Connect with Self Meditation for Therapists

You're invited to create a contained space where you're able to connect with yourself without the influence of others' energies. Get reconnected with your body and senses.

What you're feeling is not only valid but also a way to guide you in the direction that's most authentic for you. Even if there's an unexpected intensity to any feelings that almost seems exaggerated, it's how your body is communicating with you that something needs to change — especially when you've been disconnected from your true self for so long. 

But there's valuable, essential data that's coming from your body. And you don't want to limit yourself to the thoughts in your mind. Take a moment to connect your mind with your body. That's how you'll regain access to the data you need to make the safest decisions. And by fully connecting with yourself, you'll then be able to fully connect with your loved ones.

Notice and name how you're feeling. Notice the shifts of your body sensations as you name your feelings and the thoughts that arise about them. Tap into your intuition and spirit to the knowing that goes beyond your understanding and connects you to the larger community.

"The mind will always try to keep you safe. The spirit, the intuition, is two steps ahead. The heart knows no depth. And the body always tells the truth." - Ash

Identify whether the mind is calling you toward safety or familiarity. No judgments about this, just honest observations. Take some notes to write down what you noticed. What do you really need in your life and business? Whatever emotions you're feeling, it's okay.

You were called to do this healing work. And you're here for a reason.

Need help with your next steps in private practice? Check out Business School for Therapists!

Transcript for the Connect with Self Meditation for Therapists:

Today we're going to take a few moments to connect with self, and I'm going to invite you to create a space for yourself. It doesn't necessarily have to be a sitting or lying down space. It could be a walking space, a gardening space. It could be a rolling around or doing yoga space, but create a little bit of a container for yourself and maybe a container where you're not really around anybody else's energy or anybody else's space.

And if you can't do that, that's okay. But if there's any possibility or even some noise canceling headphones, I think that can be really helpful when the goal is to just connect with self, to create as much of a container and buffer to just be yourself can be really helpful. So, as we just sort of arrive in that state, I'm just gonna take a couple of nice, deep breaths, and as we breathe in, we're going to notice whether that feels useful or whether it feels tense. I'm gonna do that without any judgment, without any sense that it should feel a particular way, right? And as we just notice what's happening, maybe even just notice as you allow your body to breathe at the pace and depth that it feels connected to.

Notice if there may be just shifts or changes that happen, little micro adjustments, breathing in and out. As we breathe in and out. Can we notice just the, say, the impact or maybe the ripple of the breath on the body in the skin? Can we notice what happens with that largest organ that we have? The skin as we just allow ourselves to sink into the breath, this vessel, this skin, it's something that we get to be in and be a part of, and that we get to do life with.

And it provides us with so much important information through sensation, through awareness, through just sensing, right? Whether it's the sensing of something feels dangerous or someone feels dangerous, whether it's the sensing that something is too hot or too cold, too wet, or too dry, something is just unsafe, right? And sometimes over time, we disconnect from those messages because we're told that those messages are inaccurate. However, many of us have realized and come to know that's not true. Our bodies are often very aware, and they do tell the truth. And often when we receive messages that seem over-exaggerated, maybe often there's a very real reason that that's happening. And that we've probably ignored a lot of sensory information for a long time. And our body's screaming out because we just haven't been listening to any of these subtle and not so subtle cues that it has been given.

So today, can we just make a little bit of an agreement that we can be present in the body and connect and bring the body into this moment, bring the skin into this moment, bring sensation into this moment. And as we notice and bring the body online, we can notice the mind, the mind that has all these thoughts. It's there to keep us safe, to look for danger, to plan, to succeed, right? When sometimes we live in our head for hours or days or weeks or months or years, especially as healers, especially as therapists or counselors, we can often let our head rule everything. And we miss out on a lot of very powerful and important data. Data that our mind ultimately needs to be able to make the safest decisions. So, can we take a moment to connect mind and body or body to thank mind for keeping it safe, right?

Thank you for all the thoughts and all the worries and all the anxieties. Thank you for the way that you scan the environment, right? And can the mind thank the body and say, “Hey, I know you're there to keep me safe too. I know you have information and data that I need to listen and respond to. I know you want me to be healthy and whole.”

And there might be a part of your mind right now thinking, “I'm here to figure out how to make a big decision or how to talk to somebody about that. What is my, what do my mind and body have to do with that?” Hmm. If that's happening for you, just notice that for a moment. Notice if it's hard to fully connect with yourself in exploring options or making decisions or having conversations.

Because when we can't be fully connected with ourself, how are we to really communicate and really connect with our loved ones, with our partners? And so, as we notice the mind and the body, let's take a moment to tap into your heart. How is your heart doing? Your heart that holds the feelings and emotions? There's this quote that says, the heart knows no depth.

The depth of feeling of, of hurt and heartbreak and of joy and elation that we can experience is, is otherworldly. And sometimes when we have big feelings, sometimes we learn how to shut those down or create walls or barriers around them to make it safe to live in the world or make it safe to be in a relationship or to help others feel more comfortable.

