And so today's meditation is going to be following the aspect of fall of letting go.
So yesterday was officially the first day of fall.
And so in order to kind of sync up with the season,
This practice will be about letting go.
And we'll do a little bit of physical as well as emotional and mental letting go throughout this practice.
I'm going to begin by taking three rounds of breath and we will inhale and then exhale with an audible sigh.
So whenever you feel ready,
Gently beginning to inhale.
And then let go.
And I'm going to let you do your next two with your breath.
So going at the speed that works for you.
I'm taking this moment to make any final adjustments.
And then,
Of course,
Noting that you don't need to be stuck.
You can always feel free throughout the meditation to move if something is distracting you.
We're going to begin with our breath and we will be doing the box breathing.
So I'll explain it first and then I'll let you guys go into it.
We're going to begin by inhaling to the count of four.
Hold to.
Exhale for.
Hold to.
And then keep going around that.
So the pattern is inhaling for.
Hold to.
And then exhale for.
And then hold to at the end of them.
So for all of us,
Imagery is different.
Some of us like it.
Some of us use it in different ways.
You can pretend like maybe perhaps you are traveling around the box.
And at the bottom,
You hold the two and then you go back up the side and then you hold at the top.
Or maybe you can just be internally in your body of inhaling,
And then at the bottom,
You hold there.
And then at that point,
You begin to exhale.
And you want to travel up the body and then you hold there.
So maybe perhaps one of those imagery was resonating a bit more for you.
Just connecting into that one.
In Chinese medicine,
The physical part of the body that is associated with fall is the lungs.
So at this time of year,
We are having trouble letting go or we are also feeling grief.
Breath work is an excellent practice to do during this time of the year.
Perhaps you are feeling a bit off.
And specifically,
If you don't have any anxiety associated with it,
The holding of the breath at certain points.
So at any point you don't like holding the two,
You can always drop that off.
Now I want you to do one more round and you will end on the exhale and then you can release the attention to the breath.
Moving our awareness into our heart center.
And I want you to set an intention for this season.
Centered around the idea of letting something go.
Examples might be negative self-talk.
Maybe there's one thing that you always control and you don't want to control that anymore and you want to just be free with it.
And so that intention is going to sit in our heart space for now.
And acknowledging that maybe as it sits in the heart space,
It isn't comfortable and we don't want it there.
And we'll work on that a little bit later.
But first,
Let's begin to ground ourselves.
Moving your awareness down to your root chakra.
Located at the base of the spine.
And you can connect to this area any way that feels good for you.
Maybe perhaps you see the red chakra,
The red wheel.
Maybe just energetically see the light.
And from this place,
We're going to imagine a really strong,
Thick root traveling down through the earth and connecting into the center of the earth.
If you want to use the inhale to pull up the energy to your body,
You can take the opportunity to do so.
Maybe you begin to see more roots growing from the body,
Really locking you in.
Imagining as if all the energy and the attention that might be floating around in your head is now beginning to settle down.
So almost like you had shaken a snow globe and all that snow had melted away.
Just began to settle.
Feeling the stability of your pose right now.
Feeling the support below you.
And now moving all the way up the body to the crown of the head.
Beginning to open up your crown chakra.
And allowing a light to exit from this area all the way into source.
So your definition of source might be different than someone else attending the class.
Maybe it is the universe or God or nature.
And as you are connected to your source,
The light travels down and surrounds your entire body.
Protecting your physical body as well as your energetic body.
And then the last part of this setup.
We're going to imagine a purple flame sitting right in front of us.
And so it just looks like a fire and it will be as tall as you are,
Whether you are seated or lying down,
It is in front of you.
And then we're going to acknowledge that intention that we set again in our heart center.
And we're going to begin to work on energetically removing that from the body.
As you inhale,
The light from above you will travel down through your crown chakra all the way into your heart center.
And as you exhale,
Begin to imagine as if you are going to push out anything you want to let go into that flame in front of you.
