Mediation: A Gentle Reset When You Feel Overwhelmed - So Frickin' Mini featuring Gretchen Larsen

Edit of Breath and Heartful Awareness Meditation

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[00:00:00] Megan J. McCrory: Hey Donna, how are you doing today?

[00:00:02] Danna Levy Hoffmann: I'm All right, Megan, how are you doing?

[00:00:04] Megan J. McCrory: I am good. would like in our 10 minutes today to talk for only a minute

[00:00:11] Danna Levy Hoffmann: Ooh. Challenge accepted.

[00:00:15] Megan J. McCrory: because, I wanna just talk quickly about meditation and then I wanna leave the rest of the time to actually do a meditation with you. how do you feel about that?

[00:00:23] Danna Levy Hoffmann: I feel pretty good about it. Let's do it.

[00:00:25] Megan J. McCrory: Have you meditated in the past?

[00:00:28] Danna Levy Hoffmann: I have tried to meditate in the past before my burnout clinic, uh, unsuccessfully.

[00:00:34] Megan J. McCrory: Mm-hmm.

[00:00:35] Danna Levy Hoffmann: And then kind of acquired some skills to do it at the clinic, because I think a lot of people think that meditation has to be the entire time. You don't think you don't do anything, and that's kind of impossible. So I think I had that mindset before and now I realize like, which this meditation does beautifully is just accepting the thoughts and then kind of like

[00:00:58] Megan J. McCrory: Yeah.

[00:00:59] Danna Levy Hoffmann: them go, uh, lovingly.

[00:01:01] So yeah.

[00:01:02] Megan J. McCrory: For me, I think the purpose of meditation, and not from a religious standpoint or anything like that, but meditation from a mental health, physical health wellness point of view is. Training your body to get back into that rest and digest. That's for me, the number one thing with meditation. And that's why I agree. You don't need to do like sit cross-legged on the floor or whatever, be in some uncomfortable position, um, for hours at a time. Like literally, if you've never done a meditation before. minutes can feel like an eternity.

[00:01:38] Danna Levy Hoffmann: Yes.

[00:01:39] Megan J. McCrory: so the 10 minute meditation we have for you guys, may feel really long, but you know, you don't have to force it.

[00:01:46] It's kind of like, just listen to the music, listen to the voice, and just breathe. Like that's about it. You don't

[00:01:52] Danna Levy Hoffmann: Yeah.

[00:01:53] Megan J. McCrory: put much more thought into it.

[00:01:54] Danna Levy Hoffmann: Yeah. Just breathe honestly.

[00:01:56] Megan J. McCrory: Just breathe.

[00:01:57] Danna Levy Hoffmann: Just deep breathing is already meditation enough

[00:01:59] Megan J. McCrory: The meditation we have for you today is by a dear friend of mine, Gretchen Larson. Gretchen is an ICF certified coach with a certificate in mindfulness wellness and somatic coaching.

[00:02:12] I love Gretchen's vision. She says that we all have a one big juicy life to live and we can't control the things that happen to us, but we can control our responses. To the circumstances and what we make from them. So we are not gonna come back after this meditation. We're gonna let you listen to Gretchen and her soothing voice and some nice music.

[00:02:38] And at the end, uh, we're just gonna leave you in that kind of peaceful state. if you like this meditation and wanna hear more from Gretchen, we have a full interview with Gretchen over on our sister channel, becoming a Health Coach, where we talk about how we're all handling the world at the moment, um, and back to her big vision of how we can control our responses to. All the bad stuff that's happening in the world today.

[00:03:07] Gretchen Larsen: So head over to becoming a health coach and take a listen to the full episode with Gretchen. Welcome. With today's meditation, we're going to bring awareness to and attend to some of our feelings. To begin, find a comfortable position to sit in without noise or distractions. And once you do this, I invite you to close your eyes, if that's comfortable, or simply soften your gaze and bring your attention first.

