Some Mondays arrive and we look back on the weekend and see disruption, corruption, and eruption. Not rest. Some Mondays require a reminder to breath intentionally; to remind ourselves that at the edges of what appears broken is a salvage edge that is trying to heal.

Here is a simple meditation to quickly allow the body to relax and find calm and peace in the midst of stressors.

3 Mindful Breathes

• Sit comfortably with a tall (but not rigid) spine or lie down.
• Place one hand on your collar bone and one on your abdomen, just below your belly button.
• Inhale from the bottom of your torso, causing the hand on your abdomen to rise.
• Continue inhaling until you feel the hand on your collarbone rise.
• Exhale. Reverse the process on the exhale, feeling the upper hand, then the lower hand fall

Reflection Question

What impact do you notice when you stop and take 3 mindful breathes?

“Healing is actually a worldview, a cosmology…. For a healer, the world is not broken and in need of fixing… the world is hidden. Everything and everyone have in themselves a hidden wholeness, a potential for growth, a dream of themselves. “ Rachel Naomi Remen

Lisa Wellington is a Certified Mindfulness Teacher who writes about integrative practices that downshift stress, increase insight, and jumpstart joy.

She is best known for her work with law enforcement professionals as well as those challenged by housing instability and addiction. Trained in the Fine Arts at Washington State University, she specializes in group training that engages participants’ inherent creativity.

If she is not under a stack of books about psychology and spirituality, she can be found at a Puget Sound beach or nearby trail, always searching for the absurd, which is her superpower.