,
Into your back,
And down your spine to your hips.
And when you exhale,
You'll hum like this.
Let's do a few together.
Inhale,
Exhale humming.
Good,
One more.
Exhaling,
Humming slows everything down.
What's going on with your belly?
If it feels okay,
Place one or both hands on your belly.
Does it feel tight?
Let's soften that up.
I know a trick.
I'll walk you through it first before you try.
You'll take a deep inhale,
And when you get to the top,
You'll hold your breath and flex all of the muscles in your belly.
You'll suck the belly in,
All the way in.
Bring some tension into your hips.
Squeeze,
Squeeze,
Squeeze everything.
Inhale a little bit more,
And exhale,
Release it all.
Humming.
Are you ready to try?
Inhale,
Hold everything together.
Flex all of the muscles in your body,
Maybe even your hands and arms.
Suck the belly in.
Bring some tension into the hips,
Into your seat,
Maybe even your knees and your feet.
And exhale,
Release it all.
Humming.
Do you want to try that again?
Deep inhale through the nose.
Suck the belly in and squeeze it in.
Lots of tension squeezing your hips and your butt and your legs.
Inhale a little bit more.
Exhale,
Humming.
Let it all go and relax.
Okay,
Check in with your belly.
What does it feel like now?
A little bit softer?
You can keep your hands there on your belly if you want,
Or go ahead and release them.
Awesome.
You're doing great.
This is gonna help,
I promise.
Let's try something else.
Let's do some starfish hands.
Just like you did with your belly,
Scrunch up your hands.
Make them hard little fists,
As hard as you can.
Inhale.
Exhale,
Slowly humming.
Flex the hands as far as they go.
Reaching your hands,
Your fingers in every direction.
Let's do that again.
Close the fists and squeeze them as hard as you can.
Feel tension in the wrists and elbows,
Thumbs.
Inhale.
Exhale,
Humming,
And let everything go.
What's up with your shoulders right now?
I want you to feel like you're in a warm shower and the water is running over your head and shoulders.
The muscles in your shoulders are powerless under the steady flow of that warm water.
If you're like me,
Maybe you can turn up the temperature on the water and let it run hot over your shoulders and down your back.
All of the stress,
The tension,
Any anxiety.
It's like paint on your neck and shoulders,
Or mud.
The hot water is rinsing it all down the drain.
Hot water relaxing you and letting everything rinse away.
Are you still breathing deeply?
You can keep up that humming.
Exhale if you want.
Good.
I want you to know you're doing a great job.
You're still here with me.
You knew what was happening and you reached out for help and you found this meditation and you found me.
I'm here and we're regulating your nervous system together.
I want to take you on a little walk in your imagination.
My job will be to give you images and sensations that you could picture or imagine.
And your job is to do some deep breathing in and slow breathing out.
Here are two suggestions for your exhales.
One is humming and the other is pursed lip breathing.
That means it looks like you're whistling,
Pushing the air out of your lungs nice and slow like this.
Are you ready?
Okay,
Let's take a walk.
It's the first big snow of the year and we've been inside all day.
But now the sun is going down and the snow has stopped.
It's just piled up on the sidewalks and on the road.
It snowed so much that no one drove over it yet.
It's perfect,
Pristine,
Newly fallen snow.
Let's go walk in it.
Is it okay to keep the fire going?
Yeah,
We'll just walk up to the big stone church and come back.
We put on our thick comfy jackets and snow pants and lace up our heavy snow boots.
We look like little kids getting ready to go outside and make snowballs.
Do you have the keys?
As soon as we get outside,
We hear it.
The silence.
It's so quiet.
I can hear you breathing next to me.
Go slow on the steps down to the sidewalk.
Your boots crunch in the fresh snow.
There must be three inches of it.
It feels so wonderful under our feet.
Let's walk in the street for a minute.
There's no one driving.
The sun is going down quickly.
After the snow stopped,
The sky cleared.
And it's this bright,
Deep blue with the sun setting pink and orange.
It's cold,
But we're all bundled up.
There's no wind.
It's so still.
And all I can hear is the crunching of our feet and you breathing.
Oh,
Let's turn left up here.
I want to walk past the house with that big wind chime.
As we walk up this street,
We see a little family coming toward us.
A couple of adults and some small kids and they're slipping around on a sled.
Oh,
I bet the little hill behind the high school is great for sledding.
They pass us with rosy cheeks,
Laughing and pulling each other on the sled.
I'll bet they'll have hot cocoa when they get home.
It's dusk now.
I can't hear any cars anywhere.
Can you?
Everyone's lights are on.
And you can see the warm glow coming from inside the houses.
Look at how many chimneys have smoke.
It smells wonderful.
Oh,
It's the next house.
The one on the corner.
It's in that big oak tree behind the fir.
Can you see it?
It's a huge wind chime.
This massive cylinder.
I think it must be as tall as I am.
It's still now waiting in the yard for the wind to pick up.
I love that wind chime.
I wonder how they got it up there.
And where did they find it?
It's such a beautiful copper nestled in with all of the snowy branches.
It's protected inside the trees forming a sort of tent around it.
I wonder how many people walk past this corner without noticing that beautiful wind chime in the oak tree.
Now let's turn right up here.
We can cross the park to get to the church.
When we go through the gate to get to the park,
We can hear kids voices ringing out.
A snowball fight.
We cut across the baseball field and here they are.
Someone brought a couple of trash bins and they're hiding behind them.
They can't see us up here.
They're on the soccer field below.
The streetlights come on just in time.
It was starting to get dark.
I wonder how long they've been playing out here.
I bet their hands are frozen.
Oh,
Remember,
There's that little path over here.
It goes through the neighborhood back to the church between the houses.
There it is.
Oh,
I can see the church steeple.
It's stone and old.
The steeple is tall,
But it's a modest church.
And it's lit from inside.
The stained glass is glowing.
I wonder who's in there now.
Did they walk over here like we did?
We stand in front of the stained glass,
Just watching.
The silence is all around us,
Except for the faint sounds of the kids playing.
Even the houses seem still and quiet.
Like this church.
The snow comes and goes and rain and the hot sun in the summer.
But this stone church has stood here ever since it was built.
And these strong,
Safe houses.
We're lucky to be in such a lovely neighborhood with the parks and the church and the paths to stroll along.
I'm glad we're here.
I am getting a little cold,
Though.
Let's turn back.
The streetlights are all on now.
And the smell of chimney smoke is everywhere.
I wonder how many neighbors will take a walk like we did tonight.
Let's take the short way home.
Down the long row of townhouses with the short stone walls in front.
I wonder if the same stonemasons that did the church made these.
Let's look it up when we get home.
I bet the stone in this neighborhood was all done at the same time.
I can see the house from here.
We left some lights on.
And one of the cats is waiting for us in the window.
How long have we been gone?
I'm sure they're ready for dinner.
We stomp our feet on the front porch to get the snow off.
And then we trundle inside.
It's so warm in here.
And the fire is low.
Will you put another log on?
I'll feed the cats.
My hands and feet are starting to thaw out.
And my nose is warm.
Thanks for going on a walk with me.
