Today,
We're going to do a guided meditation that I like to call the slow movement meditation.
Also paired with a visualization piece of our peaceful place.
I'd like to start with a question.
Do you ever wonder what would happen if you just didn't do the thing?
Thinking about our daily lives and all that we take on to be productive,
To achieve,
To accomplish,
Doing all the things that we have to do each day just because this is how life is.
Or maybe you even notice that ick feeling of doing things,
The same things over and over again that you really don't want to do.
What if you took one of those things and just did not do it?
What would happen?
Most times when I think along this route,
I realize that I am the one putting pressure on myself and that no one around me really cares if the thing gets done or not.
Now I know in this world there are things that we must do to survive.
I'm more speaking to the smaller things,
The ones that feel heavy,
Yet we procrastinate.
I'll tell you a quick story about a time that I was talking with a very good friend of mine and she was listing all the things that filled up her days and her weeks.
All the things that she had always done because she had taken that role on as the caretaker,
The planner,
And the organizer.
You could see the exhaustion and heaviness in her eyes.
So I asked,
What if you just didn't do it?
Her eyes popped open,
Her jaw dropped,
And she was speechless.
That thought had never occurred to her.
She began to laugh at the impossible and yet very possible thought that I had posed.
Most of what I'm referring to here are the little things,
The pressures that we put on ourselves to get to the bigger things.
So my invitation to you in this meditation is to slow down,
Check in with yourself,
And create a space that is peaceful.
Give yourself permission to be there and just notice,
Will the world fall apart in that moment or maybe not?
Let's begin.
Settle into the surface that you are resting upon.
Melt into it as if your entire body is surrendering.
No holding,
No gripping,
Just relaxing and softening into the space.
Now invite you to find a point straight in front of you and bring your attention there.
Focus on it as if there is nothing else in the space around you.
And without moving your eyes,
Look to the right of you and then to the left of you,
Expanding your peripheral vision here,
Keeping your focus,
Look above you and below you.
Notice and feel the expansion all around you.
Let's take a deep breath here and on your exhale,
I invite you to soften your gaze towards the earth or close your eyes completely.
Now let's begin to observe the breath,
Feeling it through the nose or the mouth,
Noticing the rise and the fall of your chest and your belly.
Begin to deepen it,
Taking in a full breath in and a long breath out.
Feel the expansion as the breath comes into the body and notice the softening and the releasing as the breath comes out of the body.
Let's do two more like that.
Breathing in deeply through the nose and exhaling completely out the nose or even the mouth.
Inhale to create space and on that exhale,
Allow that breath to carry out anything that is no longer serving you.
I would like to guide you through a breath practice where we will do box breathing.
In this practice,
We inhale for four,
We hold for four,
Exhale for four,
And then hold again at the bottom for four.
I will count this for you,
So just follow my voice.
We'll take one deep cleansing breath in together to sync up our breath pattern.
In through the nose and out through the mouth.
Now inhale,
One,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Hold,
One,
Two,
Three,
And exhale,
One,
Two,
Three.
Hold at the bottom,
Two,
Three.
Inhaling again for one,
Two,
Three.
Hold for one,
Two,
Three,
Four.
And exhale for one,
Two,
Three,
Four.
We chain the breath at the bottom,
Two,
Three.
Beautiful.
Inhaling again,
One,
Two,
Three,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Exhale for one,
Two,
Three,
And hold again,
Two,
Three.
Now let your breath return to its natural and normal rhythm.
As you are sinking into this space of deep relaxation and quiet,
I would like you to imagine a place that is peaceful for you.
It can be any place that comes to your mind,
Maybe a space in your home,
A place out in nature,
A favorite place in another part of the world.
Just allow whatever's coming up for you to be natural and in this moment.
As you arrive in this place,
Be present there,
Be there.
Simply imagine and visualize yourself there right now and notice what do you see?
What do you hear?
Notice if anyone is with you or are you alone in this place?
There's no right or wrong answers here,
Just be there.
As the images and sounds are coming to your mind,
Begin to observe how you are feeling in your body.
Noticing any physical or emotional sensations.
Remember we are just observing,
We are not attaching,
We are not judging,
We are not changing,
We are just being with whatever is here.
Now here comes the fun part,
We're going to slow this down.
Give yourself one full cycle of breath,
Inhaling big into the belly and as you release that breath,
Allow the vision to move in slow motion.
As if you were watching a movie or a film on a very slow,
Continue your breath slowly and deeply and as you breathe in and out each time,
Slow even more.
Inhale the slow feeling of the breath and allow it to travel through the nose,
Down the throat,
Into the heart space,
Past the diaphragm and into the belly.
And as you release that breath on the exhale,
Watch it travel even slower back up through the belly,
Into the chest,
Through the nose,
Now go back to your vision in its very slow motion and notice what do you see,
What do you hear,
How do you feel.
Bring your attention and your awareness to anything that might have changed.
If nothing's changed,
That's okay.
In a very slow pace,
Allow your mind to scan around this peaceful place,
Noticing any other details that may come to mind.
Slow breath in and slow breath out.
Let's focus on one aspect of your peaceful place.
Bring your attention and your awareness there.
Like we did at the beginning,
Keep our mind's eye on whatever point you land on,
Slowing down even more,
Almost to a stop and in that moment you can observe the expansion.
Keep that point in focus,
Observe your breath as it's moving slowly in and out,
Maybe even slower than before.
As things come up,
Moving in this slow motion,
Accept them without judgment.
Give yourself a few moments here,
Take in all the details of your peaceful place,
Paying particular attention to any sensations and feelings in the body.
Now we will release the slow motion effect of our peaceful place and allow it to return to its normal speed and let your breath return to its natural and organic pattern.
Take a moment to remember anything that stood out from your experience,
Maybe it was colors that you saw or a sound that you heard or a particular sensation that you felt.
You can embody this by taking that energy from your mind and sending it to your heart.
And with one round of breath,
Bring your hands to your heart and feel it there.
Feel the slowness.
You may want to label this energy with a special word or some identifier so you can revisit it when you need some slowing down.
Now I invite you to take a breath in and out and gently you can begin to open your eyes coming back into your space.
As you come back into this space,
I invite you to gently begin to find some slow physical movement in your body,
Maybe wiggle your fingers or your toes,
Maybe some soft stretches in the neck,
Dropping one ear to the shoulder and then the other,
Maybe a few shoulder rolls up and back,
Or my favorite is to even sway back and forth in your seat just from the waist like you're floating in the wind.
Give yourself about three to five rounds of breath here and as you become more fully present and aware in your physical space,
I would like to encourage you to journal about your experience,
Write down anything that stands out in your mind and maybe pay attention to the parts when it was really slow in that slow motion,
Movie-like space.
Taking meditations to slow down can carry over into our daily lives,
Giving us time to be quiet and still,
Even when we might think that we can't,
That is exactly when you may need to.
Slowing down can give us time to check in with ourselves,
How we are feeling in our physical,
Emotional and even spiritual bodies.
My friend was really surprised that there was an option not to do the thing,
But even in taking that time just to reflect on it and to slow down and explore there are other options and possibilities,
She was able to realize that there can be other ways of doing and being.
This is the gift we can give ourselves.
You may be surprised by what came up and maybe not,
But whenever you are in the space where you feel like you need to slow down and check in,
I hope that you will try this meditation again.
Often,
It takes as many exposures to learn something new.
So just see what happens if.
Many blessings of love and joy to you on your journey,
Thank you so much for practicing with me today.
Namaste.
