This is a concentrative breathing exercise meant to help you calm your central nervous system. It's great for times in which you are experiencing stress, anxiety, anger, or fear. It's also best to practice it when you are feeling neutral or good and to do so several times so that when you need it you are easily able to remember and access it.

4-Square Box Breathing Exercise

Breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth stimulates the vagus nerve, curing the sympathetic nervous system to begin helping you to relax. This meditation will help with concentration, focus, and centering. Want to know more about soft belly breathing? Check out the Center for mind-body medicine.

Sweet Soft Belly Breathing for Stress

This breathing exercise can help to engage the parasympathetic nervous system, helping you to calm, relax or even get to sleep. You can also practice this breath when you are feeling great so that you can easily use it when you are feeling stressed.

Diaphragmatic Breathing

This is a relaxation breathing exercise meant to stimulate the vagus nerve and the parasympathetic nervous system, to help you feel more calm, relaxed, and centered. This is a great breath exercise created by Jill Miller that is meant to practice anytime and to do when you are feeling overwhelmed or stressed.

Vagus Nerve Breath (mmm...ahhh....ooo)

This is a breathing exercise for relaxation and to reduce stress. You will breathe into a count of 4, hold for 7 seconds, and then breath out for 8 seconds.

4-7-8

The Pursed Lip exercise can be helpful when you feel stressed, tense, or agitated. The more you practice it when you are feeling calm, the more accessible and useful it will be to you at times of stress or anxiety. We often learn a breathing technique believing that it will be helpful in times of tension or anxiety but then find that this isn't the case at all! If you have had this experience, I encourage you to try the breathing exercise when you are feeling good - many times - until you can easily access it without thought, at times of stress.

Pursed Lip Breathing

This is a relaxation breathing exercise. I will describe the practice and then lead you through it. It's a great practice for reducing stress and activating your vegas nerve, which stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, telling your body and your brain to rest and relax.

Brahmari Pranayama Humming Bee Breath

Allow your breath to roll like an ocean wave, letting stress, grief, or fear wash over and out of you...this is a practice best done in the morning or daytime. It will help you to reduce stress and anxiety. Some do feel dizzy or lightheaded when first practicing, so it is best to practice on your back with knees lifted when you are learning. Slow your breathing or stop the practice if you feel short of breath or lightheaded. Credit to Mindful Yoga Therapy.

Rolling Breath

This practice can help you to become aware of how you are breathing, help you to breath more fully and deeply, and fill your lungs. Be gentle with yourself and practice this exercise as an experiment rather than thinking that there is a 'right' or 'wrong' way to do it. Want to learn more? Check out Mindful Yoga Therapy.

Three Part Breath Practice

Is alternate nostril breathing something that can stimulate your light (or sun) side? Can it engage the dark (or moon) side? Traditional tantric and yogic systems of understanding and our latest understanding of neuroscience have a lot in common! Learn how similar they are and practice several different types of alternate nostril breathing. You'll gain an understanding of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems and how you can regulate these to improve your mood, maintain health and get better sleep!

Science of Alternate Nostril Breathing

Great any time of the day - when you are stressed, overwhelmed, or just need to "let it go". This is also a breathing practice wonderful before bedtime, to engage the parasympathetic nervous system and help you prepare for sleep.

Let it Go Breath Practice

Sitali or Cooling breath can help to lower the body's temperature to cool you down when you are overheated due to hot temperatures or after vigorous exercise or an emotional expression of anger, sadness, or anxiety. Practice this when you are feeling fine, and then it will be available to you when you need it. It can be a little difficult at first, much like tapping your head with one hand and rubbing your belly with the other because you will be breathing in through your mouth and out through your nose.

Sitali Breathing - Cooling Breath

The Lion's breath can help you to feel confident, strong (emotionally and physically), and fierce. You will breathe out, stick your tongue out, make a big noise, and open your eyes wide while doing it. Take this with a grain of salt and be prepared to laugh out loud at first.

