Meditate with Tia

During pregnancy, I find that listening to guided meditations is the most helpful way to practice. It's a great way to receive in this season, allowing yourself to unwind and be nurtured by the words in the audio recording. Guided meditation can help us connect with our pregnant body and growing baby, show ourselves loving-kindness and compassion, and practice presence rather than getting lost in the active, thinking mind.

This is a guided body-scan meditation specifically for pregnancy to help you reduce stress, regulate your emotions and tune into the body. I always recommend listening to a specific meditation daily for an extended period. It's training the mind like we train muscles; the more we practice, the easier it becomes. Even if you've meditated a hundred times, you will likely find new insight and wisdom arising in each session, as every moment has something new to offer.

Exploration of the impact of craving and desire in one's own inner world is at the core of mindfulness and meditation practice. Dismantling the habit of desire can bring about some of the most profound inner transformation available within mindfulness practice. While acknowledging our greedy tendencies is a key component, this habit of craving in humans extends far beyond material and superficial desires.

From the Buddhist Psychology perspective, every moment of experience is tied to a habitual attitude of desire, in the form of craving or aversion. If a moment of experience is pleasant, we crave more of it. We cling to it. We obsess over creating pleasant feelings and experiences. If a moment of experience is unpleasant, we push it away. We resist feeling or facing it. We obsess over avoiding painful feelings and experiences. And this reactive pattern of desire is the source of all unnecessary human suffering, according to these ancient teachings.

This is a guided audio meditation with a special focus on the cultivation of equanimity, designed to ease a mind inclined to desire, craving and aversion by boosting serotonin and bringing joy and contentment back to the present moment.

Use this guided meditation to help calm the nervous system, reframe anxious thoughts and practice loving kindness towards oneself. This guided meditation is a visualization to help you nurture your inner child by adopting the view of a wise being from a porch swing. Inspired by a piece of prose from my book Nurture: poems from motherhood.

Creativity is a way of life for me. It's prioritizing habits and environments that foster creativity, doing everything in my power to make space to create, staying open to ideas and being grateful when they come. It's finding new ways to create, seeking out the creative process in daily tasks and noticing art in everyday moments. It's returning to awareness of the magnificence of human creative intelligence.

Creativity is accessible when we are fully present, letting go of all attachment to the ego. When we are no longer clinging to stories of self and can awaken to the illusion of our thoughts as truth and our moments of experience as permanent, then we access loving awareness without attachment.

Here is a meditation that helps me access creativity in moments when it feels distant.

Here is a guided body scan meditation to deepen into the body and surrender to all that arises in your experience:

• Find a comfortable position, sitting or lying down. Closing down the eyes, beginning to drop into the body.

• Becoming aware of sensations of contact points of your body to the chair or ground.

• Using this time to get out of our heads and into our bodies. A time to cultivate positive energy and loving awareness of our bodies and the wisdom within them.

• Drawing attention to the breath // watching as it moves through the body. Each breath, deepening into awareness of the body.

• As the mind wanders, notice without judgment. Gently, lovingly, bring awareness back to body.

• Throughout this meditation, we will be moving between objects of focus within the body. Think of this as shining a light of attention on the part of the body of focus. Shining your light of attention on the body, deepening into awareness of the sensations of that area.

• Taking two slow, controlled breaths.

• Let's start by bringing our awareness to the feet. Noticing any sensations in the toes, bottoms of the feet, tops of the feet. All of our light shining on toes. Do you notice tingling? Numbness? Warmth? No sensations at all?

• All of it welcome. What does it feel like to be with it?

• Letting go of the toes, moving onto the ankles and the calves.

• Knees and thighs.

• Pelvis

• Waist

• Chest

• Shoulders and arms

• Forearms, hands, fingers

• Taking a slow and controlled breath, watching the breath move through the body. Sending little puffs of oxygen to every cell.

• All of the upper body, let go let go

• Neck, face, top of head

• Final scan, sending puffs of oxygen to every cell, top of the head to the toes and back up.

• As this meditation comes to a close, remembering presence is accessible at any point in your day.

When I think back to ten years ago, it makes sense that meditation practice offered relief when I felt at war with my own mind. It was a taste of an entirely different way of being. I did not have to fight the thoughts—I could surrender to what was arising, watch them, release judgment, accept them, let them pass and find refuge in the present moment.

This meditation is really the foundation of meditation and mindfulness practice. Use this meditation to train the mind to access the present moment more easily. Whether you're just getting started or are an experienced meditator, wholeness is always accessible through the present moment. This guided awareness of breath meditation is one I have incorporated into my practice since I first began, inspired by some of my very first sessions ten years ago.

Is life leaving you feeling exhausted, overwhelmed, stressed or anxious? Today, I'm joined by Rachael Kable, host of The Mindful Kind podcast who is passionate about empowering people around the world to live more mindfully in fun, simple and meaningful ways.

Rachael shares how you can be present in the moment by developing an attitude of curiosity and open-mindedness and how to build a consistent and supportive mindfulness practice to help reduce everyday stressors. She gives us some of her best tips on how you can create your own unique mindfulness practice that fits into your busy routines.

