As we first begin our meditation,
Let's take some final movements.
So if you are lying down,
Start to draw the shoulders away from the ears,
So make a lot of space in your neck.
By doing so,
You're kind of pulling the shoulder blades underneath of your back downward a little bit,
So kind of creating a little bit more room in the chest when you do,
So we'll feel the breath a little easier.
From the heel of the right leg,
Try to elongate the leg just a little bit longer,
So we're trying to separate out of the hip socket just a little bit,
So we're just trying to create a nice room on the right side,
And then do the same exact thing,
So kind of stretching the leg on the left side from the heel,
So kind of imagining as if you are making your leg longer,
Whether it's doing so or not,
And your hands are open and expansive,
And you get to make the decision whether you want your palms up or your palms down,
But take up space,
Feel strong,
Be exactly where you are in the location,
And so don't feel like you need to be small,
Really take up this nice space.
So as we simply begin,
I just want you to notice your rising of your inhale in the chest,
So it's the heart center,
It's located next to your physical heart,
And so as we first are beginning,
If maybe it's easier,
You can even place a hand on your chest,
If you don't feel like moving,
You don't have to do that,
So we're just starting by noticing when we inhale,
The chest is going to rise,
And when we exhale,
The chest falls.
Stay with this for a couple breaths,
And you can always keep the hand there if that is really helping you to stay in the moment,
If you feel like you don't need it,
And you can just keep your awareness there,
You can always move the hand.
Now what I want you to notice is underneath the wall of the chest,
So if you had your hand there underneath that area,
When you breathe in your chest,
Do you notice if your breath starts to go on one side versus the other?
Do you notice that it feels like maybe your chest is rising higher on one side than the other side?
And again,
If you don't know,
You can even just stick with the rise and the fall of the chest.
If you are noticing that one side of the chest fills up more than the other,
Can you expand the other side?
Can you make the breath fill the chest equally,
And maybe even you breathe deeper when you fill up the side that's a little bit less?
And noticing that when you're breathing in the chest,
There's actually other parts of the body that are moving,
So it's not just the top of the body,
The sides of the chest also expand.
And the back of the chest,
So right where your shoulder blades are located,
When you inhale,
You rise up a bit because all of the air expands this area.
And noticing if there is a shift happening a bit in the mind as we're focusing on the breath,
Maybe it's easier,
Maybe you feel a little calmer.
And now we're going to move our awareness down to our bellies.
And we're going to do the same exact thing.
If you want to put the hand there,
You can,
You don't have to.
Noticing the breath filling your belly.
Noticing if one side starts to fill up,
Or if one side is fuller with the breath.
And so trying to match each side.
So you can just even imagine the breath is filling your entire belly,
And even fills the sides of the belly,
Kind of located around about where your hips are.
And then also your lower back,
Which is not as noticeable,
But it moves as well.
Now let's put that together.
So we're going to do the chest and the belly.
So as the breath comes in,
Notice there is an expansion of this entire area.
And then the breath leaves the body,
And your body resets back to its normal state.
Noticing if your breath is able to fill up the torso more.
If you're able to send breath to a side of the body that doesn't open up as much as the other side.
We're going to add on.
Now noticing that the breath is going to go through the arms,
As well as the torso into the belly.
And so this might be just imagery that you're using.
So when you inhale,
The breath fills the throat,
All the way to the fingertips,
All the way to the belly.
And as you exhale,
You can imagine the breath is leaving each of these places,
The body,
And then traveling out.
And now the final part of the body we want to fill up.
We're going to inhale,
The breath is going to travel to fingertips,
And now it's going to go all the way down to our toes.
And when we exhale,
The breath leaves the body.
And you can imagine maybe a color associated with it.
You can imagine maybe it looks smoky.
You can just feel it.
So it's almost as if your whole body is breathing.
The inhale travels to every area inside your body.
And when you exhale,
It leaves the entire body and out your nose.
We're going to add on one more thing with this body breathing.
Continuing to inhale,
The breath travels in through every area of the body.
And when you exhale,
You let go,
You relax,
And you soften.
And we're going to count down from 10 and do this all the way to zero.
So if you want to travel with me,
You can.
Inhaling,
Exhaling,
Relax,
Let go,
Soften,
10.
Inhale,
Relax a little bit more than the number before,
9.
Inhaling,
Release even more,
8.
And now continue with your counting in your breath all the way down to zero.
And becoming a little bit more relaxed than the number before.
And as you make your way down to zero,
Just staying with the breathing.
So we're not counting anymore,
But just keep noticing the inhale and the exhale and the relaxation with the exhale,
That letting go.
Now I want you to imagine at the top of your head,
There is a light shining from the top of your head all the way up to source.
So your definition of source could be different than someone else's.
Maybe it's God for you.
Maybe it's the universe.
Maybe it's the clouds or nature.
So connect to something bigger than yourself.
And I want you to imagine as if there is a light traveling from the top of your head and connecting to that source,
Whatever you might believe.
And maybe it's just the sun.
We're going to do some feeding and clearing of the heart.
As you inhale,
I want you to imagine the light from above you from that source traveling down into the center of your chest where your heart center is located.
As you exhale,
The light fills this whole space.
On the next breath,
You inhale any darkness,
Sadness,
Any emotion not serving you.
You inhale it up through the crown of your head.
And then you exhale,
Let it out to be recycled and renewed.
So again,
We inhale from the source light down through the top of the head into your heart.
As you exhale,
The light shines in this area.
Your next inhale,
You pull out any smokiness,
Anything that is not serving you right now.
You inhale it up to the top of your head.
And as you exhale,
You let it out.
And then keep going through that pattern.
So imagining as if you are healing your heart with the light coming in and permeating this area.
And then you're removing any ick,
Anything that doesn't serve your heart right now and let it go.
And if this practice just falls away,
You can let it.
If you notice that your mind is traveling,
Just start over.
Find your focal point.
Meditation is never perfect.
It is a practice.
And some days it's easier than others to find that focal point.
And you can just let the healing of the heart drop away.
One final thing we will do is locate a part of your body that you want to heal a little bit more.
Be your mind if it's busy.
Maybe it's your heart again.
Maybe it's your belly or your hips or one hip or one foot.
And after you locate that area,
I want you to inhale and send the breath to that area.
And this is just imagery.
And then exhale out any darkness from this area.
So when you inhale,
Inhale that you can imagine as if you are healing this area.
The breath completely expands into this area of the body.
And then let go anything that isn't serving you.
And we'll release that imagery.
And you can spend these last moments however you would like.
And maybe that is just inhaling the breath fills the body and exhale it releases.
We'll take a minute or so of doing whatever feels right for you now.
And slowly releasing the attention to the breath or whatever you're focusing on.
Noticing how your mind is feeling in your body.
Noticing if there is a difference from when we first began till now.
And as we conclude,
We will connect to our heart center one more time.
Whether you want to stack one hand on top of the other,
Placing it on the chest,
Or whether you just want to bring your awareness to that area.
And with your hands on your heart center,
I want you to send yourself a message of love.
It could be something specific or just a general message that you love yourself,
Or that you're proud,
Or you're grateful.
And from your heart space,
Also sending love out to someone you might love dearly,
Someone who might need it right now,
Even a stranger.
And from my heart center to each of yours,
I'm deeply grateful you joined me this evening.
Namaste.
