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23Feb

How to Use an Anchored Breathing Meditation: Mindful Meditation Practice

Posted by: Jessi Andricks Categories: Meditation Stress Management
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anchored breathing meditation

One thing that will always be true, sometimes unfortunately so, is that stress and overwhelm will be a part of life. Even when you have tools to manage and reduce them, they will show up and you’ll have to put what you’ve learned into practice, or try to find a resource to help you better manage. It can be challenging (sometimes in a good, growth-filled way), and it can also be an opportunity to try out some new skills, or come back to some tried and true ones. For me, it is usually a reminder or indicator that I have stepped away from my routine and my daily habits or self-care, and that is when I know I need to come back to it, to feel better and work through whatever its going on or is off balance. 

When things start to get overwhelming and stressful, one thing you can do is to anchor yourself with your breath. It is a technique that is often used in mindfulness practices, such as meditation and yoga (more info here). 

This practice helps in a few different ways:

  • It drops you into the present moment, rather than spiraling about a past situation or future issue. 
  • It helps you to focus on one thing, rather than the multiple thoughts and “what-if’s” that overwhelm can bring in. 
  • It helps you to find more calm and turn down the stress response you are experiencing. 

Anchoring your breath is a simple practice of focusing on your breath, in a certain place on/in your body, to help you stay present and focused during a meditation (or yoga or even walking/running/cycling) practice. You pick a spot that you can feel or sense the breath, such as the tip of your nose or nostrils, or the ribcage or belly, and try to maintain your focus as you breathe and sit. Your mind will wander, and the practice helps you to have a specific place to come back to, and focus again, when you notice your thoughts have wandered. 

Here are a few ways to use an “Anchored Breathing” Meditation Practice:

  • Self-Guided Meditation:
    • To do this practice, take a seat, close your eyes and start to pay attention to the breath in a specific spot. 
    • Stay there for about 5 minutes, or go for longer (I like to set a timer if I am doing a solo meditation). 
  • Yoga and Movement:
    • You can also try this during a yoga practice – taking the given pose or shape and then anchor into your breath as you hold or flow through. 
    • You could try this while running, walking, cycling, etc. Find a place to notice and anchor your breath, and then keep that your focus as you move. 
  • Guided Meditation Audio:
    • Sometimes you need some guidance and support to practice. You can always use a guided meditation practice, like the one(s) in the SLP Toolbox or on meditation apps.

Next time you are looking for a tool to help with the stress and overwhelm you are feeling, try an “Anchored Breathing” meditation or mindfulness practice. 

To download an audio version of this, make sure to sign up for the FREE resource library, the SLP Toolbox. You’ll find this meditation practice, plus many more and other resources, to help you better manage and reduce the stress you face as an SLP (and human!). You can sign up below for access:

How do you like to anchor your breath? Nostrils, belly, ribcage? Leave in the comments below!

Much Love, 

Jessi

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17Oct

SLPs Need to Rest: Mindfulness Meditation

Posted by: Jessi Andricks Categories: Meditation Stress Management
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slps need to rest

Do you ever feel like you are constantly doing something? Like, even when you are not working or working on work, you are trying to be productive by doing more on your endless to-do list? It’s incredibly common, especially for a field and profession that focuses so much on productivity. But, without a doubt, SLPs need rest. Maybe now more than ever.

As a yoga teacher, for nearly a decade now, there is one thing that has remained constant. It is easy for students to come in, stretch, move, and breathe, but when it comes to the end, where it’s time to really relax and get still – not doing – most people have a really hard time. When given the chance to relax, it is difficult to do, because it seems unusual and unproductive.

I think that as an SLP, you might relate to this as well. Even though the thing you might want the most it time to just BE and not DO, it is really difficult when productivity is such a huge part of your work and daily focus.

But it is so important to take rest. And, SLPs need rest too. Not sleeping, or even really doing (like yoga or meditation), but simply resting to recharge and deeply relax. Doing this for a few moments, almost like a timeout, can help you to let go for a moment, reset, and feel less attached to your daily stress.

A great way to do this is with a yoga “savasana”. If you’ve ever taken a yoga class, this is the part at the end where you just rest, flat on your mat. And it is the part that can be so difficult. But, when you let go and just rest on your mat, it can give you the balance you need from the hectic, productive pace of your daily routine and work.

You can do this by resting on a yoga mat for a few minutes, maybe listening to some music or just being still. If you want a little guidance, you can follow along with the “Savasana Meditation” in the SLP Toolbox. This meditation of sorts will focus on helping you get some rest and relaxation, to help balance out the rest of your day.

