Day two: Connecting with your Breath
Welcome to day two of your meditation journey.
Today we will focus on breath awareness meditation, a foundational practice that can help you cultivate mindfulness and a sense of calm. By bringing attention to the breath, you can develop greater awareness of your thoughts and emotions and create a more peaceful state of mind.
I want you to think about your breath as a sort of anchor. It’s a place where your mind can rest, it’s how we can start to signal to our nervous system that all is well and we can stay calm and focused. That we are safe and that we can indeed do hard things. It’s funny because we don’t often pay much attention to our breath yet it’s what quite simply keeps us alive. It’s there in the background, automatic and mostly effortless. Today we will turn our full awareness to our breath and take our first step to using breath as part of our mindfulness toolkit.
So find a space to get comfortable, make sure that you’ve got everything that you need (blanket, notebook, water, cushions etc) and that you are in a space where you won’t easily get interrupted.
Your companion guide to Day two:
A journal prompt
Today I want you to think open up to gratitude, an outrageously powerful tool. We can easily get flippant about gratitude, dismiss it as a buzzword but science backs this practice. To have a positive mindset, you need to think about it like you would training your body, you have to practice it. Sure some people are naturally positive and see the gratitude easily, for others, it’s not that easy. Wherever you sit, I highly recommend practicing this habit so that you can start to feel it more naturally.
What are three things that you're grateful for in your life right now? Write about why these things are meaningful to you and how they bring you joy.
An affirmation
Today we are keeping it nice and simple - but outrageously powerful, of course! One of the biggest learnings that I have had on my mindfulness journey is around self-worth and self-love. For me, my practice has allowed me to not only feel comfortable in my own skin but embracing what it means to be me. All aspects of what makes me, me.
“I am enough. I have always been enough.”
Try saying this repeatedly, in front of a mirror. Say it as many times that you need to. Note how you feel when you start. Note how you feel when you finish. Write it on a post-it note and take it with you throughout the day. Say it anytime and as many times as you need to.