Resilience Meditation During Coronavirus #1

Hello,

Welcome.

Welcome to the end of week one,

Our first week in a way dealing with this coronavirus shutting down of life as we've known it,

Upending it in all sorts of ways.

For all of us on this journey together,

It has meant a different type of upending,

But an upending nonetheless.

So I wanted to create this weekly podcast meditation check in resilience building session,

Just we'll do about 10 minutes a week.

And I want to just have a moment to check in to acknowledge that it's been really hard in certain ways,

And also that there is grace to be found in the struggle.

If we build our own resilience during this time.

So,

I'll just briefly let you know I'm more I'm a lawyer.

I'm a doctor more I'm a lawyer I'm a PhD in psychology.

I've studied resilience for many years.

I've written about it.

I've worked clinically with many clients to help them build their own resilience during stressful times.

And I can't think of a time as a collective community as a globe even that we've lived through such.

I don't know I,

I,

I hesitate to say,

Because of course we've experienced major events before we've we've lived through 911 together.

Some of us,

And that was a huge event.

This is more of a slow unfolding.

Trauma I want to use the word trauma just because it's a rupture from anything that we have known before.

So the trauma within the rupture is also a possibility,

As many of you may have discovered during this week,

There are chances to slow down to become more present to our families to nature to our breath.

And that's what this weekly.

I haven't decided what to call it yet so weekly podcast weekly check in weekly meditation will be about,

It's just a couple minutes of checking in and reflecting on on the week and on themes of resilience of themes of struggle.

And then it will include some ways that we can think about building in our own supports.

So,

What I want to say to you is that during times of great struggle and suffering and adversity.

There's also the chance to become stronger by weathering by going through by persevering.

If we don't burn ourselves out.

And it's easy to get burned out,

I've been burned out a few times this week already I'm a mom who is working from home,

Still continuing to do therapy sessions.

Thank goodness for video therapy,

But it's been different it's been a change for a lot of my clients,

It's been a change for me.

My three kids are home so there's some homeschooling that's happening in between everything and we are all in in different ways challenged to find our path in this time.

So,

My goal is to be a helper.

Someone who can,

Who can lend some tools to you that you can begin to internalize for yourself,

I teach meditation as part of my work and we will do a guided meditation for each time that we meet together.

We may also talk about different ways of building resilience weaving in exercise,

A walk in the woods.

If you have that accessible,

Just being out in nature somehow.

Aroma therapy,

Lots of different things we can weave in meditation is really such an essential grounding.

It's such an essential resilience building support.

And it helps us get in tune with our own breathing to come down out of the busy anxious mind to learn to bring our mind down into our body into our heart and breathe and slow down and be present.

And in certain ways we are all being called to slow down and be more present in this time.

So,

With that all being said,

I wanted to keep this to about 10 minutes or so 1015 minutes,

And I want to leave time for a guided meditation.

So,

That's what we'll do.

We'll build our resilience together,

And we are going through this journey together,

We are walking the path.

We are navigating the obstacles and we can meet here every Friday.

I'll make a video available each Friday to just kind of congratulate ourselves on,

On making it through another week,

Self compassion is really key in building our resilience and sustaining ourselves so that we don't burn out.

So we're going to be kind to ourselves.

We're going to take a little self care time.

So essential.

So,

Hopefully my kids playing music in the other room,

They won't start playing drum beats just when we're doing our meditation but if they do,

We will work with that we will.

We'll just practice together.

So,

This may be your first time trying meditation,

You may have a practice in your life already,

Wherever you are.

We'll begin right here.

So,

Find a comfortable position for yourself.

One that allows you to sit with or lie down or stand up,

Or heck you can even be walking.

So,

Whatever,

Whatever position whatever is most comfortable for you.

Find a way of if you're sitting,

Let your feet be grounded on the floor,

Let your hands relax on your knees or on your lap.

If you feel comfortable,

You can gently close your eyes,

I'll have my eyes closed during the guided meditation.

You don't need to feel afraid that I'm going to be looking at you because my eyes will be closed.

And I can't see you through the screen anyways.

So go ahead and find that comfortable position.

Gently close your eyes.

And then just beginning to tune in to the sounds that are happening around you in this moment.

Just beginning to become aware of the sounds that are happening around you in this moment.

