Meditation For Slowing Down (Taking Time To Be Present)

Good morning and welcome to the artist morning.

My name's Darius and I'm so grateful that you and I have this time together this morning.

Wherever you are in the world,

Whenever you are in the world,

We are here together and that's a really special thing to me.

Today our meditation practice will be on the theme of slowing down.

Life can go very quickly sometimes and our brilliant creative minds can imagine all sorts of future situations and that can be helpful.

And sometimes that can be harmful.

Our minds can move too quickly and so today's meditation practice will be slowing things down,

Coming back to our bodies and back to our hearts.

Back to our hearts,

Merely to be present and perhaps to listen to any message our heart might have.

Let's begin our meditation.

If your eyes are open,

I'd like to invite you to close them now as we go inwards together.

Give ourselves permission here to go really slow.

There's nowhere you need to be.

There's no feeling you need to chase,

Pursue or avoid.

Notice what comes up for you as I share the theme once again of slowing down.

Is there an opening in your heart when you hear that?

Do you push away from the idea of slowing down?

There's no right or wrong answer,

Just notice.

Taking a few deep breaths here.

With each breath I'd like to invite you to breathe a little deeper and use the breath to travel from your outer world to the tips of your lips,

Your nostrils,

Your tongue,

Your throat,

Your lungs,

And then into your heart space.

See from the outside to your heart.

And if it's hard for you to reach your heart,

I'd like to invite you to place one hand on your heart,

One hand just above your belly button.

Imagine breathing into these places.

As you breathe,

Notice the rising and falling of your chest,

Of your shoulders.

In this space,

In your space,

In your heart,

There is always safety.

Say that again because it's important.

In your heart,

There is always safety for you.

You can leave your hands where they are,

You can place them back down on your lap.

How is your heart this morning?

How is your heart this morning?

There is no right or wrong answer.

You do not need to share this answer with anyone.

And maybe there's a surprise there for you.

Maybe there's surprise joy and pleasure.

Maybe there's surprise tenderness and sadness.

The point isn't to feel a certain way,

To chase a certain experience,

Or to avoid one.

It's just an invitation to feel into what's real for you in this moment.

Was there something that surprised you?

Was there a feeling that you are very familiar with?

Was there a feeling that you wanted to avoid?

This is a sacred space for you and I to connect and remember.

This is a sacred space for you and I to connect with our hearts and remember who we truly are.

Stay quiet for this song and let you explore.

Stay quiet.

Stay quiet.

Stay quiet.

Bravo,

Dear artist.

Any time connected with our hearts is sacred time,

Whether you resisted the entire process or you opened up 1% more than you did yesterday.

I'm grateful we got this time.

For me,

Our hearts are portals to the infinite.

It's not an accident that our most powerful tool for this human experience that's with us from our first breath to our last breath just happens to be placed literally right beneath our nose.

Whenever I'm lost,

Whenever I'm unsure,

I know connection is one breath away,

Literally sitting right beneath my nose.

So before we go into our last song,

Which is a song after this song,

Just want to give us a moment to connect with our hearts.

Maybe place one hand on your heart and find something sincere to say to your heart.

Maybe something you're grateful for.

Doesn't need to be profound.

It could be simple.

You're open to it.

Place one hand on your heart now and share one kind sentiment with your heart.

I miss you so much.

Congratulations.

Upside down.

Oh,

Thank you G Cookies.

Well done,

Dear artist.

This is our last song.

I'm going to leave a lot of space for you to explore on your own.

And if I may,

The one question I'd like to seed is this.

If in the end,

All of us,

Each and every one of us,

Got a standing ovation no matter what we did.

What would you create with the time you have left?

What would you create with the time you have left?

What would you create with the time you have left?

What would you create with the time you have left?

What would you create with the time you have left?

Let's take one more moment here just to land back in our seats,

In our bodies.

Bravo,

Dear artist.

You and I made it to the end of another meditation.

Thank you for holding this space,

Both sacred and silly with me.

For those of us joining live at the artist morning,

I'm going to put 20 minutes on the clock and give us some time to do some private,

Personal journaling,

Deepening the experience of connecting with ourselves and with our hearts and seeing what's here and accessible for us.

If you're catching us on a replay,

Perhaps on Insight Time,

Or of course you could do the same,

Put some time on your own clock and see what's here.

Thank you for meditating with me.

My name is Darius and I will see you next time.