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STOPTIME: Live in the Moment.
Ranked in the top 5% of podcasts globally and winner of the 2022 Communicator Award for Podcasting, STOPTIME:Live in the Moment combines mindfulness, well being and the performing arts and features thought provoking and motivational conversations with high performing creative artists around practicing the art of living in the moment and embracing who we are, and where we are at. Long form interviews are interspersed with brief solo episodes that prompt and invite us to think more deeply. Hosted by Certified Professional Coach Lisa Hopkins, featured guests are from Broadway, Hollywood and beyond. Although her guests are extraordinary innovators and creative artists, the podcast is not about showbiz and feels more like listening to an intimate coaching conversation as Lisa dives deep with her talented guests about the deeper meaning behind why they do what they do and what they’ve learned along the way. Lisa is a Certified Professional Coach, Energy Leadership Master Practitioner and CORE Performance Dynamics Specialist at Wide Open Stages. She specializes in working with high-performing creative artists who want to play full out. She is a passionate creative professional with over 20 years working in the performing arts industry as a director, choreographer, producer, writer and dance educator. STOPTIME Theme by Philip David Stern🎶
🌟✨📚 **Buy 'The Places Where There Are Spaces: Cultivating A Life of Creative Possibilities'** 📚✨🌟
Dive into a world where spontaneity leads to creativity and discover personal essays that inspire with journal space to reflect. Click the link below to grab your copy today and embark on a journey of self-discovery and unexpected joys! 🌈👇
🔗 [Purchase Your Copy Here](https://a.co/d/d3FLZRo)
🌟 **Interested in finding out more about working with Lisa Hopkins? Want to share your feedback or be considered as a guest on the show?**
🔗 Visit [Wide Open Stages](https://www.wideopenstages.com)
📸 **Follow Lisa on Instagram:** [@wideopenstages](https://www.instagram.com/wideopenstages/)
💖 **SUPPORT THE SHOW:** [Buy Me a Coffee](https://www.buymeacoffee.com/STOPTIME)
🎵 **STOPTIME Theme Music by Philip David Stern**
🔗 [Listen on Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/artist/57A87Um5vok0uEtM8vWpKM?si=JOx7r1iVSbqAHezG4PjiPg)
STOPTIME: Live in the Moment.
✨ Finding Calm Within: A Meditation for Anxious Minds ✨
Let us know what you enjoy about the show!
This guided meditation offers a compassionate approach to anxiety, creating space for gentle release and return to the present moment through breath awareness and body scanning techniques.
• Acknowledging anxiety as a valid experience, not something to push away
• Using the breath as an anchor with extended exhales to activate the relaxation response
• Moving through the body to identify and release areas of held tension
• Naming specific fears without letting them take over
• Recognizing that you are the awareness behind your anxiety, capable of release and worthy of peace
• Returning to daily life while maintaining the calm awareness cultivated in meditation
Take a moment today to practice this meditation whenever anxiety arises, remembering that peace is closer than you imagine.
If you are enjoying the show please subscribe, share and review! Word of mouth is incredibly impactful and your support is much appreciated!
