Change,
Transition,
Closure.
It all feels like a rupture in your path.
It's okay to feel sadness,
Fear,
Or even relief when an ending comes before you.
Endings often bring a swirl of emotions and it's natural to want to hold on to what's familiar.
In this practice,
Let your breath be your guide as you honor the complexity of these feelings.
With each inhale,
Allow yourself to acknowledge that you are letting go of,
And with each exhale,
Create space for something new to emerge.
Through this practice,
You'll begin to find peace in the process of release,
Knowing that even in endings,
There is room for renewal.
When you're ready,
Find a comfortable position,
Close your eyes,
And take a deep breath in through your nose,
And gently exhale through your mouth.
Continuing with the slow movement of breath,
In through the nose and out through the mouth,
Let your body begin to relax with each and every breath,
Settling into the present moment.
Now begin to imagine in your mind's eye a warm,
Peaceful energy beginning to surround you,
Inviting you to let go of any tension or distractions.
With each inhale,
Feel yourself becoming more centered,
And with each exhale,
Feeling the weight of the world just begin to melt away.
Begin by visualizing a golden light above your head.
This light is soft,
It's radiant,
Like the color of honey in the sunlight.
See this light slowly descending towards you,
Surrounding your entire body with its warmth and sweetness.
It feels soothing,
Gentle,
And comforting.
As this golden light surrounds you,
Imagine that it begins to flow into your body,
Slowly but steadily,
Almost like honey.
Energy flowing from the top of your head,
Down through your neck,
Shoulders,
Into your arms and your chest,
Filling you with a deep sense of calm and stillness.
Feel the liquid honey flowing with ease,
Coating and soothing every cell as it begins to move gently through your body,
Beginning to see in your mind's eye this honey-like energy pooling at the base of your spine.
Feel it settle into your root chakra,
That place at the very center of your being.
This is the place where your energy is anchored.
Picture it thick,
Golden,
Pooling and becoming more solid,
As if it's helping you to gently sink deeper and deeper into the earth below you.
With each inhale,
This energy flows downward,
Down into your hips,
Your thighs,
Your legs.
With each exhale,
Imagine this golden energy flowing even deeper into the earth,
Like roots extending from the soles of your feet,
Digging deep into the soil.
Feel these roots becoming firmly planted into the earth.
From the depths of the earth,
Feel a gentle nourishment flowing back up through your roots,
Back into your body,
Feeling how rich this energy is,
Filling you with a deep sense of security,
Safety and balance.
As you continue to breathe deeply,
Silently repeat these words to yourself,
I am grounded,
Steady and supported.
I am connected to the nourishing energy of the earth.
With each breath,
I grow more rooted,
Calm and centered.
I trust that I am exactly where I need to be,
In perfect balance and harmony.
And just taking a few last deep breaths here,
Beginning to set an intention for how you'd like to feel after this journey on endings.
Taking a few more breaths,
Just visualizing your intention with your practice.
We're going to begin our active breath here.
Remember,
It's two full inhales and one equal exhale.
Inhale into the belly,
Inhale into the chest,
Exhale.
Belly,
Chest,
Exhale.
Staying with your breath here.
What's important is that you follow the pattern of this breath rhythm,
But the depth and the pace at which you take it is completely yours to set.
All through the open mouth,
Allowing the abdomen to fully expand,
Pulling in the breath through the mouth,
Feeling your heart,
Feeling your chest open to another inhale and letting it all go on the exhale.
Beginning to feel your body beat to this pattern,
Feeling the flow of your breath with every inhale and every exhale.
Reminding yourself that it's normal to begin feeling some tingling in your arms,
Your legs.
You may be coughing or yawning.
That shows that you're beginning to activate the body,
Connecting in with your inner self.
Remind yourself you are safe in your body.
You are safe in this breath.
The truth is nothing prepares you for an ending.
Whether you knew it was coming or not,
It seems far away.
It feels as though there is so much time.
But when the inevitable does come,
We often feel so defeated,
As though we've failed in some regard.
Some of us perplexed,
Left in shock that it came to that,
That it's indeed finished.
Staying with your breath here,
Asking yourself if it feels right for your body.
Can I take this breath just a little bit deeper?
Can I allow my body to move with the breath?
Big full belly,
Big full chest,
Exhale.
Endings are a space that demands us to pause.
They demand grief,
Anger,
And sadness to be felt in their fullness.
With this next breath,
Feel into your body,
And for just a moment,
See if there's an emotion still present around this ending in your life.
Asking yourself,
Have you truly allowed these emotions to come to the surface?
Or have you forced them down with pressure for your body to hold?
I want to remind you that the body will hold all of your pain until it can't.
Our bodies make a miraculous effort to protect us,
But then they begin to leak this overflow up to the surface.
And for while you're breathing,
This can look like muscle tension,
Or anxiety,
Stress,
Sickness,
Chronic pain.