Lion's Breath

Understanding the Window of Tolerance and how it relates to the Optimal Meditation Zone and our ability to integrate the benefits of meditative practice into the rest of our lives is an important component of mindfulness. When we are outside of our Window of Tolerance, it is much more difficult to be in the present moment and to benefit from meditation. It's also much more difficult to find the space and capacity to be present at the moment, making meditation challenging. Learn what the Window of Tolerance is, how it can be widened, and ways to work with it to benefit most from your meditation practices.

Window of Tolerance & Optimal Meditation

Meditation builds capacity for resilience and that is one of the best tools for healing from trauma, but meditation can also be particularly challenging and sometimes overly activating for trauma survivors. Trauma survivors can include, among others, those whose family or culture has experienced historical trauma, those who have experienced interpersonal or environmental trauma, who suffer from sustained stress, and those who have experienced prejudice, discrimination, or threats to their person or family. This session will teach you about what I call the Optimum Meditation Zone (OMZ) and help you to identify how to create a sense of safety within the meditation practice through orienting to your physical space.

Meditation And Trauma Survivors

An understanding far beyond fight and flight. The dorsal and ventral vagal nerves are both a part of the parasympathetic nervous system. Why don't you calm down for hours after a difficult interaction? What is the Window of Tolerance? What can you do to feel more grounded, centered, and safe? If you are wondering about these, or are interested in learning how to create new patterns of healthy behavior, take a listen to understand the complex polyvagal system.

Social Engagement Polyvagal System

Mindful eating is a wonderful way to reset the way you experience food and taste. It can help you re-establish your relationship with food, or allow you to look at how fast you tend to eat. This is a very brief exercise in mindful eating - just to give you a small taste of what you might want to look at doing more of on your own.

Mindful Eating

Serotonin is a feel-good neurochemical that we experience when we are in a position of social dominance. It isn't stimulated when we are in a position of one-down socially and can help keep us safe in these situations, allowing us to back down rather than engage. In situations in which children grew up in homes where they were threatened or didn't experience a feeling of safety and power within the family system, serotonin may not have been activated regularly, and, as a result, may be lacking. How can you develop new neuropathways that include more serotonin naturally? Take a listen and learn some skills toward this goal.

Neuro-Responses: Serotonin

Dopamine is activated when our survival brain believes that a reward is close at hand. It can make the forward motion toward a goal seem worth the effort and motivate us to keep going when things are difficult. Learn more about your personal dopamine stimulation, how and why it is activated, and what to do about it.

Neuro-Responses: Dopamine

Understand what the neuro-chemical feel-good response of endorphins is really all about, why you can't (and shouldn't) get it all the time, how to modulate it so that you can release endorphins in a safe and healthy manner, and how to shake off excess stored endorphins when you feel jittery, jumpy, or angry.

Neuro-Responses: Endorphins

Oxytocin - the Love chemical! What is it, how does it benefit you, and how can you get more of it?! Why doesn't it flow all the time, and how is it related to the survival brain? This tract will help you understand, increase and engage with your oxytocin activation.

Neuro-Responses: Oxytocin

A facia system practice can help to release locked-in strain from injury, hyper-flexion, or other strain that can disrupt the nerves, circulation, and muscle function. Releasing strain allows your body to return to proper function. Give this practice a try, and please leave feedback about how it does or does not work for you. Give it some time, and practice though as you will likely see changes over time that don't occur immediately. This practice was developed by Chip Sorensen, and he is actively looking for any feedback you may have.

Feel, Focus, Follow and Free

"Embodiment", much like "mindfulness" is thrown around in many contexts now, but what is it really? Aren't we always embodied? We are, actually...but when we speak of embodiment, we are actually talking about a conscious awareness of how we inhabit our bodies. Give a listen and learn a bit more about your personal embodiment and how it is intimately connected to mindfulness.

