Episode 169: Loving Kindness Meditation for Busy Times

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Well, I’m turning 40, and I have to say, I’m not sorry to say goodbye to 39. I did a lot of stretching and growing over the past year, and I’m ready for a period of rest! In the coming weeks, I’ll be releasing some episodes on the topic of rest and presence so you can join me on that journey. And I’ll start that today with a gift for you—a simple and sweet Loving-Kindness Meditation, a personal favorite for finding peace during stressful times. Tune in for a moment of self-compassion and explore the power of extending that love and kindness to others (and yourself). This episode marks not only a birthday celebration but an invitation to embrace peace and connection in your parenting journey. And as a birthday treat, all my courses and memberships are on sale at laurafroyen.com/birthday. 

Thank you for being a part of The Balanced Parent community. May this episode bring you moments of tranquility and connection as we enter a very busy time! 

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TRANSCRIPT

Parenting is often lived in the extremes. It's either great joy or chaotic, overwhelmed. In one moment, you're nailing it and the next you're losing your cool. I want to help you find your way to the messy middle, to a place of balance. You see balance is a verb, not a state of being. It is a thing you do. Not a thing you are. It is an action, a process, a series of micro corrections that you make each and every day to keep yourself feeling centered. We are never truly balanced. We are engaged in the process of balancing.

Hello, I'm Dr. Laura Froyen and this is The Balanced Parent Podcast where overwhelmed, stressed out and disconnected parents go to find tools, mindset shifts and practices to help them stop yelling at the people they love and start connecting on a deeper level. All delivered with heaping doses of grace and compassion. Join me in conversations that will help you get clear on your goals and values and start showing up in your parenting, your relationships, your life with openhearted authenticity and balance. Let's go! 

Laura: Hello, my dearest. This is Doctor Laura Froyen. And on this week's episode of the Balance Parent Podcast, we're going to do something a little bit different. Tomorrow is my 40th birthday, November 22nd and to celebrate in addition to doing my annual birthday sale, which you'll have details about either in your email or in the show notes or a little bit later in this episode at the end. I'm also going to give you the gift of a loving kindness meditation for you to kind of carry with you into the holiday season. So as I'm recording this, Diwali is just finishing up, Hanukkah is going to be starting on December 7th I think it is this year, we're going to be moving into celebrating Christmas and solstice and a bunch of other beautiful festivals that happened during this time all around the world. And I know that this is a time that is really stressful and intense for a lot of families. And so I just wanted to give you a little touch point in this episode that you can come back to when you need a moment of peace. 

So this is I'm going to do my favorite, loving kindness, meditation with you. This is one that I do for myself, regularly that I find great joy and peace and reassurance in and I'm going to offer it to you. So as we start, you can assume a posture that is comfortable and nourishing to you, whether that's sitting laying or even walking. I always like placing one hand on my heart as I start. So you can feel comfortable with that. If you, you know, if you're comfortable, go ahead. And what we're going to do is we're going to start with sending some love and kindness to ourselves, bringing that peace and love and compassion in for ourselves. And then I'm going to ask you to expand it out in ripples like in ripples where you drop a stone into a still body of water. And we're going to just expand our awareness and our love and our intention out. And I really find that this practice is helpful for me, especially during moments where I have to maybe spend some time with folks that are difficult for me or if I am feeling lots of pressure or stress. So allows me to slip into a space of being more centered and grounded. So this is my gift to you as I turn 40 I hope that it helps you and that you can use it as a moment of peace and that you'll come back to it time and time again. 

Okay, so come to sit or rest or lay comfortably and just start to notice the place in the space where your body meets the ground or the chair or the surface that you're standing on, bring your awareness to that space. What does it feel like to have your feet resting on the surface or your rear resting on a surface or perhaps your back if you're laying and just notice it, as you breathe in and out, allow that awareness to drift to your breath, to the rise and fall of your chest. If it's comfortable to you, you can let your eyes come softly closed, that's not very comfortable for you. You can let them rest softly on an object in front of you, let them just drift to one place and let your eyes unfocused, continuing to breathe in, not changing your breath, but just allowing it to soften. And if it feels good, bring one hand to your heart and allow your focus to rest on the warmth of your hand, needing your chest. And now with your breath, as you breathe in, allow a little warmth to come from your chest into your hand, as your chest rises to meet your hand and then as you breathe out, notice warmth radiating into your heart, space, allow warmth and love and compassion just begin to kind of flow between your heart and your hand in rhythm with your breath in and out, just noticing that warmth and love flowing in and out, I'm keeping that warmth flowing. 

