Your Most Powerful Tool...A Gratitude Meditation

Happy Thanksgiving week!  This is by far my favorite Thursday of the year as well as one of my absolute favorite holidays.  I savor the vibrant smells and tastes of seasonal comfort foods, the cozy roaring fire that cracks and burns in the fireplace, and I adore the fact that in this beautiful country of ours, we’ve managed to preserve the fourth Thursday of every November to remember, cherish, and give thanks over a meal.

Speaking of, many of you will sit down around a dinner table of some kind with loved ones and enter into a food coma at its finest in just a couple of days. Perhaps you’ve started the party early.  I sincerely hope you enjoy every bite and minute of your day. 

And some of you are in places of lonely transition. The holiday looks much different than you’d hoped and that Norman Rockwell ideal has once again vaporized into a wishful mist.  My heart knows the pain of similar loneliness and I pray you will find some light in the cracks of that thin space this week.

Wherever you are on your journey, I want to give you something to take with you, whatever your situation may be.  It’s a guided gratitude meditation you can practice beyond today and throughout this Holiday week and season.  I believe gratitude is one of the most powerful forces, turning the darkest skies a paler grey and shifting toxic, negative thoughts into grounded presence.  It’s always available to us and it’s totally free.  

As you navigate the coming days and weeks, I hope you’ll join me in practicing not only meditation but gratitude at every turn.  I’ve found that when I lose sight of gratitude, I start comparing my experience to others and become quite resentful. 

In an instant, gratitude shifts our focus from scarcity and fear to the wide-open spaces of graceful possibility.  Your inner dialog softens and your tired bones relax.  Just by saying, “thank you,” your heart may start to open.  We talked last week about how important openness and curiosity are if we are to receive good things in our lives.  In step with this, gratitude is like pouring rocket fuel on the process, accelerating this manifestation.

I’ll start us off right here and now with my deep and stirring gratitude that bubbles up in my heart daily:  I am grateful for you.  I’m grateful for your courage on the journey that’s brought you, in all of your beautiful brokenness, exactly where you sit today.   I’m inspired by your uniqueness and blown away that you show up and meet the world’s deep need for gifts and talents that only you can bring.  Thank you for being you, day after day.  Thank you, thank you thank you…

Here is a small token—a gratitude meditation practice. 

Love,

Katie     

New Holiday Meditation! How to Find Acceptance

The whole notion of acceptance can be tricky.  After all, if we accept something in our lives, doesn’t that mean we then subscribe to it, caving to its longterm effects?

If I’m feeling anxious or lonely this time of year, doesn’t accepting that make me weak or irresponsible? 

Quite the contrary. 

In order to experience change on any level, we must become aware of what we want to see change and accept that it is indeed there!  We won’t gain anything by resisting and pretending it doesn’t exist!  

By resisting uncomfortable emotions and realities in our lives, we only prolong what we resist.  As a result, we also create tension in our bodies that creates all kinds of long-term negative outcomes down the road.  Instead, we must learn to be on our own team, lovingly accepting our experience, rather than constantly judging from a place of shame. 

If we want to do better for ourselves and those around us, we must soften, opening up to “what is.”  It is through this soft and receptive acceptance we can consciously choose something better. 

Today’s meditation is a practice that will guide you through the process of acceptance.  I use the word practice very intentionally!  Why?  Because whatever we practice we become better at.  My hope this holiday season is not that we will chase an unrealistic expectation of constant merry and bright (though there may be more of that than normal).  My hope is that no matter what your experience, you will practice allowing and accepting it.  From that place of acceptance, we can collectively create something new and meaningful. 

Love & Gratitude,

Katie     

New! Holiday Meditation Series...starts today!

This week kicks off an 8-week series on the blog called “Holiday Mindfulness.”

Time is short and stress-high around the holiday season. My hope is to collectively dial that back this year using the simple, game-changing practice of meditation. Today, I want to help simplify this practice for you as it tends to feel a bit esoteric and out of reach for most of us.