With these next few breaths,
Tapping into your body to listen,
Listening to the soft whispers it's communicating to you.
If you're feeling any resistance to the breath,
Just reminding yourself to stay with it here.
Sometimes the ego comes up because it wants to protect us from having to feel.
Remembering though that the full spectrum of emotion demands polarity.
The only way out is through.
Feeling the abdomen expand,
Feeling the breath rise into the chest,
Letting it go on the exhale.
If you're feeling emotion in the jaw,
In behind your eyes,
Consider this an invitation to lean in.
Feel it.
Allow yourself to surrender to what the body is wanting to show you.
Will you allow your body to process?
Will you allow yourself to feel into the emotions that the body is asking for you to feel?
Endings are never easy.
What was once your future may no longer be.
What once was certain is no longer.
You are left in a place of what no longer is,
But you yet don't have clarity on what is to become.
We must honor the multiple futures we dreamt of,
The moments we envisioned,
The path that seemed so clear.
We must honor this time in our lives.
Our bodies cry for what feels like loss,
Something taken from our future.
I invite you with this breath for just a minute.
Can you see that you are left in a place of what no longer is?
Letting go not of loss,
But of old skin,
Heavy with the past versions of yourself.
There is beauty in the dissolution,
In the tender unraveling,
In the space between what was and what is yet to come.
There is a quiet surrender,
An invitation to soften,
To release the grip of who we thought we were,
What we thought we were creating.
If you feel that you need to audibly release or move your hands or your feet to move the energy,
Listen to your body.
If you need to grab a pillow and scream into the pillow,
I want you to do that.
Remembering that emotions are just energy in the body looking for transformation.
If for a minute we can see that we are not undone by endings,
But rather reshaped like rivers carving their way through rock,
Each moment a gentle erosion of the old to make room for the new.
It's in this stillness of release that we remember our wholeness.
The strength to let go and trust what remains is enough.
With every breath we come back to the truth that life is not linear,
But cyclical,
Ebbing and flowing,
And within each cycle,
Lies the sacred potential for growth.
In every ending we must first process all that it brings to light.
The wound will never heal if we avoid.
We must lean in to the letting go,
The process of growth.
After we allow this release,
We surrender to the feelings in the body.
We must choose to stand with open palms,
Honoring what's leaving.
Knowing that in the letting go,
We make space for all that is waiting to bloom.
You're just about there,
Stay with your breath here.
Ask yourself,
Can I dig a little bit deeper?
Is there more I'm being asked to feel?
In the quiet of endings,
We can find the seeds of new beginnings.
Soft whispers of change.
Brushing against our soul's edges.
Like dusk melting into night,
Where the sky holds both the fading light and the coming of dark.
We must tap into what this is creating room for.
We must try to see this experience in retrospect.
What will we see years from now about this ending?
In each ending,
A new invitation to surrender,
To trust.
To breathe deeply into the unknown and remember we are not lost.
But being remade again and again.
In the shape of our own becoming,
So we stand at the edge,
Heart open,
Feet firm,
Ready to meet what is next.
For we are the ones who grow in the space between.
The ones who turn endings into doorways,
And find the divine in every step forward.
Just allowing yourself to come back to your easy breath,
In through the nose and out through the mouth.
Slowing the breath down.
Giving yourself a moment to sit with any emotion that's still there.
And remaining with your eyes closed.
Continuing to tap into your deep,
Slow,
Methodical breath.
In through the nose and out through the mouth.
Becoming present in your body.
As we integrate with this guided visualization.
I want you to envision yourself living on a beautiful island.
You know this place like the back of your hand.
Really feel into the environment around you.
Hear the sound of the running water.
Animals.
That make up the ecosystem.
Feeling certainty and security with the place you call home.
Now imagine that a storm begins to roll in,
In the distance.
Thunder and lightning ensue.
And this island you once considered your home,
Begins to catch fire.
You are hopeful that rain will come.
To save this place that you love so dearly.
That you feel attached to.
That you find comfort in.
That the fire will stop encroaching closer to your home.
Despite your best efforts and hopes,
It does not.
As you begin to retreat to the edge of this island.
You see a sailboat in the distance.
Headed right towards you.
As it arrives on shore,
You have no option but to get on.
The sailboat begins to pull away from the shore.
And you begin a new journey on the water.
You have two choices.
You can allow yourself to grieve the loss of your island.
Or you can let go of the island.
And create space for this new journey.
Or you can cling to the sadness.
Knowing that if you choose the latter,
You will not be able to embrace this new journey.
You allow yourself to,
Just for a moment,
See what this new journey could bring to your life.
You allow yourself to feel how the wind feels in your hair.
How smoothly you glide on the surface of the water.
You feel secure and safe in your new environment and the direction you're headed.
You begin to feel moments of gratitude for this new opportunity.
Knowing that without the ending,
This new journey would have never been possible.
I hope you enjoyed this practice.
Remember to give yourself time to continue integrating and processing.
