Hello,
It's me,
Lorraine K.
Rudolph,
Also known as L Star R,
Founder of the Self Sovereign Studio.
Today,
I come to you guided by my intuition and by the wisdom blessed upon me by my teachers,
Matt and Ashley Schaefer and Louisa Dorian,
Founder and team leaders of Mastery of Magnetism,
Frank Macari,
Founder of the Thriving Coach Academy,
And my Reiki master,
Kelly Strolls.
I humbly welcome you to today's meditation.
As we begin,
I want you to check in with your body and get as comfortable as possible,
Wherever you are.
Whether you are sitting,
Standing,
Lying down,
Or even driving in a car,
There is a place for you here.
Let's take a moment to move through the body together.
Starting with your face,
Notice what's there.
Any tension in your jaw,
Your forehead,
Around your eyes,
Just allow whatever needs to adjust to adjust.
Move your awareness down to your neck,
Your shoulders,
Let them drop,
Your arms,
Your hands,
Your chest,
Your back,
Your stomach,
Your hips,
Your legs,
Your feet,
All the way down to your toes.
As you settle in,
Feel the groundness of gravity beneath you,
Not as pressure as support,
The earth holding you exactly where you are.
Now we are going to start by breathing together.
We will take three intentional breaths,
In for four counts,
Hold for seven,
And out for eight.
If you are operating any machinery,
Simply allow your breath to breathe naturally and let the words wash over you.
For everyone else,
Let's begin.
Breathe in,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Hold.
Breathe in,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Hold.
Now allow your breath to return to its natural rhythm.
One deep breath in,
And out.
And if you're not operating any machinery,
And you feel so inclined,
You are welcome to gently close your eyes.
If you are operating machinery,
Or simply prefer to keep your eyes open,
That is perfectly okay too.
You are still fully here.
One more breath in,
And out.
You are here,
You are held,
You are exactly where you are supposed to be,
Right now.
Take one more slow breath in,
And this time,
Really feel it.
Feel the air moving into your body.
Feel your chest and belly rise.
Feel the pause at the top of the breath,
That tiny quiet moment between the in and the out.
That pause is what this meditation is about.
We live in a world that glorifies doing,
That celebrates busy,
That hands out gold stars for hustles,
And warns us in a thousand different ways that if we stop moving,
We fall behind.
And so we run,
We push,
We do,
And do,
And do,
Until our bodies are exhausted,
Our nervous systems are frayed,
And we can't remember the last time we actually felt present in our own lives.
And here's what happens when we never stop.
We become reactive.
We get pulled by the current of our emotions.
We respond to life from a place of trigger and tension,
Rather than clarity and intention.
We rush through the moments that our lives are actually made of,
Getting the kids ready,
Walking the dog,
Sitting at the dinner table,
So focused on the next thing that we miss the thing we're in.
Here's what I want to offer you today.
You can be still within your action.
You don't have to choose between doing and being present.
You don't have to choose between a full life and a peaceful one.
Stillness is not the absence of action,
It is the quality you bring to action.
When you are still within your action,
You slow down enough to be responsive instead of reactive.
You move from intention instead of anxiety.
You are guided by who you want to be,
Rather than pulled by what you're afraid of.
Let's practice that right now.
I want you to take three slow,
Deliberate breaths.
And with each one,
I want you to feel both the action of breathing and the stillness inside it.
Breathe in slowly,
Feel the movement,
Feel the life of it,
And feel the quiet that lives right at the center of that breath.
Hold.
Slowly,
Feeling the release and the peace underneath it.
Again,
In,
Hold.
One more time,
In,
Hold.
And out.
Did you feel it?
The stillness inside the action?
That's always there,
In every moment,
In every breath,
In every step you take.
You don't have to stop to find it.
You just have to slow down enough to notice it.
And the other side of this is equally true.
You can be active in your stillness.
Stillness is not passive.
Choosing stillness takes courage in a world that tells you to keep moving.
Sitting with your breath,
Returning to the present moment,
Creating space in your day,
That is not laziness.
That is one of the most powerful choices you can make.
Because in the stillness,
You find clarity.
You find yourself.
You find the version of you that knows exactly what to do next.
Not from panic,
But from presence.
So here's what I want to leave you with today.
The next time life speeds up,
And it will,
I want you to remember this breath.
Remember that you have the ability to be still inside the storm.
To slow down the moment between what happens now and how you respond.
To act from your being instead of your trigger.
And the next time the world tells you to keep pushing,
I want you to remember that you can push back by choosing stillness in an act of power.
Be still in action.
Be active in stillness.
Both are available to you right now in this breath.
Begin to bring awareness back to your body.
Wiggle your fingers,
Wiggle your toes,
Take a slow,
Easy breath.
Before you open your eyes,
Take just a moment to be grateful.
Grateful that you showed up for yourself today.
Grateful for this time you carved out.
Grateful for who you are becoming.
That is no small thing.
When you are ready,
Gently open your eyes and carry this with you.
Not just into your day,
But into your being.
Let it live there.
Let it settle.
Let it become part of who you are.
You did the work today.
Now go be it.
