Welcome everybody to this week's meditation.
So go ahead and find yourself in a comfortable spot,
Either seated or lying down.
The main thing is you want your spine to be aligned,
So in alignment,
Straight,
And if you're on a cushion just want your body to be supporting you during this meditation.
Let's start with our three deep breaths,
Breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth.
Take a moment to come into our body.
Meditation is embodied presence.
We're training ourselves to be familiar,
Checking in,
Noticing our thoughts,
Body sensations,
Noticing how our heart feels.
Let's just do those three things to start.
Just go with thought noticing for a few moments.
What thoughts are going through your head?
As you notice a thought,
Maybe you just label it planning or replaying the past,
Some simple notation.
And just then after you label it,
Come back to the here and the now,
The sound of my voice,
The sensation of your body on the cushion or on the chair.
Just allow any mental formation or any concept.
See if you can just allow it to drop away.
You've carved out this time for your meditation practice.
And you can always pick up your thoughts later.
I'm just training the body and the mind and the heart right now in just awareness.
Body,
Breath,
Mind,
Awareness.
Let's move into that second idea,
The body sensations.
Just place your awareness in your shoulders.
Just feel your shoulders in space.
They're scrunched up by your ears.
Maybe just take a moment to relax and draw them down.
Come into your chest.
Notice the sensations in your body as you breathe.
You feel an expansion,
Torso in your chest,
In your belly.
Gently move your awareness into your hands,
The palm of your hands.
Feel the heat radiating off your palms.
Move down into our seat,
So our sits bones,
Our bum.
Just feel how solid the earth is,
How we're held,
How heavy our body is.
Let's move our awareness down into our toes.
Allow yourself to feel the sensation of your shoe or your sock touching your toes.
Just allow the body right here,
Right now,
To just relax.
You're still upright.
You're still alert.
You're just allowing the body to be at peace with itself.
With each exhale,
You can feel that tug of gravity.
Just allowing that body to sink into deeper and deeper relaxation.
Now,
Finally,
Let's go into our third realm.
Let's gently investigate our feelings,
The sensations in our heart.
Some people have shared with me that they can't just go right up to their heart and say,
What's up,
Heart?
How you doing?
The heart gets a little skittish.
If you relate to that sentiment,
If you need to saddle up sideways next to your heart,
Wrap your arm around it.
Feel free to do it that way.
We're just connecting into this energetic center.
There's other energetic centers we could be connecting into,
But we're investigating the quality of our heart right now.
There's no shoulds or woulds or wishes.
It's just an acknowledgment.
What's going on today?
Maybe just simply ask the question,
How am I doing?
Or,
What am I feeling?
Whatever the response is,
Just acknowledge,
Hey,
I hear you're feeling this.
What else are you feeling?
What else are you feeling?
There's no need to create any stories around your feelings.
You're just acknowledging what's here,
Witnessing,
Holding tenderly without any judgment.
While we're here,
You might simply ask the question,
What are you needing?
What are you needing in this moment?
Whatever response or non-response you get,
Hold that without judgment and ask again,
What else?
What else are you needing?
Acknowledge whatever response you get.
If you feel comfortable,
You can refer to yourself as sweetie or my love.
My love,
I hear you're needing this.
What else are you needing?
You might just make note of these feelings and needs in your heart.
Perhaps after this meditation,
You might be able to gently and easily meet a need or two.
You might want to take this resolution into your heart and mind that I resolve to feel my feelings,
To get my needs met.
Let's bring our awareness out of the heart,
Back into the full awareness of our body,
Back into the awareness of our mind.
Let's do a gentle golden sun meditation.
We bring our energy back to ourselves,
Back from any problem solving.
As you call your energy back to yourself,
Back from other people,
Places,
Situations,
You can imagine you have a big empty bowl sitting atop your head.
As you call the energy back,
The bowl starts to fill up with liquid golden sunshine.
It just gets fuller and fuller.
There's no efforting.
Like everything,
It's just an intention,
A visualization.
Your energy follows your intention and your visualization.
As you bring your energy back to yourself,
That bowl fills and fills.
Eventually,
It's completely full with that liquid sunshine.
We're going to reset our energy and our love and affinity for our mind,
Body,
And spirit and bring back to ourselves all of our power and our energy in this present moment.
You're going to gently pour that bowl of golden sunshine over your head,
Down past your shoulders,
Down into your torso,
Your upper back,
Down into your lower belly,
And your bum,
Down into your thighs,
Your knees,
Your legs.
As this golden sunshine pours over you,
It just fills you up,
Nourishment,
Vitality,
And your love and affinity for yourself.
Thank you for practicing with me today.
Have a beautiful week.
