Hello and welcome to this time that you have decided to carve out for yourself today.
I welcome you to this meditation on finding peace.
As we begin today please take some time to find the most comfortable position,
Nestle into that space,
Take an opportunity to disconnect from anything that might have preceded this moment.
A lovely way to do that is first to begin acquainting yourself with your breath.
There is no need to change your breath but simply let's see what we notice about it.
Directing your breath now to come through the nostrils,
Down and soften into your belly,
Back up and out through the mouth and cycle back in again through the nostrils and with each breath see if you can find just a little bit more space,
A little more expansion and if you notice that the breath is being drawn into your chest area with each new inhale see if you can take it just a little bit further down towards your belly with the aim of the breath filling the belly with a gentle softness.
Today's meditation is focused on peace,
Something that without your direct attention you might find elusive and in reality it's right there the whole time and so instead of hunting for peace sometimes all we need to do is take away the noise that's making it difficult to see and the first part of that is quieting down the body and so that's something we've already started with that lovely breath flow that you've been doing and just notice now physically a softening in your body noticing that your feet and ankles are soft and relaxed that your legs are not holding tension through the glutes and the hips there's gentle softness the belly is relaxed your back is in a comfortable spot and completely supported your chest rises and falls the shoulders and neck remain soft your jaw your tongue eyes and brows you find softness and relaxation in them all taking a long slow and deep breath now as it comes into your body I'd love you to investigate what peace means to you and so as I say the word peace notice the first understanding that comes into your mind what was the first thought you had before the conscious mind started negotiating or perhaps quarreling about a correct description peace does mean different things to us all for some it might be an absence of pain or conflict while for others it's a deep deep feeling that sits really soundly in the body as a knowing or as the true self even and so whilst for some peace can be informed or directed by that which is external for others it's very much an inside job understanding what peace means to you will help to inform how you go about bringing peace into your consciousness and while we're thinking of the description of peace it's important as well to recognize the distinction that it doesn't necessarily mean an elevated stage like happiness elation or joy either peace is inherently a middle ground it's not charged it's without temperature and so in a world with so much conflict and heat and cold we possibly don't find ourselves in that neutral space very often so today let's explore not only what peace means for you today but how you can generate that sensation in your body physically emotionally and spiritually and the path that we will take today is the breath the breath being the mighty settler the calming agent that is accessible to us all at any time so let's do some breathing now together and see if we can arrive somewhere near that beautiful neutral comfort space that we think of as peace taking your breath in through your nose raising up your belly releasing that breath out through your mouth and following a beautiful flow and sequence here the exhale is longer than the inhale the belly does rise and perhaps you can use your hands for feedback as your belly rises and falls so let us find a rhythm with that breath now as you breathe in let the rhythm of your body guide you here and we will take three final breaths in the sequence before we go into a gentle hold so last three two breath in breath out and take one big breath in the biggest breath you've taken so far and just hold that breath at the top holding this breath so holding this breath and now exhale out through your mouth let everything go completely soft and relaxed so we're holding on an out breath here no breath in just settling in your body and here is where we might find with some time a little discomfort and in three two one big breath in through the nose and exhale and with this exhale completely soften your whole body and lay still and notice what you notice about your body right now as you observed did you notice any sensations did you notice that you were able to feel and access a sense of peace and complete calm on the other side of the tension or the discomfort the breath is an incredible way to adjust our physiology but not only our physiology because our psychology and our physiology work very much together they tend to work in tandem a lot of the time so one of the ways we can access peace is through the breath either in micro moments of a long slow inhale and an even longer gentler exhale or it through a breath work sequence like we've just done to create a little bit of a change in the blood chemistry your body needs to pay attention therefore so does your mind and within that lies so I hope you enjoyed playing around with breath and peace today with me I thank you so much for joining me and I'm grateful for your time I wish you an incredible day
