Meditation: Windows Open, Windows Closed
Let your body tell you what you actually want.
In this post, I share a free mindfulness exercise that I teach my students, to work with the notion that we need to check in with our bodies, with our whole beings, as we set goals for ourselves. (I explored this in greater depth in this post, which also notes that I’m recovering from Covid, hence the slightly stuffy nose in the audio.)
I call this exercise Windows Open, Windows Closed.
This exercise is inspired by the work of somatic coaches like Martha Beck, who use different wording to express the same idea – that our bodies will feel expansive and open in response to some goals and ideas, and our bodies will contract in response to others.
I have offered this exercise to my students who are applying to selective high schools in New York City, sometimes at the urging of their parents, sometimes on their own. I've offered it to high school students in East Asia who are choosing colleges in the same way. I will shamelessly admit that I have even used Drake to explain the concept to eighth graders.
More recently, I have offered this exercise to adults moving through grief who are attempting to determine how best to heal and who is best equipped to support them — and who is pressuring them a bit too hard to look fine, to act fine, to “keep it together” and keep emptying the dishwasher, even when their world is falling apart. My most recent grief group participants inspired me to post this meditation, so that they could have access to it when they need it. May it be of benefit to all who do.
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In this meditation, I invite you to first ground yourself and come into your body, and then I invite you to think about a topic that is bringing up a sense of indecision or stagnation. Then, notice what comes up in the body.
Does thinking about this project or person make you feel like you’re running to the top of a mountain and flinging open your arms, embracing the great wide open — or at the very least, willing to crack your window open to the possibility?
Or, does it make you feel small, tight, captive and contractive?
Our bodies know.
That's why they respond to these songs, these stories, these visualizations. Our bodies will show us what is true.
Click below for the meditation:
I'm curious to hear what this exercise opens up for you, no pun intended. This is the first time I’ve offered a meditation outside of my usual class settings, so I’d love it if you’d take the time to give this post some quick feedback here.
If you have more specific thoughts or would like to share what came up for you during this exercise, I’d love to hear from you in the comments as well!
Finally: If you'd like to offer these materials yourself in your own group settings, the script is offered below. If you find these materials to be of benefit in your home, classroom or workplace, you can buy me a coffee in reciprocity.
Best wishes for a wide open year!