[00:03:40] To yourself and to your whole body. Are you comfortable? If you notice any discomfort, feel free to wiggle or bend or shake as you need to in order to settle your body comfortably and make any last adjustments so that you can sit comfortably for the next seven to 10 minutes. Once you've done this, I invite you to bring your attention to your breath and just notice what your breath is like.

[00:04:20] Is it slow or fast, hard or soft or sharp? Just notice any qualities of your breath and let yourself relax into it. Noticing all the sensations of breathing in and breathing out,

[00:04:45] in and out,

[00:04:52] in

[00:04:56] and out.

[00:05:02] And now I want to bring your attention to your heart, breathing into your heart, and breathing out from your heart,

[00:05:20] into your heart, and out from your heart.

[00:05:29] Use your breath as an anchor here. As you breathe into and out from your heart,

[00:05:41] and as you breathe in this way, just notice anything that arises.

[00:05:52] It might be a thought or a feeling or a sensation, and there's no need to push it away.

[00:06:07] Just notice what you're carrying there in your heart.

[00:06:16] And simply breathe with whatever comes up, breathing into and out of whatever arises,

[00:06:31] breathing into any feeling or thought or sensation you may be having.

[00:06:42] Even if it's a strong feeling or sensation, see if you can just breathe with it. Remembering you are in a safe space, sitting with your breath and your big, beautiful heart. Whatever arises can be here too.

[00:07:11] See if you can allow whatever feeling or sensation that has surfaced to be here with you and your breath. Just breathing in and breathing out

[00:07:32] in.

[00:07:36] And out.

[00:07:43] And as we continue to breathe, I invite you to notice anything about what has arisen, noticing inequalities that it has. Is it sharp or dull? Tight or soft, light or heavy?

[00:08:09] Does it have a color?

[00:08:14] Where does it reside in your body? Just notice we're not trying to move it or hide it or solve for it. We're just sitting with it, breathing with it, and allowing it to be here with us.

[00:08:44] You may also notice if you have any struggle related to this thought or feeling, and if you do, see if you can allow that to go. There's no need to struggle or fight. We're just noticing anything that comes up and as much as we can. We're just allowing it to be here, allowing it to have a little bit of space in bringing our gentle awareness to it, whether it's a pleasant thought or feeling.

[00:09:26] Or even if it's unpleasant, we can just allow it to sit here with us. There's no need to fight against it or do anything with it except to just sit and breathe with it. Breathing into this feeling

[00:09:53] and breathing out.

[00:09:57] Breathing alongside this feeling

[00:10:03] and out

[00:10:07] just gently sitting and noticing and allowing

[00:10:18] in

[00:10:22] and out.

[00:10:30] And now I invite you to notice if the thought or feeling has shifted or changed in any way. I

[00:10:43] just notice as you breathe in and out.

[00:10:54] In

[00:10:57] and out

[00:11:04] and just like we don't need to struggle with the feeling, we also don't need to hold it and keep it here. So I invite you now to see if you can just release it and let it go.

[00:11:24] You might thank it for showing itself to you, or you might just say a gentle goodbye and bring your attention fully back to your breath,

[00:11:38] noticing all the sensations of your breath in and your breath out.

[00:11:48] The expansion of your chest or belly,

[00:11:55] the contraction and breath out.

[00:12:03] Just noticing now any quality of your breath, in

[00:12:12] and out.

[00:12:17] And after a few more breaths, I invite you to open your eyes and come back to the space that you're sitting in.

[00:12:29] Once you do this, I invite you to take a few moments before you go on with your day to just jot down or journal anything that came to you during this meditation, and consider if there's any gentle action. You'd like to take in relation to what arose for you.

[00:12:54] If it was a painful thought or feeling, might there be a gentle way you can comfort yourself around it?

[00:13:04] If it was a question or a quandary that kept arising, might there be a close friend or loved one that you'd like to ask for help or advice with it?

[00:13:18] Please take this moment for you and tend to whatever arose in whatever way is best for you. Thank you.