In your quiet,
Comfortable location,
Find a position that is relaxing and easy.
If you are sitting,
Let your spine and your back move a little so that you know you are comfortable sitting here for a few moments.
Feel fully embodied.
Feel the seat,
The legs,
And the hips.
Let the shoulders and neck be comfortable and the facial muscles relaxed.
Let there be a natural curve in the neck.
Now take attention to the breathing.
Begin with an exhale.
Exhale air out of the lungs,
Emptying the lungs.
And then take awareness to the inhale,
Making this slow and comfortable.
Let the next exhale happen easily,
Not pushing too hard or too fast,
Lengthening the exhale as well as lengthening the inhale.
Feel the ribs move with the breath,
Expanding with the inhale and contracting with the exhale.
Let this breathing continue for a few more breaths.
See if the exhale can lengthen more.
Allow the back of the throat to relax.
Watch the inhale.
Sometimes it's useful to inhale through the nose and then exhale at the mouth,
Letting the chest and heart area soften with the exhale.
This technique often releases tension that we don't even know existed.
Try this a few times.
Now perhaps shift to breathing both the inhale and the exhale through the nose.
Easy long exhales and long inhales.
If you are able to shift awareness away from thinking towards paying attention to the breath,
Do that.
Let occasional thoughts that come go away for now.
You can come back to those thoughts later.
Give attention to your breath and my voice.
Bring awareness to the midline of the torso,
From the root and the sit bones to the crown.
Bring awareness gently to the inside of your body,
From the base of your spine and sit bones up through the torso,
Through the neck to the crown of the head.
Let this area of awareness be filled with light as if there's a column of light standing from the base of the spine and sit bones up through the torso,
Through the neck,
Through the crown,
Allowing the light to expand down towards the earth from the root and up towards the sky from the crown.
As you are breathing,
Let this felt experience be magnified.
Let the physical body feel relaxed and nurtured by this column of light.
Let the width of the column of light,
The circumference of light expand out a few inches and then a few inches again,
Out as far as the skin.
Breathing here and feeling nurtured,
Relaxed and rejuvenated.
Shift your awareness more and more to the felt experience of light.
Continue to let the body relax and habitual thoughts go.
Now let the light expand down through your legs and feet and out and beyond.
Let the light expand through your shoulders,
Arms,
Elbows,
Forearms,
Wrists,
Hands and beyond.
Up through the face,
Cranium,
Crown and beyond.
Now perhaps feel that you can expand the light out a few inches beyond the physical body,
Letting the light radiate from the central column through the torso and out beyond,
Legs,
Arms,
Neck,
Crown,
Face.
Breathe.
Breathing and relaxing into the felt experience of being nurtured,
Restored and rejuvenated by light as if the individual cells of your body are being rejuvenated.
Let them be filled with light and able to integrate this light into their structure.
Now let the pathways of thought relax.
Let individual pathways of thought soften in your imagination.
Perhaps this softening will allow you access to new insights,
New solutions,
New perceptions.
Certainly it will break habitual patterns.
Allow these visualizations to expand in the way that your body and energy intuitively call.
Perhaps there is a specific area where you want to magnify the light.
If so,
Do that now.
Perhaps you simply want to deeply,
Deeply relax,
Feeling supported.
If so,
Do that now.
Perhaps you want to release attention from habitual thinking towards direct experience of light,
Direct experience of body.
If so,
Do that now.
Rest with this for a few breaths.
Let the exhale be soft and long and the inhale be soft,
Long,
Complete.
Continue to feel deeply rejuvenated,
Revitalized and restored as breathing happens naturally and light expands.
Now bring attention back to the light,
Magnifying the feeling of being comfortable,
Safe and restored.
Before we end this practice,
Take the time to memorize the feeling of this experience.
Memorize how it feels in the body and mind.
Memorize this feeling with the intent of being able to come back to this experience at will.
Breathing here.
Now shift awareness more towards the breath,
Slowly letting the eyes open partway looking down.
Maybe the eyes are about a third open.
See if you can maintain the feeling of being embodied light while the eyes are partially open.
Just play with this feeling.
And now open the eyes more fully with attention on the breath.
Feel the physical body,
Feel the feet firmly on the ground,
Feel your hips in the chair,
Feel your shoulders.
Feel a brightness in your awareness,
Bright and relaxed at the same time.
In the next couple of breaths,
Complete this meditation.
Acknowledge yourself for having shown up for this experience.
Before you move,
Consider your next action.
Continue from this meditative space on with a wonderful day or into a deep restful sleep.
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I have new meditations monthly.
If you enjoyed this one,
I suggest the breath and body meditation.
