The Wellness Scoop - A Calming Meditation

Episode Date: April 21, 2020

A calming, grounding guided meditation to make you feel a little more calm and peaceful during this strange time. The meditation itself runs from 5.30 - 21.20 and is led by Phoebe Greenacre   https://phoebegreenacre.com  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Visit BetterHelp.com today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P.com. Hi, everyone, and welcome to the Deliciously Ella podcast with me ella mills uh we are still um in coronavirus times and so we are still recording from home which yes as i said last week i'm actually completely loving um and thank you guys for still listening in thank you so much for all your feedback and all your questions and requests um it's been incredibly helpful and brilliant just to know that what we're sharing with you is genuinely feeling helpful and useful and uplifting and something that you're looking for at the moment one of the requests that we had in abundance it was the thing that most people asked for

was a meditation episode something calming and grounding and something that just allowed you to kind of switch off for a second. And so we've got the most amazing meditation and yoga teacher with us today, Phoebe. She's just so brilliant. She's just done some incredible recordings for our app, which hopefully you can enjoy as well. And she's going to lead us through something that's hopefully we can use time and time again to feel that little bit better. Amazing. Hi. How are you doing? How is the kind of change of world treating you? It's actually really, I'm enjoying it. So I'm really liking this time just to really go internally and really kind of focus on what means the most to me.

And I think, you know, being at home and being safe and having food and my health is just what I'm celebrating at the moment. So I'm liking lockdown life. Yeah. Nice, isn't it? Yeah, I feel the same. It's amazing how much it illuminates what you have in your life to be so appreciative of. And are you managing to have a kind of daily meditation practice? Is it something that you're finding helps create that kind of sense of calm? Yeah, definitely. I wouldn't say that I'm managing it every day because considering we're all slowing down, my pace has been speeding up because I've been offering a lot of meditations like the one we'll do today,

teaching a lot of more online classes. And so it hasn't been a daily occurrence, but I know when I do get to meditate, I'm a much grounded person and a much nicer human being. Yeah, it's amazing. And are you finding it's one of those things that when you need it, you kind of shy away from it. And when you don't need it, it feels very appealing. Yeah, definitely. I shared on my Instagram stories today that I woke up not feeling great. And I knew I knew instantly in that moment, I needed to meditate. And I did resist it for about half an hour on Instagram, just scrolling mindlessly. But I did make it to meditate. And after it, I felt so much more grounded.

And just having moments of clarity, I think, helps after I've sat in stillness. So, yeah. And before we get into it, I guess there's always a few questions that crop up for us with listeners. And I guess it's something that crops up probably quite a lot. I'm sure you've had it before as a hesitation that maybe meditation's not for you because your mind is feeling that extra bit busy. You're kind of nervous of sitting alone with your thoughts. You think you have to only sit kind of completely still, cross-legged, not have any thoughts.

And I just kind of wanted to check in on that before we got started. That's not really the case, is it? You know, you've got to kind of just start where you are. Yeah, definitely. I think the misconceived idea with meditation is that there's this peaceful person sitting cross-legged in a field with no thoughts whatsoever, but it's completely the opposite. It's a space where you allow the time and the space for all of your thoughts to come to the surface. And one thing that I practice is, and also teach in my teachings, is that we don't need to attach to these thoughts. We don't need to question why they are here or why we're feeling these emotions or thoughts.

But like clouds in the sky, we should just watch them come in and watch them leave without attaching to the story. Because when we attach to the story, that's when we start to get pulled into the story of our thoughts. And then that can loop us in deeper, which is not where we want to go. Yeah, especially now. And I also, I guess, you know,

everyone's obviously, I'm sure most of our listeners are probably at home and that might be chaotic for all kinds of reasons. Maybe several people working in one space or lots of children at home and things like that and again it doesn't need to be a kind of perfect space does it no not at all um i've got friends with kids who have been hiding in their wardrobe um to just have a 10 minutes alone um but you can meditate anywhere on the bus on in the lounge room you in bed. It doesn't need to be this perfect meditation pod

with plants and crystals and anything. So it doesn't need to be. The gift of meditation is that you can do it whenever you need, wherever you are. So I just recommend to find a nice, comfortable position, whether that be on the floor. I really like being connected to the floor. So maybe you sit on a few pillows. Just make sure that you are comfortable in a comfortable position, whether you're sitting on a bed. Just make sure that you have a connection to the ground.

So maybe your feet are touching the ground if you're sitting on a bed or a chair. And as we go into the meditation, sometimes your body temperature can drop. So maybe you have a sweater on or get an extra blanket to just put over you just to really keep that body warmth in. So let's all just arrive into the space that you are in, whether you've been walking around or listening to this podcast. Let's just find a place to arrive. And as you find that comfortable position, allow yourself to close down the eyes. And as you arrive into this space and time in your body, find a comfortable resting position for your hands. Your hands may touch your thighs or they may rest in your lap. And as we allow Notice how your body feels. Notice the breath. Feel the body rise and fall with every inhale and every exhale.

Allow the exhale to be an opportunity for you to let go. Let go of anything that you're holding on to. Let go of anything that is weighing you down. Or let go of anything that no longer serves you. and as we focus of the inhale of the breath, allow yourself to find more space, more space in the lungs, more space in the chest, feeling the body rise, More space in the chest. Feeling the body rise and fall on the exhale.

