Meditations to Enhance Mood
Shifting our mood can be a challenge for many of us. When we are not feeling that great we want to feel better but we don’t really know how to do that. Our active stories and beliefs create our emotions. These emotions play out in our bodies and that is how we “feel” something.
In order to feel better and shift our mood we have to shift our active stories. Sometimes it’s a matter of focusing on something more positive in the present moment. These practices help us increase our skill level to enable us to shift our focus to something more optimistic. They also help us re-frame those old stories that no longer suit our needs.
Basic Skills Learned:
- Present moment focused attention.
- Accepting what IS with non-judgement.
- Starting over is OK.
- Practicing being kind and curious to our selves and our experiences.
Extended Skills Learned (based on different types of practices):
- Love, compassion, kindness, gratitude, positive focus, optimistic re-framing of our stories, empathy etc…
Rhythmic Breathing Meditation – 10 Minutes
Keeping your breath rhythm steady enables your heart beat to become more cohesive. This increases blood flow to your brain and lets you think more clearly.
Resilience Meditation – 15 Minutes
This is a meditation that teaches us resiliency by teaching us the skills needed to re-frame our stories to allow us to bounce back from change or challenge. Trust and acceptance are the key skills we are learning here.
Compassion Breathing Meditation – 15 Minutes
Self compassion exercises are a great place to start. Becoming self aware can be challenging. When we uncover our beliefs and hear our thoughts we may not be pleased with what we find. Self compassion allows us to see our challenges as a common human trait allowing us to be kind while we more forward to the place that we want to get to.
Expanding A Positive Mindset Meditation – 15 Minutes
The following is a Meditation that teaches the skill to think of ourselves as a positive influence in the world. In this Meditation you are asked to breathe in positive energy from around you and amplify it as you breathe out.
Releasing Perfectionism – 15 Minutes
This mantra meditation is designed to help us release the negative judgments we have about ourselves.
Loving Kindness #2 Meditation – 15 Minutes
This is a meditation based on the traditional loving kindness meditation which allows us to open ourselves up and send good wishes to not only ourselves but others.
Loving Kindness Meditation – 15 Minutes
This is a traditional meditation that allows us to open ourselves up and send good wishes to ourselves first and then to others.
Gratitude Meditation – 15 Minutes
Being Grateful is a great way to look at your life in a positive manner. The science tells us that being grateful is the best way to shift from pessimism to optimism.
Everyone has many things to be grateful for.
Open And Allowing Meditation – 15 Minutes
Open and allowing is a stance that we practice in a meditation exercise that teaches us to accept what is happening and letting it be.
Embrace A Positive Experience Meditation – 15 Minutes
Our minds naturally gravitate to what is negative around us. This exercise helps us retrain our focus to what is good around us.
Releasing Negative Beliefs Meditation – 15 Minutes
Negative stories show up often. Being aware of them as they come up allows us to observe them and release them.
Self-Compassion Meditation – 15 Minutes
Self-compassion allows us to see our experiences, ourselves and others with greater kindness and curiosity.
Thoughts/Images Meditation – 15 Minutes
Thoughts, images and inner dialogue constantly occur in our minds. We cannot prevent them from popping up but we can practice viewing them just as they are.
Body Scan Meditation – 15 Minutes
Our emotions play out in our bodies. For this reason it’s valuable for us to feel the sensations that come and go.
Emotions Meditation – 15 Minutes
This emotions meditation teaches us present moment focus and awareness of our emotions.