Return To Centre

Hello and welcome.

I'm Dan Brakewell and I'm going to be leading you through this meditation called Return to Center.

This is a meditation just to help us return to the sort of steady,

Still and soft center of ourselves that is always there,

Sort of hidden underneath all these surface layers of a very chaotic world.

It's whirling,

Constantly shifting to all the external demands and expectations,

The availability,

The emails,

The texts,

The swipe culture,

The instancy that this sort of modern world thrives on,

Convenience.

And so this is a meditation just to help soften and soothe and maybe slow down the need and requirement to have everything on tap all the time,

To return to a stiller,

More steady and sort of eternal sense of self that has a constancy,

Has a pricelessness,

Maybe has no value actually to the external world,

It's there as a resource for yourself.

And so let's just begin by getting comfortable.

Whether you want to sit or lie down is totally up to you depending on your energy levels.

Just getting comfy,

Any support you might have,

Cushions,

Bolsters,

Things to sit on or cushion you up as you lay down,

Anything you need.

Just taking time to discern what is available to you here just to rest,

To steady your body,

To feel comfort and to feel held by a sturdy base,

Whether you feel that underneath your back if you're lying down or underneath your seat if you're sitting up.

Let's just begin with the surface layers,

The fluctuating stuff.

You might notice repetitive thoughts,

Discomfort in the body maybe that's a little bit distracting at the moment or moments you've had with people through the day,

Emotions that feel very immediate,

Very close to you,

Maybe we feel a little bit fused and stuck to them.

Whatever those things are for you,

I'm just starting to,

First of all,

Just have a sense of all parts welcome,

No parts left out.

Embracing all these aspects of your experience and yourself,

Maybe having a little bit of empathy and affection especially for any discomfort,

Overwhelm,

Emotional weight or overstimulation.

Acknowledging that these things are distracting or hard to harbour.

By doing that we're just creating a little bit of space around them,

A little bit of distance,

Softening the edges.

We're not pushing them away,

Denying them or their legitimacy.

However,

We are creating a little bit of safe space.

A healthy boundary,

Maybe smoothing the edges of these things.

And then hopefully we can just begin to let them sort of float on the surface like floating buoys in the sea.

Just starting to sink a little bit deeper into your body.

Noticing the edges of your body that move as you breathe in and out.

Notice the natural breath and see if you can just allow it to move in,

Simply until you feel full and satiated.

And can you breathe out and allow yourself to breathe out until you reach that empty space.

Taking away any tendency to rush the breath.

As we deepen it and we lengthen it,

Not through making it a certain way but through allowing the breath to manifest as and when it naturally comes through.

And just scanning gently through your body,

So just starting with your awareness around the crown of the head.

Just letting your awareness drift along the forehead,

The eyebrows,

The back of the skull.

The eye sockets,

Cheekbones,

The sinuses.

The jaw,

The nose,

The mouth,

The teeth,

The tongue,

The chin,

The ears,

Your entire face.

And letting awareness sink down through the neck,

The throat,

The upper shoulders.

Continuing through the upper arms,

Elbows,

Forearms,

Wrists,

Palms of the hands,

The backs of the hands.

Through the fingers,

Finger joints,

To the fingertips.

And draw your awareness back up through the arms and into the chest,

The upper chest and collar bones.

The upper back and shoulder blades often get quite tense or tired here.

Again,

Just to bring a little bit of space around those things,

Bringing awareness into the entire chest,

Upper back,

The ribcage.

And the middle back,

Solar plexus as well between the ribs,

The diaphragm,

Like a drum skin or like a jellyfish at the base of your ribs.

Muscles all around the waist and the lower back and the belly,

The organs of digestion.

The hips and the pubic bone,

The sacrum,

The groins,

The hip sockets,

The upper legs,

The knees,

The lower legs,

The ankles.

And the heels,

The arches of the feet,

The balls of the feet,

The little joints of the toes,

All the way to the tips of the toes.

Feeling the whole body and its weight on the ground,

Whether that's through your seat or through the back body lying down.

Imagining sinking,

So each out breath helping you just create a little bit of an indent in the ground as if you were laying on spongy grass or soft sand.

Having a little bit of time and space here just to reacquaint yourself more with the breath again.

Just notice what you observe about it.

Is it naturally fills and empties?

Is it deep or shallow,

Long,

Short,

Smooth or choppy?

Again,

Just seeing what you can offer in terms of space and time and yielding a little bit more around where the breath touches and moves through the body.

And just starting to get a little bit more nuanced with the breath.

Often we can follow the breath as it moves in and fills,

Expands and peaks and as it empties and drains and releases.

But in this meditation,

Let's just bring the awareness to where we can perceive the breath beginning.

It's that raw beginning moment,

The emerging of the breath,

Like a seedling emerging from a seed.

