In 1902,
Charles Horton Cooley wrote,
I am not what I think I am.
I am not what you think I am.
I am what I think you think I am.
Our identity is wrapped up in what others think of us,
Or more accurately,
What we think they think we are.
Jay Shetty,
Think like a monk.
When you are alone,
When the world is not putting pressure on you from society,
From the outside,
From family,
Friends,
Co-workers,
Acquaintances,
Who are you?
Deep down past the labels,
Personas,
And identities that we put on for others,
Who are you?
At the root of your being,
The core of your soul,
Who are you?
This may seem like an easy question to answer,
But when you look past the labels,
Past the titles,
Past all the things we identify with,
It gets a bit tricky.
Everything you have in this world,
All that you are,
Is changeable.
There is both a joy and a sadness that comes from this realization.
You are free to be whomever you wish to be,
Literally.
Once you stop identifying with the words that have been imposed on you,
You can start creating the person you came into this lifetime to be.
When you remove all the labels,
All the fluff,
All the ideas,
All that remains is I am.
We are going to transition into a pranayama practice.
Before we begin,
Choose a seat that is comfortable for you,
As we will be here for approximately 10 minutes.
Once we conclude this pranayama,
We will go directly into a meditation.
Take a moment to choose your seat.
I recommend sitting with your feet on the floor,
Our legs in an easy pose.
Choose your hand placement.
You may want to start with one hand on your heart and one hand on your belly.
And then when we begin meditation,
You may drop both hands to your lap.
You may choose to put your palms up towards the ceiling,
Being open,
Open to receiving,
Open to new ideas.
You may choose your palms face down,
Face down for grounding.
You may choose one palm up and one palm down for balance.
You may choose to have both palms resting gently in your lap.
Whatever you choose,
Do it with intention.
If it's comfortable for you to do so,
I invite you to close your eyes.
If it is not,
Then simply cast your gaze downward.
On your inhale,
You will think of the word so,
And on your exhale,
The word hum.
Inhale so,
Exhale hum.
The word so hum literally means I am.
So with each inhalation and exhalation,
You are creating the space for all that you are and releasing all that you are not.
We will breathe like this for two minutes.
Inhaling so and exhaling hum.
I will start by guiding you and then I will leave you on your own with your own breath and your own pace for a few moments.
I will signal you when it's time to let the practice go and we will transition directly into a meditation.
Close your eyes.
Inhale deeply and exhale.
Sigh it out and weave again.
Inhale so,
Exhale hum.
Inhale so,
Exhale hum.
Inhale so,
Exhale hum.
Inhale so,
Exhale hum.
Continue on your own,
Thinking of the word so as you inhale and hum as you exhale.
If your mind starts to wander,
Gently bring it back to the words.
Inhaling so and exhaling hum.
On your last exhale,
Let it go.
Let go of the thoughts.
Let go of any judgments that may have come up along the way.
Allow yourself to sit in the space that you've created.
Allow yourself to sit in the unknown with just the words so hum resting quietly inside of you.
Just the words I am.
I am without completing the thought.
Just allow it to be.
Allow the space for all that is possible.
As you sit and breathe,
I invite you to begin to think of all the labels that have been placed on you over the years.
This may be slightly uncomfortable.
Some things may come up that you don't want to remember.
Remember that you are safe and you are held.
Feel the seat beneath you literally holding you and supporting you in this moment.
Remember this is your practice.
You can open your eyes at any time and come back into the room.
Simply breathe and let go.
Release that practice and begin to think of the labels,
The titles,
The ideas of what you are that you place on yourself.
The recurrent thoughts of what you are or what you are not.
Give yourself a few more moments inhaling and exhaling.
Being aware that these are just thoughts.
They are just words.
They are labels.
They do not define you.
Now begin to let that go and begin to think of what you would like I am to be for you.
Think of the labels that you would like associated with who you are.
How you would like to be perceived by others.
How you would like to be perceived by yourself.
Who you would like to be when you are alone.
Take a deep breath in and exhale.
Sigh it out.
Gently open your eyes coming back into the room.
Allowing yourself to come back into this moment.
I invite you to take some time to journal and to think about what came up for you during this meditation.
Once all of your labels are stripped away what part of you remains?
If you could start from a blank slate today what or who would you be?
To help you with this a fun exercise is to take out a sheet of paper and write down all of the labels all of the things that came up for you during your meditation.
Simply write I am and then whatever the word is.
So mine would look like I am Casey I am a mom I am a wife I am a woman I am a brunette I am a nurse I am a meditation instructor I am caring.
You get the idea.
Then at the end of making your list you take your pen or marker and draw a line through anything that is not changeable draw a line through anything that is not permanent at the end of the exercise once you've removed all of the labels and all of the things that you identify with you'll likely find that the only words remaining on the page are I am with just the words I am remaining you are giving yourself the space to be exactly who you are at the root of your soul I hope you have a beautiful day Namaste
