Welcome to Day 2 of Insight Timer's Intention Setting Challenge.
Setting an intention is making a decision about who you want to be and how you choose to show up.
Over time,
Those choices become change.
Let's begin.
Welcome to Day 2 of Insight Timer's Intention Setting Challenge.
My name is Sarah Blondin,
And today we are going to release what the heart no longer needs to keep.
It may be a weight you've been carrying or a story you feel you've outgrown,
Or simply the residue of a year now behind you.
Today's intention is,
Today I'll put down what I no longer need to carry.
I'd like to begin with sharing a short story.
A young person carried a stone everywhere,
Believing its weight made them strong.
And one day a wise elder asked,
What makes you think you must carry this?
And the young one didn't know.
The elder said,
Everything that comes to us is a guest.
When its teaching is complete,
It must return to the circle.
If you do not let it go,
It cannot become medicine.
So the young one placed the stone back on the earth.
And in the silence that followed,
They felt their own strength for the first time.
Our strength is found the moment we lay down the weight we once picked up in innocence.
The weight that weakens more than it fortifies.
So often we mistake our pain and suffering as stones we must carry through the rooms of our life.
But we don't always know how to let go or what we're letting go into.
Today we'll learn to let go with the help of sound,
Into birdsong,
Water,
And fire.
The natural world has always been where we return to be emptied and reharmonized.
It takes from us quietly and without demand what we no longer need to hold.
As the sounds of nature surround you now,
Let them soften you.
I'd like to invite you to close your eyes now,
Just drawing your attention inward towards your listening in the dark.
Sense where your body feels bound or caught,
Tight or restricted.
Bring some of your breath there.
Notice any images or memories or arguments that rise to the surface.
And gently allow whatever stone needs to appear and hold it in the palm of your awareness.
Now bring your hand into a very strong fist,
Letting your hand become the shape of that stone,
That memory,
That argument or struggle.
I want you to feel the tightening and the effort it takes to hold it.
What makes you think you need to carry this?
Take a slow and steady breath in,
Filling your lungs to the very top.
And as you exhale,
Let your fist fall open,
Releasing the stone.
Imagine setting it down on the earth in front of you,
Just letting the ground receive what you no longer need to carry.
And notice how the sounds around you hold this moment,
How the world seems to widen as you let go.
Take another deep sigh through the mouth and turn your face slightly to the right,
Turning away from the stone you just placed on the ground.
Allowing the body to signal that this is behind me now.
And now with your palm open and free from this stone,
Bring it to your heart.
And feel the warmth return beneath your palm.
Draw your energy back home to you.
Just like the young one,
You may feel a rise of strength or simply a small,
Honest pause.
Just notice what's here and let it belong just as it is.
Throughout your day,
Just remember your intention.
I'll put down what I no longer need to carry.
And on the next screens,
You'll be invited to set this intention or a variation of it onto your Insight Timer home screen.
Often the simple act of seeing your intention reflected back to you throughout the day is enough to create a lot of change,
A lot of movement.
Thank you for being here.
Thank you for taking the time to practice.
And I hope the rest of the challenge supports you in the ways you need.
