Want to uncover the transformative power of gratitude? Step into our gratitude journey helmed by Serena Gallegos, an esteemed yoga teacher, hypnotherapist, and energy healer. Serena skillfully guides us through an enlightening meditation, employing sound to induce a deep sense of relaxation and energy rejuvenation. To fully immerse yourself in this experience, I suggest creating a serene setting free from distractions — don comfy attire, use earphones, and you might even want to cover your eyes for increased focus.
As we conclude our meditation, we'll reflect on our journey and discuss how cultivating an attitude of gratitude can profoundly impact our daily lives. Serena will shed light on how focusing our minds on the things we are truly thankful for allows us to create deeper connections with our hearts, and in turn, influence those around us in a positive way. Post- meditation, Serena highlights the importance of hydration, explaining how water aids our bodies in integrating the healing benefits of the session. Embrace this opportunity to explore, understand, and harness the power of gratitude, transforming not only your life but also those around you.
If you are ready to tell your story or want to refer someone, please email me at audra@womeninthearena.net
***Last thing- I'd love to interview the following women:
Joan Jett
Dolly Parton
Viola Davis
Ina Garten
Maybe you can help me get there****
Thank you all for supporting this show and all of the Women in the Arena!!
Audra :
Welcome in everyone. I'm Audra, your host of Women in the Arena podcast, where we celebrate women doing extraordinary things in plain sight. It is the week of Thanksgiving and, as a gift from me to you, I have invited and she has graciously accepted Serena Gallegos. Serena is a certified yoga teacher, a clinical hypnotherapist, energy healer and teacher. I hope that you enjoy this session with her and it gives you a moment of peace, a moment of calm and an opportunity to take a deep breath. Thank you all for joining me and I hope you enjoy.
Serena :
Welcome everyone. My name is Serena. I'm going to take you on a meditation journey today into the heart, to cultivate gratitude as we step into this Thanksgiving holiday, clearing and letting go of anything that may block or obstruct that gratitude from coming forth and expressing in our thoughts, our words and our actions. And I will take you on a journey of sound for deep relaxation, replenishment and rejuvenation. You can listen to this while you're busy doing something else, but I do invite you to take the next 30 minutes to fully relax and receive, so that you can replenish your energy and have more to give. So I suggest, if you have earphones, to wear earphones during the journey. The sound of the instruments can sometimes be a little bit intense, so I recommend having the volume moderate, not turned on super high. If you start to get any sort of pressure or any sort of discomfort in the jaw or your head or anywhere in your body, you can turn the volume down or remove your earplugs and just listen through your device. At this time. Please turn off any other devices that are not needed to be used right now. Put your phones on mute or do not disturb and let others know that you will be busy for the next 30 minutes so that you will not be disturbed. Create a cozy spot for yourself. Either sit down and recline into a comfy chair, or lay down on a couch or on a bed. Cover yourself with a blanket so that you are warm, and consider covering your eyes with an eye pillow, an eye mask or anything that can block out the light around you.
Serena :
When you are ready, take a couple of deep, slow breaths and invite your body to soften with each exhale. Feel your body melting down into the support of whatever you're laying on Consciously. Begin to let go of your day. Let go of any busyness of your mind. Clear your mind and focus on your breath. Allow your breath to come into a slow, calm, relaxed rhythm and follow each breath into the body as your body fills and rises, and follow the exhale. Notice how your body relaxes and softens inwards. Empty the breath, so you are riding the waves of your breath. You might even hear a very soft whisper of your breath in the back of your throat. The sound will be similar to a soft breeze moving through the trees or soft, gentle waves in the ocean. In this moment, listen to the sound of your breath, feel the calm, relaxed rhythm and notice your body beginning to melt into gravity.
Serena :
As we take this journey, I invite you to move into your heart center, bring your awareness into the center of your chest, into your energetic heart space, as you begin to think about what you have to be grateful for in your life the people in your life that love and support you and that bring you joy or inspire you or push you and motivate you. The accomplishments that you have achieved and the unfolding of your life, things that are already happening, that you have worked for. As you think of all these things to be grateful for, you may notice that there are obstacles or blockages or resistance to staying in the positive, or even to living in that positive space. So what I want you to begin doing is, when you find either a negative thought or an emotion or a memory or a belief system that obstructs the gratitude, I want you to consciously choose to remove it from your heart, remove it from your mind and put it aside, or put it away. You might imagine throwing it away in the garbage or deleting it or just putting it aside.
Serena :
For now, you get to decide, and so this will be your internal journey moving into gratitude and removing any obstacles along the way and when the obstacles have been cleared, as you breathe and listen to the sound of the instruments, allow the energy of gratitude to build and to grow bigger and stronger in your heart until it begins to fill your whole body with warmth and light. Now, when your whole body has become full, allow that beautiful, warm energy of gratitude and love to get bigger and bigger so it radiates through your body, through your skin, a glowing light all around you. And let that light get bigger and bigger so that it touches all of those that are closest to you, all of those that you love most. And you might imagine that, everywhere you go, that light radiates out into the world, touching others and touching circumstances, and touching the world with a little bit of kindness, a little bit of love a little bit of healing so that your presence creates a positive change everywhere you go.
Serena :
And so take that journey. And whenever your mind drifts away to random thoughts, brush the thoughts aside, come back to your visualization, come back to your breath. I will now begin the sound bath portion, taking you on a journey of a multitude of sounds, of ancient instruments utilized to increase meditation, to relax the mind, to relax the nervous system and to allow your body to regenerate and create healing energy to replenish and rejuvenate you. Enjoy the journey into your heart, the journey of gratitude, removing the obstacles as you go.
Begin to bring your awareness back into your body by taking a couple of deep, full breaths, looking back from your journey, noticing where you drifted to as you rode the waves of the different sounds. The sounds can bring up lots of emotion or thoughts that are coming up to be cleared, and so you may wish to take a few minutes now, as we finish our meditation, to journal about what you experienced. Did you feel anything in the body? Did the sound vibrate through the body? Was there any discomfort? Discomfort is okay. It is the sound instruments beginning to remove any sort of heaviness or density, stress and tension, blocked energies, any emotions that came up, any thoughts. The instruments are working to clear away any heaviness of the mind, again, any blocked energy on the mental or the emotional bodies.
Serena :
And also journal a little bit about your gratitude, the expansion of the energy of your heart, and as you go back into the rest of your day, into the rest of your week, into the rest of this life, you can always bring yourself back into the center of your heart, remember the love and the gratitude that is there.
Serena :
There is always something to be grateful for in life. As we choose to focus on gratitude, we choose to focus on all that is good, is working and is positive in our life. And as we acknowledge and celebrate that, the negativity falls away, naturally we touch the lives of other from that positive space and we leave an impression and we inspire others to find gratitude and positivity for themselves. And so, taking some deep breaths and stretching, reaching the arms over your head, coming fully back into your body, please make sure that you drink lots and lots of water, always after any kind of a sound bath. Water is a conductor of energy. It will flush the toxins out and it will help your body to integrate all of the healing benefits of our meditation and of the sound bath itself. Happy holidays to you. Thank you for listening and taking this meditation journey with me. Again, my name is Serena and I hope to see you or connect with you again another time. Lots of love and blessings to you, namaste.