Welcome back to Picture Love, friends. If you were with me last week, perhaps you got to listen to the end and complete a guided meditation or visualization with me. And if you have, I would love to hear if you revisited it, but I did what I said I was going to do, and I used it every day for seven days. And I felt so many things shift for me in positive ways, and everything from better sleep to a rib injury healing so much faster than I expected it to. The last time I did this, it took the better part of a month to feel pain-free, and a week later, I am nearly over it, and taking things easy so I don't re-injure myself. But if you missed that, I invite you to please go back and give it a listen. And if you don't have time to listen to the ol- whole episode, you can cue it up to about the 17-minute mark. 17:17 is what I wrote down, whether it's on YouTube or audio. And it's a gift from me to you to help you connect with yourself and your space, and I'm gonna go a little bit into, or maybe a lot into, why it's so important to me on this episode. Because I came to you today with the intention to talk about discernment. I have a couple stories. But then I realized discernment and d- and really deciding what's my personal truth has become a little bit challenging as an adult. You know, if you look at a young child, you look at somebody who's just getting a grasp on their language, what's one of the most common things a little person is heard saying? No. Well, no is a sentence, right? But a, a young child who has not been yet shaped by the world's views and politics and beliefs and restrictions, they know what they want. They know their basic needs. And that was us. But then as we grow up, we start to be exposed to the world's intervention, the rules, the expectations, the order. Some of it, I believe, for our highest good, to protect us on a road, but a lot of it to convenience others who want our attention, who want to be the leader. And in the process, voices got muted. And when our voices are muted or we mute our voices because we have fear of being, mistreated, then those needs continue to go unspoken, and they start to gather in places like our physical bodies, and our nervous system gets all out of whack. We start collecting dysregulation in our bodies and our minds. And I'm not here to take us to those places, but I'm noticing there are things that, right off the top of my head, have become extremely important ways that I have come to heal and help re-regulate my system. I'm not there yet. It's a work in progress. But I thought I'd share them with you today, which will lay the groundwork for what I'm bringing to you in the coming months. So here are the top ways that I am learning to heal my body and healing my nervous system. And I invite you to maybe remember some of the ways that this connects you with your re-regulation. So the first one I have on, on my list is moving the body. You know, whether it's stretching, whether it's yoga, whether it's sports something that gets your heart rate up and strengthens the body and the muscles. That's one way that my nervous system has found healing. It needs- we're not meant to be sitting at desks 8 and 10 and 12 hours a day, but our technology has made us very stagnant as a population. And, connected to that is breathwork. I don't know if you've ever done any breathwork activities in a structured way, but like an athlete has to use their breath in movement, and a dancer does, and a swimmer does, we can't live without the breath. And so if this is something that you've always been meaning to check out, maybe go on your podcast player or on YouTube and look up guided breathwork and give it a try. But that's something that has really supported me. My third thing I wanna mention is reading a book, and I don't mean on a tablet, on a screen. I mean on something that has pages that you can hold and thumb the pages. And while the digital era helps maybe save a tree or two- There's something to be said, something very human, very alive about holding a book in my hands. So if you haven't done that in a while, I invite you to. And if you're a fellow bookworm who knows what I'm talking about, let's revel in that and give it the honor it's due as a service to our nervous system. And maybe if you're If all of your books are work-related, maybe you're a student, maybe you're a professional and all of your hard copy books are about work, maybe choose a title that lets you play. And the fourth thing, actually, for me, is probably the most innately important since I was a little girl is creating something with my hands. So maybe your crafting is with food or baking, or maybe jewelry, or maybe you make beautiful things with wood. Maybe you're at the beach, and you just need to make a sandcastle or a design in the sand that you know that the ocean will wash away. Just create something. Make something expressive, whether it is temporary or long-lasting. But the process of creating something out of your mind with your physical body and off of a technology Don't get me wrong, I love me some digital tools, but to do something with your hands that you can actually use your senses. Maybe you can smell it, you can feel it, you can touch it, you can stretch it, and you can tie it. You can dig it. There's something truly alive in that process, and that is one way that I love to heal my nervous system. Another way is through being in nature. Whether you, like me, love to garden, whether you like to sit under a tree, whether you don't remember the last time you did that and wanna go do it now, I highly, highly recommend getting out in nature. And even if it means checking your mailbox in bare feet so you can put your feet on the grass, so however that looks for you, I hope you give yourself the gift of getting out in nature. Here's another way is learn something new. I can't believe that nearly three years ago I took this little workshop to learn how to podcast. I never imagined it would become something that's so vital, a vital expression of my heart. Podcasting is, is one thing that's seen me through so many chapters in just a short period of time. Podcasting is what- Gave my heart a voice, lets me speak even though I don't know exactly who needs to hear what I have to say. But it allows me