Air is breath cycling in and out of our lungs,
Nostrils and mouths.
Air is wind.
Air is sound reverberating on external surfaces and inside of the ears as invisible waves of energy.
Air is light.
Air is space.
Air is an invisible,
Omnipresent force.
It is distinct from the other elements of water,
Earth,
And fire in that it cannot be touched,
Only sensed.
It invokes two different types of sensory awareness,
What physiologists call interoception,
The awareness of stimuli and response inside the body,
Such as the way your lungs expand and contract when you breathe.
Also,
There is exteroception,
The awareness of how the body responds to external stimuli,
Such as the way your skin may shiver at a sudden cool breeze.
Let's explore air from the perspective of the sky.
We see the sky all throughout our lives.
Sometimes it's full of clouds.
Sometimes it's clear.
Sometimes there's sunshine.
Sometimes it's overcast.
Sometimes it's unusually dark during the day.
More often than not,
It's bright and blue.
The sky is a metaphor for our conscious mind,
That which is perceptible to us,
That which is tangible,
That which we can experience through our sensors.
We can see the sky.
We can hear the wind.
We can taste salt and sand and water droplets on the breeze from a nearby ocean.
We can feel the warmth of a fire wafting through the air.
Beyond planet Earth is the infinite universe that we call outer space,
Which is symbolic of the subconscious mind.
It is only accessible to us at nighttime,
But it's always there,
Surrounding the entire Earth.
People all over the world experience some kind of cycle between the time when only the earthly is visible and when the endless expanse of the universe is realized.
God waves are a particular kind of harnessed air.
It is the primary medium of communication,
Whether broadcasting from radio,
Television,
Internet or phones,
Or speaking in person.
Think of your different modes of expression.
The duality of the conscious and subconscious mind shows up in the way that you may have a casual conversational tone that you use in your everyday life when you're speaking to friends and family.
When you meditate,
Create art,
Engage in contemplative inquiry,
You get to tune into a more reflective,
Mystical mode of communication.
You get to drop into the vastness of your inner universe.
The same way there's this magnitude of stars in outer space,
You also have the infinite points of consciousness constellating within you,
Accessed via stillness,
Listening and focus.
I invite you to experience this continuum of infinity across your internal world and the external as we go into a guided meditation.
Feel free to keep a journal handy to jot down any insights that may come to you in this journey.
You are welcome to sit,
Stand or lie down with your eyes closed.
Take a deep breath in through your nose and feel your lungs press down into your torso and expand to the front,
The side and the back as you inhale.
Slowly exhale through your nose and feel your lungs rise and contract from the front,
The side and the back.
Feel your inner spaciousness.
Feel the fullness of your lungs.
Feel the fullness of your breath.
Feel the expansion of your nostrils as they take in and release the air all around you.
As you slowly inhale and exhale,
Bring your awareness to the air in your external environment.
Notice the temperature,
The density,
The aroma,
Any sounds humming or buzzing around you,
Any colors or light that you can perceive through closed eyes.
Imagine that the room or space that you are in is breathing you.
Notice the synergy between your lungs and the air in the external environment as your breath continuously circulates between the two.
Now we will do a breathing practice that I call receive and release.
With each inhale,
Bring to your awareness a quality of being that you are receiving more of in your life.
For example,
Peace,
Abundance,
Gratitude,
Love.
That awareness can come in the form of visualizing a word or phrase in your mind's eye or an image or an internal monologue or a felt sense of the term's meaning.
As you exhale,
Bring to your awareness a way of being that you are releasing that no longer serves your highest good.
For example,
Doubt,
Fear,
Envy,
Resentment.
For example,
Let's receive the word faith for the inhale and release the word despair for the exhale.
Here's the process of the receive and release breath cycle.
I will say,
I breathe in and receive.
You can silently imagine a word like faith or an image that represents faith.
You may hear the sound of the word faith or any combination therein.
Faith is just one example.
You can use any state of being or fulfilled desire that you are inviting into your life.
Then after a brief moment of silence,
I will say,
I breathe out and release.
You can silently imagine a word like despair or an image that represents despair or a sound of the word despair or any combination therein.
And despair is just an example.
You can use any word for any way of being that you are releasing from your life as it is no longer aligned with who you are becoming.
We will engage in this exploration for seven breath cycles after which I will offer you some questions for you to consider about your connection to air.
Let us begin.
I breathe in and receive.
I breathe out and release.
I breathe in and receive.
I breathe out and release.
I breathe in and receive.
I breathe out and release.
I breathe in and receive.
I breathe out and release.
I breathe in and receive.
I breathe out and release.
I breathe in and receive.
I breathe out and release.
I breathe in and receive.
I breathe out and release.
Let's close out with three questions.
You are welcome to write down your responses or simply contemplate them.
Number one,
Looking at your most important relationships,
Where do you notice an opportunity to address unresolved conflict,
Speak the unspoken,
Clear the air?
Looking at your most important relationships,
Where do you notice an opportunity to address unresolved conflict,
Speak the unspoken,
Clear the air?
Number two,
Where do you feel the most fully expressed in your life?
Where do you feel the most fully expressed in your life?
Third,
Where do you feel the most constrained?
What area of your life needs more air,
More spaciousness?
Where do you feel the most constrained?
What area of your life needs more air,
More spaciousness?
This concludes air,
Musing,
And guided meditation.
