What's good,
Legend?
What if stress wasn't something to escape,
But something to embrace?
What if,
Instead of draining you,
It could empower you to grow to heights you never thought imaginable?
Right now,
We live in a world that tells us stress is the enemy,
That it's something to fight,
Avoid,
Or ultimately eliminate.
But the truth is,
It's our stress mindset or the way that we view stress that truly dictates whether it's something that will sink us or something that would help us rise.
How you view it is what makes the difference between feeling overwhelmed and feeling unstoppable.
In this meditation,
We're going to start by calming the body using some breathing techniques and a quick body scan to release tension.
Then we'll contemplate on how stress can be an asset so we can transform tension into clarity,
Resilience,
And power.
By the end,
You'll walk away not just feeling better,
But thinking differently about stress and its ability to help you tap into your limitless potential.
Let's begin by getting into a comfortable meditation position,
One that leaves you feeling relaxed yet alert.
I invite you to close your eyes or find a gentle gaze on a spot about six feet on the floor in front of you.
Let's begin with a deep inhale through the nose.
Hold at the top for a count of one,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five.
Open your mouth.
Exhale.
Inhale.
Hold.
Exhale.
Last one.
Deep inhale.
Then hold.
Open mouth.
Exhale.
Release that technique and just find your nice,
Natural rhythm of your inhale and exhale.
We're going to go into a technique that is a go-to for me whenever I'm looking to rapidly induce calm.
It's called the physiological side.
It's a deep inhale through the nose,
An extra sipping of air at the top,
And an exaggerated exhale out the mouth.
All right,
So it'll sound a little bit like this.
Join in.
Inhale.
Sipping air.
Last couple.
Last one coming.
Inhale.
I want you to release that technique and we're going to continue this attack on stress and tension by just tuning into our body.
Like when you're feeling overwhelmed or you're just racing and running around,
A lot of times we don't have the time to just take a moment to check in.
So we're going to perform a quick body scan and I want you to start here at your feet.
So just see what it feels like to even just have feet,
Right?
So maybe you're laying down with the back of your heels sinking into the ground or you're sitting in a chair and the bottom of your soles are sinking into the floor.
Just feel what it feels like to have that floor hold you up right now.
I'm going to go up now to the calves.
What do you feel?
Any tension?
Maybe you are pulling your toes in towards your shin to feel a nice stretch there or if you're sitting down,
You're pushing in through your toes to lift your heels off the ground.
Just feel that tension build up and then release.
What does it feel like in your quads,
Right?
The front of your thighs?
Is there any tension there?
What about the back of your legs?
What does it feel like to have your butt sink into your chair or be held into the ground right now?
I want you to check in with your core,
Right?
Maybe squeeze those core muscles nice and tight and just release it and feel that stress melt away.
Tense up that core and then just release.
The air of your chest,
I want you just to zone in and focus in and feel the rising and falling with each passing inhale and exhale.
What about your hands?
What do those fingertips feel like?
Maybe wiggle them gently.
Maybe squeeze those fists and just release that tension.
Go back and forth between a squeeze and a release.
Let's travel up our arms to our shoulders.
What does it feel like?
We tend to hold a lot of tension here,
Right?
So just pull those shoulders up towards your ears,
Pull them down and away.
Maybe make some gentle circles going forward and back or whatever feels nice and natural here.
What's your neck?
Maybe just look to the left,
Look to the right,
Get a little stretch in that neck.
Let's begin to make some small circles with our head and just roll them back and forth.
What are you noticing?
What are you feeling?
I want you to release that technique and I want you to take a moment to contemplate here.
I want you to take some time to think about a stressful event or situation that you've been through in the last year or so.
Chances are while you probably wouldn't want to relive this moment again,
You ultimately made it through because you're sitting here to listen to me today and I know you learned something.
In this situation,
What skills did you learn or what wisdom did you gain?
In this moment of difficulty that you conquered because you're an absolute beast,
What resources did you draw upon?
Like social support,
Did you lean into family or friends?
What did you find?
A heightened level of emotional resilience or did you have to dig deep and find just this grit that you didn't know you had?
What happened?
How did you make it through?
I want you to take a moment to think about a current stressor and remember everything you've been through up until this point so you know that you have the ability to conquer it.
I want you to take a moment to quietly repeat to yourself after me,
I'm capable of handling challenges that are thrown at me.
I've conquered difficult times before and I can do it again.
I am enough.
I have all the tools I need to thrive right now.
How you think about stress is ultimately how it will impact you.
So we can go with the mindset of stress will kill us or we can go with the mindset of stress will uplift us to new heights.
So I want to end this meditation the same way we started it with some deep inhales,
Hold to the top,
Exhale.
Start with a deep inhale through the nose,
Fill up and hold for a count of one,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Exhale,
Inhale,
Fill up,
Hold,
Exhale,
Last one,
Fill up,
Deep inhale,
Hold,
Exhale.
I hope you're feeling a little bit better than when you started and I hope you understand that stress isn't going anywhere but your relationship with it can change.
While I'm sure there's situations that you thought about earlier that you wouldn't want to relive,
I'm also sure that you saw a lot of these circumstances that serve to make you more resilient in the long term.
The next time you find yourself in a stressful situation,
I want you to remind yourself that you've been here before and you've conquered it and you've lived to be able to tell the tale and then I want you to ask yourself,
How can this be an opportunity for growth that is calling me to become something higher?
I know you're going to answer that call.
Thanks for meditating with me today,
Legend.
I'll see you tomorrow.