to archive and collect lessons and stories that I think are valuable and have helped me in my journey, and in the right time, I trust it will find the person who needs it the most. So learn something new, even if it's just, "How do I make sourdough starter?" Knowing you might kill it like I did, but you can try again. I also made it my own line item to get off the technology. So maybe that means you're scheduling an hour, and I highly recommend at least an hour before you go to sleep to rest at night that you get off the screens. I know a lot of people who like to fall asleep to a television in their bed, but whether it's a television, whether it's a computer screen, whether it's your phone, whether it's a tablet, whatever the screens are, they do things to our brains. They get our brains activated, and it does interrupt our sleep pattern. So give yourself the gift of getting off technology and doing some of these other activities for an hour if you can every day. Let's be honest. If we have time to scroll through an hour of junk mail, email or scroll through social media, or listen to another talk show, then we definitely have time to schedule that time with ourselves to get off the technology and live life. Live life. Maybe do that one thing around the house that you've been meaning to, and it might not be as big a deal. It might not be as time-consuming or as physically draining as you think, but it feels good to go to sleep saying, "Oh, I'm so glad I got that done." It's a gift for yourself. Another thing is I love to get in water, whether it's a mindful shower, or soak in a tub, or get in the ocean, or maybe you have a hot tub or a pool at your disposal. Wherever you are, getting in water is with the intention of receiving the water, appreciating the water, and visualizing that when you get out of it, you're leaving something behind that's no longer serves you. That's a really, really great way that I love to heal my system. Music. Music, whether you are a musician or not, listening to it, creating it, moving to it, singing in the shower. Music is a beautiful, healing way of creating and participating in vibration that absolutely heals. Did you know that if you hum, you can actually clear your sinuses? Just the act of humming. Maybe you have a car ride to go somewhere, make it a, make it an intention to turn off the news and turn on some songs that you can wail at the top of your lungs, pass the time by. the 10th thing I wanted to share with you is sleep. I believe that sleep is an unsung hero. I mean, any new parent knows that the baby who sleeps is the baby who heals and grows, right? There's so much that happens. Well, the same goes for adults. While we might me- not be growing up physically, the body restores itself. So much happens to support our systems when we're asleep. And I wanted to just mention a little bit about something that I was made acutely aware of with my kids growing up, and that is what sleep hygiene is. And I, and you know, I know I alluded to a few of the things, like if you can, sleeping without the TV on, and if you're sharing a room with somebody who will not receive that thought, perhaps covering your eyes. I used to bury my head under a pillow when my husband used to sleep, falling asleep to the TV, and eventually he let go of that habit, much to my delight. Getting off the screens, giving yourself a ritual, an evening ritual, you know, whether it's maybe you're a shower in the morning kind of person, but maybe something, if you're not showering at night, perhaps just washing your face and washing off the day, and let that hygiene be an act of self-care and love that sets you up and tells your brain, "Oh, it's time to go to sleep." You drink some herbal tea, not right before bed, but an hour or so before, that tells your brain, that tells your body, "We're unwinding now. Now is the time we're starting to get ready to rest," and we're setting the intention of that. Maybe reviewing not all of the nitty-gritty of the day, but a couple things that you're grateful for or that we learned today that you wanna carry into the next day, things that one might consider journal worthy. You don't have to be a journaler, but you know, something worth remembering. Something valuable, something that's supportive. Those are things that- set me up for good sleep, and I know it has for my children too. What does tomorrow deserve to remember? Those are the kind of thoughts that I would love to account for while washing my face, brushing my teeth. These are the types of things that set me up for peaceful, restful sleep. Of course, now that we've got extra fur babies in the house, there's a few more steps to help make sure that everybody's been potty-ed and so on. But I think sleep is really, really undervalued, underappreciated. And, you know, clean sheets, clean clothes, fresh thoughts, maybe making your room darker if possible, maybe allowing yourself a gentle stretch, maybe three intentional breaths saying, "Thank you for today. I'm letting you go. I'm ready to sleep and prepare myself for the next day to come." So those are the kinds of things that have brought me more mental wellness, and definitely nervous system regulation. And I don't know if you've noticed, but there's one thing I didn't mention, and that is the power of meditation. You could be the kind of person who can plop down in a chair and just zone out, and in total silence, you're on your own. But I know a lot of people, we're not trained to do that, and that's where guided meditations can be such a support. And that's why I've put so many on Picture Love, because they've supported me through different times. But today, I'm setting the intention that this summer, 2026, and whenever you're listening to a Picture Love podcast, if you're binge listening, you're gonna find over the coming, uh, couple months' worth, you're gonna find a lot more meditations for different purposes. And today, I'm going to offer a guided meditation for the purpose of preparing for a beautiful, restorative night of sleep. So if you're driving right now, you might want to, pause this one, come back to it. If you're driving late at night and it's dark, please come back to this at a safer time for your best and highest good. You can come back to this and