Save this episode to have on hand for the stressful moments! You can get the background of this practice by listening to the full episode on March 5, 2020 {Like A Chicken With Her Head Cut Off}. This practice is a 10-minute meditation designed for use specifically on super stressful days or in stressful moments.

This week’s episode of The Mindful Minute is a sneak peek into my new virtual offering: Mindfulness & Managing Stress. This program was created for some of my corporate clients that want to introduce mindfulness into the workplace and don’t have the space or time to do live sessions.

This meditation starts with a story…. Once upon a time, there was a kingdom far, far away. There was a king. A queen. And, a fearsome dragon who made living far too uncomfortable. The king went to beg for relief and the dragon offered, “I will leave your village alone if you will give me your daughter as my wife.”

All month, we’ve been talking about the deeply vulnerable experience created in meditation. The uncovering and unrestriction of our feelings to sit with ourselves in a gentler way is profoundly powerful.

Feeling a little “off” today? Something got your emotions swirling around and your anxiety riding high? So, what is there to do?? Happily, there is a lot of opportunity to work with this vulnerable feeling and evolve it into something a bit more friendly and welcoming. After all, vulnerability is the epicenter for joy, connection and creativity. Rather than continuing to run from ourselves, why don’t we sit down and stay awhile?

Last week, we kicked off the February meditation series with an exploration of why we feel so much more when we start a meditation practice. We worked with Brene Brown’s definition of vulnerability {uncertainty, risk & emotional exposure} as a clear picture of what is happening when we meditate.

Brené Brown says that “vulnerability is the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, courage, empathy and creativity.” And, as powerful and important as that is, vulnerability also has its own unique feeling in the body – often, it is one that feels “unsafe” to our primal brain. What a paradox to know that love, belonging and joy are right there, and yet, they feel inaccessible because of the feelings vulnerability creates in the body.

There is an old joke about a therapist who tells her client to start meditating. She says, “you’ll feel better…” So, the client begins a meditation practice and comes back to the therapist only to report, “You lied to me! I am feeling all this STUFF coming up. All these emotions and anxiety… I don’t feel better at all?!”