My Buddhist guidance teacher Rob Priest wrote in his latest book Heart Essence the energy body is intimately connected to both our emotional life and our physical well-being as a source of vitality in our life as well as potential discomfort and disturbance.
This is very true for me because in recent years I've experienced a lot of trauma.
I was involved in a traumatic accident eight years ago that has left me in a body filled with neurological and physical pain every day.
As a result I lost pretty much everything including almost my life so there was a lot of mental and emotional suffering that came along with it.
Having the resource of being able to allow the movement of the energy of my feelings emotions and trauma to move through me became an unbelievable strength in my life.
I have been able to free a lot of that stuck energy and has left me now in a really calm and grounded place.
This newfound space in my life has allowed that natural joy within to bubble up and expand into my life giving me a real refreshed sense of happiness.
A happiness that doesn't rely on outside sources,
A happiness that truly comes from within.
Freeing stuck energy in our systems can feel extremely liberating and give us a real sense of strength and groundedness.
Gradually this will give you the strength to be able to be grounded and at ease no matter what is going on in your life.
I do understand that I've been doing this for a fair while and it may be that you find you need time to feel a true connection to it but as you begin your journey to becoming embodied and connected to your energy body I really want to encourage you to go your own pace,
To hold your experience with a sense of open-heartedness and try to enjoy it.
For this meditation we'll have some time to relax,
Feel grounded,
Embodied and connect to our energy body.
We'll connect to the sense of spaciousness allowing any energy,
Feelings,
Emotions or pain in the body,
Space to move,
Allowing it to liberate.
So start by finding yourself a comfortable place to sit,
A place your body can really relax and let go.
It's good to have your back straight and have fresh air coming into your lungs but don't be too rigid,
Allow a sense of movement in your body.
As always with my meditations I really like to give you the space to be able to meditate,
To be able to be with your own experience.
So if there's any spaces of silence I haven't left you,
Just use those spaces to really drop into your own experience.
Once you're comfortable,
Relax your body as much as you can and bring your awareness to the feelings and sensations of the breath within your body.
It could be the sensations of the air coming in and out of your nostrils,
The air in your throat and chest,
But I quite like to put my awareness onto feelings and sensations of my ribs,
Abdomen and lungs,
Expanding and contracting.
This really brings my awareness into the quality of my body.
Now put your awareness on your out-breath.
Follow the breath down into your body,
Allowing your body to relax deeper and deeper with each breath.
Move your awareness down to the ground of your being,
The sensations of the weight of your legs,
The feelings of the ground or the cushion pushing up from below your feet or below you,
Supporting you.
Really allow your whole body to relax deeply into the ground with each out-breath.
As you allow your whole body to rest and relax into that sense of ground,
Bring your awareness up into the trunk of your body to any feelings and sensations within your trunk.
Really allow whatever is there to be as it is and give it space.
If you feel distracted,
Don't worry,
Just let go of the story for now and gently bring your awareness back to your breath within your body.
Relax back down into the ground and open to feelings and sensations.
As you relax and breathe,
Allow your awareness to expand to the rest of your body,
The arms,
The neck,
The head,
Until you're aware of feelings and sensations within your whole body.
Allow yourself to open to a more spacious sense of awareness.
This might happen naturally but continuously and gently letting go,
Relaxing and letting your awareness open to a sense of spaciousness.
You may get a sense of the vitality within your body and you may get a sense that this vitality has different tones and nuances to it.
If you notice yourself trying too hard,
You'll probably notice some sort of holding or contraction within your body,
Maybe a sort of contracting and lifting up feeling.
As you notice this,
Gently let go,
Let your body relax and notice any movement and opening within your vitality.
If you feel pain in your body,
Maybe in your knees or your hips,
Your back,
It's a really good opportunity to use that pain to practice steadily becoming comfortable with letting things go.
So as you feel a pain in your body,
Try not to judge it,
Just feel it for what it is.
Hold it with a sense of compassion,
Soften around it,
Give it space and notice what you feel.
If you notice any emotions within your body,
It's also a really good opportunity to steadily become comfortable with the allowing.
Allowing them to be as they are,
For the energy of them to be liberated.
If you notice any emotions,
See if you can let go of the story connected to them.
Come back to the feelings and sensations in your body and give it space to move where it needs to move and notice what you feel.
At some point you might notice that your body and your mind have become one.
So space within the body feels like space within the mind.
As you rest in quiet,
Open awareness,
Continuously allowing whatever is there,
Space to be as it is.
You may notice some sort of pleasant feeling,
Maybe a subtle sense of joy within.
This is your joy that naturally abides within you.
Give it space to bubble up and expand into your whole being as much as you can.
As we bring this meditation to a close now and as we go out into the world,
I'd like you to use opportunities throughout your days to bring mindfulness to your body,
A sense of space within and notice what is happening for you.
Really giving it space to be liberated instead of holding on to it.
If you don't have extensive amount of time to meditate every day,
It's good to have little moments throughout your day where you can just check in with yourself,
Giving yourself that space,
That freedom.
It may be while you're having breakfast,
It may be while you're brushing your teeth,
It may be while you're walking from your car to where you're going.
It doesn't really matter.
What's important is that you have moments of mindfulness and slowly,
Steadily start to become aware of the vibrancy of your life within,
Giving it space to be free.
This will no doubt,
As it has with me,
Help you to feel grounded through any situation life can throw at you and allow the joy within to really shine into your life and to those around you.
If you're interested in learning more about how to connect to your energy body,
Please take a look at my course,
Journey of Self-Discovery and Self-Healing,
Where I guide you on this process,
Step by step.
