Let us know what you enjoy about the show!

What would your day feel like if the pressure to prove eased by even ten percent?

In this guided meditation, we open a gentle, grounded space to notice the quiet expectations that hum beneath the surface—the subtle “I should have” and “I need to” messages that drain focus and blur what truly matters. Rather than arguing with these stories, we meet them with curiosity. We trace where they come from—family, culture, industry—and ask a simple but powerful question: Do these expectations still belong to me?

Using a clear, vivid image, each expectation appears as a small card you can name and set down. Performance pressure. Perfection myths. Approval-seeking. Fear-rooted rules. You choose where they go—a bowl, a river, a fire—and with each exhale, you practice releasing the need to meet every demand. The breath becomes a tool for nervous system calm: inhaling to create space, exhaling to soften attachment. As the body unwinds, relief or uncertainty may arise—and both are welcome. This is a practice of clarity without judgment.

From that new spaciousness, we listen for values that feel true right now—presence, kindness, courage, steadiness, creativity. One value may rise to the surface and settle like a compass. From there, we ask a practical, human question: How might I live from this value just a little more today?
The answer can be small and still powerful—a slower morning, a kinder email, a boundary that protects your focus.

This meditation is for anyone ready to release urgency, soothe the nervous system, and move from external approval toward internal alignment. Press play when you’re seeking calm clarity—and notice the value you choose to lead with today.

If this practice supports you, consider subscribing, leaving a brief review, or sharing it with someone who could use a gentler pace.

If you are enjoying the show please subscribe, share and review! Word of mouth is incredibly impactful and your support is much appreciated!

Support the show

🌟✨📚 **Buy 'The Places Where There Are Spaces: Cultivating A Life of Creative Possibilities'** 📚✨🌟
Dive into a world where spontaneity leads to creativity and discover personal essays that inspire with journal space to reflect. Click the link below to grab your copy today and embark on a journey of self-discovery and unexpected joys! 🌈👇
🔗 Purchase Your Copy Here: https://a.co/d/2UlsmYC

🌟 **Interested in finding out more about working with Lisa Hopkins? Want to share your feedback or be considered as a guest on the show?**
🔗 Visit Wide Open Stages https://www.wideopenstages.com

📸 **Follow Lisa on Instagram:** @wideopenstages https://www.instagram.com/wideopenstages/

💖 **SUPPORT THE SHOW:** [Buy Me a Coffee] https://www.buymeacoffee.com/STOPTIME

🎵 **STOPTIME Theme Music by Philip David Stern**
🔗 [Listen on Spotify]
https://open.spotify.com/artist/57A87Um5vok0uEtM8vWpKM?si=JOx7r1iVSbqAHezG4PjiPg

Let us know what you enjoy about the show!

What if the imagination that fuels your worst-case scenarios could become your most reliable source of clarity, calm, and momentum? In this episode, Lisa shares a simple but powerful shift that turns reactivity into creativity—one letter, and one intentional choice, at a time.

You’ll learn why we default to reactive patterns, how those patterns drain energy and agency, and what it takes to reset your nervous system and reconnect with your values. Through a real client story and practical tools, Lisa breaks down how to pause, redirect your attention, and take action that aligns with what you want to create—not what you fear might happen.

You’ll discover:

• How imagination can work for you instead of against you
• Why reactivity hands your power to circumstances and other people
• A simple framework to move from “I can’t” or “I have to” into possibility
• A compact practice to reset your energy and choose your next best step

If you're ready to stop reacting and start creating, this episode offers a clear, memorable way to shift your mindset, your energy, and your outcomes.

If you are enjoying the show please subscribe, share and review! Word of mouth is incredibly impactful and your support is much appreciated!

Support the show

🌟✨📚 **Buy 'The Places Where There Are Spaces: Cultivating A Life of Creative Possibilities'** 📚✨🌟
Dive into a world where spontaneity leads to creativity and discover personal essays that inspire with journal space to reflect. Click the link below to grab your copy today and embark on a journey of self-discovery and unexpected joys! 🌈👇
🔗 Purchase Your Copy Here: https://a.co/d/2UlsmYC

🌟 **Interested in finding out more about working with Lisa Hopkins? Want to share your feedback or be considered as a guest on the show?**
🔗 Visit Wide Open Stages https://www.wideopenstages.com

📸 **Follow Lisa on Instagram:** @wideopenstages https://www.instagram.com/wideopenstages/

💖 **SUPPORT THE SHOW:** [Buy Me a Coffee] https://www.buymeacoffee.com/STOPTIME

🎵 **STOPTIME Theme Music by Philip David Stern**
🔗 [Listen on Spotify]
https://open.spotify.com/artist/57A87Um5vok0uEtM8vWpKM?si=JOx7r1iVSbqAHezG4PjiPg

Let us know what you enjoy about the show!

