Hello,
And welcome to Day 17 of the Mindful Mornings Challenge here on Insight Timer.
My name is David Gandleman and it is a pleasure to be here starting the day together.
First,
I want to start by saying that I believe in reincarnation.
I believe that every morning we reincarnate back into our bodies and every evening we disincarnate off into our dream time.
And when we wake up in the morning,
We have an incredible opportunity to start over.
So first and foremost,
Hi,
Good morning.
It's great to be here with you.
Put a smile on your face for me,
For yourself,
For the world.
You're going to have an incredible day if you can start your day with a nice deep meditation practice.
When I get up in the morning,
What I like to do is have a little bit of my digestive tea.
I take a walk or a hike into the mountains in front of my house in Colorado.
I know,
I'm spoiled.
I can't help it.
And then I sit down to meditate.
And this morning I want to share with you the three steps that I practice in my meditation and hopefully they'll help you create a stable and consistent morning routine.
So go ahead and close your eyes and let's get started.
I always like to tell my students,
You don't need to turn into a different person when you close your eyes to meditate.
So allow yourself to be loose,
Be yourself,
Be calm and relaxed.
We're not going to force inner peace on ourselves here.
We're going to find it by just allowing things to be as they are.
And so we're going to approach this meditation in three steps.
Step number one.
All I want you to do is check the weather.
Check the psychic emotional weather in and around you.
I want you to take a moment and just notice.
Is it cloudy with confusion?
Is it stormy?
Are there clear skies?
Is the weather calm?
Or is it a bit disturbed?
And just like you don't need to judge the weather when it comes as good or bad,
You can appreciate all forms of weather.
And you extend the same courtesy to yourself.
Just appreciate any movement of energy or emotion without trying to manipulate it or change it or blame it on someone or criticize yourself.
Just let it be.
You may notice that the more you allow your weather to be as it is,
The more it actually settles down.
That's a bit counterintuitive in that way.
If you can let go of any control over the weather in your space,
You actually start to appreciate it.
If something's bothering you,
Then maybe it's because you care.
If you have a lot of thoughts,
Perhaps it's because you're creative.
It doesn't have to be a problem.
Make sure you're breathing nice and slowly and deeply.
You could pull your shoulders a bit away from your ears and drop them.
And ease up any tension inside your body,
Any tension that you notice.
As you put your awareness on it,
It starts to release.
And in the second step of this meditation,
What we're going to do is ground.
So I'd like you to imagine right out of the base of your spine,
There's a beautiful tree trunk just grows down into the earth.
And it could be any kind of tree you want.
It roots right into the planet and it stabilizes you.
Allow yourself to see it and to feel that stability.
What does a tree feel like when it's wide?
When its roots are in deep?
Even if a storm comes and the wind blows,
A nice rooted tree will stand firm.
So today if there is any negativity in your life,
If there are events that happen that are out of your control,
You can stay in the storm nice and grounded.
A tree doesn't try to change the weather or complain about the weather.
It just grows its roots deeper.
Can you allow yourself to do the same thing?
Just see that tree trunk nice and deep.
Feel your entire body become stable and centered.
And appreciate,
Almost enjoy the weather.
And in the third step of our meditation here,
We're going to set an intention for the day.
So I'd like you to take a moment and just get a sense of what kind of energy you would like to be in today.
Perhaps it is stability,
Or maybe it's compassion or creativity,
Acceptance or love,
Openness or playfulness.
Allow yourself to start to feel this energy.
Sense the vibration of how you want to be in the day today.
So you're not just setting an intention with a thought,
But you're feeling it in the moment.
Your day isn't going to start after you come out of meditation.
It's starting now as you feel this energy.
And if you're like,
David,
I'm not sure how to feel this.
Perhaps this energy has a color to it.
And you can sense that color inside your body.
And the weather that you're experiencing this morning,
The energy that you've experienced already today,
It'll be a clue for what it is you want to live,
What kind of intention you want to set.
So if you felt confusion,
Then maybe you want clarity.
If you felt loneliness,
Perhaps you want connection.
If you felt sadness,
Maybe you want to tap into joy.
Simply take a moment and just feel that inside yourself and let it radiate out of you.
Go ahead and take a nice big deep breath in and an easy soft sigh out.
Great work.
Thank you for sitting with me.
I hope you have an incredible day.
And I'll see you next time.
Be safe.
