Settle - A Meditation For Balance & Evenness

Find your feet again with this meditation for balance and equalness. Soothe and tune in with massage, rotation of consciousness and breath awareness. This meditation will lead you gently into reflection about the yogic value of 'equanimity', or what it truly means to meet life with a sense of evenness.

Transcript

Welcome.

This is a meditation for cultivating a sense of steadiness,

Of equalness and balance.

So if you're with me,

The best possible way to start would be to lie down on the ground and take the soles of the feet onto the ground,

The space between them.

If you can't lie down,

Sit or stand,

But have a real sense of presence in the feet.

For a moment,

You might like to feel into the body in any way that feels like the right thing for right now.

So that could be spreading the arms outwards,

Could be reaching into the fingers and making space between the fingertips.

It could be rolling the head side to side luxuriously,

Giving the face a scrunch,

Opening the mouth,

Sighing a breath,

Yawning,

Groaning.

You could already be in stillness.

Whatever you're doing now,

We'll crease at the elbows and rest the hands over the eyes.

For a moment,

Let the hands be light,

Like the lightest set of eyelids over the eye sockets.

And then add weight to the bones of the arms so that they plug down to the joints and the hands rest fully.

Heels of the hands to the cheeks,

Fingertips to the forehead,

All resting over the hairline.

With compassion,

Notice how you've arrived in your practice.

Drop your attention through the physical body and notice what's there.

Spread the attention through the energetic body,

Your emotions,

Your feelings.

Thoughts,

Your sense of spirit.

Notice where the physical and energetic intertwine.

We'll take some massage now.

You could leave the palms resting.

Press the heels of the hands now,

Sliding the hands outwards over the sides of the head.

Heels of the hands pressing just above the cheekbones.

As you hold the sides of the skull,

Spread the fingertips wide and imagine that you're holding the brain.

Like you could magnetise the two hemispheres of the brain outwards towards the hands,

Making space in the mind for something different.

Then take a firm press of the hands down either side of the head,

Over the ears,

Down over the cheeks,

Squashing the jaw muscles.

Then bringing the heels of the hands together at the chin.

Wrap the fingertips behind the neck,

Palms to the sides of the neck and drop a few big exhales here.

Imagining that the neck could widen and meet the hands more fully.

You could pause here.

We'll slide the hands equally underneath the head,

Holding the weight of the head in the hands and keeping a slow upward sliding motion to lengthen the skin at the back of the neck.

Tuck the chin towards the throat,

Sliding the hands upwards and upwards until the hands come out from behind the head.

Then you softly replace the head to the ground or to its original position.

Bring the hands back over the eyes,

Drop the bones of the arms into the joints,

The hands cover the eyes.

And now slide the hands gently outwards,

Brushing the hands with lightness down the sides of the head and this time over the front of the chest.

Resting the hands to the low ribs,

Take the elbows wide,

Drop a few breaths.

Sense into the soles of the feet now.

You might find the pads of the toes,

Lift and spread them away from one another.

Then press the pads of the toes into the ground with muscular effort just for a moment,

Then release and let the attention rove around the soles of the feet.

Find the places where the soles of the feet press to the ground like hills.

Notice where the soles lift away from the ground naturally,

Like valleys.

Let the attention well between the toes and have a sense of treading evenly into the feet,

Standing in the steadiest way.

In the truest form of your own existence.

Wrap the attention over the tops of the feet to the bones of the shins and on an exhale,

Let the bones of the shins plug more fully into the ankle joints.

Slide the attention over the knees and again on an exhale,

The bones of the thighs plug down into the hips.

Find the width across the back of the pelvis.

Over a few exhales,

Imagine the pelvis opening like a book.

Release any muscular holding in the pelvis,

Pelvic floor,

Around the hips,

In the low belly.

Wrap the attention to the back of the ribcage and observe the equal expanse of the inhale and of the exhale.

Huddle the attention around the shoulders like you've wrapped yourself in a blanket.

Imagine two palms on the front of the shoulders.

As you exhale,

Lean into the shoulders,

Let them squash back into the ground.

The full circumference of the shoulders,

The collarbones,

The armpits and shoulder blades,

The corners of the neck.

Drop the attention inside the mouth,

Like a drop of rain on the tongue.

Find the very back corners of the jaw and on an exhale,

Let them soften back.

Spread the attention across the forehead and you could either simply imagine a palm or you use your own palm placed softly to the forehead to exhale,

Press gentle pressure through the forehead.

Eyebrows and temples spread and you have more of a sense of the back skull resting evenly.

Now bring the attention to the equalness of the breath.

Remove any blocks from the breath,

Anywhere that the breath is not traveling.

Observe the width of the breath,

Equal,

Left and right.

Observe the length of the breath.

Keep the breath just as deep as is natural.

We'll practice a version of alternate nostril breath.

Simply using the imagination,

Draw the breath in and out of the nostrils as you inhale and exhale.

Draw the breath particularly in to the left lung and out from the left lung.

Inhale,

Left lung.

Exhale,

Left lung.

Inhale,

Left lung.

Next inhale,

Particularly into the right lung,

Long.

Exhale,

The right lung.

Inhale,

Right lung.

Exhale,

The right lung.

Inhale evenly,

Long,

Into both lungs,

Open the mouth and exhale evenly through the mouth.

We'll do that again.

A slow,

Full inhale to its top.

Exhale out of the mouth and really lean into the end of the exhale.

Take one more equal breath,

Just like that,

And then softly close the lips and return to natural breath,

And steady.

This meditation is inspired by the yogic value of equanimity.

Equanimity or upeksha in Sanskrit,

And you might wonder why we would cultivate equanimity,

This characteristic of equalness in our responses to whatever life brings.

Sometimes life can be so good that we begin to fear losing that goodness.

And sometimes life can be so bad that we begin to fear losing ourselves.

How to cultivate balance in our responses?

Peace with our fears.

There are a few practices in the yogic tradition.

One of them is seeking truth or satya.

Expanding the vision of reality from the micro to the bigger scale.

What is really true right now?

Another practice is to cultivate counter thoughts to whatever the fear or the anxiety is.

What would it be like if everything went okay?

The final practice or part to equanimity are the other two brahmaviharas,

And these are goodwill and compassion.

Meeting fear or whatever life brings with limitless love.

So as we take our last few moments in meditation,

You might spread the attention evenly across the palms.

Like water filling the palms and then rest them once again onto the body.

As the palms meet the body,

Feel an upwelling of goodwill and of compassion for others and for yourself.

Slide the hands to wrap around the body,

The waist or the shoulders,

Hug.

Then keeping contact between palms and the body,

Slide the hands up to the sides of the neck.

From the sides of the neck up the sides of the face,

Squashing over the jaw,

The ears,

The temples.

Pressing the fingertips wide into the scalp and the hairline,

Maybe pressing circles,

Massaging,

Moving the head.

And then resting palms back over the eyes,

Inhale here,

Open the mouth and exhale.

Thank you so much for practicing with me today.

I hope to see you again soon.