Scott Ste Marie is a Mindfulness Practitioner, Coach and Mentor. Through his lived experience with depression and anxiety he has seen what is truly possible in recovery, healing, and living authentically. If you feel at ease and comfortable with the videos on this channel and Scott's approach to emotional and mental well-being, the resources below may be helpful to you.
Scott speaks across North America about emotional wellbeing, mental health and our innate need for connection. His history with mental health challenges have allowed him to develop a strong sense of empathy and compassion with his audiences and those he works with personally. Music is his true obsession as he plays the guitar, drums and sings.
Good evening and welcome to Depression to Expression. Tonight we'll be doing a guided
meditation together, one meant before bed. So before we really get started, I'd like you to
get comfortable. This can mean puffing up your pillow, putting the sheets over top of you,
having one foot out of the comforter and one in. Whatever makes you comfortable.
Now it's best for this exercise if you lay on your back and you can put your hands on your side,
put your hands on your chest, whatever's comfortable for you. Now let's keep our
eyes open for the time being and let's take a big deep breath together. Let's start inhaling
through the nose and exhaling through the mouth on the count of three. One, two, three. Inhale
through the nose. Let's do that one more time. Inhale through the nose and exhale through the
mouth. Good. Now feel free to close your eyes and let's take another deep breath together.
Now with your eyes closed, let's inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth.
And once more, inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth. What can sometimes happen
when we place our head on the pillow is our thoughts start to race and we think about our day
and what we did right, what we did wrong,
what we could have done better. And this is perfectly normal to have these thoughts at
the end of the day. Now whether you had a good day or a bad day, whether things were going your way
or nothing seemed to go right, I want to acknowledge the fact that you made it through
the day. And if you were in pain, you got through it. If you were depressed or anxious at any point
in the day or sad or missed someone, missed a deadline, made a mistake, it is now over
and you made it through the day. And I'd like you to try to smile knowing that you made it
through the day, knowing that you gave it your all and you did the best you could given your
circumstances. Now let's begin to feel our body on the mattress, beginning with our neck,
how we hold tension in our necks, let it soften onto the pillow and same with our heads.
Let's move down towards our shoulders and let them sink into the mattress.
Notice how it's so soft. Let's focus on our upper arms and forearms. Let your arms just become heavy
and focus on your back and let it sink into the mattress as we move all the way down the spine,
vertebrae by vertebrae. Let our pelvis sink into the soft mattress as we work our way down our legs,
our thighs, our knees and let them soften and your calves, let them soften down to your ankles,
to the soles of your feet and your toes. Relaxed you are. You are in a safe place at this moment.
You are in a safe place at this moment. Now we may be thinking about our days.
It's hard not to. You've been conscious for many hours and experienced many new things today.
What I'd like to do is think of three things that happened today, not just any three things,
three amazing things, three things that you can think about that made you happy. I walked to work
today and I took a longer route but that's because the sun wasn't blocked by any buildings.
I walked to work in complete sunshine. That's my amazing thought. I want you to think of three
things that made you happy today, just three, and these can be the smallest things that you
may have overlooked in the moment. Let's think about three things now.
As long as we focus on these little things in life that bring small sparks to our days,
we can feel truly happy. We can feel like we did something right today. We can feel as though today
did have purpose. If there were just three moments today
where you noticed something different, when you noticed something amazing,
when you had a small smile on your face, that means today was worth it. As we enter into sleep,
let's acknowledge the fact that today was a blessing and we were alive today. We were
conscious today and we made it through. If the day was easy, if the day was difficult,
we made it through. And again, let's enter into sleep knowing no matter what happens in our lives,
no matter what happens during the day, there are always at least three amazing moments.
Continue to breathe through your nose and enter into the deepest, most relaxing,
well-deserved sleep that you've ever had and know that you lived today
and you will live again tomorrow. Enjoy your sleep. Good night.
