The 4-step meditation that dramatically improves your mental health

My personal daily practice

I was at a girls night last week and the topics of conversation ranged from life insurance to potty training to theology. But the main theme was stress, and what stress is doing to our hormones and bodies.

I shared that my morning meditation is how I’m keeping my mind and hormones intact during this wild season.

Years ago when my body was doing a bunch of crazy things (even though I was eating, moving, and sleeping “perfectly”), I realized my thoughts and reactions were the signals and the problem so I spent years learning how to trick my body into thinking stress doesn’t exist.

Basically, I learned if you don’t take time to intentionally direct your attention in certain ways, you won’t reprogram your default reactions and thoughts.

If you don’t take time to intentionally get your body into a healing state, it won’t just do it on its own enough for each system to be fully functioning.

I designed my morning meditation to do just that.

The hardest part of this is actually taking the time to do it, but if you do, powerful changes happen.

The Four-Step Morning Meditation

First I’ll share a little about each step, and then I’ll share the meditation I do every single morning.

My four-step morning meditation strengthens and creates new neural pathways in the 4 areas that are most important to your mental health.

To me, it’s exciting that you can always get better in each of these areas, and the better you get, the better life gets, no matter what is going on.

Step One: Presence (self-awareness)

By practicing interoception (awareness of your internal state) and taking time to focus inwardly in a reflective, introspective, and meditative way, you increase the integration of the brain circuits related to self-awareness, emotional regulation, and attentional control. Because there tends to be an imbalance between being overly focused on the outward world, we all need to balance this with time focused inward to integrate our brains.

This step is strengthening your ability to separate yourself from your thoughts, become aware of what you are thinking and feeling, and respond instead of impulsively reacting. Getting good at self-awareness teaches you how not to be the victim of the mind’s wandering thoughts. It trains you on how to take control of your mind’s attention and direct it as you please.

Step Two: Praise (focus)

Who you are, what you think, feel, and do, what you love—is the sum of what you focus on. ― Cal Newport

Attention is the currency of the 21st century, and most people are becoming bankrupt.

I've noticed one common theme in every:

• Happy married couple

• Successful person doing work they love

• Record-breaking athlete

What do all of these people have in common?

Focus.

I've heard one person — from each category above — mention that "focus" is the key to their success, happiness, and progress.

I think, being able to control your focus and shine your attention on what matters without getting distracted by the casino in your pocket is going to be the biggest determining factor to your happiness and success.

Step Three: Perspective (environment interpretation)

In this step I play with perspective in three ways:

1. My beliefs: I explore what beliefs I have and what ones I want to create that determine the lens through which I view life.

2. My identity: Because you generally behave in ways that line up with who you think you are, I work on wiring in an identity I want to live out of in my health, my work, and my relationships.

3. The narrative: I examine the interpretation/perspective I am having about the circumstances in my life.

Step Four: Prayer (connection and emotion generation)

Prayer works so well when it's consistent, focused, and infused with Scripture, emotion, and vision.

So I do just that:

1. Speak scripture out loud over people/situations

2. Visualize/generate emotion to get into a state of coherence

3. Ask for wisdom - aka setting the filter for what your brain has the ability to see

My Morning Meditation

This could take me 4, 12, or 20 minutes depending on how much time I have. I simply set a timer for 1, 3, or 5 minutes per step. I find a timer helps keep me completely focused on the step I am on.

I sit down, set my timer, close my eyes, and focus on the questions in each step (I’ve memorized them at this point). You could also journal through each step if you prefer.

Presence:

• Slow breaths with your exhale longer than your inhale. Repeat a few times. Feel your feet on the floor, your back on the chair, get totally present in that moment.

• On a scale from 1-10 how is my energy today?

• What am I feeling? What have I been thinking?

Praise

• I am so thankful for....

• What am I choosing to focus on to see more of it? God, love, appreciation, joy . . .

• Worship God - Thank you for being . . . protector, provider, healer etc.

Perspective

• What story am I telling about my life right now?

• Beliefs I am creating: I believe. . . .

• Identity in my health, work, and relationships: I am. . .

• Holy Spirit what do you think about. . .

Prayer

• Decrees / Speak Scripture aloud over people/circumstances

• Prayers - Visualize the people and prayers happening and feel the love of God and gratitude over them. Breathing + focusing on generating emotions of appreciation to get the body into a healing state

• Wisdom: I long to be wise and ask for wisdom, thank you for your wisdom on. . .

Try It

I have been doing this for four years straight and it’s the only meditation I have stuck with. I think because it’s the perfect outline/framework for a quiet time or meditation vs going in with no agenda in the morning and getting distracted or bored.

I love that it covers all the areas I want to practice and grow each day.

Each time I intentionally direct my attention to presence. . . I get a little better at managing my thoughts and emotions.

Each time I intentionally direct my attention to praise. . . I get a little better at being able to control my focus.

Every time I intentionally direct my attention to perspective . . . I get a little better at creating beliefs and stories I want to live in.

Each time I intentionally direct my attention to prayer, I get my body into a healing state and cover everyone around me with the power of the Word.

Those ‘a little betters’ add up and compound over time and soon turn into a lot better and a whole new default reaction to whatever happens in life.

Try this out for a few days and write me to let me know what you think, I’d love to hear from you!

The more you direct your mind to something, the more that something will show up in your life. The problem is, directing your mind is hard, but with practice each day, you can change that.

I don’t do any kind of networking or marketing so you sharing this newsletter is the only way to spread the word. If anything has been helpful to you, I would be so grateful if you could share this post/newsletter with someone you think would benefit from it <3