This meditation is to address some of those at night feelings is what I like to call them.
It's what I think of as the stuff that comes up for me when I'm trying to go to sleep at night and sometimes gets in my way of getting some good rest.
But you can do this meditation at any time when you feel overwhelmed or you need to address something.
Like all of our meditations,
I hope that you can follow whatever directions or invitations feel good to you and anything that doesn't feel right,
Please change it for yourself for what you need at this time either in your body or in your mind.
If that means you need to walk or stretch or lie down,
Sit up straight,
Take a break,
Have a nice warm beverage,
Maybe heating blanket.
Just anything that can bring you to the place that will be most nourishing for you is my intention.
And these are just some thoughts that have helped me get through some of those tough times and I hope that they'll help you too.
So today's format,
We will talk about just settling into the body and do some gentle breathing and then we'll do a light visualization about going through some of the rough parts of life but with a little more ease.
And finally we will be able to try to find a middle ground for what we want and what we want to avoid.
And we'll close with a couple more breaths and I hope that this is enjoyable for you.
Let's begin.
Start by putting your hands on your body.
You can put them on your belly and on your heart,
One on each.
You can put them both on your heart.
You can put them both on your belly.
You can just have your hands touching.
You want to connect your mind with this physical form that you have.
Start to notice your breath.
Just noticing how it naturally comes in and out.
This place of being able to breathe clean air.
This connects us with our safety.
We may not be safe tomorrow.
We may not have been safe yesterday.
But right now in this moment we have safety to breathe and ground down.
When I say ground down I mean to bring the energy back into our bodies.
Notice where we are physically,
Feeling our mind and our body together.
Take a few more breaths here at your own pace just as they come.
That's very good.
Now I'd like you to think of either the water if you like to float on a river or a hang glider if you like to fly.
For the sake of this meditation we'll go with a glider.
I want you to reach your arms out and grab onto that glider.
If it's effortless to hold it,
It's so light it carries you.
You run and you take the glider and you take a leap.
And the air,
Just the perfect temperature carries you from below.
You're flying,
It's a very smooth ride.
And you turn gently in the wind.
Suddenly you notice you can look down and you see a beautiful landscape beneath you.
Can you see the trees below?
Is there a tree you recognize?
Now I want you to fly over a place where an episode of your life occurred.
Not the hardest episode,
But just something recently that you want to work with.
You can see it so far below and you see yourself gliding above it.
Down below are all the feelings and being caught up in it.
What it means for now,
What it means for later,
What it means about your past,
The story you tell yourself about the life you live.
But right now we just glide gently above it,
Seeing it pass.
And as you look down,
The event is fading behind you and you're gently blowing in the wind,
Seeing the beautiful landscape unfold.
And I want you to take a moment to think,
What was the positive lesson?
What did I learn from that episode?
How did I set that up for myself?
How did I set up that lesson?
Find that gentleness again.
Give yourself a little soothing in this moment.
Just looking at that very hard time.
And you see ahead of you a beautiful,
Peaceful place on your glider that you're flying to.
And you can see that there's two spots on the horizon.
There's the spot on the horizon where you get exactly what you want,
Exactly what you need,
What you've always dreamed,
What you've been trying to get this whole time.
You see that spot.
You see another spot on the horizon some distance away.
And you see all the ways that you've stuffed your feelings.
You've decided,
I'm not good enough.
I can't handle this right now.
I'm going to have to just deal with it later.
And you see that spot.
And somewhere between what you've always wanted and just stuffing everything that you've ever needed,
There's just a little spot on the horizon.
And you glide your glider right to it,
Knowing that it's a compromise.
That it's where you feel most comfortable.
This is a gentle way of approaching your goal.
You don't need to be perfect.
You don't need to get it quote unquote right.
You just need it to be good enough for now.
As you glide towards this spot on the horizon,
You realize,
Ah,
You've made it.
The glider is gone.
You've landed right in your seat,
Right where you are.
Either lying or walking or sitting.
Your back and your body just where you left it.
And again,
We have hand on heart and belly or two hands touching.
Coming back down into this time,
Into this place.
Wiggling fingers,
Wiggling toes.
Breathing normally.
Feeling grateful for the safety of each breath.
Give yourself a bit of comfort.
Give yourself a bit of congratulations for doing this meditation for yourself today.
All of the things that had to happen in order for you to be able to sit in this quiet place and to get in touch with this feeling.
I wish you well.
And I hope that you carry a peace and a calmness and some nurturing into whatever you do next.
Thank you for listening.