What is Embodiment Anyway?

Identify one small habit that you can change now that will help you to live within your own values and beliefs, to feel better and to be happier.

Change One Thing Today

Brief mindfulness meditation with an invitation to let go of what is no longer serving you.

Letting it Go

A short micro-practice for daily use or to be used anytime, anywhere. Attune to others and practice compassion in less than three minutes.

Attuning to Others

This is a practice I learned from Bridgette Christiansen. Come join me in five breaths, three things you are grateful for, and one intention for your day.

5-3-1 Practice

Every spiritual tradition and Indigenous culture has a practice of communing with the wisest part of ourselves, or with a spiritual guide, to gain insight and self-knowledge. Use your own inner wisdom to connect with your wise guide, spirit animal, angel, or ancestor. This meditation will help you to lean into your true self, answer burning questions, or learn the gift that is waiting for you. This meditation builds on a script I learned from Dr. James Gordon.

Meeting Your Wise Guide

This is a micro-practice of mindfulness using three breaths. It is great anytime, anywhere, but can be especially useful to start your day out, or during transitions throughout your day.

Three Transitional Breaths

Increase your ability to be present, and notice that you are in this present moment. If the breath is unavailable or uncomfortable to you as an anchor of attention, there will be suggestions for other anchors of attention. This can be particularly helpful to those who have a history of anxiety or trauma or who are experiencing sustained stress. This meditation will help to develop steadiness of the mind which includes improved attention, focus, and concentration. With repeated practice, you might notice improved overall mood.

Present Moment Steadiness of Mind

Sleep is often prevented or interrupted by the mind's continual thought process. This meditation will help you to contain those repetitive thoughts so that you can sleep.

Creating a Container for Sleep

A meditation for sleep, leading you via a path to where the 13 grandmothers tend the Spirit Fire. A place of releasing the old, recognizing your worth, and relaxing into a deep and peaceful sleep.

13 Grandmothers Spirit Fire

Parenting - the toughest job anywhere, anytime. Take this short break to give yourself a moment to pause, breathe, and come back into your body before heading back to your family.

Parenting Pause

This meditation will lead you in a neuro-somatic experience of listening to, embodying, and noticing how you respond to standing FOR yourself. You are enough and you are worthy. Always have been. Always will be.

I Am Enough

This meditation will begin with an introduction, quiet settling, and then creatively engaging the spark of creativity that you may have lost or be looking to engage.

Creative Spark Meditation

This is a breath awareness exercise using mindful attention to the quality of the breath. It's great for returning to sleep when you have awakened in the night, especially if you can stay with the experience of being present with yourself, as opposed to trying to control or force yourself into sleep. This is best done seated or lying down.

Cellular Breathing

We often think about the seeds that we want to plant for new growth to begin in our lives, but cultivating the soil before we plant is equally important. This meditation will lead you to think about what you want to plant, and what needs to happen before you begin the planting process.

Cultivating the Soil for Change

When you are in rough seas, emotionally speaking, there are ways to ride the waves, through urge surfing, finding your voice, and noticing your anchor.

An Anchor in Rough Seas

Negative thoughts can take the steam right out of us. They can derail our plans, make us feel bad, and create problems in relationships. This meditation will guide you to specific ways of noticing, questioning, and living with negative thought patterns so that you can shine a light on them and allow them to naturally burn off.

Shining a Light on your Thoughts

Try this Sight-Anchor meditation to engage your unique inner resources and wisdom. Mindfulness and meditation build our resiliency and can be one of the most effective tools for healing. It can also be surprisingly activating and difficult for those who have experienced prolonged stress or trauma. When our nervous systems have been over-activated, focusing on the breath as a meditative anchor can be difficult. Let this help you to find that anchor. Becoming aware of our inner resources and senses can help us to calm, center, and think more clearly by engaging the parasympathetic nervous system. This increases relaxation and improves your ability to feel more in control of yourself.