And you're going to stick with this.
Inhaling the light down through the crown of the head,
All the way down through the throat,
Into that heart chakra.
It will fill the space.
And there will be no more room for anything that's holding you back.
And so push it out in front of you into that flame.
And stick with this for a couple moments until you hear my voice again.
And maybe at this moment,
That practice just fades away.
And if you want to stick with it,
You can continue on.
And if you feel as though you're complete,
I want you to then begin to imagine as if that light is traveling into your entire physical body.
And then when you exhale,
You push out anything,
Not serving the whole body,
Into that flame.
And maybe perhaps you are directing the light as you inhale into one part of your body.
And then you're going to exhale out from that one place.
This is your opportunity to let anything else go,
Whether emotional or physical.
There is no need to hold back.
There's energy associated with it.
And so just push it right out into that flame.
I'm going to give you a couple more breaths to finish up where you are.
And then drawing your awareness into now the physical body.
I want you to scan and explore and see if you notice a place that is gripping,
Or is tight,
Or is holding on.
And maybe you notice a couple of them.
And I want you to just choose one for now.
And so when you choose this one area,
Being very curious and exploring it.
So can you associate a number with the gripping,
Or if there's pain associated with it?
Can you feel how big the space is that it's taking up?
Is there a color associated with it?
Does it have a hard boundary,
Or is it almost like a cloud and smoky?
Does it have a shape?
And as you continue to explore it,
Other parts of the body might just let go.
Or maybe you'll breathe,
Or maybe you'll shake your hand.
And so let that happen.
And don't feel the need to stop anything that might begin to move,
Or you feel like you need to shake or let anything out.
Our emotions and experiences can become trapped in our physical bodies.
And so really exploring and noticing these sensations.
And as you're doing so,
Can you just sit with it?
Can you just sit with the uncomfortable feeling?
Notice what happens when you acknowledge and when you sit with it.
Let that just come out.
And maybe you want to move on to another part of the body that's speaking to you.
Or maybe you want to stick with the one that you first began to explore.
And maybe the more that you've tapped in now,
You have the capacity to notice two areas at once.
Maybe they have the same sensation.
And so explore them,
And then just sit with it.
And before we move on,
I want you to then send light from above into those physical spaces.
And acknowledging that sometimes when we do this body work,
It isn't always comfortable.
We might need to revisit it another time.
And after all of that letting go physically,
Spiritually,
And emotionally,
Let's now fill our body with abundance and light.
And as you inhale,
Mentally reciting,
Aum.
And as you exhale,
Shreem.
Inhaling,
Aum.
Exhaling,
Shreem.
S-H-R-E-E-M.
And this mantra signifies abundance.
And so all those spaces that we made,
Everything that we got rid of,
Let's fill it all up with love,
With light.
Acknowledging the parts of us that we want to hold on to,
That we love about ourselves,
For that we are grateful.
And so staying with the mantra,
Inhaling,
Aum.
Exhaling,
Shreem.
Doing a couple more before we begin.
Bringing yourself fully back into your body.
Maybe re-grounding yourself.
And then connecting to your heart center one more time.
And maybe at this moment,
Stacking one hand on top of the other,
Right on that space,
Or bringing your hands to prayer.
Bring your awareness behind the hands to your heart chakra one final time.
And that intention that you set at the very beginning to let go of something,
I want you to now create an affirmation associated with it.
I am free.
I only speak kind words to myself.
I let go controlling X.
And so throughout the rest of this fall season,
If you find that you're starting to go back to your automatic ways,
You can just recite this affirmation to yourself.
And then perhaps continuing to work on this through the rest of the fall season.
So that when we do move to winter,
You can hold on to anything that is serving you.
And then from your heart center,
I want you to send love to somebody who you love dearly,
Or a stranger,
Or someone who might need it right now.
And from my heart center to each of yours,
I'm deeply grateful you joined me this evening.
Namaste.
