Meditation: Calm, Relationship with Self Series: Self-Nurturing Length: 10 minutes Where: Home Office/Guest Room, Los Angeles How It Felt: Kind
I’m in the midst of what my husband kindly refers to as “Lovely Lady Days,” which I think sounds nicer than any other euphemism I’ve heard, so I’ll use it here. I don’t actually get the physical part of my cycle, but I do get super emotional every four weeks like clockwork.
I’m talking E-MO-TION-AL.
Puppy in the elevator? *cries*
Cute kid in a commercial? *sobs*
Ant carrying a big stick? *bawling*
I try to use these times, whenever possible, to move a bit more slowly and take some quality time with myself. I get very cuddly, weepy, and introspective. I think it’s nice to have a natural checkpoint that reminds us to go within and check out what’s going on.
Man, am I a moon child.
ANYWAY, yesterday I just wanted to wrap up in soft blankets, lie on the couch, eat Pho, cuddle my babe, and watch a funny show. I did get to do that, thankfully, but only after rehearsal and a few hours of getting stuff done, which of course included meditating! I didn’t feel like doing a big, deep meditation though, so I changed course a bit.
I explored the Calm app for awhile and found a tab in the meditation section called “Self-Care.” Um, yes please! Perfect for my mood.
They have a lot of cool series under that tab. I tried “Emotions” first, but none of them seemed quite right. The “Train Your Mind” series had a photo of LeBron James, which made me sure it would be too much pressure for the moment. I wasn’t feeling like a “champion” really. “Mindful Walking” may have been nice, but it was too chilly to walk and I wanted to be cozy.
Within the “Relationship with Self” series (YES) I found “Self-Nurturing.” Bingo. Just what I needed!
It started with a nice body scan, some relaxation exercises, then went on to talk about the importance of self-nurturing. When we are little, Tamara Levitt explained, we have adults all around us, carrying us everywhere, feeding us each tiny bite of food patiently, cheering our every tiny milestone. When we grow up, however, we don’t have that constant support from outside sources, so it’s important to learn to nurture ourselves.
Plus, many of us have an inner child who didn’t get quite enough of what we needed when we were little, so we need to send extra love there, too.
Overall, it was a sweet little session. It left me feeling cared for, supported, and relaxed. Exactly what I was craving at that moment.
There is no version of humanity that gets worse when we add in more self-care, more self-love, and more support of the people around us. Any tools I can find to cultivate those things is a-ok by me!
Grateful for the pause, even if it took some extra effort to get myself to my cushion yesterday. Grateful for the permission to be extra kind to myself. Passing it forward: try being extra kind and gentle with yourself for awhile. See how it feels. See if it can become a habit.
It can’t make you less happy, I promise you that!
My Year of Meditation 