Shed The Challenges In Our Life

Let's find a comfortable seated position for today's meditation.

Today's meditation will focus around letting go.

The metal element in Chinese medicine deals with letting go.

It's like fall time and after the summer when fall comes,

We harvest all of our goods,

All of our fruits,

And bring only what's essential into the wintertime.

The metal element focuses on what is essential,

Our breath.

Looking around in our life and asking ourselves what can we let go of?

What am I still holding onto that isn't serving me?

In honoring what used to serve us that maybe doesn't serve us any longer.

So with that in mind,

Let's come to a comfortable seated position.

Maybe the hips come above the knees.

Maybe we lay down,

Finding something that's comfortable for you.

So let's just start breathing.

Notice the breath deepen.

Notice the body soften.

And as we start this process of surrendering,

Let's find any tension in our body and allow the tension to dissolve.

We can start at the top of our head and very slowly move down the face,

Allowing any tension in the face to dissolve.

And noticing as we move down the body,

Down the chest and the arms,

That any thoughts we had start to dissolve as well.

Any attachments to the day,

Any to-do lists.

Not for now.

Right now we are here.

Right here we are now.

Feeling the sitting bones against the ground,

Against this earth beneath us.

Noticing any tension,

Any muscles in our legs that are working that don't need to be working.

Allowing them to rest.

The breath moves effortlessly in and out of the body.

Reminding us that life can be effortless when we let go.

Life can just move through us.

We have nowhere to be,

Nothing to do.

The breath fills the lung and we exhale.

We can do two vibrational breaths.

A vibrational breath is when we inhale deeply and audibly we exhale.

Feeling even more tension dissolving one more time.

Inhale.

And exhale.

We will start using the breath to quiet the mind,

To quiet the body.

And we will do a square breath.

The way that sounds is you inhale for five seconds.

You hold the top for five seconds.

Exhale for five seconds.

Hold the bottom for five.

A square.

So let's just take a deep clearing breath.

Inhale and exhale.

Our next inhale is five seconds.

Inhale.

Five.

Four.

Three.

Two.

Hold for five.

Four.

Three.

Two.

Exhale.

Five.

Four.

Three.

Two.

Hold for five.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One.

Inhale.

One.

Hold.

Five.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One.

Exhale.

Five.

Feel the heart beating.

Three.

Two.

One.

Hold.

Two.

Two.

One.

Two.

Hold.

One.

Two.

Three.

One.

Two.

One.

Two.

One.

Two.

Body soften as we inhale the lungs expand.

The mind quiet,

Bringing it back to the present moment.

Gently counting.

Only the breath.

Nothing else.

Wherever you are.

Finishing the last five seconds you're on.

We'll do two vibrational breaths as we move into the next part of our meditation.

Inhale.

And exhale.

Everything out.

Inhaling.

And exhaling.

Allowing the body to breathe naturally.

The spine lengthens.

I want you now to imagine.

Imagine a challenge that you may be having in your life.

Maybe it's something that's giving you anxiety.

Maybe something with work.

With a partner,

With a friend.

Just a challenge that's come up.

Something that may not be serving you or maybe a pattern in our life that isn't serving us.

I want you to imagine this idea,

This situation that we're imagining and putting it into a little box.

We place it in this little box and we hold it tight to us.

And suddenly we're in a beautiful field.

A beautiful wide open field surrounded by mountains.

We can see the green grass underneath us and we're holding this little clear box and inside there's this feeling of struggle and challenge.

We can feel it in our hands that we're holding.

We very gently place it down at our feet.

And we lay down next to it.

We can feel the grass in our back.

And all of a sudden as the sun starts to rise,

We can feel the cold beautiful air on our face.

A slight breeze.

We start lifting up towards the sky as our body gets lighter and lighter and lighter.

And this box below us,

This very heavy box stays on the ground.

And we get further and further away as we see the mountains getting further away.

We can start to see far distances of nature and our planet.

We come up into this beautiful bright sky and as we look from very far away we can see this little box that we placed on the earth.

It's very small.

Insignificant to the beauty and the grandiose-ness of this nature around us.

The grandiosity.

As we get further and further away we start coming up into the beautiful blue sky.

Into the earth's atmosphere,

Passing the atmosphere and into space.

We start to see the world.

This beautiful world,

This earth,

This home.

This being that we live with.

Next to,

Under,

Around.

We smile at this incredible planet,

This incredible home.

This wondrous space that we live on.

The vast blueness of the oceans and green.

So calming.

We notice as we look around this globe from a very far distance we can see the continents and the oceans and clouds.

Can no longer see this ball of struggle,

This little box that we placed on the earth.

It's very far away now.

Still on the earth.

But notice from a distance,

A peacefulness in regards to whatever struggle we may have been having.

Whatever situation,

It's insignificant at this moment in this time.

For however meaning,

However much meaning we give to this.

Right now we have this space just to be.

Can allow it to shed.

Very gently we feel our body getting heavier.

We start moving down towards the earth.

Passing the clouds in the blue sky.

Further down we notice the mountains and we can see the details in the grass below us.

The cities around.

We get closer and closer and closer until we find ourselves laying back down in our body next to this box.

We very gently turn towards the box.

We can open the top and almost pour it out onto the ground and notice that all of that struggle that we may have been feeling,

All of that challenge,

Whatever situation was in there becomes completely absorbed by this beautiful mother earth below us.

Completely absorbed.

Dissolved.

And we hold this box,

This very light box.

We just notice.

Just observe.

A sense of freedom.

And taking a moment to honor this box,

This situation,

This challenge in our life.

For helping us grow and learn.

For helping us develop.

And allowing it to let go.

And we place the box down,

The box too dissolves.

And we take a moment to look around at the nature around us.

And smile as we take in this beautiful fresh green color.

Soothing our mind.

Soothing the body.

And we take two deep vibrational breaths as we come back to the body.

Inhale.

And exhale.

Inhale.

And exhale.

Inhale.

And exhale.

And exhale.

Allowing the body again to deepen the breath as we bring our hands very gently to heart center.

And noticing as we place the hands together,

This connection with ourself,

This warmth that we bring to ourself.

Feeling the center of each palm as a heart,

As an extension of the heart.

And as if they're plugging into one another.

It's like our heart completes one full cycle.

And notice our heart pouring in love to our left arm through the left hand.

And we can feel with our right hand.

This love seeping through and making this full circle around back to our heart.

That all of the love in the world is in our body right now.

How would that feel?

To be so,

So enveloped by love.

And that we can't hold it into ourself.

We have to share.

Taking a moment of gratitude as we bow our head.

Honoring whatever time period we've just come from.

Whatever we did earlier today.

Whatever we did earlier this year,

This life.

And honoring this path.

This journey,

This life that we've had.

And for the rest of our day,

Taking only what is essential.

Whether that's a smile or the breath.

Maybe an eye gaze at somebody or a hug.

What's essential for me?

What else can I shed?

And gently we bow.

The unbending tree is easily broken.

Remember to bend.

The enlightened in me sees and honors the enlightened in you.

Namaste.