If you’ve ever felt yanked from one moment into the next, this guided reentry is your reset. We slow down the space between chapters so you can release the residue of what just happened and choose, on purpose, how you want to enter what comes next. Through gentle breathwork, grounding cues, and clear language, we create a small but powerful pause—one that returns scattered attention back to the body and helps the nervous system trade urgency for presence.

We start by settling where we are: softening shoulders and jaw, feeling the support beneath us, and letting each exhale lengthen. From there, we acknowledge where we’ve been without judgment—whether it was a hard meeting, a busy day, or emotions only you could feel. Using imagery like dust lifting from a windowsill as sunlight moves in, we let go of what we don’t need while trusting that the insights worth keeping will stay. This isn’t escapism; it’s integration.

Once we’ve found our center, we pair breath with simple mantras: Inhale, I come home. Exhale, I let go. Inhale, I gather. Exhale, I release. The rhythm anchors attention and invites clarity. Then we ask the pivotal question: How do I want to enter what comes next? Maybe the answer is steadiness, curiosity, softer edges, or clearer boundaries. We imagine crossing a threshold carrying only what serves and leaving the rest with kindness, reclaiming choice in a world that rarely pauses.

Walk away feeling present, connected, and ready for whatever’s next. If this practice helps you create calmer transitions, share it with someone who rushes between moments, subscribe for more mindful resets, and leave a review to tell us what energy you’re bringing forward.

Support the show

🌟✨📚 **Buy 'The Places Where There Are Spaces: Cultivating A Life of Creative Possibilities'** 📚✨🌟
Dive into a world where spontaneity leads to creativity and discover personal essays that inspire with journal space to reflect. Click the link below to grab your copy today and embark on a journey of self-discovery and unexpected joys! 🌈👇
🔗 Purchase Your Copy Here: https://a.co/d/2UlsmYC

🌟 **Interested in finding out more about working with Lisa Hopkins? Want to share your feedback or be considered as a guest on the show?**
🔗 Visit Wide Open Stages https://www.wideopenstages.com

📸 **Follow Lisa on Instagram:** @wideopenstages https://www.instagram.com/wideopenstages/

💖 **SUPPORT THE SHOW:** [Buy Me a Coffee] https://www.buymeacoffee.com/STOPTIME

🎵 **STOPTIME Theme Music by Philip David Stern**
🔗 [Listen on Spotify]
https://open.spotify.com/artist/57A87Um5vok0uEtM8vWpKM?si=JOx7r1iVSbqAHezG4PjiPg

Let us know what you enjoy about the show!

Heavy week, full schedule, and that quiet tug of guilt for needing a break? Let’s trade performance for presence. We slow down together with gentle breath cues, simple body awareness, and a compassionate question that cuts through noise: what do I need right now? No fixing, no penance—just a soft return to yourself that steadies your nervous system and brings your energy back online.

We start by loosening the body’s armor—dropping the shoulders, unclenching the jaw, softening the belly—so the mind can hear what the heart is saying. From there, we reframe guilt as a signal of strong values rather than proof of failure. If old stories are running the show—be useful, don’t rest, keep everyone happy—we offer fresh permissions: I am allowed to be human. I am allowed to listen to my body. I am allowed to begin again. These mantras land with the breath, creating room for clarity.

A simple visualization anchors the reset: imagine your energy as a shaken snow globe. Thoughts and feelings swirl, then, with slow breathing, they settle. You don’t have to make up for anything or fix everything; the body knows how to rebalance when given space. To close, we choose one nourishing action—water, a walk, silence, a boundary, or a steady breath—and let that be enough. Hand to heart or belly, we seal the practice with a quiet truth: I always have myself to come back to.

If this practice brought you ease, subscribe for more guided resets, share it with a friend who needs gentleness today, and leave a quick review to help others find these moments of calm.

If you are enjoying the show please subscribe, share and review! Word of mouth is incredibly impactful and your support is much appreciated!

Support the show

🌟✨📚 **Buy 'The Places Where There Are Spaces: Cultivating A Life of Creative Possibilities'** 📚✨🌟
Dive into a world where spontaneity leads to creativity and discover personal essays that inspire with journal space to reflect. Click the link below to grab your copy today and embark on a journey of self-discovery and unexpected joys! 🌈👇
🔗 Purchase Your Copy Here: https://a.co/d/2UlsmYC

🌟 **Interested in finding out more about working with Lisa Hopkins? Want to share your feedback or be considered as a guest on the show?**
🔗 Visit Wide Open Stages https://www.wideopenstages.com

📸 **Follow Lisa on Instagram:** @wideopenstages https://www.instagram.com/wideopenstages/

💖 **SUPPORT THE SHOW:** [Buy Me a Coffee] https://www.buymeacoffee.com/STOPTIME

🎵 **STOPTIME Theme Music by Philip David Stern**
🔗 [Listen on Spotify]
https://open.spotify.com/artist/57A87Um5vok0uEtM8vWpKM?si=JOx7r1iVSbqAHezG4PjiPg

Let us know what you enjoy about the show!

