Meditation is a tool to help you get present, focused, and in touch with what you're thinking and feeling.

It helps you take a pause so that, instead of reacting to a situation, you can respond to it in a more authentic way. Meditation is a very personal experience, and you should feel encouraged to try different forms of meditation to see what feels right to you.

First, I'd like to invite you to get comfortable.

Just make sure you're in a position that you wouldn't usually fall asleep in.

It helps to have an active posture.

You can think of having a bit of space in between your vertebrae so your spine is tall, or a string connected to the top of your head pulling you up ever so gently.

Let your hands rest in your lap or on your knees. It's often suggested to close your eyes during meditation so you can focus your attention inward.

If that's not comfortable for you, feel free to leave your eyes open.

Just allow your gaze to rest gently downward towards the floor.

And in this moment, check in with yourself to see how you're feeling. And now, take a nice, slow, deep breath in, deeper than you've taken all day so far, and just hold that breath for a beat.

And as you exhale, feeling all of the air leaving your body, and letting that exhale last a little bit longer than your inhale did, and taking another deep breath even deeper than the one before it, feeling your lungs expand outward and your ribcage expand outward.

And as you exhale, feel everything contract back in, letting that exhale last just a little longer than the inhale.

And again, an even deeper breath.

This time, feeling that breath flow through your entire body, from the top of your head to the tips of your toes.

And notice how you're feeling now. If you get distracted, it's okay, it's totally natural.

And here's the good news.

When you realize you're distracted, you're actually back in the present moment.

So congratulate yourself, and focus back on your breath as your anchor. Now you're going to take your next breath and send it all the way down your body to the very tips of your toes, feeling into the groundedness of your feet, and letting your Take your next breath and send it down into your legs and knees, allowing the breath to flow.

Taking your next breath and sending it into your pelvis, your glutes, and your hips, relaxing these areas as you breathe into them.

Taking your next breath and sending it into your lower back and belly, relaxing your stomach, and releasing any tension you may be holding in these areas. Now taking your next breath and sending it into the area of your heart.

If something you were grateful for came to mind, relax into that for a moment.

Feeling it expand outward from your heart, breathing into your upper torso and back, and into your shoulders, letting your shoulders drop down from your ears.

Now breathing down your arms into your hands, unclench your fists, and open your palms.

Now taking the next breath into your neck, leading into your lower jaw, relaxing your mouth, relaxing your tongue inside your mouth, and breathing into the area around your ears.

Relax your temples, unfurl your brow.

Breathing now into the rest of your head, all the way to the crown of your head.

And now beginning breathing through your entire body, from the top of your head to the tips of your toes, visualizing it flowing in a figure eight pattern continuously. If there's any other place in your body where you're still feeling tightness or tension, take some time now to breathe into those areas and feel them relax.

So continue breathing with your eyes closed, just allow your attention to begin to drift back to the room.

Meditation is a practice, so keep trying.

See if you can let go of the judgment about your meditations, starting with this one.

However, it's been for you as exactly as it should have been, as will the next one, and each one after that.

So go easy on yourself. Now let's take three more deep breaths together.

Take a deep inhale in, holding it for a beat, and exhaling it out.

So again, an even deeper breath than the one before, feeling it weave in and out of your muscles and your cells, and exhale it out.

Last time, your deepest breath yet, sending that oxygen all the way down your body to the very tips of your toes, and as you exhale, feeling it circulating all the way back up, and when it hits the top of your head, and you're ready, you can open your eyes.