Repeat after me aloud, if you're comfortable or in a private space or simply in your mind. May I be safe and protected? May I be healthy of body and mind? May I live in comfort and peace? May I be safe and protected? May I be healthy of body and mind? May I live in comfort and peace? May I be safe and protected? May I be healthy of body and mind? May I live in comfort and peace? Expanding your awareness to someone in your family or in your home? Someone who is quite easy to love, perhaps it's a pet, perhaps it's a small child, perhaps it's your partner but whoever is easy to send these feelings to that they just flow so naturally, let's send them loving kindness now. May you be safe and protected. Repeating after me. May you be healthy of body and mind. May you live in comfort and peace, keeping that person firmly in mind that being, may you be safe and protected. May you be healthy of body and mind. May you live in comfort and peace. May you be safe and protected. May you be healthy of body and mind. May you live in comfort and peace. 

Now expanding our awareness out to someone you see on a regular basis but who is not quite close to you. An acquaintance, the person who often checks you out at the grocery store. The person who you see driving on your commute, your mail carrier, the Amazon delivery person, the person in the shop you go into who always has a smile on their face, find that person and let's send them compassion and love and kindness. Repeat after me. May you be safe and protected. May you be healthy of body and mind may live in comfort and peace keeping that person in mind. May you be safe and protected. May you be healthy of body and mind. May you live in comfort and peace. May you be safe and protected. May you be healthy in body and mind. May you live in comfort and peace. Now allowing our awareness to shift and expand out again this time falling on someone in our life who we find a little bit more difficult to love. Perhaps it's a relative with whom we always seem to quarrel, maybe it's a person from whom we seem to feel judgment and criticism. Perhaps it's that coworker who's, who's difficult or conflictual. Find that person who just for whatever reason isn't quite easy and it's a little bit more difficult and join me in actively sending them compassion and loving kindness. May you be safe and protected. May you be healthy of body and mind. May you live in comfort and peace. May you be safe and protected. May you be healthy of body and mind. May live in comfort and peace. May you be safe and protected. May you be healthy of body and mind. May live in comfort and peace. 

Now, expanding out into your community, noticing those who maybe need a little bit of kindness and compassion in your broader family and your broader neighborhood in your community that's close to you. The teachers at your children's school, the clerks at your store and the, the folks who are running your local government, let's send them peace and love and compassion. May you be safe and protected. May you be healthy of body and mind. May you live in comfort and peace. Expanding out even further into our food system. The  folks who bring us nourishing food, both who grow it in the field and bring it to our stores and stock it on our shelves and the broader systems that we're engaged in our government systems, our civil systems let our media systems let's send them all love and grace and kindness knowing that they are humans and are worthy. May you be safe and connected and protected and connected. May you be healthy of body and mind. May you live in comfort and peace. 

Brought an out into our more global communities, the rest of our country. The folks who are walking alongside us in the broader communities that we're a part of our faith communities, our cultural communities, our world communities. May you be safe and protected. May you be healthy of body and mind. May you live in comfort and ease. And then bringing that focus back into ourselves, noticing how good it feels to send love and compassion to others, even others who may deem themselves undeserving and how hard it is sometimes to offer love and compassion to ourselves. And yet we are just as worthy and just as deserving. So in that spirit of trust that we are in fact worthy and deserving. Let's offer ourselves that love and compassion right now. May I be safe and protected. May I be healthy of body and mind. May I live in comfort and peace. 

Allow your eyes to softly open, coming back into your body and back into the room. That's my birthday wish for you that as you enter this season of light and joy and community and giving and connection that you know that you too are worthy of love and compassion and dignity and respectful treatment. And just know that I'm holding that loving kindness for you. 

If you are interested in learning alongside me in your parenting journey, just know that this is kind of what it's like and I'd love to have you there. You can check out all my courses and my membership they're all on sale for my birthday, just go to laurafroyen.com/birthday and you'll get all of the information there. If you are listening to this kind of outside of my birthday season, you can still go to that link. It will kind of redirect you to what I've got going on, but just know the door is always open for you. There's this place that's safe for you. A community of like minded parents that would welcome you in kind of no matter where you are in your journey. We were supposed to have a village, we're supposed to have aunties and, and parents that can help support us. And we don't often get that in this day and age and it's okay to create that for yourself. And if that feels good to have that with me, I would love to have you there. Be well!

Okay, so thanks for listening today. Remember to subscribe to the podcast and if it was helpful, leave me a review that really helps others find the podcast and join us in this really important work of creating a parenthood that we don't have to escape from and creating a childhood for our kids that they don't have to recover from. 

And if you're listening, grab a screenshot and tag me on Instagram so that I can give you a shout-out, and definitely go follow me on Instagram. I'm @laurafroyenphd. That's where you can get behind the scenes. Look at what balanced, conscious parenting looks like in action with my family, and plus I share a lot of other, really great resources there too.

All right. That's it for me today. I hope that you keep taking really good care of your kids and your family and each other and most importantly of yourself. And just to remember, balance is a verb and you're already doing it. You've got this!