You can access the SLP Toolbox, and all the other meditations and tools with it, by subscribing below (if you are already an email subscriber, you can click here).

If you are ready to dive even deeper into managing and reducing your stress, by adding in tools to your daily routine, make sure to check out the SLP Stress Management Course, now available! It also comes with several bonus meditations and movement audios and videos to help you get started right away. You can check it out here: SLP Stress Management Course+Meditation Bundle

Much Love,

Jessi

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2Oct

Top 5 Meditation Apps for SLPs

Posted by: Jessi Andricks Categories: Meditation
2 Comments

meditation apps for slps

Let’s face it, as an SLP you are most likely dealing with pretty high amounts of stress on a normal year. Add in all that has happened in 2020 and there is even more to figure out and work through.

One of the best ways to manage and reduce stress, no matter how many stressful things are part of your day, is to have a meditation practice.

Regular meditation can help to reduce the stress response in your brain, rewire the way you perceive stress triggers, and even improve the function of your brain. It can also help to increase your focus, which can improve efficiency and decrease mental fatigue. And, it anything, it gives you a moment to yourself to pause, take a break and check in with yourself on even the most hectic of days.

The tricky part is getting started, and the trickier part is sticking with it.

The key is to choose a program that works best for what you need. Some apps and sites offer meditations that are for one specific thing, such as sleep or anxiety or stress, while others focus on helping you to learn ow to meditate.

Here is a list of my top 5 meditation apps for SLPs (and a few honorable mentions):

  • Calm
    • This app is best known for being free for teachers in 2020. While this may or may not still be happening, it is a very popular meditation app. Plus, the name really says it all, ya know?
    • Calm focuses on guided meditation to help you relax and ultimately sleep better, which can help to reduce stress. This is really great if you find you have a difficult time winding down in the evenings or your mind starts to race when you do close your eyes for sleep.
  • HeadSpace
    • New to meditation or want to make sure you are doing it “right”? This app is for you. Headspace offers a fantastic beginners trial and series that help you to learn how to mediate (and why), and to slowly get you into a doable routine of daily meditation.
    • As one SLP shared “{They} have a variety of meditation! Even children’s meditations”, so it could work for you, your family, and maybe even your therapy sessions. And again, it’s all in the name. who wouldn’t want some headspace these days?
  • Grokker
    • This is a meditation app/membership site, as well as fitness, healthy eating, lifestyle/living, and more. It is really an overall wellness site, that happens to have some really great meditations. It is offered for both individuals and companies, and I have been a user of this site for quite a few years now.
    • You’ll find a lot of meditations on here, as well as mindfulness and stress training videos, from meditation practitioners, mindfulness teachers, coaches and even some psychologists. Plus, there are all the other amazing things that can help with stress available to you.
    • I like that the meditations here vary in length, teacher, and style (some are a bit more “woo” and others are very straight forward).
  • Sanvello (formerly known as Pacifica)
    • The app for “stress and anxiety”. This app was originally recommended to me by my therapist. It offers meditations for free, as well as a subscription you can purchase. The meditations can have music/background noise or none, and vary in length.
    • It also let’s you track your feelings, mood, etc, so it offers a little bit of reflection as well as just meditations.
    • It also offers coaching and can be linked to your therapist/physician for tracking and info.
  • Insight Timer
    • Want a free app? This one might be what you are looking for. Insight Timer offers thousands of free meditations, as well as a meditation timer. There are also programs or courses you can upgrade to, if you want to have even more from them.
    • The meditations are offered from meditation and spiritual “celebrities”, as well as regular, non-famous meditation teachers.

Honorable mentions:

  • My Life app: An SLP recommended this app, as it offers a large variety and helps you target a meditation practice or exercise that would be best for how you are feeling.
  • YouTube: There are so many free meditations on YouTube. One SLP specifically mentioned these meditations, from Jason Stephenson, and there are so many others you could search for by type, length, name, etc.
  • SLP Toolbox and Meditation Audio: Of course, you can download free meditation audios, made for SLPs, from the SLP Toolbox and the meditation audio at JessiAndricks.com. And you can also get access to exclusive bonus meditations when you enroll in the SLP Stress Management Course (self-guided), which is now open for enrollment year-round. You can access these free meditations by subscribing below.

