Hey, welcome to this meditation

to help you reduce stress.

As a parent, you deal with a

lot of stressors throughout the

day, and it can be overwhelming.

But the good news is mindfulness

practices can help us reduce

stress, even if we can't change

the complexity of the situation.

To understand how, let's look at

one of the definitions of stress.

When our perceived demands

are greater than our perceived

resources to meet those demands.

The key word there is perceived.

Often, what we perceive to be demanding

is very different than what is

actually demanding in this moment.

How often are you finding

yourself in a frenzy?

Not because of what's happening right

now, but because of all the things that

have to happen the rest of today, the

next week, the next several months.

When we bring all of that into

this moment, our perceived

demands become massive.

But when we drop into what is actually

happening right now, there may still

be a lot, but it's not as much as our

mind can make it out to be when it's

caught up in everything that will happen.

So one way to navigate the stress of

parenting is to chunk it down into

what is actually here right now.

What can I control?

What's in front of me.

Not in five hours, but

right here, right now.

And in this meditation we'll train

our capacity to pay attention in that

way, with the simplicity of presence.

So if you haven't yet done so, you

can find a comfortable posture.

If you'd like, you can close your eyes.

And let's start by taking

a deep breath together.

In through the nose.

Slowly out through the mouth.

Inviting the jaw to soften.

The teeth don't need to be clenched.

Letting the shoulders be at ease.

And relaxing the belly.

You can let your breath settle

into its natural rhythm.

And in this meditation, we're going

to work with a very simple phrase.

And that phrase is, what's here now.

What's here now.

So you can drop that into your

mind's awareness in this moment

and just see what arises.

What's here now.

There are a lot of things

that the mind can attend to.

Maybe the breath, maybe the felt sense

of the feet on the floor, the sound

of my voice, the sound of silence.

The point is to bring the mind

closer to the reality of this

moment, not the thoughts about the

future or the past, but just here.

So drop that phrase into

your mind's awareness again.

What's here now.

If you need to anchor your

attention on any one thing, like

the breath or a sound, you can.

Or you can just let the mind attune to

the different elements of what's here.

And when you notice the mind caught up

in the stories about, well, this needs

to happen, that needs to happen, you

just recognize these are just thoughts.

The reality of these things

may be true at some point, but

they're not here right now.

And then you drop into

what is here right now.

What's here now.

I'll give you a minute

in silence to practice.

As we come to the end of this meditation,

let's take one more deep breath together.

In through the nose.

And out through the mouth.

And when you're ready, you

can let your eyes open again.

All right.

So this is a very simple phrase you

can bring with you throughout the day.

Anytime you find yourself caught up

in the perceived demands of your life,

all the things that might have to get

done but aren't here right now, just

drop into what is here right now.

What's here now.

And I'm not saying that it is going

to make the moment perfectly peaceful,

but at the very least, it should

help you see that this moment is a

little less of a catastrophe than

the mind can make it out to be.

And that alone can be the difference

between feeling like there's a

lot going on and burning out.

So I hope you get to use this.

I know that there's so much

that comes with being a parent.

So I'm glad you're

taking care of yourself.

There's a lot to be said for that.

Try this out.

Hope it helps on your journey.

Thank you for your practice

and I'll talk to you soon.

Until next time, take care.