53 Meditation to Connect with What You Love

Hi, welcome to the meditation portion of RxChill Pill: Meditate Your Brain to Resilience. This podcast strengthens your resilient mind every time you listen. I'm Dr. Juna Bobby MD. I'm a physician specializing in mind-body medicine and a mom of two amazing kids. You can find out more about me, exciting new online programs on procrastination and mindset coaching for kids, teens, parents, and educators at mindbodyspace.com. Today's meditation is inspired by one of my guests, Mark Lesser. He's the author of "Seven Practices of a Mindful Leader: Lessons from Google and a Zen Monastery Kitchen." Look out for my conversation with him this coming Sunday. His first chapter is called "Loving the Work." Mark wisely points out that loving the work is a surprisingly practical way to help us overcome obstacles. He says that what we love, we pay attention to in a special way. Loving the work makes it easier for us to take risk and aim for what we deeply believe in, and it motivates us through the most difficult and challenging times. This meditation is to help us reconnect to that, and it's something we can ask ourselves every day. Throughout the day as we make small and big decisions. This is something that I tell my students to remember as they go through what might seem like a boring, normal day. Connecting to our core values and what's most important to us can guide us through even the hardest of times. So find a comfortable and safe place to sit, and to elicit your relaxation response. The relaxation response is the physiologic opposite of our stress response. It gives us access to our top-down brain where we can become more connected to our deep core values. When we feel safe in our relaxation response, we can be open to what truly motivates us, gives us joy and energy. So settle into the chair and relax in whatever way feels comfortable for you. You can say quietly to yourself, just for a few minutes, I allow my mind and body to rest and renew down to the cellular level. Rest and renew. Notice your breath breathing you. Feel it enter through your nose and out of your nose. Just noticing the breath moving in and out of your body without controlling your breath in any way, just allowing yourself to be breathed. Juna Bobby MD. Now allow yourself to begin this process of quieting your body and mind. With the next inhale, allow your breath to expand the muscles in the top of your head. And then on the exhale, release tension from the top of your head. Whenever your next inhale is, breathe into all of the muscles of your face. And then release all the tension in your face on the exhale, whenever that is for you. On the next breath, expand the breath into the back of your head And then on the next exhale, release the tension from the back of your head. Whenever your next breath is, expand the neck and shoulders. And on the exhale, release, release all the muscles from the shoulders down to your arms. And hands. Now breathe into the back of your neck and spine and release all the way down your spine, each vertebra relaxing one by one. By one. Now expand your breath into your legs and then release the muscles all the way down your calves and ankles and feet. Now bring your attention to the palms of your hands. Expanding the muscles in your hands and releasing them. Feel your palms from the inside. Are they warm? Cool? Notice the touch of the air or whatever it may be that you feel on your palms. Wherever you are right now is perfectly fine, and there's no right or wrong way to be. As you listen to the following inquiries, allow whatever comes up for you in whatever ways they arise. They may be thoughts or images or feelings in your mind and body. What do I most love? What inspires me? Who inspires me? What energizes me? What is the most important thing to me? What do I love? Acknowledging what arose for you here, start to let it fade Coming back to your breath. Noticing the air in the room, the sounds in the room. Starting to move your hands and feet, shrug your shoulders, roll your head to the left and to the right. Inhaling, bring your arms up overhead and stretch. Inhale, interlacing your fingers and palms to the ceiling. Let your arms float down on the exhale. Continue to stretch and move as you get ready for the remainder of your day, opening your eyes if you haven't already done so. Thank you for meditating with me, and remember to ask these questions of yourself to help you make decisions, small or big, throughout your day. My conversation with Mark Lesser will be releasing this Sunday. To find all these meditations in one place, go to mindbodyspace.com/podcast. There you'll also find resources including 3 Steps to Focused, free PDF guide. Email me at podcast@mindbodyspace.com for any questions or meditation requests. Have an amazing rest of your day.