Good morning and welcome to The Artist's Morning.
My name's Darius and I am so grateful that you and I get this time together.
Let's begin our practice.
If your eyes are open,
I'd like to invite you to close them now as we begin to go inwards together.
Take a moment to settle into your seat,
Taking deeper,
Slower breaths,
Giving our bodies a moment to settle in,
Noticing if there's any place where you're holding tension,
Maybe your shoulders,
Your forehead,
Gently bringing some softness to those places,
Using the breath to help you drop your shoulders,
Soften your forehead,
Soften your jaw,
And if your mind is still racing,
Thinking about the things you need to do,
Thinking about the things that happened in the past,
I like to place one hand on my heart,
One hand just above my belly button,
And softly,
Gently place a little pressure and remind myself,
I am here now.
I am here now and I am safe.
I am safe.
I am held and I am supported,
And sometimes I like to move my hands around my body,
Following my own intuition and just gently using my own touch to ground me,
Pushing on my thighs gently,
Pushing on my chest gently,
Even my face.
I am here now.
Noticing if your breath has become shallow again,
If so,
It's real simple,
We're going to take a few deep breaths,
Breathing all the way down into our bellies,
And if you are open to it,
Make some noise on your exhale,
The noise can be comforting to your inner world and your mind,
And it signals to your entire system that you are safe.
Your voice is safe here,
You are allowed to take up space here,
Even if your voice this morning is really,
Really quiet.
Let's take a deep breath here together,
Holding at the top of our breath.
Deep breath in,
Hold,
Making some noise on our exhale,
Bravo dear artist.
We have arrived.
We are here now,
And with your permission,
I'd like to introduce you to a very special place just behind your heart,
Behind your mind,
Behind your human,
There is a sanctuary.
This is a sanctuary of peace,
Certainty,
And calm,
Deep rooted calm.
Each one of us has this sanctuary,
And remember where it's located,
Just behind your heart,
Just behind your mind,
Immediately behind your human.
This sanctuary has a seat,
It is the seat of your soul,
Each one of us has this seat,
This sanctuary,
And at any moment,
You are able to access it.
It is a place where we go temporarily,
Especially when life is moving fast and there's a lot of energy,
And we are beginning to lose ourselves.
Would you like to go there with me now?
It's very simple.
We slow down,
We take a deep breath,
We allow our heart to breathe,
Our mind to breathe,
Our human to breathe,
And with that breath,
We go backwards,
Spiritually,
Energetically,
And step into the sanctuary.
Let's try it now.
Let's take a deep breath in,
And back,
Deep breath in,
And back,
There's nothing you need to do,
It's always there.
This sanctuary,
This seat of your soul is a place we can go at any time,
And it gives us an opportunity to slow down and observe our human experience.
This is a place where there is no judgment,
There is no right or wrong,
Through our observation everything is accessed through the lens of unconditional love.
Can you see your human in front of you?
Can you see the drama that is life playing in front of your human?
On one side,
On the right side,
There is the drama of puffing up.
This is where the ego needs to be heard and seen.
On the other side is the drama of getting small.
This is where the ego collapses and withdraws,
And directly in the center there is a sacred place,
A deeply resourced,
Rooted place.
This is the sacred center.
This sanctuary is a temporary shift in perspective.
It allows you to see the drama,
To see your beautiful human,
And to take a breath and remember that you have a sacred center you can access at any time.
This is our last song,
And I'm going to stay quiet for the rest of our song and just let you observe from this place of unconditional love,
And maybe there's something here for you to learn.
Bravo,
Dear artist.
You made it to the end of this meditation,
And for that I am so grateful.
I'd like to share two more quick points about this sanctuary.
One,
We're not supposed to spend all of our time in the sanctuary.
Sometimes even seconds can make a big difference in our experience.
The purpose of the sanctuary isn't to ignore or bypass our feelings.
It's just a slight shift in perspective that allows us to bring compassion and love back to our hearts,
Minds,
And humans.
Secondly,
This awakening that there is a sanctuary behind us can be incredibly powerful if you practice it,
Because as you go into the world and you meet other humans,
You'll be able to see they have a sanctuary just like yours directly behind them.
And just like you,
They have the dramas playing in front of them,
And it's really powerful to walk down the street and start to see and feel this divine place behind each and every one of us.
If you pay special attention,
You'll notice it is exactly the same as your sanctuary.
There is something that bonds all of us together.
So go gently,
Go lovingly,
There's no rush.
And lastly,
For those that are joining us live at The Artist Morning,
I'm going to share a journaling prompt to continue our exploration.
I'll put 20 minutes on the clock and we can go deeper through private,
Personal journaling.
And of course,
If you're catching us on a replay,
Perhaps on Insight Timer,
You can do the same too.
Thank you once again.
My name is Darius and I will see you next time.