Gratitude can get twisted when it’s layered with pressure, obligation, or performance. Many of us were raised to *“be grateful”—*as if appreciation could be forced, graded, or used to override whatever we’re actually feeling. That’s where gratitude turns toxic: when it becomes a script instead of a truth.

In this short real-time reflection, recorded while waiting for a client, we take a gentle but honest look at the difference between authentic gratitude and the kind that’s fueled by guilt, shame, or conditions. We explore how “I should be grateful” often masks self-judgment, how resentment ties gratitude to unmet expectations, and why the phrase “I’ll be grateful when…” keeps us stuck.

Instead of bypassing pain, we talk about letting gratitude sit beside sadness, longing, disappointment, and imperfect circumstances—without pretending anything is fine. Gratitude doesn’t erase your humanity; it expands your capacity to be with it.

Together we reframe gratitude as an inside job—not a performance and not an obligation. You’ll hear real, tender moments of appreciating the ability to feel, even when life doesn’t match the wish. And we explore how to notice attachments, release conditions, and protect yourself from the kind of gratitude that silences needs or erases boundaries.

This reflection is a reminder:
You’re allowed to feel what you feel.
You’re allowed to be kind to yourself in the process.
And gratitude, when you choose it, can support your clarity rather than demand perfection.

If you’ve ever felt pressured to “be grateful” while your heart was somewhere else, this is your permission slip to let go of toxic gratitude and embrace something truer, gentler, and more human.

If this resonates, share it with someone who may need relief from the obligation to feel a certain way—and subscribe for more conversations that honor the whole human experience.

Support the show

🌟✨📚 **Buy 'The Places Where There Are Spaces: Cultivating A Life of Creative Possibilities'** 📚✨🌟
Dive into a world where spontaneity leads to creativity and discover personal essays that inspire with journal space to reflect. Click the link below to grab your copy today and embark on a journey of self-discovery and unexpected joys! 🌈👇
🔗 Purchase Your Copy Here: https://a.co/d/2UlsmYC

🌟 **Interested in finding out more about working with Lisa Hopkins? Want to share your feedback or be considered as a guest on the show?**
🔗 Visit Wide Open Stages https://www.wideopenstages.com

📸 **Follow Lisa on Instagram:** @wideopenstages https://www.instagram.com/wideopenstages/

💖 **SUPPORT THE SHOW:** [Buy Me a Coffee] https://www.buymeacoffee.com/STOPTIME

🎵 **STOPTIME Theme Music by Philip David Stern**
🔗 [Listen on Spotify]
https://open.spotify.com/artist/57A87Um5vok0uEtM8vWpKM?si=JOx7r1iVSbqAHezG4PjiPg

Let us know what you enjoy about the show!

What if the change you want doesn’t require a leap, just a quiet step toward a familiar doorway? We guide you through a calm, sensory-rich visualization designed to slow your breath, soften your body, and open the mental space where clarity tends to appear. You’ll build an inner room that feels safe, notice the quality of light and air, and approach a doorway that leads to the version of you who has already said yes to a possibility you’ve been holding at arm’s length.

Together, we pause at the threshold and let the body lead—feeling the ground, steadying the heart, and letting curiosity take the place of certainty. On the other side waits your future self: clear-eyed, grounded, and generous. You’ll study their posture and presence, receive a message in whatever form feels natural—words, image, or sensation—and accept a small symbolic gift that captures the possibility waiting for you. That token becomes a portable reminder you can carry into daily life, a touchstone for trust when resistance shows up.

Rather than chasing a dramatic overhaul, we honor subtle shifts: a softer breath, a tiny opening, a willingness to try. The practice closes with a gentle return to the room, an affirmation over your heart, and a felt sense that the small yes you made already opened a door. If you’ve been craving ease, clarity, and a kinder way to move forward, press play and meet the you who chose expansion. Subscribe for more guided practices, share this with someone who needs a calm reset, and leave a review to tell us what message your future self offered.

If you are enjoying the show please subscribe, share and review! Word of mouth is incredibly impactful and your support is much appreciated!

