As we mark our 150th meditation,
I want to thank you for your continued support of Ukrainian independence and freedom.
This month we'll be revisiting some of our most popular episodes.
I'm Colleen Thomas.
Welcome to the best of Everyday Magic for Ukraine.
Today we will find our balance.
Welcome to the circle.
Before we begin today,
I'd like to take a minute to just really honor you.
Honor you for everything that you've done today and honor you for everything you haven't done today.
Just to really honor you for waking up and doing the things,
Being yourself,
Showing up for others,
Showing up for yourself,
However you have been and are in the world today,
I honor you.
And I'm really glad that you're part of our circle,
This circle that transcends space and time,
This circle where it doesn't matter when you listen or where you are in the world,
You are part of the circle and I'm so glad to have you with us today.
Since we're going to be working on finding our balance today,
I think it might be useful to begin with a little bit of grounding.
And so what that means is beginning to notice where is your body?
What are you standing,
Sitting or lying on?
And noticing what is beneath you?
What is supporting your body in this moment?
And then feeling down from that place,
Feeling down from that object,
From the floor or a chair or the bed or the grass.
Just feeling effortlessly down,
Just allowing your focus to drop,
Allowing yourself to connect with the earth beneath you.
Feeling into all the layers of the earth,
The bedrock and the water table,
The dinosaurs going down,
Down,
Down.
Feeling down into the earth and really beginning to find your connection.
And when you found that connection,
What does it feel like to begin to let go of stress,
Of worry,
Of lack,
Of anything you might be holding that maybe isn't even yours?
What would it feel like to let those things go?
Just let them go down into the earth.
Let them release out of your body and your energy body.
Just let them connect and flow outward.
And now from this safe,
Embodied and protected space,
I invite you to join me in your imagination in traveling to a playground.
Let's go to a playground.
You go to your favorite playground,
I'll go to my favorite playground.
And on this playground,
I invite you to find one of the devices that allows you to play with your balance.
This might be a little platform that swings back and forth as you stand on it and challenges you to not fall over,
Or a kind of bridge that you need to walk across and maintain your balance.
Or even if you're kind of old school like me,
Maybe imagine jumping onto the middle of a teeter-totter and experimenting with standing and keeping both ends off the ground.
And since this is something we're doing in our imagination,
It doesn't matter if your body could really do this in real time.
It matters how it feels inside of you to imagine doing it.
So really bring yourself,
Join me in bringing yourself to this playground.
Find the part of the playground you'd like to be on and experiment with balance.
So I'm going to imagine standing on that teeter-totter.
Maybe there's something I could hold on to for a minute to get my initial balance.
And then maybe when I have it,
I'm able to let go and slowly push my way down so that I can get both ends off of the ground.
So if you can't think of your own item,
You can imagine the teeter-totter example that I'm playing with.
And so we've already grounded.
You have the earth beneath you.
You also have the sky above you always.
And find that center in yourself that allows you to balance.
Maybe pushing with one leg and then pushing with the other as little micro-movements happen in your system and you need to adjust.
Feel that imagined sense of the act of balancing.
Feel that in yourselves right now.
And let this imagined version of your body inform you through your nervous system and your brain and your cells and your muscles.
Everything working together to play with this idea.
Maybe a bird flies by and that's a distraction and so then there's a wobble.
And getting back.
Getting back to that sense of balance.
See if you can imagine this with me or your own version of this.
And just see if you can feel it in your body.
The micro-movements we make when we're balancing are actually beneficial.
They're not a sign of weakness or lack of balance.
They are practice in the active present moment practice.
They are the practice.
And you can see as we do this how balance is a very active and engaging practice.
It's not passive,
At least for most of us.
And hopefully it shouldn't be because the act of balancing is the act of being alive.
And now that your body has a sense of this act,
This active act of balancing,
Maybe feel into how is this like balancing everything in your life?
Balancing work and school and sickness and errands and war and education.
Whatever the little components are of your world,
Especially the ones that might stress you out,
Especially the ones that are maybe a little more heavy.
How does this imagined moment of being on this playground,
How can this allow you to play with that idea?
Because you are juggling a lot.
I know you are.
There's probably a lot in your heart and a lot that fills your day,
Maybe a lot that fills your dreams.
Maybe just imagine yourself balancing all of these things.
So many,
Many things and you in the middle just doing your best,
Just working your magic,
Just keeping your balance,
Keeping,
Keeping,
Keeping,
Actively keeping.
I appreciate you coming with me to this playground and I invite you to stay here as long as you'd like to transition back to your space when you're ready.
May we remember that balancing is an active and magical act and we are all magicians.
May it be so.
Thank you so much for being with us today.
Your presence,
Your energy,
And your heart make all the difference in healing our world.
Remember to breathe today,
Breathe and expand.
And I hope you join us again next time.
Please consider inviting a friend.
