Meditation For Teachers Coping With COVID-19 Challenges

Good morning or good afternoon,

Whatever time of day it is for you today.

I wanted to share with you my first guided meditation for people going through this time period of navigating the coronavirus and being stuck at home or dealing with serious concerns about health and safety and finances.

So today I'm going to be doing a meditation for teachers.

I've been asked to create one and it's my spark and inspiration to start doing these meditations for you all.

You may hear kiddos in the background.

My reality is that I have little kiddos and so we are navigating that in our house.

So hopefully you won't hear them too much but I have my little white noise app so you might hear some water running in the background.

But if you do notice anything as we're going through just you can just acknowledge it and let it pass through your thoughts and refocus back on the meditation.

So I'll have you go ahead and get comfortable and for all you teachers out there this meditation is to help you deal with the stress of learning lots of new things,

Being on a virtual platform,

Coping with potentially having your own kiddos at home and a lot of multitasking or just in some people's cases as teachers learning a lot of new skills and navigating a lot of new information and a lot of tasks that are might be overwhelming for you.

So we'll be doing a little boundary exercise and a little bit of tuning into your truths and resource.

So get comfy,

Find a spot that you won't fall asleep but you feel comfortable in.

So for a lot of you that will be sitting and you can be cross-legged,

You can sit on your knees,

If you have a yoga block you can sit on a yoga block or a blanket.

Get comfortable if you need to pause,

Find your spot,

Go for it and when you're ready you can close your eyes.

If you don't feel comfortable closing your eyes you can just find a spot to look at and soft focus on.

So let your eyes just relax and then start to notice your breath.

You can do a little body scan and notice what energy you're bringing into this meditation and then allow whatever is going on in your body to release with each exhale.

Slowly grounding your body,

Letting your awareness come to your feet and the areas of your body that are connecting with the earth.

Releasing any energy that's not serving you into the earth or out of your breath through your exhale.

Whichever feels right for you.

And with each inhale you can call in supportive,

Loving energy from your higher power or your spirit guides or Mother Earth.

Breathing in white cleansing energy.

Cleansing light,

Breathing out any toxic energy or energy that's not serving you.

Again breathing out that energy through the earth or through your breath with your exhale.

And then begin to imagine as you continue your breaths a barrier or a boundary in the form of a circle,

A sphere surrounding you.

You can imagine it as a few feet away,

A few inches away from your body,

Whatever feels right.

And you can imagine it as solid or flexible,

But this boundary holds in all the energy that you want to keep for yourself and releases any energy that is no longer serving you.

It only allows in the energy that you would like to come into your space,

Into your body,

And keeps out any energy that you don't want coming in.

So you might find that your boundary is sort of solid when there's somebody in front of you that has trouble with their energy exchange or asks too much,

Feels draining,

And you might find that your bubble,

Your boundary is more able to flex,

Allow energy in from people that you feel nurtured by,

Loved,

You feel there's a reciprocal energy with.

So just play around with your energetic boundary.

And when you land on what material it's made of and how it changes and adapts to different people and situations,

We'll start to call in your week or your day coming up of school,

All of the new information and the school work,

All outside of your bubble.

And just notice how it feels to see all of those tasks,

All of the information outside of your bubble,

Outside of your boundary.

And you might just notice how it feels in your body to even look at them,

Know that they exist,

What happens in your body and your energy.

And you can adjust your boundary to only take in the information and only take on the tasks that feel appropriate for you,

However much feels like you can handle it without going into depletion.

And this will be different for everybody.

So only taking on what you feel like you can do in a way that feels energizing and not depleting.

Knowing that whatever you provide to your students and your school is enough and when you go into depletion you're no longer serving your students or your school.

There may be a lot of messages from the school outside of your boundary about how things should be done or how much is expected of you,

But you just let go of whatever messages don't feel aligned to you at your core.

So you could check in with your heart space and your solar plexus,

The area right between your heart space and your belly,

Kind of at the end of your sternum.

That's your power center,

So in that space you can kind of get an idea of how much energy you have to give and when you're in depletion you can feel the difference in that space in your body.

You can also check in with your root chakra,

The area of your body that's connected to the earth,

And when that starts to feel disconnected for you or not warm or energized that's also an indication that you might be doing too much or what you're doing is no longer serving your students.

So these are places you can check in whenever you're faced with a new task or you're feeling like maybe it's too much.

Check in with your body,

Feel into those spaces in your body and feel what they feel like.

So with all that information outside of your boundary,

All of the messages,

You can take in what you'd like and you might leave a little reminder inside your bubble for yourself about how much you take on.

And outside your bubble you might leave a message for other people,

For principals or administrators that might be asking a little too much or expecting a lot.

Messages about love and kindness that you're doing the best that you can and you're there to serve them and the students.

But you have limits and boundaries and so you can find a gentle message to other people that makes sense to you.

You don't have to be angry or forceful,

You don't have to shut down and not share your voice.

You can leave a kind,

Thoughtful message about what your limits are.

And then you can just play through your week or the day in this energetic space in your body where you have boundaries that flex appropriately to different situations.

Working with your kids,

Working with technology,

Working with administrators,

Dealing with whatever else is going on in your household while you're trying to work.

Making sure that you're nourished and energized and not into place in.

You might take in other energy,

Nourishing yourself through different activities.

Just play through your day,

Holding that boundary firm with love and compassion.

Feeling the way you want to feel as you go through the day,

Showing up in your truths,

Being clear and honest with other people,

And you can do this as many times as you want,

Preparing for the week ahead,

Playing through the day or the week in alignment with your truth,

In alignment with your capacity,

With love and honesty to those that may be asking a lot of you.

Take as long as you need in this space or maybe other questions or other work that you want to work through right now,

Other thoughts,

Other preparation.

So play through whatever you need to hear.

Take the time that you need.

I'm going to close up this meditation on our end,

But take whatever time you need.

When you do feel ready to come out of it,

You'll take your time to slowly come back into your body and back to the room.