Let's find a quiet spot somewhere to sit.
Somewhere safe.
Somewhere where we can close the eyes,
Take a few deep breaths and listen.
As we take a few deep breaths,
We bring ourselves into the present moment.
The only time we can find healing,
Transformation,
Recovery.
Take in the sounds around you.
The sounds on this recording,
You'll hear the rain falling,
You'll hear wind chimes.
Let's see what else you can hear.
Maybe the birds.
Maybe the sound of silence between the noises.
When we sit for meditation,
Sometimes our goal is to find a very quiet spot and to be undisturbed so that we can look within without interruption.
But today,
I invite you to find a spot,
Somewhere preferably quiet,
Where you can go within without being interrupted.
So you can look deeply at your feelings,
Thoughts,
Perceptions,
Ideas,
Memories.
Yet today I also invite you to take in the sounds around you.
To embrace the interruptions,
The little things that bother us,
Take us away from the present moment.
I invite you to embrace these things the same way a mother would embrace a crying child.
To hold these things tenderly.
And we are able to see these distractions as reminders of the present moment.
And we're able to see these noises and interruptions as helpers on our path.
We'll be able to see all of our emotions and feelings in a different way.
So the next time we feel anger or fear,
Before we react in a way that can make it worse,
Take a moment,
Pause,
Breathe.
Think about embracing the anger as if embracing a crying child.
The same way we're able to embrace all the sounds,
The rain,
The wind chimes,
The birds singing.
We can do the same with our emotions and feelings.
And as they come up,
As they surface,
We embrace them.
And we start to see that we're not bad,
We're not wrong,
We're not weird,
We're human.
Every human being has emotions and feelings.
Every human being gets disturbed and annoyed.
It's what we do with these emotions and feelings that matters most.
How we handle them,
How we embrace them.
So for the next few moments,
Take in the sounds,
The outer sounds and also the inner sound.
See what you can relax as you do this.
See what you can soften physically.
Where can you let something go?
Mentally,
Where can you let something go?
Spiritually,
Where can you open?
The journey we take in meditation is a journey within.
The more simple we can make it,
The easier it is for us to find our peace,
Our balance,
Our harmony.
When our emotions and feelings arise,
We complicate things by analyzing,
Dissecting,
Trying to find a solution.
Yet our meditation practice calls us to do the opposite,
To pause,
To find stillness,
To let the emotion,
Feeling,
Pass through the landscape of the mind.
Let's take a deep inhale together.
Exhale,
Release.
Again,
Deep inhale,
Courageous breath,
Fill the body.
Exhale,
Let it go.
One last time,
Deepest breath you've taken so far.
Exhale,
Let it go.
Gently blink the eyes open.
Take in your surroundings.
Notice how everything you see doesn't look the way it usually looks.
When we come out of our meditation,
We have a deeper connection to all things.
We do our best to maintain that connection throughout the rest of the day.
When we lose that connection,
We simply come back to our meditation practice.
We go within.
We look deeply.
We observe the sounds,
The thoughts,
The feelings,
Without judgment,
Without attachment,
Without calling them our enemy.
We go back to our meditation practice and realize all things are here to help us,
All experiences,
All our friends,
All the elements,
The earth,
The sky,
The rain.
When we lose that sense of loneliness,
It's quite a paradox.
We sit alone in meditation to feel connected to all things.
Thank you for sharing your practice.
Namaste.
