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,
Two,
Three.
Breathe in,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Hold,
Two,
Four,
Five,
Six,
Seven,
Out,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five.
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 as you exhale,
I want you to notice something.
Before you took that breath,
There was a moment.
A tiny space between the thought,
Take a breath,
And the actual act of taking a breath.
That space,
That gap,
Is what this meditation is about.
Think about buffering on a computer.
That spinning wheel.
The moment where the system is running background processes.
Loading,
Calculating,
Preparing.
Before it delivers what you asked for.
We have that too.
Between every situation we encounter,
And every response we give,
There is a buffer.
A gap.
A space where our thoughts and our beliefs are running in the background.
Shaping how we feel,
And what we do next.
Most of us never slow down enough to notice it.
And because we don't notice it,
We think our feelings are caused by what happens to us.
But they're not.
Here is one of the most powerful truths I know.
Every situation in your life is neutral,
Until you assign a thought to it.
Not good,
Not bad,
Not a disaster,
Not a miracle.
Neutral.
It is your thought about the situation,
The meaning you give it,
The story you tell about it,
That generates how you feel.
Not the situation itself.
And those thoughts?
Most of them aren't even yours.
They come from old beliefs.
Beliefs formed in childhood.
Shaped by experiences.
Influenced by wounds that haven't fully healed yet.
Beliefs that society handed you.
That advertising reinforced.
That old voices in your head repeat on a loop so familiar,
You've stopped questioning whether they're even true.
Beliefs like,
I am not enough.
I am not safe.
I am not worthy.
And here is the truth underneath all of those.
You are enough.
You are safe.
You are worthy.
Not because you earned it.
Not because you proved it.
But because it is the deepest truth of your being.
So buffering better feelings isn't about forcing yourself to be happy.
It is not toxic positivity.
It is not pretending the hard things aren't hard.
It's about slowing down enough to notice the buffer.
To catch the thought before it becomes the feeling.
To ask,
Is this thought actually true?
Does this belief actually serve me?
And if not,
What thought could I choose instead?
I want you to think of something in your life right now that feels heavy or stuck or hard.
Don't dive deep into it.
Just let it come to the surface gently.
And I want you to ask,
What is the thought underneath this feeling?
Not the situation,
The thought.
What are you telling yourself about this situation?
Now,
With as much compassion as you can,
I want you to ask,
Is that thought absolutely,
Undeniably true?
Or is it a story?
An old belief?
A script you inherited from someone or somewhere that does not reflect who you actually are?
You don't have to fix it right now.
You don't have to flip it into something positive in an instant.
You just have to notice.
Because noticing is the beginning of choosing.
And choosing is the beginning of change.
Here is what I want you to know.
Happiness and sadness are two sides of the same coin.
Love and fear are two sides of the same coin.
Pain and pleasure.
Loss and gratitude.
You get to feel it all.
Buffering better feelings doesn't mean only feeling good.
It means you get to choose how you meet what you feel.
You get to be the one who chooses how you meet what you feel.
You are not at the mercy of your circumstances.
You are the buffer.
You are the space between what happens and who you choose to be in response.
And that space,
However small it feels right now,
Is where your freedom lives.
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.
