All day we're bombarded with social media, our work, our children, external and internal voices. Today we invite you take some time for yourself. Find a quiet spot and join us for Meditation Monday with Michelle McClatchie of Many Mindful Moments. Today's practice will teach you a way to come back to your breathe, rest and settle your mind.
If you're looking to relieve anxiety, stress less and think clearer-- give mindfulness a try and you'll have a better day.
Benefits include:
Many Mindful Moments with Michelle McClatchie
NAU Health Promotion
The Science of Well Being
Bounce Back NAU
Thanks for listening! Want to be on our podcast? Share your idea with us and be a guest on LumberChats.
All day we're bombarded with social media, our work, our children, external and internal voices. Today we invite you take some time for yourself. Find a quiet spot and join us for Meditation Monday with Michelle McClatchie of Many Mindful Moments. Today's practice will teach you a way to come back to your breathe, rest and settle your mind.
If you're looking to relieve anxiety, stress less and think clearer-- give mindfulness a try and you'll have a better day.
Benefits include:
Many Mindful Moments with Michelle McClatchie
NAU Health Promotion
The Science of Well Being
Bounce Back NAU
Thanks for listening! Want to be on our podcast? Share your idea with us and be a guest on LumberChats.
: 0:00
Welcome, everyone. This is meditation Monday. My name is Michelle McClatchy. It's such an honor to be here with you. This is a really challenging time in an important time, even more so than before to learn about meditation and mindfulness. I've been teaching mindfulness now for about four years. I believe that the practice going on 10 years and meditation, has completely transformed my life in many ways. I'm so much happier and healthier than I ever was in the past.
: 0:39
I wanted to speak with you a little bit about where it comes from, and it's into ancient practice. So it goes back over 2000 years. What I'm going to be offering in Meditation Monday is a chance for us to practice together as well as really helpful practical tips that you can apply in your day to day lives. Regulate your body and lower your stress levels. I know for me when I'm stressed, my heart just starts racing in my chest. It can be hard to breathe. There's tension in my body-- I get headaches. These types of reactions in our bodies could be really debilitating. But where that comes from it, it's a physiological reaction that dates back hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years. It's our national conditioning that keeps us safe from being chased by a science sabertooth tiger. And it's called the fight flight freeze reaction.
: 2:08
When we experience something that seems dangerous, our body and it really releases stress hormones, adrenaline and cortisol and those can help us to respond in whatever way we need to, we need to run away and hide those those processes help us to do that. But unfortunately we end up living in a way where that stress is chronic and it's carried with us throughout the day. The good news is that there are some very simple things that we can do.
: 2:46
So just in this moment I encourage you to pause for a second and just take a deep breath. It's so simple and yet when we're stressed, we hold our breath with mindfulness. What we're learning to do is begin to recognize our thoughts. Recognize the patterns of the way that we think, the way that we perceive the world. What we think, what we're perceiving, influences how our body feels.
: 3:28
With mindfulness, we begin to have awareness of what our thought patterns are. Then we also learn the capacity to recognize that that's happening and then to choose to refocus our attention to something that is more beneficial for our well being.
: 3:48
With mindfulness, we can learn how to recognize that the patterns are happening. Then we can come back to the present moment because often times when we're stuck in our thinking, we lose touch with what's happening right now. An example that I like to use for people to understand is to describe how sometimes we we are driving home from school or from work, park in the driveway and then suddenly realized --How did I get here, like there's this sensation that we forget what has been happening. We're not paying attention to the present moment because we're so caught by our minds.
: 5:12
I just want to tell you that if you experience that, it's not a problem. It's really normal. It's OK. It's the way that the mind works. And it's also the habit of a lifetime. And so we need to practice this as a way of beginning to train the mind and the tame the wild nature. The way that we've been functioning and the gift of that as we learn how to train our mind, we learn how to quiet. Our nervous system is that we are able to access these qualities of the heart that can often be missing when we're afraid. And so by that I mean we have a capacity to be compassionate and to be kind, to be patient and understanding and grateful and generous-- that this is our nature. And yet often times the fear that we experience on the stress we experience makes it hard to connect to those qualities.
: 6:23
The benefit of being able to practice meditation as we can learn how to experience more of those more time in our lives where we're peaceful and calm. And so what I'll do now is begin to facilitate a guided meditation that we can share together. So I encourage you-- if you're not already-- try to find a quiet place to be in --one where there's no distraction and you're likely to be able to just take a time out. So that means turning off your phone or setting it aside or turning off the notifications that might interact you and then what I'm going to invite you to do.
: 7:17
To begin this practice, you'll notice that my eyes are closed and so I'm going to invite all of you to do so. For some people, this can feel difficult to close your eyes, and that's OK. If that is the case for you, feel free to just gaze at a spot on the floor in front of you and then to at any point during this meditation, if you find yourself feeling a startle response or really uncomfortable-- just open your eyes, reorient to the space that you're in, and then, when you feel ready, allow them to close again.
: 8:08
As we begin this meditation, I encourage you to give yourself permission to relax as best as you can. Let go of what's happening in the world. Let go of what happened earlier today or what's going to come later. Remembering that if your mind stays busy, that's actually not a problem. You might even imagine a train going by, and it's moving fast and it's busy and it's full. But you have the opportunity to sit on the embankment and just watch the dream go by. You don't have to be on board. If you find yourself caught in the runaway train, just choose to step off, then return to the bank and I'll explain more about how to do that.