From this space, let's draw your awareness to the place where you're touching the ground or the floor. And allow yourself to feel that support beneath you. Connecting into that support. Noticing and witnessing where the legs or feet are touching the ground your clothing that is touching your skin and the air that is touching the exposed parts of your body. From this support beneath you, I want you to illuminate the back part of your body, feeling into the sit bones and the tailbone, travelling up the spine,

illuminating and lengthening as you visualize a white light traveling up the back support pillar of your body. And from this space, we're travelling up through the middle back, the upper back, and arriving at the space where the shoulder blades spread out through the back of the body, like wings expanding and lengthening through the sides of the body. Leaning into this space and feeling the expansion with every breath.

And from this space, from the shoulder blades, let's travel up toward the white light through the back of the neck, all the way up across the skull eye centre, the space between your eyebrows. Allow this space to soften. Let the eyes sink further into the eyelids. Maybe your jaw softens and your mouth opens. Tongue raising to the roof of the mouth, suspended in air. And from this space of relaxation, allow the third eye centre in between the eyebrows to melt with a liquid warm energy

pulling around the centre of the two eyebrows, allowing this warmth to soften, to liquidify and illuminate. in the face or the skull or the ears that you can soften. and from this liquid center in between the eyebrows, let's follow the illumination all the way that is your heart the beating the uniqueness that makes you you noticing what is here for you in this heart space center allowing space and time for anything to rise to the surface. Taking the breath and breathing in through the heart space. And on the exhale, allowing for anything that no longer serves you here.

Calling in love and happiness and understanding on the inhale and on the exhale letting go of any hurt or heartbreak or sadness. As we continue in this rhythm of inhaling what we want to call into our life. And on the exhale, letting go. Breathing in, filling up that space with all the goodness and warmth. And on the exhale, release, letting go. Taking one more breath in here, expanding, filling up, lengthening. and then on the exhale, letting go. From this space, let's move into the two lungs. Breathing in from the two lungs that are hugging the heart expanding through the chest and the rib cage on the exhale, letting them contract and release and hug the heart.

Moving through this breath like the ebb and flow of the ocean. At no point it stops. At no point it pauses. But continuing the flow of the tide coming in. And the tide going out. The ebb and flow of the breath of life. Knowing that this space is here for you at any time of the day. And from this space in the lungs, let's take a collective inhale through the nose

and a releasing sigh out through the mouth. One more like that. Inhale and exhale releasing, letting go of anything no longer serves you. From this space let's draw attention back into yourself to connect back into the fingers that are touching your thighs, slowly, gently wiggling them, still with your eyes closed. On the next inhale, let's take our hands all the way up to cover our eyes, your palms just hovering off the eyes and your face. I invite you to slowly blink open the eyes just gently, maybe a quarter way open. And as you slowly let the light enter, maybe you blink open a little bit more. As you slowly come back to the surroundings in the room and you can let your hands float back down to your lap where we will end the meditation. So just notice in these next few moments of stillness how you feel, what has changed, what feels different.

And just allow these next moments to be gentle and kind to yourself. Try not to rush off into the next activity. And I always find that journaling after meditation, if you have any ideas or thoughts or emotions that have come up, it's a nice way to finish off your practice by having a stream of consciousness writing down whatever you experienced and I'll hand it back over to you Ella. Thank you so much Phoebe that was honestly that was the nicest most uplifting brilliant calming podcast we've ever done I mean it's just incredible that was I think just over 15 minutes or so and really as a kind of fraction of a you know what like a 16-ish hour part of our

day that we're awake is such a small amount but the ability it has to shift the way that we feel and the way that we therefore probably think and act and just kind of go around is absolutely kind of mind blowing. It kind of blows my mind every time. So just so appreciative of you taking the time to share that with us. You're so welcome. I think when people start to get into meditation, that maybe listening to guided meditations is a great way in to then cultivating their own practice as time goes on. So I think if anyone, this is their first time that maybe you'd love to listen to a few more guided meditations. Maybe it's a year of guided meditations before you start your own practice, but it's a great way to then just cultivate your own practice as time goes on.

I think it's incredible as well. At the end of the day, if my mind's quite busy or if I've worked too late, guided meditations help get me into the most amazing place for sleep. It really has a huge impact. For sure. For sure. Yeah. It definitely, when I know like running your own business that you can be so busy in the mind and that you just need someone else to guide you to tell you what to do exactly makes all the difference it really does well Phoebe thank you so much I'll put all of Phoebe's details so you can find out more about her and all her amazing teaching in the show notes below because I'm sure we'll have loads of requests for that and you can also find her beautiful yoga flows

and her meditation on our app. And she's got loads of brilliant stuff on her Instagram. And she also runs an amazing, really gorgeous activewear company called CeeLo. So lots to learn from Phoebe. And just massive thank you for all your time today. You're welcome, Ella. Thank you so much for having me.

It's been a pleasure. And I'll also pop the exact time of the meditation in the show notes below so if you want to redo it on kind of several occasions then you can easily just skip to the beginning and otherwise I will see you guys back here next Tuesday next Tuesday we're going to be talking to a brilliant nutritional therapist called Eve just about easy ways to kind of stay healthy and stay feeling good while we're at home. So hopefully that will be helpful as well. Have a gorgeous day, everyone. Hope you're feeling calm and relaxed. You're a podcast listener, and this is a podcast ad heard only in Canada. Reach great Canadian listeners like yourself with podcast advertising from Libsyn ads.

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