Every Tuesday through the month of December, I’ll deliver a new five-minute meditation directly to your inbox. Yes, even five minutes can completely transform your day. The meditation will have a theme that meets the demands of the season. I’d love to hear your feedback each week.

• How did you like it? (It’s totally okay if you hate it…it was an acquired taste for me!)

• What did you notice in your body as you practiced?

• What emotions and memories came up for you?

• How often were you able to practice?

• Did you notice any shifts in perspective or mood?

Basically, there is no way to mess this thing up. All that’s required is to show up as often as possible. Once you’re there, I’ll guide you every step of the way.

Today’s meditation is called “Building Awareness.” It’s an invitation to come home to the open and loving presence of your true self. She is waiting to meet you with wide eyes and open arms. She is curious and safe. She doesn’t know the language of fear, so we can leave that nagging voice aside for a bit.

Grab your smartphone or laptop, find a comfortable, quiet place, and let’s get started!

Love & Gratitude,

Katie     

Let's Finish Strong

Last week, a dear friend said something so profound in conversation. I’ve been marinating in it since. She said, “I’m struggling to find my now. I’m either stuck in the past or out somewhere in the future. I desperately want to find my now.”

Can you relate to this? I sure can—especially in this eleventh hour of 2019. It’s tempting to camp out in what “could have been”: more productivity, success, health, passion, what have you. This temptation is then compounded by the seductive tendency to run tactics on a fresh new start right around the proverbial bend.

You know the drill. The diet and exercise folks join forces and broker a zillion dollar deal every fourth quarter counting on you and I to wake up January 1 after sipping on the stiff and steady cocktail of two parts bloated, one part foggy, and a heavy shake of shame. We buy in to the ultimate extreme makeover our resolution(s) of choice promises only to throw in the towel a week later hangry, and with the selfless support of your dearest pint: Ben & Jerry, or Stella Artois.

It’s so predictable, right?

I believe it’s high-time we outgrow this brand of insanity. Thankfully, there is another way. Conscious living invites us into self-awareness. If we accept this invitation, we immediately enter a room full of freedom—and responsibility.

Viktor Frankl, Austrian psychiatrist, Logotherapy creator, and Holocaust survivor, said it best, “Between the stimulus and the response, there is a space. In that space, there lies your freedom and power.”

These Holiday months present us with a vital passageway—a sacred space. Incidentally, it’s one of the tightest spaces in which to remain present and self-aware. If we consciously choose presence (that powerful space of the here and now), as opposed to the sugar-laced trance of consumerism, I believe we will finish strong.

“Buzz-kill much?” you ask.

Fair enough. However, I wholeheartedly believe our most powerful, abundant lives are built with consistency, brick by brick, and experienced moment to moment. Why? Because if I am present in each moment, I hold the keys to reality and connection. By this I mean, I live in wakeful presence and respond truthfully to my desires, needs, and those of others. I also forgo the trap of extreme, reactionary living.

Speaking of the needs of others, the Holiday season is often one of deep pain and loneliness in the hearts of many. I’ve known this pain well. Yet at the same time, there is this massive expectation to shine up the shell of appearance and ignore the voice of pain that hums a haunting cry for help.

When you and I narc-out in an unconscious trance, we are unavailable to those needs all around us. Likewise, we silence our own. Needs such as connection, compassion, and rest get overrun by the loud liturgy of commerce and consumption.

These next several weeks, give yourself and others this gift of presence. Enjoy the heck out of them, consciously choosing to come back to the moment, no matter how often the drone of chaos calls. Each time you make this choice, you step into your freedom...your power. Don’t bother eliminating the noise. That’s an isolating crap-shoot. Simply cultivate an inner peace amidst the noise as you loosen the grip of control and soften the lens of extremes.

Finishing strong looks more like staying soft than hustling hard.