Support the show

🌟✨📚 **Buy 'The Places Where There Are Spaces: Cultivating A Life of Creative Possibilities'** 📚✨🌟
Dive into a world where spontaneity leads to creativity and discover personal essays that inspire with journal space to reflect. Click the link below to grab your copy today and embark on a journey of self-discovery and unexpected joys! 🌈👇
🔗 Purchase Your Copy Here: https://a.co/d/2UlsmYC

🌟 **Interested in finding out more about working with Lisa Hopkins? Want to share your feedback or be considered as a guest on the show?**
🔗 Visit Wide Open Stages https://www.wideopenstages.com

📸 **Follow Lisa on Instagram:** @wideopenstages https://www.instagram.com/wideopenstages/

💖 **SUPPORT THE SHOW:** [Buy Me a Coffee] https://www.buymeacoffee.com/STOPTIME

🎵 **STOPTIME Theme Music by Philip David Stern**
🔗 [Listen on Spotify]
https://open.spotify.com/artist/57A87Um5vok0uEtM8vWpKM?si=JOx7r1iVSbqAHezG4PjiPg

Let us know what you enjoy about the show!

We’re all moving so fast — planning ahead, rushing toward the next thing, trying to get it all right. But what if the clarity we’re searching for only arrives when we slow down long enough to notice what’s right in front of us?

In this episode, Lisa narrates Leo Tolstoy’s beloved parable “The Three Questions” — a timeless story that reveals the power of presence, the wisdom of tending to this moment, and the truth that the “right time” is rarely somewhere in the future…it’s now.

After the story, Lisa offers a reflective breakdown exploring:
✨ Why slowing down is a strategy, not a setback
✨ How presence sharpens clarity
✨ Why the right people are often the ones who are already here
✨ What it means to tend to the moment you’re actually in
✨ How energetic choice influences every decision we make

This is a grounding, spacious listen — perfect for a walk, a cup of tea, or any moment you need to reconnect with yourself.

If you are enjoying the show please subscribe, share and review! Word of mouth is incredibly impactful and your support is much appreciated!

Support the show

🌟✨📚 **Buy 'The Places Where There Are Spaces: Cultivating A Life of Creative Possibilities'** 📚✨🌟
Dive into a world where spontaneity leads to creativity and discover personal essays that inspire with journal space to reflect. Click the link below to grab your copy today and embark on a journey of self-discovery and unexpected joys! 🌈👇
🔗 Purchase Your Copy Here: https://a.co/d/2UlsmYC

🌟 **Interested in finding out more about working with Lisa Hopkins? Want to share your feedback or be considered as a guest on the show?**
🔗 Visit Wide Open Stages https://www.wideopenstages.com

📸 **Follow Lisa on Instagram:** @wideopenstages https://www.instagram.com/wideopenstages/

💖 **SUPPORT THE SHOW:** [Buy Me a Coffee] https://www.buymeacoffee.com/STOPTIME

🎵 **STOPTIME Theme Music by Philip David Stern**
🔗 [Listen on Spotify]
https://open.spotify.com/artist/57A87Um5vok0uEtM8vWpKM?si=JOx7r1iVSbqAHezG4PjiPg

Let us know what you enjoy about the show!

Slow down, soften, and come home to your body with this gentle, guided body scan meditation. Designed to help you unwind tension, reset your nervous system, and reconnect with your physical presence, this practice is perfect for any moment when you need grounding or calm.

We move from the feet to the crown of the head, releasing stress layer by layer, creating spaciousness, ease, and a sense of deep arrival. Use it in the morning to set the tone for your day, during transitions to realign, or at night to help settle your mind before sleep.

In this episode, you’ll experience:

• A soothing full-body relaxation sequence
• Breath-led grounding to settle the nervous system
• Gentle awareness prompts for each area of the body
• A spacious closing to integrate calm and clarity

If you’re craving a reset, a pause, or simply a moment of peace—this body scan is your invitation back to yourself.

Support the show

🌟✨📚 **Buy 'The Places Where There Are Spaces: Cultivating A Life of Creative Possibilities'** 📚✨🌟
Dive into a world where spontaneity leads to creativity and discover personal essays that inspire with journal space to reflect. Click the link below to grab your copy today and embark on a journey of self-discovery and unexpected joys! 🌈👇
🔗 Purchase Your Copy Here: https://a.co/d/2UlsmYC

🌟 **Interested in finding out more about working with Lisa Hopkins? Want to share your feedback or be considered as a guest on the show?**
🔗 Visit Wide Open Stages https://www.wideopenstages.com

📸 **Follow Lisa on Instagram:** @wideopenstages https://www.instagram.com/wideopenstages/

💖 **SUPPORT THE SHOW:** [Buy Me a Coffee] https://www.buymeacoffee.com/STOPTIME

🎵 **STOPTIME Theme Music by Philip David Stern**
🔗 [Listen on Spotify]
https://open.spotify.com/artist/57A87Um5vok0uEtM8vWpKM?si=JOx7r1iVSbqAHezG4PjiPg