Hello and welcome to this Sore Hum Mantra meditation.
I invite you to make your way into a comfortable seated position,
Ensuring that your back is straight and if at all possible,
If you're using a chair,
Please make sure you sit towards the front of the chair so your back and spine can be free and if you are sitting on the floor,
Maybe take a folded blanket or a meditation cushion,
Place it under your hips and then you can raise your hips up slightly and allow the back to be nice and straight.
So taking a few moments to become calm and steady and also remembering that meditation begins the very moment you sit for meditation.
So telling yourself now is the time to let go of all of the rushing you may have gone through to reach here now and also to let go of all the plans and thoughts you have about your upcoming day.
They don't matter now.
We can deal with all of those things later.
For now,
You're taking the time to dive deeply inward with yourself.
Take some time to become calm and steady.
Take some time to lengthen your spine,
Allowing the shoulders to relax,
Keeping your elbows tucked in nice and tight,
Nice and relaxed.
Allow your hands to find a mudra or hand gesture of any position you wish.
Slowly bring your attention to your sitting bones and begin to notice where they are connecting to the ground,
To your seat and allow this area to be nice and heavy and then working your awareness up through your spine towards the crown of your head.
Imagine there's a beautiful thread coming out of the crown of your head reaching for the skies which is being very softly pulled.
You realize that you are the connection between the earth and the skies and as this cord which is connecting you to the cosmos is gently pulled,
You find just a little bit more space in the spine.
Now I'll invite you to softly open your eyes and then very gently with complete intention begin to close the eyes as you really go inward.
Once your eyes are softly closed,
I invite you to bring your attention to your head,
Relaxing your ears,
Relaxing your forehead,
Relaxing your jaw,
Releasing your teeth,
Finding some ease and relaxation in your skull and then gently guiding your awareness down to your neck.
Release any excess tension that you're holding.
Allow the muscles there in your neck to relax and then relaxing a little further down on the tops of the shoulders.
Allow the shoulder blades to move slowly and gently down the back.
The chest is ever so slightly lifted as you relax the chest.
Then moving your awareness like a waterfall down your upper arms towards your elbows,
Relaxing everything along the way.
Relaxing your forearms,
Your wrists and finally finding ease and relaxation in your palms and fingers.
Softly maintaining the mudra and gently rotating your awareness back towards your torso.
You can work your consciousness through the upper back,
The mid-back and the lower back.
You'll find here that some of the muscles are providing good strength.
It's always possible to release a little more.
Then turning your gaze to the opposite side of your torso to your abdomen,
Your belly.
Allow the belly and tummy to relax.
Become aware of if you're holding any extra tension there.
You can softly guide your awareness down to your hips,
Your hip joints,
Upper thighs.
Notice if you're carrying any excess tension here and allow it to relax.
Making your way further down towards the knee joints,
To the calves and the shins.
Time for them to rest and relax now.
Then coming out towards the end of your legs,
Your ankles,
Your heels,
The soles of your feet and your toe tips.
Allow your feet and your toes to completely relax and become aware of how by bringing awareness and attention to your body in such a way,
Through that awareness your body automatically relaxes.
Now that your body is nicely relaxed,
It feels calm and light,
Peaceful,
Restful.
Now we can bring our attention towards the breath.
Begin to become aware of your breath in your nostrils.
Begin to bring awareness to the inhalation and exhalation,
The natural breath in and out of the nostrils.
Try not to regulate.
Just notice,
Just observe,
Witnessing the natural flow of the breath in your nostrils.
Just keep your focus here,
Stay with the breath.
If you find your mind is moving away from the breath in the nostrils,
Then bring it back slowly and gently with a smile.
You can begin to notice the difference in temperature between the incoming and outgoing breath.
Observing the coolness of the inhalation and the warmth of the exhalation.
Now softly with awareness,
Move your mind away from the breath in the nostrils and begin to notice the breath in the throat.
Become the witness of your incoming and outgoing breath in your throat.
Observe the texture of the breath,
The quality of smoothness as the breath goes in and out of your throat.
As your breath becomes smooth and even,
You will become aware that the quality of your breath changes and becomes prana.
You don't feel that you are breathing.
Breath and energy moves all of its own,
Becoming psychic movement of the breath.
Very gently stretch your back and begin to rotate your awareness away from the now towards your spinal column,
Your shushumna channel,
Your psychic channel which runs alongside the spine.
Now I invite you to see your spinal column as a very beautiful white tube.
And at the base of the tube is a beautiful energy ball,
A dark red color,
Very vibrant,
Very alive.
And as you inhale,
This very vibrant ball of energy rises up through the shushumna channel,
Your spinal column channel,
All the way to the crown of the head.
And as you exhale,
The energy ball softly drops down back to the base of the spine,
Rising with the inhalation and falling with the exhalation.
As you follow this line of prana,
This ball of prana,
Rising with your inhalation and falling with your exhalation,
You will begin to feel the quality of the breath entirely changing as your mind stays with the visualization of the pranic energy ball rising and rooting,
Rising and rooting.
Your mind wanders away and guide it back with a smile to the rising prana,
To the rooting prana,
Rising with the inhalation and descending with the exhalation.
Now we can begin to introduce the mantra into our visualization.
So continuing with the pranic energy ball ascending from the base of the spine to the crown with inhalation and then descending back down to the root of the spine,
We will also introduce the sacred mantra Soham,
Which means I am that in Sanskrit.
And it also beautifully matches the essence of the breath.
As we inhale and the pranic energy ball rises,
We will chant silently in our minds,
Soh.
And as we exhale,
We will chant,
Om.
Soh.
As we raise and rise the energy ball all the way to the crown of the head with the mantra Soh,
So we will descend with the energy ball with the other half of the mantra,
Om.
Listen to the mantra and notice how your mind becomes completely absorbed by the mantra.
And also begin to notice the slight pause at the top of the breath,
As well as the slight pause at the bottom of the breath.
Slight moment of stillness at both the top and the bottom of the breath.
Stay with the movement of prana.
Listen to the mantra and become aware of the brief pause at the top of the breath.
Stay with the mantra and begin to notice how the psychic movement of the breath or the prana,
As well as the mind,
Move in unison with the frequency of the mantra,
Soham.
The breath,
The mind,
And the mantra become one even flow.
Stay with the breath,
Stay with the mantra.
Very slowly let go of the awareness of the mantra and of the visualization.
Now that the mind is completely inward,
Peaceful,
Serene,
And harmonious,
Now we will stop all the mental activity and glide into the deep deep silence within.
Very gently begin to bring your awareness back to the breath within your nostrils.
Noticing the natural,
Unregulated flow of the breath.
And then gently bringing your breath into your abdomen,
Taking a few deep abdominal breaths.
Consciously moving the abdomen in and out for a few breaths,
And with each exhalation bringing your awareness back into your body,
Back into the room around you without opening the eyes.
Slowly bringing yourself out of the meditation.
Begin to become aware of the outside sounds.
Now I'll invite you to take one more very deep,
Steady breath for chanting Aum Shanti together.
And that's it.
And keeping your eyes closed,
Begin to start moving your body.
Micro movements,
Mindful movements,
Nice and slow,
Like you don't want to come out of the meditation.
And then whenever you feel ready,
You can bring your hands together in front of your heart center and very softly blink your eyes open.
Wishing you a beautiful day ahead.
Namaste.