And yet, the heart and the feelings is how we connect with people. Hmm. Can we just leave some space for the heart to speak and for us to not judge, are you feeling burnout, heartbroken, exhausted? Are you feeling excited, elated? Maybe you're feeling all of those things. Can we take just that moment to just notice and name how our heart is feeling, continuing to breathe, maybe noticing how the body sensations shift as we name those feelings, notice any thoughts that might pull us away or might try to discount or shift those feelings. And then finally, can we tap into that sense of intuition or spirit? Maybe this is a connection to universe or to the earth. Maybe this is a connection to a higher power or to multiple powers or spirits.

But can we just tap into where we find knowing, knowing that goes beyond our mental understanding, knowing that connect us to this larger community, this larger network, that we don't have to figure it all out on our own trustworthy space. And if you haven't connected with intuition or spirit in a while, it might be nice to think about the last time that you like knew something in your bones.

Maybe it's even when you decided to do this kind of work. Maybe it's when you decided to leave a job position or you decided that this is the place to live, or this is the place not to live, right? Let's see if you can't connect with where you feel that and where you even feel that sensationally in your body, maybe put a hand there at the very least, move your attention to that place, right? Can we breathe into that for a moment? There is this saying that someone called Ash has shared with me, and I'll share it with you, which is that “The mind will always try to keep you safe. The spirit, the intuition is two steps ahead. The heart, nose, no depth. And the body always tells the truth.” In this moment, as you're in this space of trying to make a really big decision, where is your spirit calling to you? Where is your spirit? Two steps ahead?

What is it saying, even if it doesn't make any sense? What is the truth that your body has been communicating to you for some period of time, maybe recently or maybe for a long time?

What is your body saying about this decision about not making it, about things staying the same or about things changing? And as you noticed that spirit in my body, what is your heart saying when you think about this decision about moving forward, about not moving forward, about doing something completely different? What emotions come up? No judgment. Maybe there's delight and excitement. Maybe there's also like fear, nausea, like being at the top of a roller coaster and getting ready to go down a big thing, a big drop. Ooh, breathe into those emotions and, and then notice the mind. How is it trying to keep you safe? And is what your mind is calling you to, is it going to move you towards safety?

Or is it moving you towards what it knows? And maybe what it knows is not actually very safe, it's not really sustainable. There's no judgment either way, we're just breathing into all these parts, staying fully connected. Breathe this in. Notice if you need more time to explore all of this, I'm gonna invite you to really take some notes and write down what you've noticed.

You spend so much time helping others gain awareness and gain wholeness and connection. How often do you give that to yourself? Can you really give yourself time to dive in and get curious and explore? There is this very deep place in you that knows exactly, exactly where you're going and knows exactly what you need. Is it this? If it’s not, that's okay.

What is the need? Breathe in, explore, create space for yourself. This connection with self can be really hard. If you haven't been practicing this for a while or forever, this might have felt really uncomfortable. You might be just cursing me right now. Like “I'm wondering why am I even still listening to this? I should have stopped this a while ago.”

But if you're still listening, there's a reason, right? Beyond your perfectionism or beyond your, your sense that, oh, this person would be offended if I pass, pause, or stop this recording, this meditation. Can we just know that it's okay to ease into this? It's okay to journal and sit with it. It's okay to walk through it. It's okay to cry through it.

Maybe if there was some really unexpected emotion that came out, that's okay. You are having a beautiful human experience. You're human. You're supposed to feel all the emotions. None of them are bad. So, as we breathe into this, let’s start to move forward with that sense of what's next, right? Give yourself some space and time to move through that.

Not to sit in indecision for weeks or months or years. That's not helpful. But could you give yourself 30 minutes a day on three days? Could you give yourself an hour right now? Could you really give yourself some time to be fully present? Everything that you might do with us is gonna be challenging and calling you into this kind of presence in all areas of your life and your business. And if there's a part of you that feels really drawn to that, that's fantastic. If there's a part of you that's like kind of scared about it, but kind of excited, that's great. If there's a part of you that's like, “I definitely don't wanna do that,” we're probably not your people. And that's okay, right? Because we are gonna dive into all the nitty gritty and all the head stuff.

But we know that the head stuff only really works when it's embodied. When all of you shows up and creates something that really works for your whole life and that truly works for the, the whole community. And it works for your relationships and your family and for your clients and your colleagues. When we teach a man to fish, right? Or that you give a man a fish or you give a person, there we go, we give a person a fish. They eat for a day. You teach a person to fish, they eat for a lifetime. You teach a person to teach a person to fish, and you feed a community. And then when we include the fish, ooh, that's when everything's in flow. We wanna move you towards a place of integration and sustainability, because you were called to do this work. I know it. You know it as much as sometimes it might frustrate you, maybe it makes you angry, maybe it just confuses you. But you're here for a reason. You're here to heal all communities, to heal yourself, to heal your lineage. So, I'm gonna leave you in this space of just stillness and presence with you in introspection and knowing that connection with you first and foremost.

That's the place to make decisions from, and that's also the place to talk and connect from. Showing your whole self with people who you can trust to be wholly you, people you can trust to dive into these really beautiful and confusing situations and choices in your life. Until next time.