What are some of your favorite apps for meditating as an SLP? Leave them in the comments below or send me an email at jessi@jessiandricks.com. For more on the benefits of meditation, make sure to check out the following courses:

Much Love,

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12Sep

Calming Exhale: Mindfulness Meditation for SLPs

Posted by: Jessi Andricks Categories: Meditation Stress Management
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calming exhale

Being an SLP is really difficult right now, no matter what setting you are in. If you are heading into your work each day, to the physical building, you might be feeling stress about the logistics of your work, and how to keep yourself and your students healthy and safe, on top of the actually therapy part of your job. And if you are in your home office, you might be dealing with an impossible schedule, longer hours and a lack of support (or movement).

It is already stressful being an SLP – which means the things you could do before to help with stress are things you can turn to now to help as well.

When things get really stressful, one thing I like to do is to take a few deep breaths, letting my inhale and exhale grow steady and lengthen until they grow more even. This calm, steady breath send the signal from my body through the central nervous system and back up into the brain that everything is calm, steady and ok, which helps reduce the stress response the brain sends out.

You can do this by:

  • Bring your focus to your breath
  • Breathe as deep as you can, in and out
  • Count to 4 or 5 for each inhale and each exhale
  • Repeat for desired amount of time

Then, when I really want to relax even more, I take it one step further and deepen the exhale, extending it out a little longer. Even with a deep breath, the inhale portion is exciting to the nervous system, while the exhale is more calming and relaxing. By extending the exhale for 1 or 2 counts longer than the inhale, you can not only find a calm breath, but a relaxing one.

  • Breathe evenly for 4 or 5 counts on each inhale and exhale
  • Breathe in for 5 counts, and out for 6 counts
  • Repeat for desired amount of time

Total, this can be a 5 minute meditation or longer if you have the time.

This Calming Exhale meditation practice and more are available in the SLP Toolbox, a FREE resource library full of meditation, movement, journals, templates and more to help you better manage and reduce your SLP stress. You can subscribe below for access:

Much Love, 

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8Aug

Check Out or Check In?: Basic Mindfulness Meditation for SLPs

Posted by: Jessi Andricks Categories: Meditation Reduce Stress Stress Management
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basic mindfulness meditation for slps

One of the things I like to do when I am feeling stressed especially about my work as an SLP, is to find a million other tings to do or think about. That way, I don’t have to focus on the stressful thing at hand. And it works, for about 5 minutes, until it completely backfires and the stress comes at me full force.

Ever try this technique? It’s kind of the worst.

You might notice that when you are stressed, you also do things to check out – like binge watch your favorite show or movie or just ANY show, stay up way too late and guzzle all the caffeine you can the next day, or binge snacks or wine or whatever it might be. The idea is that you end up ignoring the stress, but then it hits you again a little stronger each time.

Instead, the way to really reduce and manage this stress is to face it head on. It sounds like this would be the more stressful approach, but it allows you to check in, or tune in, and see what it really going on for you. That way, even if it feels uncomfortable and more stressful in the movement, you can see what you need to work on, what you have to work with, and the changes you can start to create. It’s not easy, but it is usually necessary.

One way to do this is through a basic mindfulness meditation for SLPs.

In mindfulness meditation practice, you take a few moments to just sit and observe how you are. No judgments, no changing, just seeing what is going on for you in that moment. From there, you become more aware of how you are in that moment, which helps you to see:

  • how you will show up in your day/the world with what you have going on
  • how the day/world may affect you
  • what you can do to better navigate your day and current circumstances (like avoiding a certain co-worker or getting to bed earlier or drinking more water or whatever it may be).

This simple practice can help you start to reap the benefits of meditation, such as turning down the stress response in your brain, and start to manage your stress with more awareness.

You can start by simply sitting for 5 minutes, breathing, and just seeing how the mind and body feel in that moment (without judging) or you can follow a guided meditation, such as the “Basic Mindfulness Meditation for SLPs” available in the SLP Toolbox, a FREE resource library full of stress management tools made for SLPs by an SLP.

You can sign up for access below:

If you are looking to go even further with reducing and managing your SLP Stress, including using meditation and learning exactly how it can help, be sure to check out the SLP Stress Management Course, now enrolling.

Much Love,

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16Jun

Reset in 1 Minute: Mindfulness Meditation for SLPs

Posted by: Jessi Andricks Categories: Meditation Reduce Stress
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1 minute meditation for slps

One of the hardest things to do when you are stressed or overwhelmed is to do what you know will help. It’s not that you are trying to be rebellious or fight against what is good for you, but that it is really difficult to be in the moment and be able to problem solve your way into what you need.

This is why it is usually easier to give someone else advice than to take your own advice.

And it’s not just you – it is the way your brain responds to stress and the way we learn. When you are stressed, the problem solving parts of your brain are turned down and the automatic responses are turned up. That’s why is easier to KNOW something than it is to DO it in the moment.

