EPISODE 45: [MINDFULNESS] MAKE YOUR OWN HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY
SHOW NOTES
If you've been following this week, we've been really focusing on joy and how to create more of it on how to parent or show up differently, especially if you were raised in rigid traditional environments that maybe didn't align with how you are as a person and who you want it to be.
Today’s practice is inspired by when I used to teach yoga, and involves a simple fun pose designed to shake things up, lighten the mood, and change your perspective.
We also explore:
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to the F*ck Saving Face podcast. I'm your host, Judy Tsuei, and together we'll explore mental and emotional health for Asian Americans, especially breaking through any taboo topics. Like may not always be pretty, but it is indeed beautiful. Let's make your story beautiful today
Let's make your story beautiful. Thank you for tuning into today's episode.
If you've been following this week, we've been really focusing on joy and how to create more of it on how to parent or show up differently, especially if you were raised in really, you know, rigid traditional environments that maybe didn't align with how you are as a person and who you want it to be.
Also, if you're looking for more of those Monday memoir style snippets and bits of information, then be sure you're following me on social, on Instagram at fcksavinface. That's fuck without the u. And you'll be able to see kind of more snippets from my life and how I'm taking these moments that we all go through as human beings and just turning them into opportunities to cultivate greater wisdom and sharing so that you know, that you're not alone in whatever it is that you're going.
Lastly, I wanted to say that the fck saving face podcast has been accepted into the AASA academy, which is this incredible opportunity to up-level this podcast with mentorship from different, you know, really notable figures in the media space. So for example, last week we were talking to JJ Romberg and she was the host of MSNBC's weekend business program, your business.
And then formerly before that, she was at CN. Over the weeks ahead, there are going to be so many more people that I'm going to get one-on-one time with. So it's an incredible opportunity to just take all of that group wisdom and knowledge of what really works in terms of a show, and then bring it to you.
And if you'd like to support the podcast and everything that we're doing here, there are so many ways that you can do that. You can go rate and review the podcast on whichever app or platform that you're listening to. So more people can find it. That means so much to me. You can listen to my daughter's shameless plug on certain episodes, describing how you can support.
You can go to fuck saving face.com to make a one-time donation. Or go to patrion.com forward slash flux saving face. And that's where you'll get an opportunity to ask me all the questions that you may have had that have come up over the previous episodes, because I've heard from a lot of you that you want to know more about this or that, or the other thing.
And the Patreon offers, ask me anything sessions. So you really can ask me anything. Today's mindfulness practice is going to be a little bit goofy, a little bit different. It's going to be all about cultivating more of that joy and playfulness that we've kind of been exploring all week. So when I used to live in Del Mar in San Diego, I lived on the cliffs and the beach was my backyard.
And, you know, I'd take those opportunities to try to go running during low tide. One time I was running and really assessing through this unhealthy relationship that I was in. I was living with my boyfriend at the time. You know, I knew even before we moved to San Diego from LA that I needed to break up with him, but some lessons take a while to really sink in and really learn for me as I was running that day.
I remember looking out onto the ocean and then just seeing these two dolphins leap out of the water and do these circular flips land, and then do it again. And I just stopped. Mid-stride turn around, fully faced the ocean, watched these dolphins. Playing. And it was this huge moment for me to realize that all creatures in nature have this innate built-in mechanism to move, to play, to find that joy.
Part of it is to process through any, you know, stress or trauma. One of the ways that we learned how to help children do that to process through the emotional baggage they might be carrying is through purposeful play, just to have that outlet, to get these feelings in your body and your being out of you into the ether so that you're not holding onto it anymore.
And then watching these dolphins, it just really struck me of, oh my God. Play is such an innate capability within us and in my upbringing that wasn't important. It wasn't cultivated. I know if you Googled right now, like adult opportunities to learn how to play, you would see that play is so vital in so many components of our lives.
And in fact, my friends, all these moms and dads that, you know, we all surf and all of our kids are the same age. We were saying that as our kids are in summer camp, We should be creating an adult summer camp so that we also get to play and we also get to find and cultivate more of that joy. So it might look different now, you know, we were talking about yoga and surf and barbecues and whatnot, dance parties jamming into in the garage in a band, but whatever it is, as you heard from Eunice and Sabrina Moyle, it's so important that at any age, we continue to find that place.
