Find a nice tall seat.
Perhaps you're in a chair with your feet flat on the ground,
Or perhaps you're seated on the floor.
You can also be lying down,
Of course,
But I think you'll prefer being seated.
There's something special about having the crown,
The crown of your head,
Over top of the root for this meditation in particular.
So finding your nice tall seat,
I want you to imagine that the bones through your buttocks,
Your sitting bones,
They're like prongs on an electrical plug.
And so you can literally plug yourself down into the earth.
And then from that place,
Pushing down into your seat,
Can you rise up through the crown of your head,
Your spine like that cord lifting up towards the sun.
And there's no expectations.
If they begin to percolate in your mind,
Just see them move to the side,
Dissolve.
Perhaps you even offer them into the ground through your fingertips or with your palms pressed in your knees and allowing the expectations to drain down through your legs,
Out through the soles of your feet.
There are many expectations in life.
Some of them we've woven into the warp and weft of who we are ourselves,
But oftentimes they are expectations that are given to us so casually,
Almost flippant.
So I want to invite you now with your breath to take those dos and don'ts and those shoulds and imagine them actually being washed out of your body.
So if you can envision that there's a basin of water being so gently poured over your head,
Maybe you feel it going down the central channel of your body or pouring on the outside.
Notice the temperature of the water can be cool,
Refreshing,
Warm and soothing or have no sensation at all.
And this beautiful flooding,
This beautiful rinsing quality just allows those expectations to be dissolved and to be carried down this river,
Out through the soles of your feet.
We often have a hard time letting go because we think it's going to be burdensome,
But we must remember that energy is neither created nor destroyed.
It simply changes form.
So you have the capacity as this alchemist to release these expectations,
Sending the energy,
The charge of them back into the earth,
Cultivating spaciousness and luminosity in your own being that you can then fill with more radiance.
Take a couple breaths here in silence and be in the practice of noticing,
Releasing expectations.
When you hear the word expectations,
I want you to see if you can identify in your body where you feel it's almost like a gripping,
Where there's a holding back,
Almost like a frozenness or an ability to steal against something.
And I want to remind you that we're not here to change anything.
We're just here to cultivate presence.
So if you can move in towards the sensation,
You can feel the tension in your body and the thoughts that you have attached to it and how those thoughts create feelings.
Continuing to drop expectations,
Can you just stay with your breath,
Stay with the sensation in your body and really now ask what your body wants.
How can I care for you more deeply,
Sweet one?
How can I tenderly hold you against my chest?
It might feel good to place a hand where you can feel tension and you can imagine this radiant light from the palm of your hand,
Whatever color you want,
Ever so gently and tenderly just tending to this place in your body.
Deepen your breath.
Your body might want to move.
You may want to rest quietly or make sound.
But really this process is about dropping expectations so that we can move into deep listening.
What does your body need?
And how can you say yes?
How can we say yes and deliver building self-trust?
Building worthiness?
Cultivating love?
Stay with your breath.
Notice the warmth of your own heart emanating through your body.
Your heart that pulses with divine love.
Allow it to spread through each and every cell.
Flourishing your beingness.
Stay with your breath.
The invitation now is to take rest and lie down or if you prefer you may stay seated.
Allow your breath and the radiance of divine love,
Of your love,
Saturate your body.
Let yourself steep in your own eminence,
Remembering who you are.
And just staying here now in silence for as long as you need.
May you go with grace.