Sounds that are farther away,

As far as your ear can hear.

Without any need to make meaning of the sounds or respond to them or react to them in any way.

Just kind of using the sounds as little mini grounding for your awareness.

Like in meditation we are practicing bringing our awareness into the present moment.

So if a sound is happening in the present moment,

It's like a little anchor for your attention.

It brings you down into this moment.

Just as it is.

And bringing your awareness into the sounds that are happening closer in.

Perhaps the sound of your own breath that's happening in this moment.

You might invite yourself just to take a few deeper breaths right now.

It can be really helpful to place your hand on your stomach or on your chest.

Wherever you want to try taking a deeper breath from.

And as you're breathing in,

Just feeling the chest or the belly expanding or rising.

Breathing out,

Letting the exhale,

The exhale be long and deep.

Allowing a softening,

Feeling yourself softening in some ways,

Perhaps as you breathe out.

And yeah,

You might notice any areas in your body that feel tense in this moment.

We're bringing our awareness,

Essentially in meditation,

The practice is to develop present moment awareness.

So the breath is a wonderful tool for doing that because the breath is always happening right now in the present moment.

So at any moment we can bring our minds into our breath.

The breath is also wonderful because it's located in our body.

So it's a more embodied,

More integrated way of paying attention.

Oftentimes,

Especially when we're stressed,

Our mind can be racing a million miles an hour,

Especially when we're anxious,

More stressed.

So we can be thinking lots of worries about the future in this uncertain time.

Or ruminations about the past.

What did I do wrong?

What I wish I had done differently?

Or even just daydreaming,

Just kind of numbing out.

So we're challenging our mind to just kind of let go of those normal patterns and just come down into awareness of this moment.

Sounds are a wonderful anchor for your awareness.

The breath is a wonderful anchor.

Oh,

Good.

We're still going.

I thought I got logged out for a moment.

My heart beat a little faster thinking I'd have to redo this,

But we'll just go with the flow.

That's what this is all about,

Too.

Letting go of attachment,

Too.

And letting go of control,

Really.

Letting go of thoughts,

Letting go of everything and just finding refuge in this new breath,

In this new moment.

So just as we finish this last minute of our meditation together,

Inviting your awareness to notice any tension in your face,

Just where you tend to hold stress,

Maybe in the face.

And letting the breath move to those areas.

So breathing in awareness of the forehead.

Breathing out,

Softening the lines in the forehead,

Just letting go.

Breathing out and softening the space around the eyes.

Breathing out,

Letting the jaw hang open just a little bit.

The jaw,

We can carry a lot of stress there.

And then moving your awareness down into your neck and allowing the neck to be a little softer.

Breathing out a sense of letting go of any tightness or tension.

Maybe doing a few gentle neck rolls,

Just being really present with the sensations of the movement.

And breathing,

Always the breath as a wonderful home base for awareness.

So we'll leave the body scan there.

We can return to do more work in that area next week.

It's a wonderful way of waking up into the moment through the body and also of practicing letting go of stress,

Tightness,

Tension,

Which build up when we are stressed.

So for now,

Taking one more body centered breath,

Really being present with where you feel the breath most resonantly in your nose or mouth,

In your chest or in your stomach.

Taking one more really body centered breath,

Just being with the sensations of the inhale and the exhale.

Letting it out.

And then whenever you feel ready,

Gently fluttering,

Open your eyes.

And now just taking a moment to ground yourself in something that you see in your visual field.

Almost like you're seeing it for the first time,

The color,

The shape,

The way the light hits it.

So that was our first meditation.

We're going to clock in right under 15 minutes for this first meditation session together,

Self care resilience building session.

At the end of week one,

We've done it.

I'm getting logged out again,

So I have to figure out my computer settings a little better for next time.

But we'll take it as it comes.

We'll give ourselves lots of grace,

Lots of self compassion during this time.

If you've survived this first week,

That's awesome.

If you've found little ways to thrive,

Even by doing this 15 minute meditation together,

That's awesome.

So keep coming back and we'll do a new session every Friday together at the end of the week.

Be well.

Remember to look for the grace.

It's there in the moments.

Amidst the struggle,

There are graces to be found.

Wishing you grace and I look forward to seeing you here next week.

Bye.