Gratitude Meditation for Military Couples: Cultivating Calm, Resilience & Peace Amidst Infertility Struggles

In the midst of military life transitions, deployments, and the emotional rollercoaster of infertility, finding moments of calm and inner peace can seem impossible. This gratitude meditation is specifically designed for military families, spouses, and veterans navigating the emotional and physical challenges of fertility treatments and military life.

Led by Kerri Bicskei, Air Force spouse, psychotherapist, and founder of Mindful Warrior Alliance, this meditation offers a powerful tool to:

• Reduce stress and anxiety related to infertility and military life
• Cultivate inner resilience during tough times, including IVF cycles, pregnancy loss, and deployment
• Strengthen your connection to the present moment by focusing on gratitude, even in the face of hardship
• Reframe emotional challenges into opportunities for growth, peace, and emotional clarity

Whether you're struggling with the unknowns of fertility treatments or simply trying to find your footing through military transitions, this gratitude meditation will help you center yourself and tap into your strength.

👉 Listen now, subscribe, and share with someone who needs a moment of peace. Visit mindfulwarrioralliance.orgfor more resources, tools, and support.

Transcript

0:00

Hi, I'm Carrie bge, military spouse, licensed therapist, and founder of Mindful Warrior Alliance. Welcome to the Mindful Warrior Alliance Podcast, your go-to space for real conversations around mental health IVF, fertility and military life. Each week we connect with leading experts, service members, male spouses, and thought leaders to bring you tools, insights, and stories to support your journey. Whether you're navigating deployment, fertility treatments, or just trying to stay grounded, you're in the right place.

Kerri: 0:27

today's episode is gonna be a bite-size guided meditation for gratitude. So gratitude is a topic that can seem pretty inaccessible and something that a lot of people talk about, but a lot of people don't know how to access that state or what, being in gratitude. Looks like or what that means. It can seem kind of elusive to people, and something that's really inaccessible when you're having a hard day. You're, encountering a lot of challenges, things like that. being in gratitude can feel like the last thing that you wanna do sometimes, you know, but it is so helpful and can have so many benefits for you as an athlete and as a human, and really has the. Ability to change your mood and your emotional state, which helps you not only become a better person, but a better athlete as well. So if gratitude is something that you want to have more of in your life, settle in. Let's get started with this episode. So go ahead and find a comfortable space that's quiet. Go ahead and just gently close your eyes here. I'm just gonna start to connect with your breath. Keeping everything in and out through the nose, just connecting brain and body, sending that ultimate calming signal when we use nasal breathing. So just always come back to your breathing throughout this short meditation and just letting go of whatever has happened already in your day or whatever hasn't happened yet. Just giving yourself this time to be here right now, being grateful that you showed up to this five minute meditation to make time for yourself. So when things aren't going right, we're having a really tough, challenging time, a hard day. It's really easy for our brain to go into that negative space. It's our default mode. Gratitude is not our default mode. We have to train our brain to access that state. So when we focus our attention on what's not happening, what's going wrong, we get into that negative state. So the art of practicing gratitude is just shifting your attention in that moment and focusing on what is going right. What is going okay right now? What can I be appreciative for that is happening for me? So I want you to bring to mind a conversation, maybe a person, maybe it's the weather, a body part, something that feels okay, something that feels like it's going okay for you right now. So if it's a body part, maybe an area of your body, a muscle group that's not sore, that's not in pain person, you've had good interactions with just bringing to mind one thing that's working right now in your life, what can we show appreciation for right now? I want you to breathe in through your nose, the word thank. Nice big exhale, the word you. Let's go one more time. Big breath in. Thank, nice big breath out you. Thank you. I'm just thanking your body for showing up for you today. Everything that it just does on autopilot. It's so cool. So if all else fails, you're having a hard time finding something to have gratitude for. Whether it's the weather, your partner, your teammate, your coworker can always be thankful for your ear lips. For your biceps, your spine, your body for holding you up. Thing about gratitude is when we're focusing our attention on what's working, we're able to access that state of gratitude and guess where we can't be. At the same time, we can't be in anxiety. And in stress and in fear, we can't be in two places at once. So when we're in that state of gratitude, we're literally shifting our attention to what's working for us. We're giving our brain a break from focusing our attention on the negative, and then we can operate out of a much better space. We're then able to alter our mood. Alter our energy, boost our emotional state. Gratitude helps us with so many benefits. So pick one thing that you wanna remain appreciative for. What's your intention for the rest of the day, and when you start to feel yourself going down that path. Moving into that space of negativity, focusing on what's not working for you. Bring your attention back to that person, place, or body part. So gently open your eyes, start to reconnect with the room. Know that you can always come back to this meditation whenever you feel like you need it. And if you haven't heard our awesome announcement, the Ready Set Mindful Store is now open. So exciting. So if you haven't already, go and check that out.

7:00

Thanks so much for joining us on the Mindful Warrior Alliance Podcast. If today's episode spoke to you in some way, share it with your friend and leave us a review. It helps us to reach more warriors like you. Don't forget to follow us on social media and head to mindful warrior alliance.org to connect with our community access resources and stay up to date on what's coming up next. Until next time, take care of your mind. Stay strong and be mindful.