: 10:06
But for now, just feel your body. And if you're in a chair, I encourage you to sit up tall to sit in a dignified way where your spine is straight and allow yourself to feel that it feels like to be relaxed and attended at the same time. If you're laying down, that's fine. Just feel free to change the instructions for the body position that you're in. But just take note. There's a bend at the knees. Abandon the ways you might feel your feet on the floor and then but yourself. Listen to the sounds in the room and the sound outside.
: 11:34
Take a moment to be curious about what your breath is like. Are you holding your breath? Just be curious about what you notice right now. That's what mindfulness is being curious about the present moment and learning to be willing and accepting of the way things are because it's our resistance that can cause of so much struggle.
: 12:09
Open your senses to take in your body. You might notice if your heart is going fast or slow, and then we're going to do is practice relaxing our bodies and the way I like to think about relaxing the body that we're also practicing self compassion. We're often so hard on ourselves, and so here we have the chance to practice kindness.
: 12:46
A beautiful way to do that is to begin with, taking a series of long, slow, deep breaths. It could be helpful just to place a hand on your belly, just to be able to feel the belly as it moves in and out. Just continue taking those long, slow breaths. For some of you, I just want to express that if you find this breathing to activate anxiety -you can let go of focusing on the breath and instead deals with the feel the surface of your feet where they meet the ground. You can even press down the deer feet, and it creates a sensation of grounding. But for the rest of you, you're welcome to continue those long snow breath recognizing that has your breathing. In this way, you're sending oxygen to the blood cells of your body. You're sending oxygen to your brain and your calming your nervous system, and then I encourage you to let go of those deep breath and instead see if you can breathe into your face into your sinuses.
: 15:46
As you breathe in, you can soften the muscles in your forehead. We're often frowning when we're stressed. You can breathe in a sensation of relaxation and breathe out tension. For here, you can soften the muscles around your eyes, and some of you might like to try. Allow your eyes to rest in the back of the socket, so allow them to roll backwards. There's nothing to read, nothing to look at right now, just allow them to rest. When we're stressed, a way to relax the jaw is to place your tongue on the roof of your mouth, and then you're welcome to shift your breath again. Allow your shoulders to drop down and away from your ears as you exhale, and you might just practice that movement. Feeling your shoulders. Move with each deep breath.
: 19:23
Now during this meditation, if you find yourself distract in if you lose your way, just remember that that's OK. This process is really like teaching a puppy. You want to teach them how to stay and sit, and we'll listen for a moment and then they run off the plane. And so we just coax them back gently. If you find yourself distracted, just come back to my voice, knowing again that we're focusing on softening the shoulders, which in turn relaxes the muscles in our net.
: 20:27
You might imagine that your body is like a block of ice that's been left out in the Arizona sun and that your breath is like the sun's rays melting away the hard edges so you can allow the breath to warm.
: 20:57
Allow the sun's rays to wash over your arms.
: 21:02
Allow your biceps to relax your forearms to soften and then take a moment to notice your hand. We're often gripping our hands, so I encourage you right now to see if you can let them be -- continuing those deep breaths, letting your chest in, your belly relax. Even small micro movements make a difference. You can allow your legs to soften and relax by letting them fall a week from each other. And then I know this is going to sound odd, but see if you can separate your toes from one another, spread them out.
: 23:18
We're typically holding our legs in our feet as if we have to go somewhere as if we need to be poised and ready. If places have become tense again, allow them to relax breathing into the phase to soften the forehead, the muscles around the eyes letting the jaw relaxed with the tongue on the roof of the mouth. Lowering-- the shoulder is relaxing, the hand relaxing, the feet. This is available to you in any moment, and now we can let go of influencing this moment and instead of rest our attention just on our breath.
: 25:00
Oftentimes people will notice their breath right at the very tip of their nose. Sometimes I invite people just to place a hand under your nose so you can feel the breath as it goes in and out. Other people tend to notice the breath where the chest or the belly moves. So just pick one of those three places and then see if you can keep your attention right there. And when you become distracted, my thoughts are sounds. Just notice that you're distracted and return to the breath, and I'll stop speaking for a few moments so you can try this on.
: 26:42
You might just know this where your mind is now and come back to the breath once again noticing where your mind is and coming back to your breath. So this is the practice of meditation, the foundation and the route. But keeping your eyes closed if you can, it is listening to my voice. Ultimately, we can learn how to sit with ourselves in silence, and then we get to watch the movie of our minds. We can sit back and observe rather than being lost in all of the stories that we tell ourselves. Breath is an ally. It's a friend, and you can always turn to that as a resource.
: 30:11
When we're stressed, it can be like an anchor. Imagine it. You're a boat out to sea and life is buffeting you rocking your boat and they can feel really out of control and unsafe. And yet when you breathe the you can feel the steadiness that are breath provides.
: 31:06
In a moment, I want you to open your eyes. Before you do just open your senses and notice what your body is like. Now notice what you're feeling. And then when you're ready-- open your eyes.
: 31:36
I want to say congratulations to all of you, particularly those and you have never meditated before.
: 31:43
Come on back.
: 31:44
You did it and you can do it again.
Michelle: 31:47
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