🌟✨📚 **Buy 'The Places Where There Are Spaces: Cultivating A Life of Creative Possibilities'** 📚✨🌟
Dive into a world where spontaneity leads to creativity and discover personal essays that inspire with journal space to reflect. Click the link below to grab your copy today and embark on a journey of self-discovery and unexpected joys! 🌈👇
🔗 Purchase Your Copy Here: https://a.co/d/2UlsmYC
🌟 **Interested in finding out more about working with Lisa Hopkins? Want to share your feedback or be considered as a guest on the show?**
🔗 Visit Wide Open Stages https://www.wideopenstages.com
📸 **Follow Lisa on Instagram:** @wideopenstages https://www.instagram.com/wideopenstages/
💖 **SUPPORT THE SHOW:** [Buy Me a Coffee] https://www.buymeacoffee.com/STOPTIME
🎵 **STOPTIME Theme Music by Philip David Stern**
🔗 [Listen on Spotify]
https://open.spotify.com/artist/57A87Um5vok0uEtM8vWpKM?si=JOx7r1iVSbqAHezG4PjiPg
Welcome. If you're here, it's likely because something feels unsettled. Maybe you're carrying a known fear, something specific that's weighing on you, or maybe it's harder to name, just a general feeling of restlessness or tightness that seems to live in your body. But whatever form your anxiety takes, whether it's loud or quiet, sharp or dull, consistent or irregular, it's completely valid. You are not overreacting, you are not alone. Your nervous system is simply doing its job, trying to protect you. And this meditation is not about pushing anxiety away. It's about meeting it with compassion. It's about allowing it to soften, breath by breath, moment by moment. This is a space to gently release and return to yourself, to the present, to possibility. Let's begin Find a comfortable position, either seated or lying down, just let your hands rest naturally and allow your eyes to close if that feels safe, and take a moment to simply arrive. There's nowhere else you need to be, nothing you need to figure out, just permission, permission to be here, welcome. Let's begin by bringing awareness to your breath. You don't need to change it, just observe the inhale and the exhale, just let yourself be breathed, observe how it happens naturally, without any effort. And now let's partner with our breath in a beautiful collaboration where we allow ourselves to gently lengthen your exhale. Inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth with a sigh, again, again, inhaling and exhaling With each breath. Invite ease, allow each exhale to be offering release. Now we'll move through the body gently, just noticing where we might be holding tension or emotion, starting at the top of your head. What do you notice? Can you soften just a little? Journey down to your forehead, unclench your jaw, relax the space around your eyes, recognize that there's always just a little bit more softening available to you than you thought there might be. Drop into your neck and shoulders now and get curious. Are you holding anything there? Let it fall away with your next exhale, inviting release, opening the door to spaciousness. Feel into your chest now, allowing the breath to move in and out. Notice if there's tightness. No need to force it, just notice and breathe. We're going to move down now to your belly. Let it soften, allow it to rise and fall freely. If you're feeling any tension there, go ahead and invite it to expand even more. So beautiful the way our body can expand and contract.
Speaker 1:Bringing attention now to your hips, feel and acknowledge the support beneath you. You don't have to hold on to everything. Your body knows how to support you if you allow it relax and trust. Now let's scan through your thighs around your knees, down your shins and your calves to your feet, draw your awareness to the backs of your legs and your spine and your neck and your head. If you're lying down and notice the contact with the ground or the surface where you lie Stable, rooted, nothing will fall out beneath you if you just allow yourself to relax. If you just allow yourself to relax, accept the support that is already there. Take a deep breath here in acknowledgement of your beautiful body and the surface that holds it Stable and grounded.
Speaker 1:If there's a specific fear or worry that's been living in you, invite it in now and allow it to gently rise into your awareness. You don't need to analyze it, just recognize it. If it helps to give it a simple name, go ahead. Be fear, overwhelm, unknown failure, sadness, whatever it is. Let it be seen. Let it be seen without letting it take over. If your anxiety feels more vague, like a mist that you can't quite clear, that's okay too. Just drawing awareness is enough. Return now to the breath, to your anchor, to your ally. Inhale and exhale Again, imagining each exhale as a release. What can you let go of just for now? Inhale and exhale, letting go, releasing. Stay here for a moment at choice of what you would like to let go. Even if it's just for this moment, no worries, it can be powerful to do this, to recognize that you absolutely can let go and, when you're ready, let your breath settle into its own natural rhythm and begin to bring awareness back to your body. And begin to bring awareness back to your body, wiggling fingers, toes, gently moving however feels good.
Speaker 1:If you're lying down, sometimes what I like to do is stretch my arms way up over my head and flex my feet and reach my heels in the opposite direction, maybe giving yourself a gentle twist, whatever feels right, coming back to a neutral position. Now, if it feels right, go ahead and place a hand over your heart or your belly. You can also place one hand on your heart and the other on your belly, whichever feels right to you, whichever feels right to you, and I want you to acknowledge your bravery. You showed up, you stayed, you listened, bravo, you listened, bravo, bravo. And now carry this reminder you are not your anxiety, you are the awareness behind it and from this place of awareness, you are capable of release, you are worthy of peace, and peace is much closer than you can imagine. And you've got everything.
Speaker 1:When you're ready, gently open your eyes, returning to the room and to your day slowly, just because you're not meditating anymore does not mean this feeling goes away. This feeling is within you. It's just that you drew awareness around it. That's how we experience things. You are here, you are safe and you are enough. Namaste, my friend.