Welcome to the Freedom Within Meditations with Kieran Headley.
Today's meditation is on internal harmony.
For those that do not know,
The Japanese symbol,
Kanji symbol,
For harmony,
Also is a symbol for peace.
And the reason why is because in order to come to a place of internal peace,
First we must create internal harmony.
This is a beginner's meditation which I highly recommend doing first before we move on to the intermediate and the advanced meditation.
And creating internal harmony.
And there are three steps to creating harmony within.
First we develop our ability to cultivate focus,
Because without the ability to focus we'll lack the ability to move through areas of resistance because the mind will constantly wander.
The second step is filtering thoughts and learning to come to a place of non-reaction within those thoughts.
And the third and final step is coming to a place of harmony within oneself with all sensations,
Emotions,
Feelings.
And I'll guide you today through these three steps.
The goal of these meditations is to come to a place where you can self-guide yourself through this sort of meditation,
Because it requires a deeper conscious capability in order to do so.
So I'd like to invite you to close down the eyes and to start to pay attention to the sounds around you.
Notice the different types of sounds,
The different frequencies,
The contrast of the different sounds,
And then bring your attention to your breath,
Focusing on the breath flowing in and out through your nose.
Find an area where you feel the breath within the nose,
And I want to invite you to focus specifically on that area.
You might start to notice how the airflow in is cooler than the airflow out,
Which is warmer.
You might start to notice as well how the airflow might flow more strongly through one nostril in comparison to the other nostril,
As much as natural.
So what I want to invite you to do is focus on the breath here,
And see if you can maintain focus on the specific region,
Simply following your breath.
And every time your mind wanders,
Every time distraction arises,
You continue to come back to this focus point.
By learning to focus on this region and following the breath in such a way,
You're also strengthening your mind's capability to focus.
You're sharpening your tool of focus,
And this is going to enable for a greater capability to move through difficult sensations and emotions in the third step.
Every time the mind wanders,
Just gently bringing it back,
Focusing on the breath in and out through the nose.
Not trying to change the breath,
Not trying to manipulate the breath,
Just simply allowing it to flow,
Letting it be as it is.
Remember every time it drifts,
Just slowly and subtly bringing your attention back to the breath,
Holding that focus as well as you can.
Not being disheartened if the mind's constantly wandering,
Zigzagging and bouncing up and down,
As the mind does.
Just acknowledging that this is the current state of the mind.
For the next step,
Who's actually doing the opposite of what we just did,
Which is filtering thoughts.
Focusing on a space between your eyes,
Your mind's eye.
I'd like to invite you to actually let your thoughts flow,
To actually let images come up in your mind.
Let your mind flow the way it wants to flow.
The intention here is to come to a place where you're non-reactive to all thoughts and all images.
No matter how scary,
Terrifying,
Saddening these thoughts are,
You are coming to a place where you no longer need to shrink,
Clench up,
Cripple,
Hide away.
Instead,
I want to invite you to remain in a strong and stern and relaxed posture,
While continually breathing softly and deeply in and out through the nose.
And as you maintain this,
Simply in silence,
Allowing your mind to flow without resisting any thoughts and any images.
You'll notice very quickly when an image or a thought brings resistance,
Acknowledge whenever that happens,
And choose to allow your mind to go that way.
Yes,
Even the scary thoughts.
We do this because only by leaning into the thoughts that would normally create reaction in the system can we learn to come to a place where these thoughts no longer have power over us,
And therefore we come to a place of non-reaction.
For the mind is made up of two pedals,
No brakes.
We press one of the pedals thinking it's a brake,
And the thought speeds up.
When you try your best to not think of a thought,
It only gets stronger.
So instead we're teaching ourselves how to allow.
And that leads us to the third step.
I'd like to invite you to focus on the area of the belly,
The stomach,
Where your breath is,
And see if you notice any tension there,
Any tightness,
Any stress,
Or even any heaviness.
Some might even notice it as a simmering energy.
I'd like to invite you to just consciously feel whatever's there,
And see if you can start to allow this tension to unravel,
To unwind,
To detangle.
Breathing deeply into it.
You might say,
Wait,
Kieran,
But I feel tension in my chest or my throat.
Then focus on these areas as well,
And start to do the same.
Start to breathe deeply into them,
And really start to allow these areas to relax without losing your posture.
See what happens if you actually consciously choose to allow yourself to feel these sensations,
The stress,
The feelings,
The emotions,
Completely as they are.
Most of us try to clothe our emotions,
Because when they're naked in the dark,
They're terrifying.
So long as our emotions remain in the dark without us deciding to turn on the light,
We'll always walk into that dark room and see a coil on the ground and think it's a snake.
When we actually spend time with our emotions,
Breathe deeply into them and allow them to flow,
We're actually turning on the light in that room and then starting to recognize that that coil on the ground was just a coil of rope,
Not a snake.
This is a form of exposure therapy,
Except we're not using an external substance to expose ourselves to it.
We're coming to the true core of where reaction comes from,
Which is emotion,
And we're exposing ourselves to there,
To the core,
To the essence of reaction.
And I feel like,
Karen,
I can't quite get it.
I can't feel my feelings,
I can't feel my emotions,
I feel numb.
That also is a feeling,
I feel numb.
Great.
Where is the numbness most intense?
In the head,
Excuse my accent,
In the belly,
The chest.
Notice where the numbness is most intense,
Within the system,
Within the body,
Not around the body or on the body or in the muscles,
But go deeper.
Breathe into that.
Continue to let things flow,
Let things be as they are,
And as you continue to do this throughout your day,
Allowing the mind to flow,
Allowing emotions to flow,
And knowing your breath is always there to come back to as an anchor point.
You'll start to develop greater internal harmony.
As you slowly come to the sounds around you,
Wiggling your fingers,
Your toes,
And back to your senses.
When you feel complete,
You may open your eyes.
I wish you the best on your journey of cultivating greater internal harmony and thus coming to a place of greater peace within.
Remembering this is a practice,
Not a one-off.
I'd like to invite you to move on now when you're ready to the intermediate and the advanced and eventually come into a place where you're no longer needing the guidance.
And then internal harmony will be purely a conscious approach,
No longer an assisted approach.
I wish you the best.
Lots of love.
