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.