Sean Fargo leads a guided meditation for healers and others who spend their energy helping people. The practice uses breath awareness and a visualization of a scale, with the desire to help on one side and self-care on the other, and asks you to notice which way it tips without judging or changing anything.
Before the meditation begins, Sean offers a tip: it is not selfish to prioritize your own well-being, and to serve others effectively you first need to make sure your own cup is full. The practice then moves through a deep breath, the scale, a warm healing light and a return to the breath. You can continue the meditation as long as you like.
Sponsored by the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification MindfulnessExercises.com/Certification
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
- A gentle reminder that self-care supports your service
- A mindfulness-based approach to balance and burnout
- A breath-focused practice for relaxation and presence
- Visualization to integrate both service and self-nurturing
- A gentle return to the breath and a sense of balance
Show Notes:
A gentle reminder that self-care supports your service
Sean’s opening tip is that it is not selfish to prioritize your own well-being. To serve others effectively, he says, you must first ensure your own cup is full. He ends the meditation on the same point: self-care is a necessary part of serving others, and as you nurture your own well-being you become better equipped to foster the well-being of others.
A mindfulness-based approach to balance and burnout
You visualize a scale. On one side you place all your desires to help and heal others, and on the other your commitment to self-care. You notice whether it is unbalanced and which way it tips, with no need to judge or change anything. Sean then takes each side in turn. On the service side, as you breathe in you imagine your healing energy reaching out to people in need, and as you breathe out you let feelings of exhaustion, burnout or overextension dissolve.
A breath-focused practice for relaxation and presence
Breath awareness runs through the practice: a deep breath in, a slow breath out, then the natural rhythm. Near the end Sean asks you to notice the rise and fall of the chest, the cool sensation of the inhale and the warm release of the exhale. Throughout, you observe thoughts and feelings as an impartial spectator, acknowledge them, and let them pass like clouds in the sky.
Visualization to integrate both service and self-nurturing
On the self-care side of the scale, you imagine a warm healing light enveloping you. As you exhale, you let go of guilt or resistance about prioritizing your own well-being. Sean asks what self-care means to you (rest, nourishment, self-compassion) and invites you to note whatever surfaces and let it drift away. He also asks whether your desire to help is linked to a specific person, an event, or a general feeling.
A gentle return to the breath and a sense of balance
You see the scale balanced, as a picture of harmony between serving others and caring for yourself, and you honor your commitment to others on the in-breath and to yourself on the out-breath. The meditation ends with attention back on the breath. Sean says both sides of the scale are essential parts of you, and that your desire to heal others is as significant as your need for self-care.
Additional Resources:
- Free Training with Sean Fargo: How to Teach Mindfulness With Confidence & Credibility
- Certification: Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification
- Blog: 60+ Self Care Quotes: Inspiration for a Balanced Life
- Blog: A Meditation For Self-Care And Caring For Others
