Welcome to this self-care meditation. As a parent, you have a lot of demands on your time, on your energy, on your attention. And because of that, it can sometimes be easy to forget, to take time for you. So to emphasize the importance of that, and to perhaps give you permission to do that, I'd like to offer a quote by Parker Palmer before we go into our meditation. And the quote is, "Self-care is never selfish.

It's simply good stewardship of the only gift we have, the gift we were put on earth to offer others. Anytime we take care of ourselves, we do it not just for ourselves, but for the many others whose lives we aim to serve. Self-care is not selfish. And we could write that off as trite, but it's true. If you are not taking time to replenish your own energy, to be still, to take care of your body, to eat well, without that, you're just going to deplete and you won't have a full enough fuel tank to keep going.

So if nothing else, I hope this encourages you to take moments throughout the day for you. And that's what this meditation is all about. So let's start by finding a comfortable posture. And one that feels particularly good and nourishing for you. It doesn't have to feel austere and upright.

Maybe this is sitting. Could be lying down, could even be standing, if that feels best. And if you'd like, you can close your eyes. And let's drink in one deep breath together. Breathing into the nose.

Slowly letting it out through the mouth. Noticing any tension you might be holding in your face. The forehead. The eyes. The cheeks.

The jaw. Even the tongue. Just inviting these muscles to relax. You don't need to be on right now. You don't need to have a particular expression.

You don't need to be showing up in a particular way. It's okay to be however you are. Even if that includes feeling uncertain, overwhelmed, a little burnt out. We can add so much extra tension by constantly feeling like we need to show up a certain way. Masking, perhaps, what's really beneath the surface.

So letting the face soften into its original face. Inviting the shoulders, the neck to be at ease. The chest and the belly. And I invite you to place one hand on your belly and one hand on your heart. I tend to like to do the right hand on the heart, left hand on the belly.

And just take a few moments to feel your body breathing you. And your heart that's beating. Even while you're running around, spending so much time taking care of others. Your body is still here nourishing you, caring about you. Keeping you going.

So maybe just feeling a moment of appreciation, gratitude. You can even say in your own mind, thank you. body. Thank you for continuing to show up for me, even if maybe I'm not always the best at showing up for you. And the breath is your reminder that as long as you're breathing, there's still so much more right with you than wrong with you.

No matter how many mistakes you may perceive you've made, no matter how hopeless things might feel at times or how overwhelmed life might feel, this breath is your reminder that you're still here. There's still another opportunity to choose how you'll be in relationship to this moment. And as you rest here in stillness and attunement, just ask yourself, is there anything I need right now that I can offer myself? It could be within the meditation, but you can let down those boundaries and also just consider outside of the meditation. Is there anything I need right now that I can offer myself? And see what comes up around that question. And what does it feel like to even consider offering this to yourself? Just starting with the nourishment of the intention to take care of yourself.

It may feel a little scary, yes. It may feel like an unfamiliar pattern, indeed. But just see if you can sit with it for a moment, this intention to offer something to you. So in our final moments here, I invite you to thank yourself. It's not an easy job that you have.

And some words of reassurance and kindness from yourself to yourself can often go a long way. So whatever that sounds like for you, you're doing great. Thank you. You can even talk to yourself in the third person. So if it were me, I might say, Hey Corey, I know there's a lot going on, buddy.

This is tough, but you're making it through. I'm here for you. We've got this. I'm proud of you. So what do you feel like you need to hear? And can you say it from yourself to yourself with the most amount of love? Let's take one more deep breath together.

In through the nose. Slowly out through the mouth. And when you're ready, you can let your eyes open. Thanks for practicing with me. You know, we all have different relationships to self-care.

And it is often the case that obsessively taking care of others can be a subtle form of bypassing the more difficult work of taking care of ourselves. And so just notice if that might be a pattern for you. You have a big job as a parent, a caregiver, and it won't be sustainable or at least with any sort of energy, vitality and joy, without being able to take these moments for yourself to recharge, reconnect, reattune and just show yourself some, some love and gratitude. So necessary and goes such a long way. So thanks for doing everything you're doing in the world.

I appreciate you. We need you. And I'll talk to you next time. Until then, as always, take care.