Sisu meditation for challenging times.
I created this meditation to help you connect to the remembrance of your deep inner strength and fortitude.
Sisu as such is never lost,
Nor is it hiding,
But we can simply forget at times that we have this fire that burns within our belly and keeps us going.
So let's get started.
Take a comfortable position and let your body soften kind of from the inside.
Just ease into where you are.
Allow yourself softly to start arriving to this a bit more slowed down moment.
If you are sitting,
Have your spine straight and upright while still allowing yourself to be relaxed,
In a seated position relaxed.
With your shoulders softly loose,
Relax your shoulders.
Relax the world from your shoulders for a moment.
In this moment there is a permission to do so.
If you choose to lie down,
You can do so as well.
Just make sure that you can be comfortable and gently feel your back against the surface of the floor and let it carry your full weight,
Your presence.
Surrender to the moment of being carried by something solid and steady that holds the entirety of you.
Keep breathing very softly.
There's no hurry.
There's no need to perform this meditation,
Not even to meditate.
And simply listen to the flow of words.
Feel breath rising and falling,
A simple thing.
Let your thought become like a cloud in the sky you simply witness moving somewhere out there.
There's no need to make decisions right now.
Just be.
Just to be.
The beauty of the body and the breath is that it is always in the present moment.
While the mind tends to rush into the future or into the past,
Regretting or preparing,
With one single breath you can gently nudge your mind and yourself to return to be here right now.
This is a moment for you,
For your body.
You can even gently thank yourself and your mind also for all it wants to share and say if it's being very talkative,
You can say,
Thank you so much.
I will get back to you after this meditation and this relaxation.
You can wait for me silently by the door.
Also if you notice thought move closer and try to hijack your space again,
You can use a little tool that I learned.
It's a Sanskrit word called neti.
You can use it as a pair of scissors to cut the thought like a purple silk ribbon.
Neti simply means not this.
So when a thought comes in your mind you can say neti.
Not this.
And bring your awareness to your dear old communion with the breath that has been with you since the very beginning of your life.
So now as we move on and we deepen into the relaxed space,
Imagine drawing all your presence to the next inhale.
As you inhale,
Feel your lungs feel.
Feel the air move through your chest,
How it rises.
Feels your belly.
Let your belly be very relaxed and feel and move outwards.
Feel this precious life substance of breath,
Of air,
Prana,
Chi,
Ki that we not truly understand but to which our life depends on.
And any time we are one breath away from not existing.
And so how precious is this air?
So keep breathing calmly,
Letting breath come in,
And with each exhale gently open your heart to gratitude.
You are here.
You are alive.
You have come a very long way.
And you will go a long way.
With each breath keep bringing the awareness back to the body and relax your shoulders.
There's a tendency to bring tension into certain body parts that are used to being tense.
But again with each exhale open to relaxation,
Letting go,
An ebb and flow of the unbroken string of rising and falling,
The ever sung sonnet of human life.
And in your mind,
In your body,
With your breath start feeling into fortitude.
With each exhale breathe in fortitude and with the exhale let it expand to each cell of your body.
With each breath in imagine fortitude filling you and with each exhale reaching out to every cell of your body and empowering and rejuvenating,
Recharging everything that is you with this life force that is this pillar of life.
Breathing in fortitude and with each exhale letting it pour into all of your being.
Simply feeling,
Simply breathing,
Remembering your strength.
You are fortitude.
You are bravery.
You are compassion.
You are generosity and you are in your core love.
You have come so far and you may and you will make it through what is in front of you.
Now I want you to imagine with your heart what is it,
What you wish to set your intention for in this moment.
Bring to your heart the task,
The call,
The mission or next step.
The task,
Whatever it is that calls your attention,
Your courage,
Your discipline and present action.
And to know that no matter how tough the chore,
To know that you have the power and you have the fortitude lying very vast as resources in you.
This existence of life force and Sisu whose roots trace as the entire lineage to the beginning of our collective story.
We are all survivors,
Thrivers,
Builders,
Voyagers,
Creators,
Overcomers.
You are of that lineage because you are human and our story is that of fortitude.
And you are here now and this is your time to walk the steps you choose or which you know you must take.
And let your heart very gently feel into the vision that it's giving you.
Do not force anything.
In true strength there is no pushing.
There's no forcing.
There's simply the opening and the expansion to the natural flow of what lies before us.
And in this moment rest in the knowing that just like you have come this far,
You will go further.
You will keep on going.
As Reiner Maria Rilke wrote,
No feeling is final.
Keep on going.
And with each breath feel how it impacts your parasympathetic nervous system like a soothing embodied melody of your heart that knows that with each one single inhale and exhale you can come back to this unhurried strength and fortitude to activate this inner stillness that is the root and the bedrock of strength amidst chaos,
Calmness amidst pressure and a kind of peace forged from the act of accepting what is and knowing that we can always choose the next action no matter what has happened in the past.
And through your breath you have a portal and a gate to bring in that calmness to your nervous system in this meditation and amidst life as it happens.
To connect to your fortitude through one single breath.
Inhale fortitude,
Exhale bring it to your whole body.
You've got this.
You've got this.
And slowly ever so unhurried we will start to complete this moment.
Come back but bring with us the rest as life is ultimately to be lived and experienced.
But we can find strength in knowing that we can always,
Always come back to stillness when we learn these skills and we practice them to activate our parasympathetic nervous system and its calmness,
Its clarity,
Connectedness and openness of the heart through one slow breath.
As you start to slowly come back keep your eyes still closed if your eyes were closed and start to feel and bring a little bit of attention to the edges of your body.
Maybe you can move your fingers very gently.
Imagine yourself in the room that you're sitting or lying in.
Looking at yourself very compassionately.
This being who keeps showing up to life while maybe tired and yet so resilient,
Strong.
And remember the intention you set earlier.
Where is it that you want to bring this calm power?
And bring this intention forth with you.
Feel your back against the floor or your bottom on the chair.
Maybe move your hands a little bit.
Stretch your spine a little bit.
Like a cat kind of start to curiously come back to the lived world of movement and action.
And also reminds us that we can move slowly and gradually.
We don't need to react and hurry.
But that there is strength in slow motion.
And when you are ready gently open your eyes maybe halfway and let light fill your eyes.
Slowly into the adventure,
The human experience,
Carrying your intention,
Your fortitude rooted in calmness with you on this day.
I wish you Sisu and strong softness.
And remember to smile.
