Rekindling Joy: A Guided Meditation Artwork

Can+Did, a TN Voices Podcast

Can+Did is a podcast of TN Voices about mental health, featuring stories of people who have overcome mental health challenges, as well as those who have helped people overcome mental health challenges. This podcast is about authenticity, and is intended to give a voice to those who are passionate about mental well being. We hope that by sharing stories, listeners will understand mental health, how important it is and help us reduce stigma. We want you to know that so many who have struggled with mental health CAN and DID overcome their challenges. If you are struggling, you can too.

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Can+Did, a TN Voices Podcast

Rekindling Joy: A Guided Meditation

January 19, 2022 • TN Voices

This guided meditation is intended to help you connect to deep joy that you may be missing, because you may have been in a state of languishing. Languishing means "to suffer from being forced to remain in an unpleasant situation." Some say this has been a dominant emotion in the past year. After all that we have been through, languishing may feel like you're looking at life through a foggy lens.

Maybe you lack motivation, or have a hard time with focus. 2020 and 2021 have been unprecedented times for people, with so much change to our daily norms that we've experienced prolonged distress. Maybe you find yourself struggling with a block, feeling you lack excitement, you cannot connect to people like you used to, or you miss your joy. In this guided meditation, we will build a defense against the languishing by guiding our thoughts toward celebration.

This celebration will focus on things we can acknowledge and recognize in our life that we can cling to and experience joy. In these moments, we will walk away from languishing and walk toward flourishing to rekindle joy.

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candling joy. This guided meditation is intended to help you connect to deep joy that you may be missing. Because you have been in a state of languishing, languishing means to suffer from being forced to remain in an unpleasant situation. Some say this is a dominant emotion in 2021. After all that we have been through languishing may feel like you're looking at life through a foggy lens. Maybe you lack motivation or have a hard time with focus. 2020 and 2021 have been unprecedented times for people with so much change to our daily norms that we've experienced prolonged distress. Maybe you find yourself struggling with a block feeling you lack excitement, you cannot connect to people like you used to you miss your joy. In this guided meditation, we will build a defense against the languishing by guiding our thoughts toward celebration. This celebration will focus on things we can acknowledge and recognize in our life that we can cling to and experience joy. In these moments, we will walk away from languishing and walk toward flourishing to kindle joy. Now close your eyes sent to yourself by taking several deep breaths now, take inventory of the tension in your body relax your toes, your legs, your stomach, your chest, your back. Let go of tensions in your neck. Your arms. Now relax your mouth, your cheeks, your eyes. Focus on your breath. Once again, take a few deep breaths right now, let's celebrate being in this moment. You are doing something good for yourself. And as a result, it will do good for those around you. Especially those closest to you we have labeled languishing and now let's recognize how it may be affecting you make a decision now to leave the feeling behind and when it comes back to you come back to the meditation again. Let's journey through a series of celebrations. We will begin by celebrating the abilities that you have. The breath you breathe for some the gift of still being alive the loved ones in your life, the joy it brings you to be loved and to love the passions you have go through them in your mind. When is the last time you leaned into your passions. The relationships that make you happy the survival story you cherish the pet that loves you endlessly the job you did not lose the job you have the job you love the miracle you have witnessed the incredible qualities you have the dreams you have that have come true and the ones you still dream about the moments you cherish deeply the hope you are clinging to the faith that grounds you the peace that you have experienced the nature around you the challenges you have conquered The person or people you have helped take several deep breaths now I want you to imagine the sound of laughter let the sound linger in your mind a moment listen closely, picture a smile of your own face that you did not force, a smile that rose up naturally because you thought of someone you love. Begin to picture the people you cherish all smiling, then laughing You may think of a particular memory, but try to create this picture as a new memory. Everyone is smiling, laughing, experiencing joy imagine ways to see this picture come through set an intention for the future to create this opportunity. Make a plan for today to bring your thoughts back to this smile. This laughter This feeling of flourishing and kindling joy. Now take a few more deep breaths and thank God for all that you have to celebrate in this life and go ahead and wiggle your toes and your fingers, open your eyes and engage the present moment.