Hello and welcome to this recording.
My name is Christoph and I'm very grateful that you are here.
It is an honour and a joy to spend this meditation with you.
Let's get started.
I invite you to get as comfortable as possible.
You can do this practice sitting down or lying down and if it is safe and if you feel comfortable to do so,
I invite you to relax your eyes and then close your eyes.
I'm just going to take a few moments to arrive here.
No matter how often we meditate,
We have to remind ourselves that there are no meditation Olympics.
It's not about getting it right.
It's not about getting anywhere.
It's about fully engaging with the beauty of this moment and being proud of ourselves for taking time out.
There are so many other things that we could be doing right now.
And chances are that these things are not all that important anyway.
But instead we have chosen to step out of that doing mode and step into the being mode.
And that's what this moment is about.
That is what this meditation practice is about.
And I'm going to invite you to take three deep breaths together and I would like you to take a really deep inhale and then hold your breath for a few moments and then exhale for longer than you inhaled.
So here we go.
The first one.
And hold for a moment and breathe out.
All the way down into your belly.
And hold and breathe out.
All the way down into your belly.
And the third and final in breath.
And out breath.
Very good.
Now I'm going to ask you to gently place one hand on your heart.
Very gently.
And the other on your belly.
So somewhere between your navel,
Around the lower belly area.
And let your hands relax now on your body.
And this may well be the first time this week you reconnect with your body in this way.
And you make space and time to see what this moment holds for us.
And let your breath just go back to its natural rhythm.
And notice if your hands can feel your body breathing.
And this will be different for each and every one of us on this call.
But see if you can identify where you can sense your breathing the most.
Your chest or your belly.
Or both.
And for now my friends that is all we are going to do.
Stay with this breath for a few moments.
Only your breath.
And now gently bring your awareness to your neck and your shoulders.
And just do a quick scan for any tension there.
And see if you can relax your neck and your shoulders just a little bit more.
You would be amazed to know how much pressure we store and carry in that region of our bodies.
Now is a good time to let some of that pressure just let it fall off your shoulders.
Now raise your awareness.
Just bring your awareness to your facial muscles.
Do a quick scan around the whole of your head.
How about your jaw?
Can you relax your jaw a little bit more?
How about your tongue?
Your cheeks.
Your eyebrows.
Your forehead.
The whole back of your head.
Your ears.
Your lips.
Your chin.
And now I'm going to invite you to bring a gentle half smile to your face.
Sometimes we call it the Buddha smile.
Just a gentle smile.
A smile of contentment.
Just indulge the silence of this moment.
Know where you need to be.
Nothing you need to do.
This is your moment.
Life.
A beautiful sequence of moments.
And as you relax a little bit further,
I invite you to bring a little bit more focus to this moment.
What can you do to be here with just that little bit more focus?
Is your mind wandering?
Fine.
Bring it back.
Are you thinking about something that happened yesterday?
Or maybe something that might happen tomorrow?
Fine.
That's what the mind does.
Simply label it thought or thinking and then come back to the breath.
And the now.
And I'm going to read out three simple statements that I invite you to say in your own words internally.
I am here and now.
I am here and now.
I am present.
I am present.
And I am calm.
And to bring extra awareness to the present moment and to ground and stabilize ourselves in these very interesting times.
I'm going to ask you to follow me as I guide you through different regions of your body.
And all I ask is that you simply rest your attention in those regions of your body as you listen to my voice.
And the first region is the pelvic region.
And I would like you to visualize the color red.
This is your root chakra energy center of your body.
It represents your stability.
Your groundedness.
I am.
Moving up.
We go to the region just behind our navel.
Please visualize the color orange.
This is our sacral chakra.
Another very important energy center of our body.
All things related to our social connections,
Pleasure and intimacy are related to this area of our body.
Let's give it some love and attention simply by resting our awareness there.
Moving up.
We go to the area between the navel and our stomach.
And that area is called the solar plexus.
Associated with the color yellow.
A large part of our identity and our personality is expressed through our solar plexus.
And we are gently making our way up to the beautiful heart chakra.
Which is of course in the heart region.
And corresponds with the color green.
Through the heart chakra we express compassion to ourselves,
To others,
To the world.
We feel the world.
It goes without saying that this chakra is often severely impacted by everything that's going on for us.
You may well feel the need to take a deep in breath and out breath.
Feel free to do so.
We're going to move up to the throat area.
And we have arrived at our throat chakra.
Beautiful light blue.
And just let your attention rest in the throat chakra region for a few moments.
This energy center is linked to self expression,
The way we show up in the world,
The way we communicate our wishes,
Our dreams,
Our needs and so forth.
If you are aware of any sensations in this region it may well be an indication that there's an opportunity to do some work in that field.
And now I would like you to bring your awareness to the space in between your eyes.
Just a little bit higher,
Just a little bit above your eyes.
For that is where the third eye chakra is located.
And the color that I would like you to visualize is indigo.
As you rest your awareness in the third eye chakra,
Know that this one is related to your intuition,
Feelings,
Emotions,
Trusting self and others.
And it's well worth some of your time and attention.
Moving up to the seventh and final chakra,
Please bring your awareness to the top of your head.
This is where we find the crown chakra.
The corresponding color is violet.
This part of the energetic system particularly focuses on connection to the bigger picture.
You can fill in with what that means to you,
Soul or God or universe,
Nature.
I like to say life itself.
And the more we can align all seven chakras simply by resting our awareness in those regions of our body,
We can recenter and rebalance.
And it's a beautiful variation on the usual body scan.
And it's a way of reconnecting with yourself.
As we come to the end of the practice,
When you hear the sound of the bells,
I would like you to gently bring yourself back to the room and open your eyes.
There we go.
It goes without saying that there is a lot more to the seven main chakras than what I've shared with you on this call.
It's a lifelong study,
In fact.
And they all influence how we feel,
How we show up,
How we communicate and experience the world.
So maybe we can talk about that another time or if you have any questions about that,
Feel free to connect with me offline,
As we say.
I hope it has been a relaxing experience.
I look forward to connecting with you on the next meditation.
I love you.
Namaste.
