Guided Mindfulness for Deep Relaxation
Good Morning. The week I chose for us to practice relaxation and self-soothing turned out to be among the most stressful in recent memory for me. What good luck! Whether you are experiencing increased stress in your life or not, relaxation and self-soothing practices are an important part of any mindfulness practice. When you have experience with all types of mindfulness, you are able to draw on the particular type of practice that feels most helpful to you at any given time.
I think that it is fair to say that this period that includes the pandemic, painful awareness of the social and racial inequalities present in our country every day–combined with social distancing, and a barrage of news coverage of all of these issues has been more stressful for most of us. It seems as if this will be true for the near future at least.
Most of our practices have been brief-(3-5 minutes). However, especially with relaxation practices, it’s often helpful to have more extended practices. This guided mindfulness exercise, at 10 minutes, is still considered brief, but it’s longer than the typical practices I’ve been sending out each day. I urge you to consider making time for this practice today if you possibly can.
To begin, get settled into a comfortable position (the instruction says sitting, but this one can be done sitting or lying down). Breathe, click the tape and follow along silently.
When you are finished, what did you observe? notice how your body feels, any thoughts or emotions you are experiencing. You have nearly made it to the end of the week. Ease into your weekend recalling this relaxed state. Be sure to plan some enjoyable activities for yourself to continue to support your emotional well-being.
Enjoy!
Michele
