In Meditation: Ep. 2 - Resilience

Olivia Allen  0:00  
Welcome to the living well podcast by the Well Being Collective at Hart House. The Living Well podcast is a space to support and examine what it means to live and be well, for indigenous black and racialized folk through dialogue, meditation and reflection. 

These episodes are recorded on Indigenous land. Tkaronto, "where the trees stand in the water"-- land that has belonged to the Haudenosaunee, the Huron-Wendat, and the Chippewa, and today is a part of the Treaty Lands and Territory of the Mississaugas of the credit. I encourage all of us to reflect on why we acknowledge the land and the importance of living and acting in solidarity with indigenous peoples globally. Join us for our guided meditation series In Meditation, where you will be led by various facilitators, as you sink into a practice that will help you to re-centre connect to your breath, and shift awareness to the present.

Liz Coucean  1:03  
Hi, this is Liz. My pronouns are she and her, and I am so excited to be taking you through this resilience meditation. This is one of my favorite topics to explore, and resilience for me really means expanding our window of tolerance. So being able to, with effective tools and support both personally and within our communities. Being able to handle and manage some of the challenges that life might throw our way. 

And as we know, we can't always change the circumstances around us. But if we have tools to sort of shift our own frame of mind in a way of thinking, we are better able to regulate our nervous system and to come into a place where we are feeling stable and able to tackle the tasks that are ahead of us. 

So with that being said, I'm going to invite you to come into a nice, comfortable seated or laying position. And let's just take a few moments here to tune into our breath.

Taking some nice, long, deep smooth inhales and exhales.

And if it feels comfortable breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth.

Perhaps creating an ocean like sound with your breath by inviting a gentle constriction in the back of the throat so that you can invite perhaps a slightly longer inhale and exhale.

And without pausing in between breath just finding that continual flow with that ocean like sound finding that rhythm inhaling and exhaling. 

Just becoming aware of the diaphragm this parachute like muscle that sits just underneath the lungs

And just feeling into this space in the abdomen feeling into that gentle rising and descending of the belly

and allowing this rhythmic flow of the diaphragm to massage the vagus nerve in this nerve to stems from the brain and courses down along the spine and interacts with all the major organs

and stimulating this nerve in the way we're doing with our breathing invites us into a state of calm and relaxation. 

As you breathe you're signaling to the body that we can feel calm alert continue to feel into your breath. 

Allowing any thoughts that might be arising in the mind to simply drift by as if you were watching clouds moving across the sky.

Simply being aware of what is arising.

Allowing the body to feel resourced and nourished by your breath and simply by your awareness. 

And while we might not be able to change what has happened in the past we are able to adapt our breath and as we change and adapt our breath we allow our perspective to shift as well.

And as you breathe here with presence and connection an awareness of sensation in the body.

We invite perhaps a shift in how we have habitually been thinking, moving and being and we allow ourselves to be open to new frameworks and new possibilities.

And as we update our perspectives we expand ourselves And we increase our capacity to manage everything that's happening in our lives. 

And when ever you are ready sending your awareness to your fingers and your toes you might gently move your head from side to side

Feel free to just move your body in any way that feels good and refreshing to you. Maybe lifting arms up overhead and taking a nice big stretch. 

Observe what has shifted for you 

And feel free to come back to this practice and back to your breath at any time.

Olivia Allen  13:31  
Thank you for joining us in this practice today. We would love to hear from you. You can find us on Instagram @Harthousefitnesscentre. You can find the living while podcast anywhere podcasts are available. Today's podcast was produced by Shaela with the music composed by Bill. See you next time.