Meditation with Stephanie

This is a fantastic technique introduced by my first yoga and meditation teacher, Amber Sawyer phD. She shared this technique during the 85 hour prenatal/postpartum yoga teacher training I participated in and I found it so rewarding! Implementing visualisation in your practice can be so beneficial, and I never thought that it could be applied to one of the most popular breathing exercises in the yoga practice. 

Find a quiet place, and enjoy the practice! Thanks for listening :)

So this is the first episode of my Musings aspect to my podcast! I just want to make it clear that I am sharing my own thoughts on topics I feel are important, and that you can adopt or receive anything that works for you. If I do share facts moving forward, I will make sure to site them accordingly.

In this short episode I talk about different tips to start a meditation practice. Starting small, finding a comfortable place, and wearing the right clothing are just a few of the things I discuss. Those that seem palatable for a beginner. I will continue to share more for those who are looking to deepen their meditation practice. 

Resources for meditation:

Spotify 

- Tara Brach

- Mindfully Me Podcast

- Davina Ho

Insight Timer - For timer purposes and for shorter meditations

Merry Christmas friends!

This Gratitude Practice is one that is quite different from ones I've shared previously or that you may have seen elsewhere. Usually, gratitude practices ask us to bring to mind or write down items that you are grateful for. There is a real thought process that goes into it. But according to Andrew Huberman (Neuroscientist and ophthalmologist at Stanford University), you can't fake gratitude! 

I recently finished the episode on gratitude (Episode 47) on the Huberman Lab podcast, and it was super insightful! For those who wish to understand more about the neurobiology of gratitude and the physical/mental impacts it has, I highly recommend it. While some of what he shares is quite technical and requires frequent rewinding for deeper understanding, I really appreciate his brilliance and his scientific takes on elements related to meditation and mindful breathing.

Thanks Andrew/Dr. Huberman for the inspo!

Brrrrrr!! Sending hello from a chilly England! I have invested in a new mic and there is no noise in this neighbourhood I am in and am so stoked about the quality of audio on this episode!!! 

Enjoy this meditation as I guide you towards better breath awareness. Have a wonderful Christmas, and happy holidays!!

It's quite the time to be alive, hey? With what feels like a whole new wave of fear, we are back here again with the Transformers Variant. Our world is still living under this blanket of the suffocating unknown, and once again we are kept on our toes. I've been quite contracted lately as I had to change my travel plans to Europe this winter season, but have tried to keep calm in the midst through my practice. This brief RAIN practice will allow us to sit with the uncomfortable emotions we hold, and inquire of ways to try to nurture this discomfort. 

In the beginning intro I said that we are here to practice to "break out" of the uncomfortable emotion, and I feel I need to rectify the description and intent of this practice. Our goal isn't to "break out" of anything or completely relieve ourselves of an uncomfortable emotion, but instead we are giving ourselves the opportunity to sit with whatever arises, and find ways to explore what we need to feel a bit better. This doesn't mean we will be healed from the feelings felt, but by normalizing these emotions, we create a little more space and solace in our hearts and minds. Enjoy your practice, and stay safe. <3

This meditation goes beyond the peripheries of observing the breath, and allows us the chance to ruminate on our emotional body. By tuning inwards and acknowledging the states that are within us, we are less likely to react to them when they become more intense. It's also completely normal to feel numb or emotion-less if this happens to you! Neutrality is perfectly normal. Enjoy!

There are times when I sit for meditation, that tapping into my environment and the sounds around me first allows me to connect to my breath and bodily awareness. There are other times when I find it more resourceful to tune into my breath and body FIRST before expanding my awareness to the environment and what's around me. 

This gentle meditation will allow you to move from the awareness in the environment, before zooming in closer towards the awareness of breath and body, followed by the acknowledgement of our feelings and ultimately our thoughts.

A calming meditation to connect yourself to Body and Breath for attention and ease.

So thanks to the influence of my partner I have become a huge fan of Andrew Huberman. He is a neuroscientist professor at Stanford and his episodes (which are more like lectures) are not for the faint hearted. You like, actually have to pay attention. But he's kinda cute and his voice doesn't annoy me PLUS he is ridiculously smart which all contributes to my fan-girling.

I am particularly engaged and interested in the episodes on the nervous system and how to regulate it. This means first tuning into your body to figure out what you need to create more homeostasis, and then adjusting the breath accordingly. Of course, paying attention to your natural rhythm of breath is fantastic, but if you wish to incite more energy into the body for example, you'd probably focus on a deeper inhalation. Whereas if you are trying to bring more ease and restfulness into the body, you would extend and deepen the exhalation. 

Try out it! See if it works for you. 

If you love these meditations, show your support at https://www.patreon.com/meditationwithstephanie.

So I threw out my back the other day. Don't ask. But a week after my 33rd birthday it definitely made me feel old. Anyway - I have trouble moving and it made me ponder on what it was like to live and work with pain and discomfort. We often try to resist or complain about the pain (as experienced first hand), but the moment I quietened down and really observed what was happening inside me, when I really just sat WITH the pain, I noticed it transformed. At one point it actually moved across to the other side of my back! It was weird. But by the end of the meditation the initial spot where the pain was had actually subsided a bit! 

Paying attention to the breath in the body, coupled with the attending you give to this area of discomfort, allowed me to feel more spaciousness in my body. Like it wasn't limited to that one area but instead my body opened and created plenty of room for all the unpleasant sensations to arise. From this, my whole being was infused with wakefulness and an awareness like none other. 

Let's just hope this damn tweak subsides, though. It's hindering my yoga/training practice!

If you love these meditations, show your support at https://www.patreon.com/meditationwithstephanie.