Begin to settle in to your space,
Making yourself comfortable,
Either sitting in an upright position with your spine erect or lying down comfortably.
When you're ready,
You may begin to gently close your eyes or bring them to a soft gaze.
If neither of those feels supportive for you,
Bring your attention to a non-moving point in the room or to the flicker of a flame of a candle.
Begin to focus your attention on your breath,
Beginning to deepen your inhales,
Lengthen your exhales,
Noticing how the belly may expand with each inhale and deflate with the exhale.
As you continue to breathe,
Begin to notice how you feel.
Maybe you feel some discomfort or tension in the physical body.
Maybe there's an unsettling feeling in the emotional body.
Just notice.
No judgment,
No trying to fix or change it.
Just being with it.
We will move into a breathing exercise known as box breathing,
Where we will inhale for four counts,
Hold that breath for four counts,
Exhale for four counts,
And hold at the bottom of the exhale for four.
So empty all the stale air out of your lungs and begin to inhale two,
Three,
Four,
Hold two,
Three,
Four,
Exhale two,
Three,
Four,
Hold two,
Three,
Four,
Inhale,
Hold,
Exhale,
Hold,
Inhale,
Hold,
Exhale,
Hold,
Inhale,
Hold,
Exhale,
Hold.
Return to your normal pattern of breath,
Beginning to deepen each and every inhale and fully empty out with each exhale.
Returning to the question,
How do I feel?
How do I feel?
As you notice what arises,
Begin to visualize yourself sitting in your favorite place,
Whether that's at home,
In nature,
With friends.
Notice that space that arises to your mind's eye.
As you settle into your favorite place,
See yourself surrounded by things that bring you joy,
Things that make you feel alive and at peace.
Here in this space,
Surrounded by things that bring you joy,
I want you to grab a notebook or a journal and begin to write in your journal all the things that are troubling you today.
Anything that may be bringing you pain or sorrow,
Discomfort,
Tension,
Dis-ease,
Pour it all out onto this page,
Filling up the notebook,
The journal with everything that comes to mind.
As you finish writing in your journal,
Begin to hold it to your heart center.
As you hold it at your heart,
Begin to watch the notebook dissolve with each and every heartbeat,
Every heartbeat,
Little by little,
Slowly.
As you sit with this pain,
This discomfort,
Watch as you alchemize it with your own love and your own attention.
Not running away,
Not hiding,
Not burying it,
But sitting with everything that has come up and watching it disintegrate and dissolve the longer you sit.
And as you focus there on your heart center,
Ask yourself again,
How do I feel?
Notice what comes up.
There's no need for judgment,
No need to analyze or try to make sense of anything that arises.
This is just information.
Continue to breathe long,
Deep inhales in through the nose and complete exhales through the nose.
When your notebook is fully dissolved at your surroundings,
Noticing again that you are in your favorite place,
Surrounded by everything that brings you love,
Joy,
Peace,
And serenity.
Begin to stand up,
Looking at the surface beneath you,
At the dust particles that were created from the disintegrating notebook.
Gather that dust and put it in a bottle.
Begin to walk towards a body of water,
Maybe an ocean,
A lake,
A bathtub.
And as you make your way to that body of water,
I want you to imagine yourself forgiving yourself with every step,
Forgiving yourself for allowing any harm to come your way,
For sinking back into old habits,
For not living up to the potential that you know you can,
Or anything that comes up.
Oftentimes,
It is our own shame and guilt that keeps us in this cycle of holding on to things that no longer serve us,
To things that bring us pain,
To things that we don't need.
As you arrive at the body of water,
Begin to unscrew the bottle,
Pour the dust particles into the water.
Begin to watch the particles completely dissolve into the water.
Once they are no longer there,
You can no longer see them.
Begin to get into that body of water,
Immersing your entire body.
When you can sit with your own discomfort,
With your own pain,
Then you can truly move past it and through it.
Allow that water to fully wash over you.
And as you rise up from the water,
Ask yourself how,
Noticing once again what comes up and noticing what you can release.
Take one final inhale in through the nose and exhale through the nose.
Exhale through the nose.
Thank you for meditating with Meditation Circle.
Inhale,
Exhale.
Take it easy.
