Accepting Who You Are, Where You Are

Om This is Nitya with Nitya Living.

Thank you for joining me today for this beautiful meditation.

Find yourself sitting or resting comfortably in a space where you won't be disturbed or distracted.

Let's take a deep breath in.

Exhale slowly.

Taking a deep breath in.

Exhale slowly.

Notice how the physical body feels in this moment.

Not to judge,

Just to be a witness to the self.

Notice where the mind is.

And feel yourself becoming heavy against the earth as you sit or lie where you are.

Feel the mind heavy,

Resisting distractions of thoughts and just hovering,

Hovering in this now moment.

This is all you have is this now moment.

It is so beautiful.

Take a moment to take in the sounds that you are hearing,

The sounds that are close to you,

And the sounds that are further away,

And the sounds that seem furthest away.

Contemplate the caterpillar in chrysalis.

No longer is it itself.

The wall came fast.

It stopped you hard.

Blood slithers down your face.

Soup,

It's a gooey transformation,

Messy as bed hair,

Messy as a wet dog waiting to come in.

There is no way past this,

No hole to dig your way out or through,

Or a detour pointing out another way.

Take it,

Bitter medicine,

Swallow hard,

Lick the blood and claim your story.

Then,

Just as you feel yourself dissolving,

All you knew gone,

Do you recognize your life?

Cocooned in your comforts,

You almost forgot why you embedded yourself there.

Then,

The compulsion to emerge,

To ascend,

To break out of your chosen prison.

You never realized or accepted just how beautiful you are.

And that you always had the ability to open yourself wide and fly free.

The caterpillar is ever aware that in its heart,

It is a butterfly.

That in its heart,

It is a butterfly.

What do you know yourself to give yourself?

What do you know yourself to be?

What do you know of this knowing,

This freedom?

Let's take a deep breath in and exhale slowly.

Taking a deep breath in and exhale slowly.

Change is a constant.

The poem I just read that I wrote about the caterpillar,

We all have moments in our day when we may feel caterpillar-like or butterfly-like or somewhere in between.

The resisting when we are at moments of transformation and change makes it all that more difficult.

And we know it.

So do.

To lean into the changes,

To lean into our challenges makes it all that much easier.

To lean in and let go.

So your journal prompt for today is to answer the question,

What do you know yourself to be?

And you can start with kind of the more ordinary,

The role you play in your job,

The role you play in your home.

But ultimately,

What do you know yourself to be?

Who are you inside the chrysalis of yourself?

In your private,

Most quiet moments of contemplation,

What do you know yourself to be?

And that takes into account both the caterpillar,

The butterfly,

And the chrysalis.

And maybe you'd like to explore those three concepts in your journal prompt today,

Too.

I'm going to leave you here to begin your writing.

What do you know yourself to be?

I'm going to quietly chant a prayer for world peace,

Healing,

And protection while you are writing.

This is a prayer that is often sung during great hardships,

But also great blessings.

If you'd like to join me for three om's,

You're welcome to.

Om.

And from this still point of vibration and connection to the universe,

To our guides beyond this veil of existence and reality,

You can begin to write who you know yourself to be.

Om.

And from this still point of vibration and connection to the universe,

You can begin to write who you know yourself to be.

Om.

And from this still point of vibration and connection to the universe,

You can begin to write who you know yourself to be.

Om.

And from this still point of vibration and connection to the universe,

You can begin to write who you know yourself to be.

Shanti,

Shanti,

Shanti.

Om.

And from this still point of vibration and connection to the universe,

You can begin to write who you know to be.

Om.

And from this still point of vibration and connection to the universe,

You can begin to write who you know to be.

And from this still point of vibration and connection to the universe,

You can begin to write who you know to be.

And from this still point of vibration and connection to the universe,

You can begin to write who you know to be.

Visualize yourself in the stage that you know yourself to be.

Cocoon.

Butterfly.

And from this still point of vibration and connection to the universe,

You can begin to write who you know to be.

Om.

Contemplate the caterpillar in chrysalis.

No longer is it itself.

The wall came fast.

Stopped you hard.

Blood slithers down your face.

Soup.

It's a gooey transformation.

Messy as bed hair.

Messy as a wet dog waiting to come in.

There is no way past this.

No hole to dig your way out or through.

Or a detour pointing out another way.

Take it.

Bitter medicine.

Swallow hard.

Lick the blood and claim your story.

Then,

Just as you feel yourself dissolving,

All you knew gone.

Do you recognize your life?

Do you recognize your life?

Cocooned in your comforts,

You almost forgot why you embedded yourself there.

Then the compulsion to emerge,

To ascend,

To break out of your chosen prison.

You never realized or accepted just how beautiful you are.

You never realized or accepted just how beautiful you are.

And that you always had the ability to open yourself wide and fly free.

The caterpillar is ever aware that in its heart it is a butterfly.

What do you know yourself to be?

What do you know of this knowing,

This freedom?

Let's take a deep breath in.

And exhale slowly.

Taking a deep breath in.

And exhale slowly.

Be open,

My friend,

To the possibility that as you are going through,

Whatever it is you're going through,

The more that you can lean in and let go.

The easier the transformation is going to be.

Resistance.

Resistance makes it so much harder,

Possibly more painful.

It's not that we choose in the menu of life what's going to happen to us.

Life is happening for us.

A beautiful blessing filled with all the messiness and the goo of life.

Recognize your blessings,

Recognize all that you are grateful for,

Even if the list is short today.

And at some point,

Maybe you'll get to a place where you can say thank you for the hardships and all the painful moments too.

For the strength,

The wisdom,

The knowing that comes with it.

Thank you.

Thank you is something we can say throughout our day.

Thank you for the red lights that remind me I'm going too fast.

Thank you for those hurtful words that remind me that maybe my ego got a little big in this moment.

Or that maybe this person has work to do on themselves and is projecting on me.

And I'm going to take a deep breath and send them some love and comfort.

And choose not to respond or react,

But simply to walk away.

Because in this moment,

Perhaps something amazingly beautiful is happening in front of me.

And I'm so grateful.

I knew to open my eyes and look in that direction so that I could see what I saw.

A great blue heron in the sky.

What do you know yourself to be?

Caterpillar,

Cocooned,

Butterfly.

Let's take a deep breath in.

And exhale slowly.

And exhale slowly.

The last two big breaths we're going to take,

Let's exhale audibly.

Making whatever sound feels good to come out.

Breathing in.

Breathing in.

Thank you so much for this time today.

I hope that you will contemplate the idea of where you are with yourself.

The stages that you are in.

And the transformation that is ever going on in your life.

Caterpillar,

Cocooned,

Butterfly.

Be well.

Thank you.