share it with those that you love. And may we all wake up more rested, more rejuvenated, and more regulated so that we can approach the day with discernment. So That inner toddler in each one of us who knows their true yes and no can be heard freely and easily, so that we do reconnect with, remember, recognize our inner compass, our inner voice that guides us, not necessarily to follow what society deems popular, but what is in our highest and best good. Find yourself a comfortable place to sit, where your back is supported, maybe you sit cross-legged, or maybe you're laying flat in your bed, ready to drift off, and that is perfect. Here we go. With a deep, gentle breath, I invite you to inhale and fill your lungs with the freshest, most rejuvenating breath you can find. And imagine your body's like one of those really long balloons, as you inhale, the air fills all the way to the top. And as you exhale, you're gradually letting all of the air out of your balloon. And every time you inhale, you fill up that balloon a little bit more than last time. And as you exhale, you start to notice the muscles in the top of your head, in your forehead, in your temples, in your cheeks. They start to relax and unwind. And you take in another deep breath, and you hold it at the top for just a moment. And imagine as you let the air out, more relaxation falling down your face, through your jaw, through your neck, the back of your neck, all around your sides of your neck, your throat, into your shoulders. They just start to get softer and softer and softer. And you inhale again. Hold the breath a little bit at the top. Feel that air expand your beautiful ribs and your lungs, and as you let it out, that relaxation melts like chocolate sauce covering a strawberry. Melts through your body, through your arms, through your shoulders, through your chest, through your upper back, your shoulder blades, and even your arms, all the way down to your elbows and your forearms. As you inhale, you feel that air fill up your cells even farther than before. Pause at the top. And as you let it out, you notice the softness spreads all the way down through your wrists and your hands and your thumbs and each of your fingers and your fingertips and your fingernails. And you can actually feel relaxation extending beyond the tips of your fingers and through your ribs. Every single one of your ribs, they're letting go. And as you inhale again, that- Softness continues to deepen through all of your fascia, through all of your muscles, through all your connective tissue, all the way through your core, into your belly, into your hips, the back of your ribs, your lower back. All softness radiating with the breath that your body is receiving. And every exhale lets go of any stiffness and pain. And you inhale again. And this time, the softness melts all the way down through your hips, the backs of your thighs, the fronts of your quads, through your knees, through your lower legs, backs of your knees, your ankles, your feet, the tops of your feet, the bottoms of your feet. Even your Achilles are just jelly, all the way through the tips of your toes, beyond your toenails. And one more breath is filling up your entire body. It's fully maximized. And as you let it out, your body melts into the surface that supports you from below. And if your eyes have not fallen closed yet, and it is safe, please let your eyelids be so soft and so heavy that you feel weightless. You feel like a feather, the softest little down feather that has no weight at all. If it were to land on a scale, it would not even register, but its significance is beyond measurement. That is you. And as you continue to relax your breathing in that softness and that lightness, think of one thing that's beautiful in your day. It could be in the space you're in right now. It could be a lesson you've learned. It can be the sound of somebody's voice. It can be a child screaming in the background. It could be a neighborhood dog barking. It can be the birds that chirped when you first woke. Anything, it does not matter. That happy thought is yours. And allow it to find one other gentle happy thought to keep it company, a happy thought that you would love to wake to in the morning And then even if that happy thought is not fully developed, even if that happy thought has not actually been something that happened, make it the thing that you would love to wake up to. Keep it simple. Don't make it detailed. Just gently with your hand open in your mind, envision that truth unfolding for your highest and best good. How would that feel? That gift is yours. Nobody gets to decide if it fits in your life or in your mind. It's yours, and I need you to remember that. And in your mind, envision that you're gently, with your hand, placing that special blessing, that ha- that beautiful thought, and you're placing it in the safety of your heart, and it'll be there for you when you wake up in the morning. So as you continue to breathe weightlessly and floating like that feather, start to notice the quiet in your space. Can you feel your heartbeat? Can you feel the pulse in the tips of your fingers and in your toes? Imagine that heart, that beautiful heart of yours, with that fulfilled happy thought radiating a beautiful golden rose light in your heart. That beautiful golden rose light is spreading. It's filling your whole body. It's filling the space around you, and you're giving it permission to enter the space of tomorrow with every bit of trust that things will unfold for your highest and best good. Let's take one more gentle breath before we say sweet dreams. If you're ready to drift off to sleep, then good night. Sweet dreams. And if you have more to do before you get to go to sleep tonight- I invite you to gently move your fingers and toes ever so slightly, and start to gently move your head from side to side. Notice if there is a softness on your face, and let it stay there. Let that softness stay in your body. And as you go through any final activities or movements before your rest time, keep this peace in your heart, and trust that those happy thoughts are waiting for you. And when you wake in the morning, let's see how they present. From my heart to yours, keep Picturing Love friends. I love you. Sweet dreams.