Welcome to this guided meditation to support you in practicing acceptance and openness while being grounded in your body.
Try this sitting in a chair the first time you practice.
Let's begin.
Sitting tall in your chair,
Imagine a line running up from the base of your spine and out through the crown of your head,
Holding you upright,
Letting you relax,
But stay alert and aware.
Now let go of the mental busyness and tune into your breath.
Notice how your breath feels going in your throat.
Feel it as it moves out through your nose,
Through your mouth.
Now,
Notice your breath coming into your chest,
Filling your lungs and feel it as your chest softens as the breath releases from your body.
Now notice your breath pushing even further down into your body as you inhale,
Perhaps expanding your belly as it fills your abdomen.
And as your breath lets go into exhale,
Feel your abdomen relax,
Contract,
Letting your breath release fully from your body.
And as you receive your next breath,
Imagine that you are drawing the breath from the field of space around you.
And as you exhale,
You're letting your breath fill the space nearby.
As you continue to inhale and exhale,
Notice how you might dissolve the boundary between you and the space you are in.
Let's explore the merging of the space outside you with the breath coming in and out of your body.
As you take your next breath in and out,
Notice the edge of your skin on your hands where it meets the air.
And on this next breath,
Imagine the breath going into your hands.
And as you exhale,
Imagine the breath going out through the pores of the skin of your hands.
And as you take your next breath,
Can you imagine the breath coming through your hands on the inhale and then passing through your skin on your hands as you exhale?
And now with your next breath,
Imagine breathing through your skin throughout your hands and arms as you inhale and exhale.
And as you draw your next breath,
Imagine the breath coming in through the trunk of your body as well as your hands and arms and releasing from the pores of your upper body as you exhale.
Let's try that for a couple of breaths.
Inhaling through the whole trunk and upper body and exhaling through all the pores of your skin on your upper body.
And now on your next breath,
Can you imagine your whole body as one receiving breath throughout the entire edges of where your skin meets the air so that you feel your breath coming in through all your pores and exiting your skin everywhere on your body with your breath.
Can you continue this expansion of your awareness to breathing through all the skin of your body for the next five breaths?
Let's practice this in silence.
And now as you sit and breathe,
Allowing your mind to stay focused on the experience of breathing in and out through your skin,
Can you imagine that you are a field of energy that extends beyond your body,
Beyond your skin,
Perhaps just a few inches outside your body and your breath is creating that expansion with every inhale and exhale.
Imagine that you are a field of energy receiving air from and releasing breath into the space around you.
Can you become a field of energy that can receive and release?
Perhaps not only your breath,
But your thoughts,
Your feelings,
Even your sense of self that you've come to believe in.
With your breath,
Can you release them into this field and wonder who are you without them?
For these next five breaths,
See if you can imagine becoming an open field of energy with no preconceived notions about life or yourself,
Just you becoming a breathing organism of acceptance and openness.
Let's practice in silence.
And now as you sit and breathe,
Bring your attention down to your feet,
Feel them wherever they are and imagine them grounded on the earth,
Connected to mother earth.
As you breathe,
Notice the connection of your feet with the earth grounding you right where you are right now in this place,
In this moment.
And now on your next breath,
Notice that your body is contained by your skin,
This large organ of your body,
And it's holding you present in the space where you sit right now.
And on your next breath,
Bring that breath into your belly as low as you can in the trunk of your body and then release it from there,
Imagining the exhale grounding you even more fully into the space you are sitting in.
And now for the next five breaths that you draw,
Stay with the awareness of solidly sitting in your body,
Breathing in and out from this low spot in your body,
Feeling your presence in the space you are in,
In your body,
Separate from the space around you.
And as you leave your meditation space for now,
You might move into your day practicing this meditation in small ways.
First being the field that is open and accepting to all around you as you receive and release your breath,
Seemingly becoming one space.
Then you might ground into your solid presence,
Breathing from deep in your belly,
Honoring who you are and all the possibility of what you can become as you sense your full presence in this moment.
Remembering always that you are both a solid presence as well as an open field.
Thank you for being with me here today and for your continued meditation practice.
I wish you well.