Stay tuned next week on the blog for some practical tools to support you in this generous pursuit.

Love & Gratitude,

Katie

P.S. If you haven't signed up for my monthly EnneaGroup, it's not too late. To sign up for next week's in-person group or for the remote option starting later this month, click here.

Why Meditation Matters...and you should be doing it

Meditation is a game-changer.  There are volumes of scientific research boasting all the reasons.  I’m sure they are quite thorough and convincing, too. 

However, today, I want to share from my heart and experience how meditation has and continues to change my life for the better.

This post is for all you fellow perfectionists, control freaks, planners, cardio-lovers, results-oriented, make-it-happen folks who feel 20 minutes of meditation sounds like a large helping of time-suck. 

Oh, I know you…

About five years ago, I began noticing an overarching intense physical discomfort out of nowhere (or so I thought.) My throat and jaw locked up.  My mid-back twisted in a knot.  It became difficult to sing and speak, even in sessions with clients.  Sleep became a distant wish. 

As a health-conscious, avid exerciser who’d done her fair share of work in therapy throughout the years, I felt discouraged—and powerless. 

After seeking out every alternative healing modality I could find, I noticed a subtle common theme emerge from acupuncturist, chiropractor, voice coach, energy healer, and therapist alike.  Quite simply, their sage voices all harmonized in a singular chord.  It was in the key of: RELAX.

I wasn’t depressed or anything.  In fact, I was quite content.  Yet I’d been running so hard on a treadmill of survival mode that had become my norm.  My body, brain, and emotions formed a strike, actively rebelling against the grueling pace I’d had them on for decades. 

Meditation has been my vehicle into this new world of rest, yet interestingly enough, it has also opened up my life in a new way, allowing for increased willingness and opportunities.  Funny how that works. 

Here are the three big reasons I think we should all be meditating:

1)     We build more self-awareness and self-acceptance.   Self-awareness is the biggest indicator of success in life, relationships, and work.  However, we’re so busy (and often stressed) we don’t carve out the time to practice the stillness required to grow that necessary muscle of self-awareness.   In my experience, I’d over-developed the muscle of self-criticism and judgment instead.  Practicing meditation or other mindfulness exercises allows space to unlearn that harsh inner critic and grow the safe, neutral observer needed to bake in healthy self-awareness, compassion, and positive sustained change.

2)    We release tension and toxins in our bodies that create long-term negative health effects. It was a lightbulb moment the day I made the connection between disease in our minds and bodies with literal “dis-ease” and tension we hold tightly within.  This stress, or contraction, will eventually exacerbate, causing much bigger health concerns down the road unless we learn how to release it.  Practicing meditation trains our bodies and minds to slow down and release that arthritic grip we unconsciously develop over time.  Added bonuses include better sleep, mood, energy, and creativity that crop up as a result. 

3)    We begin to connect to our essence, or true self, as we become aware of unconscious habits.  As we move from the false self (ego) to the true self (essence), we experience deep spiritual transformation.  It’s letting go of fear in order to embrace openness to something greater than ourselves.  We simply can’t do that if we are living out of our blind spots on autopilot.  Over time, as we commit to a meditation practice, a natural byproduct becomes this relaxation of old programming and an exploration of the love and curiosity that’s been there from day one.  We were born loving, open beings.  We learned fear to help us survive.  Yet, lasting positive change is rarely built on fear.  We must create the precious space in our days to excavate that little person inside that desperately longs to be seen and known.  She’s honest and wise beyond her years, too.  Some people swear practicing meditation over time slows down aging.  I can’t speak to that; however, I do believe connecting to the most loving and true parts of us inevitably lends a softer lens to whatever we may be facing in life.  In this sense, we do recover that childlike part of us that sees more beauty in everything. 

 This fall, I can’t wait to embark on an 8-week meditation journey with you!  Stay tuned for more on that and a deeper dive into the life-giving world of mindfulness. 

Love & Gratitude,

Katie