Find Calm During The Coronavirus

Hello my darlings,

Welcome to this meditation with a very big topic which is the coronavirus and this is just what I can offer in my own small way that might just help a tiny bit in building a toolbox for ourselves to help us stay well and stay calm and that will be a lot of things.

It'll be eating well,

Exercising,

Looking after our loved ones,

Practicing gratitude,

Journaling and meditation I think is a really important part of this whole new way that we're going to have to learn to be.

We've been practicing for this with our meditation to let go of fear even if it's just for a moment,

To let our mind find some calm which means we can make more sensible decisions rather than ones taken just from fear or anger.

And being in a relaxed state helps the body heal.

So of course I'm not suggesting that meditation is the answer to everything but I do think it can help.

So that's why I put this little meditation together but of course any meditation here on Insight Timer is going to be useful to you so find the ones you like,

Practice with your loved ones in your home and find a little bit of what might help,

What you might need right now.

So let's get started.

We're actually before we meditate let's stand up and we're just going to shake our arms out.

We're just going to let them wiggle like jelly,

Take some nice deep breaths.

Maybe kind of step side to side,

Maybe take a little shake,

See if you can shake your whole body out.

Let's just shake out any tension,

Any anxiety,

Moving around the prana or chi we might call it that energy around the body.

Just shake,

Take some big deep breaths inside out and just take a shake.

Strange sounds optional.

And when you're ready and feel free to keep moving,

Keep shaking as much as you like.

Just when you're ready let's take that shake out and we'll come to rest in a place for our meditation.

So as always whether you want to be seated or laying is absolutely up to you,

Make yourself warm,

Make yourself comfortable and just give yourself a moment to really get settled and claim this time as time for yourself or time for us if you're doing this meditation together.

And now we settle.

We begin to settle the body into the earth.

We set down the weight we are all carrying upon our shoulders right now.

I know we'll all have to pick up again this worry and this fear as a society.

I know,

I know we're just going to put it aside for a moment.

Just as if you're carrying that heavy bag sometimes you just need to set it down and take a rest and then you will feel just a little refreshed when it's time to pick it up again.

You need to give yourself that time to set it down even if it's just for a moment even if you're concerned about putting it down.

Let's just see if we can do it for a few minutes and it doesn't matter if it doesn't work for you today maybe you can't focus and that's okay as well.

We'll just see what we can do today and we'll just try again as often as we want to.

So gather up the worries,

The fears,

The concerns and the stresses.

You might imagine that you're physically putting them into a bag and popping them aside maybe you're tying up the top or doing up a latch.

Maybe all these worries or concerns are like clouds in your mind and you're just going to let all those clouds drift to the corner of the room and they can just hover there for a little bit.

You're just going to set them aside as we begin to bring our awareness in towards our breath.

Can you focus on the next inhale and the next exhale?

Can you draw your awareness into that sensation of the lungs filling with air and then emptying again?

Just letting each breath be unhurried.

Just take your time with it.

Notice anything you like about the breath whether it's the sound you can hear as you breathe,

The rise of tummy and chest and the fall of tummy and chest.

Even the sensation of the air coming in and out of your nostrils.

Just let your attention settle upon maybe one or two things about this breath.

Just a guide in your thoughts.

Just to this place,

To this breath.

We will envisage using the breath as a guide that each exhale you make you are letting go.

So we might exhale.

Any tension within the legs or the feet or the toes.

Just breathing it out.

Feeling any tension in the hips and the tummy.

Exhaling tension from arms and hands and fingertips.

Any tension around the jaw or the neck or the little muscles of the face.

Letting the body settle.

Letting the body connect to the ground,

This solid ground beneath you.

It is here beneath you supporting you solid as ever.

Above you there is a roof to keep you warm and dry.

And above that is the blue sky and a sun and a moon that will always shine upon you.

Each inhale we take just as each exhale is a letting go.

Each inhale can be a drawing in.

We want to keep it nice and simple so let's just envisage with each inhale we are drawing in light.

Light of the sun,

Light of the air.

Light that represents love from the people we are connected to.

Either physically here near to us or within our hearts.

Even if we are separated from people we care for they are here within our hearts and you are connected in this way.

And this light we draw in with the breath.

We draw it in first to our lungs and our chest and heart.

Just bring a little light into this area.

Maybe a little calm spreads through the heart and the lungs as they gently move with our internal rhythms of breath and heart beat.

This light shines out through our limbs,

Our legs and our arms and through our head.

Each cell of the body absorbing a little bit of this light as we draw it in.

We just allow ourselves to draw it in.

Enabling our body with light,

A light made up of love,

Of sun,

Of sky,

Of air.

Made up of the light of gratitude for the roof above our heads and the clothes we wear.

Letting this light fill our bodies.

Feeling it so much that we begin to glow with this light like a beautiful aura of light and love.

Just let yourself ask in this light.

Each breath drawing in just a little more.

In each exhale just letting go of anything you need to let go of as we take this journey of basking,

Of bathing in light.

As we take just a few quiet minutes in this little sanctuary,

Know that it is inevitable that the mind will wander,

We might hear sounds of distraction.

It's ok.

We can let those distracting sounds maybe fall into soft focus,

We might be aware they're there but we don't have to attend to them.

And if a new thought or worry jumps into the head,

If we can we'll just notice and just let it drift away.

There is nothing we need to hold onto too tightly.

Not even the idea of perfection or peace.

We're just going to see how we do today.

We're just going to find a little moment of rest in our own way,

In our own perfectly imperfect way.

And just be here in this moment with the breath,

With the next inhale and the next exhale.

And it's a light that we are nurturing within ourselves,

Drawing in.

What I'll ask you to do is take your hands and put your palms together and rub them together as if creating heat between them and in fact they will begin to feel warmer as we fire up a little energy and light between our palms.

And when the hands feel nice and warm,

If it's comfortable to do so we'll place one upon our heart and one upon our belly.

And we'll just feel.

Feel the rise and fall of the breath underneath the hands.

Feel the warmth and weight of the hands upon the body.

Feel the sense of lightness that we can cultivate for ourselves.

This warmth and fire we can generate and share.

This comfort of connection between body and breath.

This circle of energy and light.

To give yourself time here I will let the music play for a little longer so you can relax and rest as long as you want to.

As always I wish you love,

I wish you hope and I wish you light.

Goodbye for now.

Namaste my darlings.

Namaste.

Namaste.

Namaste.