In this episode you'll discover:

- Ways to find the motivation when you're feeling flat

- The benefits of mindfulness and meditation in reducing stress

- Getting creative with your mindfulness practice

- Identifying recurring stress triggers to be able to eliminate or reduce the stressors in your life

- Using breathing techniques to manage stress and gain clarity

- Finding like-minded communities who can support you in your entrepreneurial journey to keep you feeling inspired

- The importance of having hobbies you love to help keep the fun, play, creativity and inspiration alive

- Protecting your time and setting solid boundaries

- Ideas for self-compassionate activities for when you are having a difficult day

CONNECT WITH ME OVER ON INSTAGRAM: @tialorae

DREAM BIG, LIVE SLOW SHOWNOTES:

https://www.tialorae.com/blog/use-mindfulness-to-settle-your-busy-mind

Thanks for listening! I'd be so grateful for your support by eaving a review on here or sharing your biggest takeaways on your Instagram story so that more soul-filled entrepreneurs are able to find these powerful stories, mindful practices and tips they need so they can hustle less while still dream big. Don't forget to tag me @tialorae so I can thank you personally.

How are you prioritizing yourself? As entrepreneurs, we can easily succumb to prioritizing our business, our clients and all the other things that it can be hard to put ourselves first.

Today on Dream Big, Live Slow, I'm chatting with Kate Eskuri, creator of The Foundation Blog, a modern woman's guide to all things slow living, integrative health, and holistic self-care. Kate shares how you can cultivate a life of slowness and prioritize mini moments of self-care in your every day so that your life turns into one big, vibrant life.

In this episode you'll discover:

- Defining what a healthy, nourishing life looks like to you

- Focusing on setting your foundations first so you can stay consistent with your health practices

- Accessible and approachable holistic habits

- What is habit stacking and how you can use it to stay consistent with your new habits

- The connection between your mind, body and health

- How investing in yourself impacts the return on investment for your business and the way you serve your clients

- Tips on how to set boundaries and create a healthier relationship with social media

- What you can do to help you find your passion and purpose when you're feeling lost

- How to decide when to turn your side hustle into a full-time business

CONNECT WITH ME OVER ON INSTAGRAM: @tialorae

DREAM BIG, LIVE SLOW SHOWNOTES: https://www.tialorae.com/blog/creating-a-holistic-self-care-routine

Thanks for listening! I'd be so grateful for your support by eaving a review on here or sharing your biggest takeaways on your Instagram story so that more soul-filled entrepreneurs are able to find these powerful stories, mindful practices and tips they need so they can hustle less while still dream big. Don't forget to tag me @tialorae so I can thank you personally.

You are not your work. In today's intense work culture of working from home, we can fall into the trap of working 24/7 that we easily equate our job with our identity. But you need to see your worth as being innate and something that lives within your soul. Your job is a manifestation of your deeper purpose.

Today, I'm sharing with you the tools that have helped me navigate through this and how you can stay aligned with your soul so you can live out your purpose to help carry you through the darkest parts of entrepreneurship and your career.

In this episode you'll discover:

- Understanding your worth is innate and your job is a manifestation of your deeper purpose

- Using stillness as a way to identify where your attachment is rooted

- How to use meditation as a reminder that nothing is permanent and to release your attachments

- What it means to have a greater purpose and how to find it within yourself

- Why you constantly need to be re-evaluating, shifting and pivoting as an entrepreneur to re-align with your soul

- Investing in a therapist as you go through your mindfulness and meditation journey to help deal with any inner trauma

- Journal prompts to help you find your purpose and separate your worth from your work

- This week's guided meditation will help you find your way in an ever-changing world, career and life

CONNECT WITH ME OVER ON INSTAGRAM: @tialorae

DREAM BIG, LIVE SLOW SHOWNOTES: https://www.tialorae.com/blog/finding-self-worth-outside-of-your-job

Thanks for listening! I'd be so grateful for your support by leaving a review on here or sharing your biggest takeaways on your Instagram story so that more soul-filled entrepreneurs are able to find these powerful stories, mindful practices and tips they need so they can hustle less while still dream big. Don't forget to tag me @tialorae so I can thank you personally.

Having a mindfulness practice allows you to slow down, create the space to check in with your mental health, spend more time in the present moment and be able to live a more virtuous, peaceful and happier life. But it's not easy to show up every day to practice taking these quiet moments.

In today's episode, I'm sharing with you why it's important to have a meditation practice, how you can get started and how you can develop a meditation practice you can actually stick to and be consistent with through habit-building techniques.

In this episode you'll discover:

- Getting clear on the reason for wanting to bring mindfulness meditation to be your driving motivator

- What is the difference between an informal and formal sit

- Where to find resources to help you build your meditation practice

- The four immeasurable states in Buddhism and how you can use these states to inform and enhance the relationship you have with the world around you

- How to become the observer and separate yourself from your ego

- Developing a daily ritual to create an inspiring space and train your mind to create a safe environment

- How to write powerful mantras and use them effectively to set yourself up for success when building a new habit

- Being aware of the obstacles that distract you from doing your meditation and finding ways to eliminate those distractions

- Finding a community or coach to re-energize you

- This week's meditation is a basic introduction to meditation that you can use everyday to tune into your body and simply become the observer

CONNECT WITH ME OVER ON INSTAGRAM: @tialorae

DREAM BIG, LIVE SLOW SHOWNOTES: https://www.tialorae.com/blog/establish-a-meditation-practice

Thanks for listening! I'd be so grateful for your support by leaving a review on here or sharing your biggest takeaways on your Instagram story so that more soul-filled entrepreneurs are able to find these powerful stories, mindful practices and tips they need so they can hustle less while still dream big. Don't forget to tag me @tialorae so I can thank you personally.