Episode 16: Jay DePaolo Unique perspective on Recovery Coaching

Join a soothing meditation on the 'Choices Books and Gifts' podcast. Find inner calm, clarity, and peace through guided relaxation techniques.

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Podcast Transcript:

Hello, world, and welcome to Choices Books and Gifts where” You always have choices”. So today I don't have a physical guest because I hope to do something different with you today. I'm hoping to take you through a guided meditation. And I've been meditating for over 40 years and I'm just here to say it has such wonderful benefits. It's such a wonderful thing to do.

I know for me, some of the benefits is it relaxes me. It clears my head. My thinking gets better, and I know what I have those difficulties in life that I can't figure out the answers. Usually during meditation, they pop up in my head where, Wow, that came right to me, where it was always in front of me and it usually happens during meditation.

I started at 16 years old. I had a older brother that said, You're a little squirrely and you need to learn meditation. I took transcendental meditation, and what I'm hoping to do with you is to guide you through a meditation and then for you to also sit silently for about 5 minutes and to empty your mind to the best of your ability.

So in transcendent meditation, we usually have a word, and it could be anything that brings you to focus. What the word does is bring you back to all the noise that's out there. The word centers. You, and then you just push it out of your head where you have this quiet emptiness and where you try to think of nothing.

But first, we will do a guided meditation, and then we will sit silently so you can use anything like God is a good word. Healing is a good word. Peace, love, serenity, all those words. I also, if you want to have more identification with something that's a little far and you have on the sheer hall, which means heaven and earth and you can use any of those or any one you want to make up yourself.

So. Well, let's get started. I want you to get a comfortable chair anywhere you're comfortable. If you want to sit on the floor with your legs crossed, that's fine too. Anything where you feel you can be very comfortable.

I'm in a chair and I'm choosing the chair because it's. It's best for the podcast. All right. So we're going to start with a few deep breaths and then one of them at the end of that.

So I want you to get comfortable, not your back too far, too forward, just easy like a loose garment. That's how you sitting. So we're going to breathe in for an eight count and again and when we breathe in again, we're going to do it all, which is very relaxing. And it centers you for the meditation. Here we go.

Breathe in, go. Now you should be nice and relaxed. Let's keep our eyes closed. And a few things may happen. You may feel in your legs or arms, some muscles fluttering because they're not used to being this relaxed. That's a normal thing and just try to ignore it. So as we sit here, we're going to start with our feet, with our toes. And I want you to envision a warm like ooze that when it touches any part of your body, it makes it very, very relaxed. So we're going to start in through our toes. And you feel your toes actually relax the bottoms of the tops of our feet into our ankles and into our shins and our calf muscles just feel them sort of drop.

It's the sound of my voice. We'll go into our knees and our back and front thighs just as I said when I mention it, try to relax that part of your body. Keep it all relaxed. We're going to gently go up into the stomach and lower back. Let your belly flop out or hold it in or anything on it.

 Stick out where it's nice and relaxed. Let it go up through the back and the stomach and just area. We just you almost slow because you're relaxing so much. Let it go up through the arms and into the neck and the back of your head in the front of your head. You'll even feel your face may fall forward, which is fine.

You're relaxing your eyes and nose. Your lips may be gently ajar because they're so relaxed. Your ears or ears, who usually tense feel the relaxation of your ears. We're going to go down into the triceps and biceps and elbow area into our forearms. And this oozes to so for bit relaxing, just calming us. Our minds are already a bit a drift.

This always is going to come through our hands and it's going to shoot out our fingers, our fingertips and all that's shooting out as things IED. The insanity of the world and what's staying in you is peace, love, surround city, all the good things we want for ourselves in our lives. So we deserve that. We don't allow in because of the world we live in and the tension and the trauma that all stays outside of this.

This is your safe place. And whichever word you choose, either one of mine or your own, that is just for you. You never share it with anybody or tell anyone that it's yours and yours alone. And it's always used for the meditation. So now we're going to sit quietly using the word. And as I said, the world will come in, but look at it like a ticker tape and you just let it stroll on by bringing the word, which leads you to empty your mind.

None of us are going to do this perfectly, but as long as we stay seated and not get up and move around, the mind will fill what the body does. So close your eyes and will begin. Another good thing to do is to focus in on your breath and through your nose and out through your nose. Just keeping your body and mind. if any part of your body is twitching, that's fine. It's normal to start.

Remember, we don't do this perfectly. It takes practice to okay. To have thoughts is gently As they come in, they go out. We think of a word and then peaceful, quiet mind. You're all doing a great job. Stay with it you’re doing a great job .Empty your mind. Sit quietly in peace. So let's stay calm, Keep our eyes closed. Slow, slowly our minds come back to the surface in our surroundings. We begin to give our toes little and our fingers heads gently, so gently. We want to keep this wonderful feeling for as long as we can keep it. Try a little bit. Stay with us all day.

All slowly, All rise. Come on the meditation. You can tell me you don't feel a hundred times better, put good job. You know, as a young man, the optimal. What they want you to do is 20 minutes twice a day. I don't think I ever really did, especially after a few years to twice a day. But I know this in the morning I get up and I say my prayers and then I meditate for 20 minutes.

And it's just it's a wonderful way to start your day. If you have a reader, a daily reader or something. It's good to read that too, to start your day and I appreciate you all for coming and joining you Always have Choices Podcast. I wish you peace and I look forward to seeing you all next time. May God bless you and look after you always bye.