Welcome to the stay with yourself joyful meditation.
By sitting comfortably in a chair with your feet firmly planted on the floor and your hands gently resting in your lap.
Hold your spine upright and strong as you soften the front of your body and allow your heart space to open.
Close your eyes and take three deep breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth.
With each inhale breathe deep into your belly allowing it to rise.
With each exhale allow your belly to soften releasing any tension.
Continue to do this as you relax your body.
Let your shoulders fall away from your ears,
Your jaw to relax,
Your lips to part,
Your eyes to soften,
Your hips to soften.
And breathe deep into your body,
Into your fingers and toes.
Feel yourself growing and expanding inwardly.
Fresh air and life being offered to your vital organs.
Oxygen flowing through your blood fresh and clean.
Oxygen relieving muscle pain and aches and tension.
Breathing deep into your belly and allowing that expansion to press on the spine and activate the calming centers in your body.
Breath,
Life-giving breath.
Now imagine that the skin on your body,
But the cells making up your skin are tiny flowers and right now they are closed up and they are asleep resting silently.
But I want you to slowly imagine these flowers waking up and beginning to open like flowers that turn their faces toward the sun.
Imagine the entire surface of your body turning and opening wide.
Imagine them like little receptors ready to receive whatever is offered.
And with this openness I want you to pour in to each flower,
Each cell with its face turned outward.
Pour into it laughter.
I want you to think back to a time when you laughed so hard you couldn't stop.
See yourself laughing hysterically and imagine all of these cells,
These flowers soaking up that laughter and imagine all of them beginning to giggle.
So the entire surface of your body is now giggling and laughing along with you.
Imagine these flowers,
Their stems and their roots are connected to the inside of your body.
So as they take in this laughter it is carried down through their stem,
Down into the roots and the roots make up everything on the inside of your body.
So there's now this gorgeously interconnected web of laughter tightly bound inside your body.
Up through your head,
All the way down through your toes into your arms and your hands.
Laughter.
Next I want you to imagine a time when your heart was bursting,
Absolutely bursting with love and joy.
And maybe these are two different times.
Bursting with love.
Imagine that and take yourself there and pour that love into these flower receptors and imagine them taking it in and moving it down through their stems and into their roots and creating another web throughout your body of love.
Deep heart opening love.
And then think of that moment,
A time when you were filled with joy,
Heart bursting joy.
You could sing,
You could scream,
You could shout and pour that joy into these flower receptors.
Let them take it in.
They soak it in,
In through their stems,
Down into their roots and there's an interconnected web of joy moving throughout your body.
And these three things together inside of you creating this amazing network of laughter,
Joy and love inside of you.
Feel your body alive,
Tingling with joy,
Happiness,
Exuberance.
And feel it in your whole body.
Feel it in your eyeballs.
Feel it in your skin.
Feel it in your organs.
Imagine all of your insides snuggled together laughing.
Imagine your muscles filled with laughter.
Imagine even the painful parts of you loosening up and laughing,
Being healed and soothed and comforted by joy.
Imagine every tiny and large thing within you filled with laughter.
And then do the same thing with love.
Imagine everything inside of you,
Big and small,
Conscious and unconscious,
To be filled with love,
That bursting,
Heart bursting love.
Your body exploding with love.
And then let every part of your body be filled with that joy,
Exuberant.
Shout it,
Scream it.
Can't contain it joy.
Imagine your bones quaking with joy and laughter.
Imagine parts of yourself that are sad or in pain or struggling,
Being filled with joy,
Being buoyed,
Being carried on the ocean within you that is joy.
Everything in you united in love and joy and laughter.
And just feel it.
And know that these receptors that take it in,
That feel it,
That this entire body that is feeling love and joy and laughter at this time,
It hangs on to that feeling.
It is always available to you.
It is stored away and ready to be taken out and used at any time.
So when you find yourself needing some joy,
Some laughter,
Just send a little message out to your body and say,
Hey,
Remember that thing you're holding onto,
That feeling.
Can we take that out?
Can we have that right now?
And it feels so good that of course the answer is yes.
Yes.
Ever present joy,
Ever present love,
Ever present laughter.
This is a recipe for long life.
So come back to your breath and bring your awareness back into your body,
Your body in this room supported by this chair.
Hang on to that love and joy and laughter that you just experienced.
Keep it contained within your body.
Notice how you feel and see if you can continue to carry it with you throughout today.
And when you are ready,
You can slowly open your eyes.
Thank you for sharing your meditation practice with me.
May you stay with yourself today and always.
You are welcome to continue sitting in meditation for as long as you would like.
For now,
I will leave you here.