A Sight Anchor for Calming

This is a Yoga Nidra practice in the mindful yoga therapy tradition. The word 'yoga' is misleading if the only kind of yoga you have experienced feels like stretching or exercise. This will feel much more like breathwork, meditation, and moving into being from doing. Nidra means sleep. Give yourself over to rest, presence, and being in this space where all parts of you are welcome and encouraged to move into greater ease, rest and, perhaps, sleep. They say that Yoga Nidra is equal to several hours of sleep so even if you don't actually fall asleep, this practice can help to reset your nervous system, helping you to feel more relaxed and at peace. Thanks and credit to Suzanne Manafort and Mindful Yoga Therapy.

Sleep Deep Meditation

Sometimes we have a difficult time finding our Optimal Meditation Zone (OMZ) or we may feel pushed out of our Window of Tolerance, making it difficult to be calm, centered, and compassionate toward ourselves or others. When this happens, it may be helpful to do some grounding exercises, anchoring your thoughts, feelings, and physical embodiment with an animal, real or imagined. Using an animal for grounding can help you be in the present moment. When you are more grounded and relaxed, you are more available for meditation. This can be a great practice to use before longer mindfulness meditation. It can also be used independently to help you be in the here and now.

Grounding with an Animal as an Anchor

This sleep track will lead you in six autogenic phrases helping you to ease into a deep and relaxing sleep.

Awake and Wanting to Sleep

This meditation invites you to identify a body of water that has been meaningful in your life, then leads you into a journey of discovery and interconnectedness with all beings through the water.

The Interconnectedness of All

This practice will focus on centering from the dimensions of length (dignity), width (relationship), and depth (your history and your path forward). Once you have completed this practice, it is an ideal place from which to make a centered decision or move out into the world.

A Centering Practice

Creating an internal space is a wonderful way to relax and feel more deeply rooted in yourself. The more you listen to this track, the more you will create a safe trait within yourself as a way of regulating the body and emotions in stressful situations. If you create a body anchor by placing your hands or arms, in the same way, each time you listen to this meditation, you will remind your body to relax each time you engage the body anchor in real-life situations. This is also an excellent way to go to sleep each night.

Creating a Sacred Space

When we are stressed, have experienced trauma, or are living in sustained difficulty, it can be difficult to find a sense of hope. It's even more difficult to fully embody hope. Inspired in part by Elizabeth Stanley, this practice will help you to discover your connection to your own body, to feel grounded and secure, and to find hope within your body.

Where Hope Resides

A micro-practice of compassion sharing that can be done anytime, anywhere.

I Wish You Well Today

A poem about growing, learning, and emerging through this growth. This poem does speak to a Christian sense of re-birth.

Emerging from Darkness

Prayerfully asking God to give us the courage to face and not to turn away from what is dark and confusing. To let us look upon that we do not understand without scorn or fear or judgment. To help us to have the heart that He meant for us to love others with. To allow us to see the spirit in those who fear that theirs is lost. And to let us be the light that sees the best in others.

Prayer: Seeing through God's Loving Eyes

Lord, help me to be the person you have asked me to be, to help clear the path for others and ensure that no one is without your love and grace in their lives.

A Prayer for Accepting Others

Hebrews 12 asks us to believe in love. To love everyone no matter what. To love, be loved and to share that love with others. Join me for a reading and short share inspired by Hebrews 12: 1-29

Hebrews 12

This is the story of Genesis 1:1 through 2:4. A beautiful way to wind down the day and fall into God's arms as you drift into sleep.

God Created the World

What is cortisol and why does it make me feel so stressed out? How can I stop feeling so angry, scared, or stressed out? Why do I feel dread at work? If you want to understand your survival brain and the stress hormone cortisol, take a listen. You'll also learn ways to develop awareness, develop new habits, and build new neuropathways that help to sustain and calm you.