66 Mini Meditation "Do Over"

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. This is the relaxation response through a visualization. This is the do-over that I spoke about on the last episode, number 69, on reflection. So if you haven't listened to that one yet, you might want to listen to it as an accompaniment to this relaxation response. So this is a less formal way of reflecting and learning through our mistakes. It's kind of fun because we're going to use our imagination. And we can actually do something over that didn't go as well as we would have liked it to go. So by doing this reflection and being in the relaxation response state, we can visualize and mentally practice and rehearse an optimal version of what didn't go so well, or even if it went well, what we could improve for the future. There is robust evidence that mental exercise can literally change our neuronal connections. And now we know what athletes knew all along. They used visualization to increase their athletic performance. We can mentally practice not just athletic or motor abilities. We can even practice how we emotionally reacted to a particular situation. So as usual, find a comfortable and safe place, and please do not operate a moving vehicle. If you don't have a do-over situation in your mind, you can even pause this recording and think of something that you wish to go better next time, or something that you regret, or something that you're working on. Once you have this scenario in your mind, just sit comfortably and quietly. Take a deep breath in. And exhale. And at your own pace, take a deep breath in, and whenever your next exhale is, just release the tension from your neck and shoulders. On the next inhale, Whenever that is for you, just grow a little taller in your spine. And whenever that next exhale is for you, just allow your spine to stay tall while releasing your head, neck, and shoulder muscles on the out-breath. On your next breath, grow slightly taller, even as if a string is pulling you from the crown of your head. And on— whenever the next exhale is for you, allow that tension to drip out from your head, neck, shoulders, and down your arms out of your fingertips. Allow your arms to sink into wherever they are and feel your hands resting. Feel the chair or floor or whatever is supporting you. Notice where it touches your body and where air instead surrounds your body. Now bring to mind a situation that didn't go well for you, or perhaps you'd like to improve in the future. Perhaps it was something that you overreacted to or some situation that you wish you could have handled better. Now imagine it playing out on a screen, like a TV screen on a wall. Pretend to pick up a remote control and just hit play, watching yourself and the situation unfold. See it on this screen, and if you have any emotions coming through, that's just perfectly fine. Just acknowledge them and see if you can step back away from these emotions and watch the emotions on the screen as you watch yourself and the situation unfolding before you. You are now an observer without any bias, just watching how it plays out. Now, as you watch, or perhaps you're finished watching, just imagine how it could play out better for you. And as you imagine this new scenario, bring to mind your core values of compassion for yourself and whoever else is involved in this scenario. If it's difficult to bring up the compassion for this other person or yourself, just notice the feeling of general harmony that you would like for yourself and for your life, and see it play out with this new perspective. And now imagine yourself stepping into this situation, embodying this situation. Just replay the situation again, but this time see yourself and hear yourself feeling and acting in a way that you desire. In the way that you know would have played out better, in a way that you know would cause less regret, or perhaps a better performance. Whatever it is you're imagining, continue to see and hear and feel yourself acting at your best. In this particular situation. Now take a deep breath in and slowly allow the scene to dissolve. Now take another deep breath whenever you're ready. Thank yourself for taking this time to review and reflect and to have a positive influence on your own brain. Be grateful for yourself for being here and taking this time to allow yourself to use your human superpower of imagination to train your own brain and to reflect, to change your reactions. This, in essence, helps you change the path of your own life by simply reflecting and imagining different ways that things could turn out. Now take a deep breath in. May I be well. May I be happy. Inhale your arms up into the air. Interlace your fingers, palms up to the sky. Hold your breath, and whenever you're ready, just let those arms float down as you exhale. Do some neck rolls if you need to, and some shoulder rolls, whatever you need to do right now. Taking another deep energizing breath or calming breath, whatever it is you need right now for the rest of the day or evening. And until next time, this is Dr. Juna wishing you and your family wellness. Thank you so much for listening to this mini meditation portion of the RxChill Pill podcast. That was your relaxation response. You can come back to this anytime, anywhere, just by remembering what we did in this exercise, or you can download this so you can have it anytime, anywhere that you need to do a do-over. You can shape this portion of the podcast, so if you have any specific situations that you need to do a relaxation response around, just email us at podcast@mindbodyspace.com. While you're there, you can subscribe to our newsletter to get extra tips and resources around the topics covered in the podcast. Also, please share with your friends, family, coworkers, anyone that could use a little bit of relaxation response. Until next time, this is Dr. Juna Bobby MD wishing you and your family wellness.