Hello,
I'm Dan Brakewell and this is a meditation called Begin Again.
It's a meditation for those tricky and sometimes disheartening moments in our lives where inevitably we hit a hurdle,
Maybe make a mistake or something unexpected,
Put a spanner in the works of something that was going pretty steady.
And so it's a meditation to help us check in with our ability to begin again,
To start over,
To maybe even cultivate beginner's mind and to help dissipate inevitable frustrations,
Anger,
Irritability or even depression and sadness.
So let's begin firstly by getting comfortable.
It's totally up to you if you want to sit or lie down.
And just starting to tune in firstly to the natural breath as it moves in and out of the body.
And starting to tune into the movements of your body in response to the breath.
The passive,
Involuntary movement of making space,
Opening and releasing,
Rising and sinking.
Seeing where you can give in to the exhalations.
Invite the heaviest parts of your body to sink even more willingly into the floor,
Into the support of whatever's underneath you.
Just breathing in until you feel full.
Drinking the breath in until you feel that sense of a thirst being quenched.
And each out breath,
Surrendering to that unravelling,
Dissipating,
Dissolving into eventual emptiness.
And then getting curious about what lies before and after each breath.
Noticing the turning points,
So the breath doesn't suddenly stop and start abruptly.
It's almost like there are cogs turning at the top and the bottom of the cycle.
So as you're breathing in,
Once you're full,
You might linger there for a beat or two and just feel that sensation of fullness starting to turn and unravel.
And at the bottom of each exhalation,
Noticing a different quality of turning from emptiness and vastness into something sort of bubbling up and appearing out of nowhere.
These moments of suspension and potential.
And then we're going to draw our attention purely to the turning point at the end of the out breath.
Where we fall into emptiness,
Spaciousness.
And not empty as in lacking or in need.
Empty as in open,
Spacious,
Full of potential.
Like a cup ready to be filled with warm tea or a home or a room waiting to welcome in warm,
Comforting company.
I'm just paying attention more to that point of emptiness that comes before the space starts to fill again.
And just really leaning into that space.
Perhaps at first it feels uncomfortable or unfamiliar.
But perhaps over time it can feel like a safe,
Soft sanctuary.
This place full of our ability to begin again,
To start fresh,
Having rested.
To start fresh,
Having let everything go.
This eternal reset.
Tuning into your own capacity to begin again.
To continually grant yourself permission to begin again.
Sitting in the knowledge and the power of knowing that you've done it many times before.
You've started from the beginning.
You put one foot in front of the other.
And we just focus on the next right thing rather than being overwhelmed with how we get to the end vision.
We're not charging to the finishing point,
We're navigating the peaks and troughs.
The unexpected turns and U-turns.
We're exploring old paths.
Stumbling upon new information.
New perspectives.
Maybe gratitude where it might not have been there before.
A second time around.
Spending a little bit of extra time again,
Just resting in the emptiness.
And being ushered into new beginnings.
Carried by the subtle momentum of life emerging and growing through the in-breath.
Breathing into the next right thing.
And then the next.
And then the next.
Reminding yourself you don't have to have everything figured out right here,
Right now.
Some things we can figure out,
Discover and decide along the way.
Let's just start to stir the breath a little bit,
Just deepening the breath.
Maybe feeling more of a stretch in your ribs and your chest as you breathe in.
Maybe a couple of sighs or breaths out through the mouth.
Once or twice more.
You're lying down,
Just take some time to wiggle the fingers and toes and take some stretches and eventually roll to the side and slowly find your way into any comfortable way of sitting.
Let the hands rest,
One on top of the other in the centre of the chest,
Maybe the chin tilts in.
Perhaps a soft inner smile at the discoveries you've made in meditation.
This new space to check in with,
A place of new beginnings,
Of trusting in your ability and capacity to take the next steps,
One step at a time.
All parts welcome,
No parts left out.
Permission to begin again and start fresh.
Let's take a full breath in and a long breath out,
Bringing this meditation practice to a close.
Thank you for joining me in meditation.
Take care,
Take it easy,
Maybe have a drink of water and I hope we get to meditate together again soon.
Bye-bye.
