💗 Meditation Monday 🧘‍♀️ -Meditation for Overwhelm
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Welcome to Meditation for Anxiety. I'm Katie Kramitzos. I'm the creator of the Women's Meditation Network and your guide here. I am so grateful you've taken the time to be here with me right now. This episode is made possible thanks to the generosity of our sponsors. And after a message from them, we'll begin today's episode. If you'd like to listen ad-free, become a premium member by following the link in the show notes.

I am someone who gives a lot. And I suspect you are too. I give to my kids, my husband, my friends, my family, my work. And I truly love this about me. But it can be draining and exhausting. Am I right? As a matter of fact, I have to constantly check in with myself to make sure I'm doing what I need to remain nourished.

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when they sign up today at iXLLearning.com slash audio. Visit iXLLearning.com slash audio to get the most effective learning program out there at the best price. Hello and meditation Monday is here. I'm so excited. I look forward to this every single Monday. For me, it gives me an excuse and a reason to slow down

Because Mondays feel really fast and energetic. And it gives me a reason to slow down and come to presence. And really be mindful about the rest of my day. Today's meditation is a really special one. Because I feel like it is... The feeling of overwhelm is a feeling that we can take on a lot. And sometimes we don't even know it until we are in the feeling of...

and the heaviness and our energy is here. That's how I describe it because I hold all my stress in my shoulders. So this feeling of overwhelm comes on for a multitude of reasons. And for me, it happens a lot on Mondays because I am excited about the week. And I generally start the morning off with this massive brain dump of all of the things I want to complete this week, all of the things that are important, all the priorities that

And then I immediately go into like my Monday checklist and I want to do them all on Monday. And that's just not going to happen. It never happens that way, right?

So I have to be really mindful of like, what sort of tasks am I going to have for today that are going to actually be realistically achieved? But in that, I feel like I also have the lingering energy of the weekend, things that were incomplete, things that I still want to do, like all the family things that are important to me. I'm looking at the week ahead. I know that we have...

field trip all you know with my daughter on Thursday so I'm there's no work happening for me on Thursday there's another event that I have an award ceremony that I have on Friday night so I'm like I'm looking at all these things my brain's processing it all and I can easily accumulate all of those things into like oh

Okay, I'm so overwhelmed. So today's meditation is here for you anytime you feel this feeling of overwhelm so that you can be present to it and move through it in a really productive and effective way. All right, so if you are in a place where you can, go ahead and close your eyes. And just by closing our eyes,

We are taking away our sense of sight and it forces us to focus in a little bit more on all of our other senses. Maybe you can hear things a little crisper than you had heard before. Maybe you're a lot more aware of the sounds around you, the scents around you, things that you're touching, the way your body feels. Just come inside and maybe take a little bit of an inventory.

of your body from head to toe. Just checking in. Does my back feel straight? What's going on with my mind and my head? Do I feel like I have lots of energy and thoughts moving around? Are my face muscles tight? And if so, can you relax them by releasing your jaw and softening your cheeks? How high are your shoulders? Are they in your ears? Can you relax them? Release them.

Let them fall a little deeper to your side. Is there any pain or tension that you're feeling in your body, in your back, in your neck, in your legs? If so, can you just imagine all of that pain dissolving with every exhale? Just become aware of your breathing. I like to imagine my attention on it. Really just imagining that I'm with it, almost riding a wave.

In and out. Not trying to hurry it. Not trying to do anything with it other than ride it. Become one with its rhythm. In and out. In and out. Now on your next inhale, take a deep breath in and fill your chest and your belly with air. And when it's full, just pause a little bit at the top of your breath. Holding it for three breaths.

two, one and then breathe out all the way. Breathe in deep again, filling yourself with cool crisp air, expanding your belly, expanding your chest, holding it again at the top for three, two, one and exhale all the way. Now bring your breathing into a nice easy rhythm.

Once again, just imagining yourself riding the waves of air in and out, in and out. Now just notice that all of this attention on our physical bodies has allowed us to feel a lot more calm, has possibly slowed our mind down a little bit. So just stay here for a few more breaths, practicing being present with your breath. Now,

See if you can imagine the space inside your mind and in it are all of these rocks and each rock about the size of your hand. They're all clustered in a little pile right there. Each rock representing a task, a worry, a responsibility, anything that's going through your mind, anything that feels like it's yours to carry, yours to take care of.

yours to create. Just imagine yourself placing more and more rocks on top of this pile as you think of all of those things. Some of these things might make you feel anxious. Some of these things might make you feel sad. Some of these things might make you feel excited and energized. However it makes you feel, just stay with this vision of piling these rocks one on top of the other.

Now imagine yourself stepping back just so you could see the whole vision of this huge mound of rocks. This is your overwhelm. You feel stuck under these rocks and it's just a feeling that we can move through and change. So on your next breath in, fill your lungs with air again.

And on your exhale, I want you to imagine taking one of these rocks and just placing it on the ground. And then another, and then another. Slowly letting these rocks on the ground form a beautiful shape around you. Maybe it's a circle. Maybe it's a heart. Maybe it's a spiral. Maybe it makes no sense at all or doesn't even have a shape, but...

you're able to see all of these rocks taken away from the pile and set aside around you. Notice how each of these individual rocks as you hold them are easy to manage, easy to move, lightweight. With each rock that you move, you can feel a heaviness be released from you. You can start to see out into the space around you.

The space you couldn't see with the mountain of rocks in front of you. Take just another moment to completely dismantle the mountain of rocks, individually placing these rocks in a pattern of your choosing around you. Now, imagine now that you can look up and take a look around at the pattern you created. What do you see? How do you feel? Take a big deep breath and let it cleanse you.

And as you exhale, imagine any of the tension that's remaining eases out and disappears into the air around you. You feel calm. You feel clear. You know you are surrounded by the rocks of life and feel peaceful and confident that each one can be handled as needed, step by step. Let each exhale out.

bring you deeper into calm, deeper into peace, deeper into this moment right now, where only this moment exists. Take one last deep breath and exhale, feeling the warm energy of gratitude for allowing your mountain of overwhelm to completely dissolve. And when you're ready, go ahead and open your eyes and just take notice of how you feel right now. Take notice of

Any warm, tingly energy that you have running through your body and a quiet determination to just take one step at a time today. I hope you feel a lot more calm and a lot more confident that whatever it is in front of you, whatever it is that you are carrying on top of you right now that is causing overwhelm, you can handle it and your path is clear for you. I love you so much.

Thank you so much for meditating with me today. Namaste.