It’s like when you have a student who can explain how to make a sound, but, when you try to have them use it in conversation, working towards carryover, it just doesn’t happen. They still need practice to make it happen in the real world.

And this often happens with our SLP Stress Management too. You know what to do, you have probably tried a few things, read a few things, or googled about stress, but putting it into practice in the real world is much harder.

Some things that might be making it difficult:

  • You don’t feel like you have the time
  • You aren’t sure which thing to try
  • It is more stressful to add in something than to just keep pushing through

If you ever feel this way, one great thing to do is to start small. Try something that is easy to do, easy to manage, and won’t completely overhaul your day.

A meditation is a good place to start. Meditation has a ton of benefits for brain health, reducing stress and rewiring your brain’s reaction to stress, which you can read about here: Meditation.

If you need a short meditation you can fit in at anytime, check out this “1 Minute Meditation for SLPs” in the SLP Toolbox.

Not a member? You can sign up below for access to the FREE resource library, full of Stress Management tools, made for SLPs by an SLP.

If you are looking to get even more tools, learn more about stress and why it affects you the way it does, and help incorporate this into your day in a way that works for you, make sure to check out the “SLP Stress Management Online Course“, open for enrollment June 22nd.

Click here for more info about the course and how to enroll. You can also join me for a FREE webinar on June 20th, where I’ll share “3 Steps to Reduce Your SLP Stress” as well as some details on the course.

Much Love,

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22May

Take 10 Breaths: Mindfulness Meditation for SLPs

Posted by: Jessi Andricks Categories: Meditation Reduce Stress Self Care
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10 breaths mindfulness mediation for SLPs

Do you ever have those moments, as an SLP or just as a human, where you need to pause and maybe even hit a reset button? With a lot of chaos and uncertainty going on, now and even before, it can add to the feelings of overwhelm and stress that happen for many SLPs. And it can make you feel like you aren’t able to be present to the moments you are in.

On a really long day, one that has me pulled in a lot of different directions or is just mentally draining, I like to take a brief moment of self-care to check in and hit “reset”, before I leave my office and head into family time. One way to do this is to go on a walk or practice yoga. These help me feel refreshed and clear my head.

But one other thing that helps, especially when I am limited in my time and need a reset on the go (or even in the midst of therapy sessions, family time, my kids, my dogs, or just stress from the day and the world) is to stop, close my eyes, slow down and take 10 breaths.


In those 10 breaths, I can check in with myself and see how I am feeling underneath it all. Those 10 breaths allow me to slow my breath and calm my nervous system. And in 10 breaths, I can take a mini-break before I jump back in.

For you, these 10 breaths can help you to feel more grounded and steady throughout your day an an SLP, even in the middle of chaos, hectic schedules, and life at home.

Here is how to take 10 breaths:

  • Find a seat or stand still
  • Close your eyes or soften your gaze
  • Maybe bring one hand to your belly and one to your heart (so you can feel your breath moving in and out)
  • Take a deep breath in and then a deep breath out
  • Repeat 10 times

That’s it!

If you prefer a guided meditation, or want to follow along and learn this practice, you can check out 2 of these “10 Breath Meditation Practice” in the SLP Toolbox.

Not a member of this FREE resource for SLPs? You can subscribe below for access to these meditations audios, as well as other meditation and movement audios, and more.


If you are looking to dive even deeper into managing your stress, look for the upcoming SLP Stress Management Course, enrolling Summer 2020, and check out these CEU/CMH Professional Development courses:

Much Love,

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26Feb

Meditation to Reduce SLP Stress and Burn Out

Posted by: Jessi Andricks Categories: Burn Out Meditation Reduce Stress Self Care
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Meditation to Reduce SLP Stress and Burn Out Pinterest

Feeling stressed and exhausted from your SLP work? Burn out could be to blame.

Burn out can be very sneaky and might hit you before you realize it. One of the best things to do when you are burnt out, or suspect it is creeping in, is to take a break and use mindfulness activities, such as breathing and meditation, to shift your brains focus and calm the stress responses in your body.

Try this meditation, focusing on a 3-part breath, to help you reduce your SLP stress and burn out, by building more balance and calm from the inside out.

Want more meditations? Make sure to check out the Meditation and Audio library, and subscribe to the monthly newsletter for a free meditation practice straight to your inbox, as well as access to the SLP Toolbox, where you’ll find meditation audios, journal templates, self-care planners and more – including the “Be Balanced Today” downloadable daily planner sheet.

Much Love,

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