Welcome.
Our focus for this meditation is to somatically feel the presence of our own comfort in those hard to reach places inside of us.
Soma refers to the body.
So this practice is about embodying our own comfort through all of our senses.
So let us begin with a grounding practice to arrive here and let go of everything else you were just doing.
Let us open our senses within our mental realm to connect to the centering presence of Mother Nature.
So as we listen to these sounds,
As we place ourselves in nature,
As we tune into the rhythm and intelligence of nature,
What presence do we begin to bring into our body?
Begin to deepen your breath and let these sounds wash through your senses.
Begin to place yourself in this landscape.
Perhaps you are sitting,
Standing,
Or lying down.
Or lying down.
Explore nature through all of your senses.
What textures are against your skin?
Perhaps the smell of the soil,
Of the earth,
That musty scent fills your nose.
The contrasting colors of green and brown.
And allow yourself to take off any masks that you've been carrying.
Any ways that you think you need to be.
And letting this time,
While connecting with nature,
Be this time of surrendering and connecting to your own inner nature.
So breathing deeply into the belly,
Taking up space with your breath,
Filling the lungs completely,
And exhaling out the mouth with a sigh.
Allowing yourself to become familiar with your own unfiltered sound.
Your own nature.
And as you rest in this place,
You may notice you may notice habitual ways of perceiving arise.
Perhaps it's typical to judge yourself.
To label something as right or wrong.
I should be focused more.
I should be making this sound,
Or not like this.
Or I should be having this experience.
And as we return to the teachings of Mother Earth,
Of the natural,
There is no right or wrong.
There just is.
And what freedom and nutrients arise from this?
How many ways can we unfurl our branches and reach out further without the constriction of our own minds?
Now for the rest of this practice,
I will offer some invitational guidance that you can choose to modify and adapt to really fit your intuitive approach for planting seeds of love into yourself.
Throughout this practice,
I will read a few poems to fuel and inspire a time of contemplation around the parts of us that may still be tender or raw and is really asking for our love,
Our dusting off,
Support.
Through this contemplation,
I invite you to summon the support,
The acknowledgement,
The compassionate presence compassionate presence that your body or parts of you are asking for.
So you can begin to bring your palms to your heart,
Skin to skin.
Take a deep breath in and let a sigh out the mouth.
Ah,
You are invited to bring this unrushed,
Unrestrictive understanding of love into your touch.
So this is your time to leave little love notes in your body.
Perhaps you may wish to deepen the pressure onto your heart with your palms and gently circle around the heart space,
Noticing how this love is experienced through your senses.
You may wish to offer light touch to your skin,
Slowly,
Slowly tracing the collarbones and the neck.
Let this time be a devotion of love to your senses,
Listening for how the body and the senses drink this in.
And you can allow the next few poems that will be read to echo inside your touch or to guide you to a place that you wish to give more presence to.
It is not about how this time looks,
It is about how it feels.
You may wish to lay down if you are sitting,
Stretch,
Even dance,
Bringing love into your senses in your own natural way.
Darling,
The moment before your mind reaches to compare the fruits of your land,
Have you tended to the very richness within your own soil?
I wonder,
Would your mind be able to conceptualize competition if you had laid your own skin naked across the terrain of your being?
If you allowed your mind to empty,
To bear witness to the melody of life humming within your cells.
If you dug deeply into yourself,
Then you could see your very blood cells are molded into shape by your ancestors wisdom passed down in this body of yours.
If you could feel the echoes of your mother's love in your skin,
Could you bear to look at it with comparison in your eyes?
Even the blood of another lacks the very nutrients necessary to bloom the flowers that have been planted within your soul.
When you have opened your mouth to taste the droplets of rain pouring out from the weather of your experiences,
You won't be able to fathom the comparison to another body or being as foreign as another.
When you really listen to the richness in your soil,
You wouldn't be tempted to compare.
You're already so full.
It's time to grab that shovel and dig deeper.
So taking a moment to bring your attention to your skin,
Listening to the sensations echoing throughout it.
Wherever you are,
Keeping your body soft,
Relaxed,
Knowing that you can rest here and just allow these words to wash through you,
Not needing to hold onto anything.
And this will be our last poem for this practice.
Emerging from the cracks within the domesticated concrete of your psyche,
Your wild essence knows.
Allow yourself to sink into this belly deep slowness.
Fruit ripening,
Grass growing,
The sun rising.
Our evolved,
Calculated society forgets you cannot calculate the timing of nature's wisdom.
The supposed mistake,
Where we slip through the concrete cracks and fall deep into the soil,
Is where we learn to rise,
Blooming in between the sterile should-haves sprouting color in the midst of dull gray.
All because there's a wisdom whispering inside of us.
If we can stop repeating the story we've been told long enough to hear what is alive within us,
It will guide us,
And we will remember where we came from.
And wherever you are,
Bringing yourself to lay down if you're not already,
And surrendering your hands down by your sides,
Let your weight sink into this earth,
Letting go of every single muscle,
Joint,
And ligament.
Anywhere you're holding on,
Breathing deep into the belly,
And just take notice of this space inside of you,
This space of freedom,
Of intimacy,
And this endless well of love that you have,
That's always accessible to you,
That can meet every place of pain and heartbreak,
Or numbness that you have inside of you.
You have the capacity to drop the judgment,
And to meet every place with a soft,
Yet fierce love.
So taking this moment to settle into stillness,
To let go of all thought,
All echoing stories,
And listen for the presence vibrating beneath it,
That void,
As some call it,
The simple beingness,
Your true nature,
And beginning to deepen your breath,
Bring yourself to roll onto one side,
Feeling all of your weight shift,
Still held by the earth,
And slowly bring yourself back up to seated,
Bring your hands to meet,
And pray in prayer position,
In front of the heart,
Anjali Mudra,
And bowing your head,
In acknowledgement for this source of love within you,
For devoting your time to this practice today,
For your courage and motivation to be here.
I also thank you for letting me share this practice with you,
And join you on this journey,
In taking a deep breath,
Letting your hands drop down to your sides.
Welcome back.
