Sentir Son Corps
Sentir Son Corps
Somehow I ended up training to be a mindfulness meditation teacher, I am thoroughly glad that it wriggled it’s way in. A French lesson in learning how to lean into our bodies.
Grainy photo from 2016…. preparing to pack up the house and very pregnant. We arrived at the beginning of December and I gave birth one month later.
Sentir Son Corps - Being With Your Body
My transition to living here in France has been hugely benefited by mindfulness, supporting be to stay fairly sane throughout the big emotions of such a huge upheaval, including but not exclusively:
Giving birth shortly after we arrived
Young boys who didn't speak a word of French starting school
No driving license in a small village with two buses a day
Husband setting up his business
The mountains of paperwork
And another million other things
Learning to be with my body, sit with myself in quiet, and enjoy the company I keep here has been a long journey. Prior to trying out mindfulness meditation in 2010, I had thought it was for people who wore tie-dye and smelled of patchouli. I'd pigeonholed it as not for me. My husband thought it would be something I'd benefit from immensely in managing my anxiety, and that, of course, made me dig my heels in further. Fast forward to 2012, and the drug and alcohol team I was working with insisted that one of the team train to teach it as it's a hugely successful intervention tool for relapse prevention (I don't know of a healthcare condition mindfulness is not being used clinically to help with now). I agreed, thinking it would be an easier option than doing a master's. It was not. Before I was allowed on the course I had to find one hour a day to meditate for 18 months, with toddler twins who woke up at 4:43am and a full time job this was a struggle. Suffice to say I am as stubborn as a mule and did it and I'm a total convert, it’s been a huge part of my clinical work since 2013.
Why is it so brillant for most people (it’s not a one size fits all)? When we meditate in this way we activate the body's parasympathetic nervous system and build up the grey matter in our brains. This allows us to move into the rest, restore, and regeneration process of the body, wonderful for overall wellbeing.
AND learning new languages if that takes your fancy.
As you may already know, I am using my Substack to support my journey into transitioning into working in French. This means I have to improve my written work and pronunciation. So this week, I will guide you through a simple meditation in slow French, beginning with a short description, the transcript of the practices with English translations, and then the audio file.
It's seven minutes long, and I deliberately repeat the phrases so that you can hear the vocabulary a few times. I'd recommend reading through the transcript first and then trying it out. Repeating the practice once a day is wonderful for building new neural pathways that you can access when under stress, and it will support your French learning.
My son has helped with my pronunciation; he's a brutal coach, but we got the results. It's interesting to note I speak with a lower voice in French; if anybody else finds that too, do let me know in the comments.