Where do you feel that moment happen?

So bringing our awareness more into that seed space,

Potential spaciousness,

Emptiness to which the breath is birthed almost.

It's emergence,

It's beginning.

And also the same place from which the breath or to which the breath returns,

Dissolves back into and becomes that space itself.

It might feel like a slightly odd concept to feel into.

Try not to overthink it.

We're just paying attention to where you feel it in your body,

That beginning of the breath and the end of the breath.

Where you feel the new breath begin and where you feel it dissolve and disappear back into again.

Perhaps you connect more visually.

You could visualize where you feel this space in your body.

You could imagine a light.

As the breath begins,

This light starts to appear out of nothingness,

Out of darkness and expanding into the edges of the body and even out into your energy field.

As you breathe out again,

The sphere of light contracts and eventually disappears back into that same place.

Perhaps that ball of light or energy has a feel,

A temperature,

A warmth,

A coolness.

Occasionally or maybe quite often,

Your attention,

Your awareness will waver,

Might be drawn back to the surface,

The ripples of the thoughts,

The emotions,

The memories or the worries.

Again,

We're not pushing things away but just creating a bit of space,

Resisting fusing with these things and softening,

Sinking a little deeper into ourself again.

Until eventually you can sink your awareness once more gently back to that curious,

Playful attention.

Where does the breath begin?

Where does it appear?

And where does it disappear?

And that moment between the end of the breath and the new beginning,

Not feeling like an abrupt stop but a turning point,

This brewing potential that exists in this fertile space and emptiness.

A place that might feel reminiscent of what in Taoism or Taoism is called the Tao or the Tao.

Just to quote Stephen Mitchell in his translation of the Tao Te Ching.

The great Tao flows everywhere.

All things are born from it,

Yet it doesn't create them.

It pours itself into its work,

Yet it makes no claim.

It nourishes infinite worlds,

Yet it doesn't hold onto them.

Since it is merged with all things and hidden in their hearts,

It can be called humble.

Since all things vanish into it and it alone endures,

It can be called great.

It isn't aware of its greatness,

Thus it is truly great.

Perhaps meditating on that space as if you have discovered the Tao.

Where all things seem to be born from and emerge from.

Despite there being no active intention to create them.

How it brings nourishment.

How it allows the breath to spring forth and emerge and fly.

How it welcomes its return as it contracts,

Dissolves and rests.

Humble.

How the breath emerges and how it vanishes to and from that same space.

How the space alone endures.

How that centre of you is oblivious to its greatness and its vastness.

Making it truly beautiful and great.

And it's continuing for a little while longer.

Just quietly,

Curiously,

Playfully observing this centre.

Whether we want to call it the Tao or the Tao.

Or simply observe it like a light visually or a sensation.

Perhaps it needn't have a name or any narration.

And you can just start to sink into the complete experience of it all.

Of that place inside you.

Let's just start to bring the awareness into a slightly more surface space again perhaps.

Imagine as you start to sort of float towards the surface layers again.

Perhaps thinking of leaving a little trail.

Perhaps there's a little cord attached between you and this centre.

Or imagining a little breadcrumb trail of some sort.

Remembering your way back.

So that you can come back and revisit whenever you like.

Knowing all it takes is just a slight reorientation of your awareness.

Or attention.

This place within you is always there.

Its existence is there whether you're aware of it or not.

Imagining you've befriended this space.

You definitely intend to return again.

Affectionately.

Towards an old friend,

A lifelong friend.

Starting to bring awareness to the edges of the body again.

As they move with each breath.

Bringing more attention maybe to the peaks and troughs of the breath now.

Noticing any sounds near or far.

The feeling of the room you're in,

The space,

The temperature,

The floor underneath you.

The air you're breathing in and out.

The ground steadying you.

Just bringing some soft movement to the fingers and toes,

The ankles,

The wrists.

If you're sitting down cross-legged you could give your legs a little stretch.

If you're lying down,

Take a moment to softly find your way to a seated position.

Then taking the hands,

Placing them palms down,

One unstacked on top of the other.

Sort of an approximation of the place where you sort of perceived or felt or visualized that center.

Or that Tao,

Or that light emerging from.

Just breathing gently there,

Just feeling the affection,

The contact and the care of your hands.

Maybe the appreciation,

There's an element of gratitude there flowing into that center.

Just feeling the breath sort of rising and expanding into the hand in return.

A little acknowledgement,

Gratitude received,

Message received.

It sinks back into that almost elusive center.

Let's just take a couple of deeper breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth.

As you do so you might gently blink the eyes open,

Take in wherever you are.

Transitioning out of your practice,

Seeing if you can do so smoothly,

Without any hurry or urgency.

Thank you for joining me in meditation and I hope you can join me again soon.