If you're not in a comfortable position already,
Find a comfortable position.
You know,
Could you make yourself 1% more comfortable?
Find a way of just really,
Really relaxing.
If it's safe to do so and it pleases you to do so,
Close your eyes or lower your gaze.
And as you take some deeper breaths,
Allow your body to relax,
Feel the tension coming out with every exhale.
Feel your shoulders drop a little bit,
Feel your head drop a little bit.
Allow yourself to feel the furniture that you are on support you,
Like the earth is supporting you always,
Mother Nature always has us in her embrace.
Allow your breathing to fall into a steady rhythm and just notice your breath as it goes in and out.
You can leave your distractions and your to-do list at the door.
You can always pick it up on the way out.
Right now,
In the next 10 minutes,
All there is to do is to be here,
Be present.
There are no expectations,
Nothing to do,
Nowhere to go.
This is a gift that you've honoured yourself with in your busy day.
So in today's story,
I'm going to talk about an artist who lived in a really busy city and she loved painting vibrant landscapes.
Seeing the landscapes and being able to create them on the canvas brought her deep joy and peace.
It helped her to feel connected to the earth and to the universe and to nature.
But she would feel frustrated when her paintings didn't turn out the way that she imagined them in her mind.
And this often happened because paint is different every time that you use it.
She loved to paint outdoors so the weather would be different.
And of course,
Your own mood and your own consciousness makes things different.
One day she was painting by a riverbank.
The river was flowing beautifully.
She could hear the water.
She could see the herons and the kingfishers dipping in and grabbing the fish.
She could hear the birds chirping in the trees.
She could smell the green,
Green grass.
She was really in her flow.
And then she spilled water onto her canvas.
It splashed all over the part of her canvas where she'd really been concentrating for quite some time.
She fell deeply unset and sat down with a big hump onto the floor and held her head in her hands.
And tears spilled onto her hands.
As the tears spilled onto her hands,
She saw that they made different shapes on the paint that was on her hands.
And she looked up at her painting and she realized that the paint had actually created interesting water stains,
Creative water stains on her artwork.
So she got to her feet.
And instead of being annoyed by this unexpected turn of events,
She decided to embrace it instead.
As she packed up her easel and her artwork at the end of the day,
She realized that releasing control of how things will turn out allowed her to,
Well,
Allowed for unexpected beauty to emerge that she really felt she had no control over.
So as you let that story absorb into your heart,
Into your mind today,
I invite you to bring your attention back to your heart center,
Back to that spark,
That spark of hope resides this week.
Meditations are all about hope.
If you feel comfortable,
You could put your hands on your chest and feel the beating of your heart and visualize that spark glowing brightly inside.
This spark represents trust and not control.
With each breath in,
See this spark radiate and grow brighter.
And as you exhale,
Release any need for control or perfectionism into its warmth.
There's no blame,
There's no shame.
Just do you,
Do the best you can in any moment.
Take a moment to imagine the light expanding throughout your body and filling every cell with warmth and assurance that everything will work out as it's meant to be.
Allow yourself to rest in this feeling of trust and know that Hope is not about controlling external circumstances,
But about embracing life's natural flow with open arms.
Now in these last few minutes of our visualization,
Bring your awareness back to your inner light.
Feel your clothing against your skin.
Feel the air against your face.
As we start to bring ourselves back to the room to join hands around the world.
Stretch a little bit in your chair,
Maybe roll your neck on your shoulders,
Wriggle your fingers,
Wriggle your toes and flutter open your eyes.
Consider this idea as you go about your day or your evening,
That releasing control doesn't mean giving up.
Releasing control means recognizing where the true power lies in how we relate to our own thoughts,
Rather than trying to manage everything outside of ourselves.
Namaste.
