In this guided practice, we focus on qualities of inner strength that we can return to in times of uncertainty.
What does it feel like to experience ourselves—in our own minds and bodies—as a reliable place we can come home to in order to feel grateful, calm, and resilient?
In this week’s guided meditation, Melli O’Brien walks us through a practice we can return to in times of uncertainty or challenge to remind us of our own inner strength.
A Meditation for Creating an Anchor of Inner Strength
Read and practice the guided meditation script below, pausing after each paragraph. Or listen to the audio practice.
- Start by finding your way into a comfortable position. Sit in a comfortable way, with the spine more upright rather than slouching. When you’re ready, gently close the eyes, if that’s comfortable for you. Otherwise, you can just have them downcast with a soft gaze. When you’re ready, take three deep, slow, full breaths.
- As you exhale, allow your physical body to soften. Relax a little, feeling the softening through the jaw, shoulders, belly, and hands. Again, another breath in, and out. Let go of anything that’s on the mind. To-do lists, worries, ruminations—allow yourself to arrive right here, right now, in this time, this place, this moment.
- As you let the breath settle back into its own natural rhythm, continue to feel the flow of sensations of that breath moving in your body. Breathe naturally, feeling the sensations of the breath as it enters the body and leaves the body. Rest awareness on the feeling and the flow of the natural breath, allowing the breath to anchor you in the present moment.
- Now bring to mind a feeling of gratitude. What does gratitude feel like in your body? You might like to take a moment to dwell on thoughts of what you’re grateful for. The food in the cupboards or water from the taps. The fact that you are safe right now and that you have this time to take care of your mental well-being. Maybe you’re thinking about the acts of kindness you’ve received in your life, from the smile of a stranger to bigger gestures of support. Maybe you’re remembering the people who’ve loved you, supported you, forgiven you, encouraged you. What else can you be grateful for? Maybe the miracle that you’re alive at all.
- Allow these feelings of gratitude flood through every fiber of your being, filling you up like golden light. That feeling of inner strength, when you notice that you have enough, that you’re supported by life, a feeling of relaxing and feeling abundant—intensify that feeling. What does it feel like in your body? How do you breathe? How do you hold yourself when you feel grateful? Bathe in that feeling. Feel the goodness of it, the strength of it. What do you say to yourself when you feel grateful?
- Now squeeze your right fist gently as you feel that feeling of gratitude. Make an intention right now that you’re taking this gratitude forward with you in your life, maybe mentally saying to yourself, Thank you, this gratitude is with me now.
- Now bring to mind the feeling of calm. Maybe you can remember times when you felt calm. Like when you were standing at the ocean’s edge watching a sunset or sunrise. Or you can just conjure up this feeling, maybe imagining a calm scene. Let calm wash through you. Let it come alive in you. What does calm feel like? Let it move through you, soothe you, and ground you. Bring the feeling of calm to mind when you feel fully at ease, when you can be totally yourself. You’re safe, comfortable, and relaxed. Notice how you feel when you’re calm. How do you breathe? How do you hold your body? Feel the peace, the serenity, and the ease. Bathe in that feeling.
- Feel the goodness of calm, the strength of it, and then gently squeeze your right fist as you feel that feeling. Mentally say to yourself, This calm is with me now. Making an intention to take the calm forward in your life.
- Now bring to mind a feeling of grit. What does it feel like when you have grit? You know that inner strength when you know you could never be stuck because you always find the way forward. You always find the way through. You’re not stuck in problems, you’re thinking about solutions and creative ways forward. You’re resourceful, determined, and even playful when it comes to facing difficulty and challenges. What would grit feel like? Imagine it, remember it, let it fill your body and flow through you. How do you breathe when you have grit? How do you move? When you’re empowered, you’re focused on where you’re going, and what matters deep in your heart, your purpose, your truth, nothing’s going to stand in your way. Intensify the feeling, that feeling of grit.
- Feel the goodness of it, the strength of it. Squeeze your right fist as you’re feeling that feeling and make an intention that you’re now taking grit forward with you in your life, mentally saying to yourself, Thank you, this grit is with me now. Feel it become a part of you.
- Now bring to mind the feeling of love. Maybe you’re remembering times when you opened your heart, when you gave love freely, when you gave someone the benefit of the doubt. Or a time when you forgave, showed compassion, kindness. Imagine or remember love: what it’s like to feel love, embody love, give love. Connect with it now and let it wash through your body and your being. Maybe even place your hands on your heart. What does love feel like in your body? Bathe in that feeling—the goodness of it, the strength of it, letting love wash through every fiber of your being, every cell of your body.
- As you feel that love, gently squeeze your right fist. Mentally say to yourself, This love is with me now. Feel it become a part of you.
- Now bring to mind another quality that you want to develop. Take a moment to remember what that feeling, what that quality feels like. Connect with it, remember it, conjure it up, and let it wash through you. Let it come alive in you now. What does it feel like in your body, in your mind, in your heart? See if you can intensify that feeling as if it was filling all the cells of your body, flowing through every inch of skin and bone and being within you. How do you breathe when you feel that feeling? What do you say to yourself? How do you hold your body?
- Bathe in that feeling. Feel the goodness of it, the strength of it. And then squeeze your right fist as you feel that inner strength and make an intention that you’re taking this quality with you forward from this day in your life. Mentally saying to yourself, Well, this quality is with me now. Feel it become a part of you.
- Now you can drop awareness back into your breathing. Just breathe naturally. Ride the waves of the breaths as the body breathes in and as the body breathes out, just feeling strong. As you breathe out, wriggle the fingers and the toes, and notice how you’re feeling after taking this time out for meditation. When you’re ready, open your eyes.