You know, contentment and joy within ourselves, that sense of happiness. So for today's practice, if you can, I would encourage you to find a space where you can lie down. And I know it's going to be a little bit weird and different because usually I tell you that you can practice this mindfulness anywhere, but today is a little bit.
So, if you grew up in a serious environment, like I did, this may feel kind of awkward, but I really encourage you to try to do it. So if you need to press pause and get yourself set up, then feel free to do that and then just relax onto the floor. So you're lying on your back. You're letting your body settle in.
And you're feeling the ground, the earth hug you right back. When I used to teach yoga, I'd say that in Shavasana, it was an opportunity for you to really let go and feel supported by the forces around you, that you could melt into the ground beneath you. Like you could feel the earth and all of her majesty and magnitude supporting.
Giving you the ground to lay down upon creating the solid foundation beneath you.
And as you settle in, see if you can let the muscles in your body relax.
Often we're holding tension in places we don't realize. So do a running scan from the top. Of your head, the crown of your head all the way down to the soles of your feet and maybe noticing the subtle details. So perhaps you're squinting your eyes or holding onto some tension in your jaw or your cheeks.
Maybe you can let your shoulders melt back a little bit more opening up your chest. Maybe you've been subtly holding your belly, crunching those abs can you relax and release that? Letting your glutes settle? Your thighs, the backs of your knees, your calves, your ankles, and your toes. And if it helps, you can even wiggle around a little bit more to subtle, more deeply, you can move your fingers in your toes, whatever it is on the next inhale.
I want you to breathe in. And then I want you to clench all of your muscles, super, super, super tight, then exhale. Let it all go. We'll do that two more times. Inhale, breathing in holding at the top of your breath. Clenching all every single muscle holding there. One more time breathing in holding at the top of that breath, squeezing, squeezing, squeezing.
I'll go. I'll go. And just notice and observe how you feel now, how it feels to be in your body to be in your head space, to be in your heart space. And now from here, I want you to reach your arms up toward the sky. So the fingertips are pointing up towards this guy. And then I want you to also reach your legs up to the sky.
So your toes are pointing it to this guy. So you're creating what looks like a U shape with your body or a staple, or however you want to envision that let your, the tops of your shoulders ground down. Let the lower back also grounded. But your legs are sticking straight up and your arms are sticking straight up and you're reaching and just feel the blood draining from your fingertips and your toes down into the core of your body.
Feeling anything that's making contact with the earth, settle in a little bit more, and then envisioning anything. That's reaching up to the sky, reaching a little bit higher, take a deep breath here and just breathe out, but keep your arms and legs were there. Another two cycles of breath in
letting it go one more deep breath in, let it go.
And then from here, I want you to imagine that you are becoming a dead bug. This is dead bug. So you're going to start shaking your arms and shaking your legs and shaking, shaking, shaking, shaking, shaking, like a little pill, bug shaking, everything out, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake a little bit more. Shake all that stress out, shake all that expectation or anything else that you're holding on to shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, and plop that all of your limbs come down to the ground falling wherever they may,
and just feeling what that feels like in your body and your baby. Maybe turning the corners of your mouth up into a smile and remembering that we can tend to take a lot of things super seriously. But what I love about this mindfulness practice, as you can shake it all out, you can shake the Ickes or the scratches or whatever is out that lets you be goofy for a moment when you might have some judgment about being goofy.
And when you're laying on your back, looking up towards the sky, it's also an opportunity to change your perspective. So literally you're looking at something differently. How often are you lying on your back, staring up, noticing other subtle details. So this pose, this movement, this mindfulness practice is great for so many reasons that lets you have some fun.
That likes you shake out any of the stress or anything that you're holding on to hella to change your perspective, seeing something differently, taking a different angle.
And it reminds you to find a bit of that joy and that playfulness in your day. So the next time that you were feeling stressed, you're feeling like you're bottling things up or holding on tight. I invite you to come back to this practice. Super quick, super silly, and just take a few cycles of breath, shake it all out.
When you're ready. I'm going to take one more deep breath in closing this practice
and a deep breath out
and gently float your eyes.
Thank you so much for joining me today and for having a little bit of fun and play. If you like this, please share this with your friends, your family, anyone you love and care about. And thank you so much for supporting the show.
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