Settling into that nice posture.
Bring attention to your seat,
To the way you are heavy on the surface of the earth.
Maybe your feet and knees are first down touching,
Maybe your seat bones.
Maybe your whole leg and buttocks.
Maybe imagine yourself like a lotus,
You know.
They are grounded into the earth but then surrounded by water all the way to the top where there is a lotus flower that is out in the open.
Try to visualize you as a lotus flower for a little bit.
The roots,
The feet,
The legs,
Down down down in the earth.
The seat bones,
The belly,
The chest,
The lower chest.
Down down down in the water and in the emotional realm.
Then the upper chest,
The throat,
The head,
Vibrantly out of the water and into the sun and the space.
Able to breathe and receive oxygen from a boat there.
Take a few breaths.
Imagine that breath percolating down toward your abdomen and down down down towards the earth.
And inhaling from that place down below,
Rising your spine like a lotus flower and blossoming there around your face,
Your nostril,
Your muscle around the eyes and mouth.
Just like that.
Aware of your breath.
Using the visual if it's helpful of the lotus flower and dropping it if it's unhelpful.
Each breath a new opportunity to root and also to shine.
I know some of you are connecting with colors when you meditate so you could have at the top a brown earthy tone.
In the middle a watery blue turquoisey green.
At the top pinkish white,
Yellow at the center.
And so if color are some things that really works with you please play with that as you breathe in brown,
Blue green,
White,
Pink,
Yellow.
Keep seeing,
Keep witnessing your breath just like that.
Getting there for a little while.
Sounds are just sounds,
You are the flower,
You are the lotus,
You don't need to be bothered.
Keep connecting.
Within.
Thoughts may be present too.
Like unexpected guests coming in observing your flower not even really witnessing it for it's all grandeur.
Allow those guests the thoughts,
The future thinking,
Past,
We are saying to just be there observer.
But not really enrouting you from your place of the lotus.
Not really stopping you from breathing.
This awareness that your thoughts are there,
That the sounds are there,
That you don't have to interact so much.
You can keep coming back to the image of the lotus.
Keep coming back to the image of the colors.
Nowhere else to go and feel so peaceful already.
You are the bloom,
You are the roots,
You are the stem.
And that is all.
You may or may not know that the lotus kind of close at night and kind of open at day.
The sun warms their leaves,
The sun warms their petals and those open.
So they go from bud to blossom.
I invite you to turn your hands and maybe up your right hand be a bud by closing your thumb inside your palm.
And up your left hand be the blossom,
An open flower,
An open lotus.
A lotus wears the sunshine over.
So right hand is closed,
Left hand is open on your lap there.
And for an instant bring attention to your right hand,
The little bud.
And notice the quality of being a bud.
It comes to your mind.
Tightness yet safety.
It's not calmness maybe but life within,
Throbbing.
Maybe it's comfort,
Maybe it's too tight.
Sense what is here for you in the bud.
Maybe ask yourself in what way have you been a bud in your life,
In relationships,
In work,
In aptitude and action.
How have you been dormant,
How are you?
Shutting,
Closing because it feels safe.
Because it's not time yet to shine.
Because you're not ready.
So it's not a judgement practice,
It's just an observing practice.
See what images come up when I speak.
Hold them with love.
Once you've settled here with that closed hand,
Turn your attention toward your left hand.
It's a blossom.
And notice that quality of spaciousness,
Openness.
Maybe a little less safe.
Your hand is a little cooler,
Maybe it's at ease.
And again reflecting on how in your own life you've been blossoming,
Been opening to the sunshine,
Opening to opportunities,
To new encounters,
To deeper connections,
To new adventures.
Maybe opening to more fearful states,
Not knowing what you find when you open up.
Maybe a big bee,
A bumblebee,
A little fly dropping by.
Again bringing awareness to what emotion arises,
What thoughts,
What images are present.
And you think of an open bloom,
And you think of you blooming.
Maybe it's in a completely different space than the bud.
Maybe you open in some part of your life and you close in others,
What are those?
Pay attention back to your stem,
The spine,
The roots,
And your breath,
Allowing the breath there to bring more awareness to that yin yang.
Open and close,
Ready,
Not ready,
Safe,
Not so.
And then move your hand so your left hand surrounds your right,
And so your bed connects with your blossom in the middle of your belly there or lower abdomen,
Maybe they rest,
Or maybe they just rest on your lap still.
And sense that your root,
Your stem,
Your bud,
And your blossom all in one.
That awareness of you being it all at once.
It's okay if you're not holding the hand anymore,
Just visualize,
Just bring your attention back to that soft of the blossom and the bud.
Don't let yourself go away in sounds,
In thoughts,
Just stay just a little longer,
Just a moment longer where you can breathe fully in acceptance of everything that is.
In a moment let just go of your bud and of your blossom,
Letting your hands be what they want to be.
Take a few breaths and notice how nice it is to not have to be a bud,
How nice it is to not have to be a blossom.
Sometimes we are in a box also where we think we have to be something in particular and it kind of stops us from enjoying just being.
The next few breaths maybe take a note of how that felt,
This is meditation.
Take a note of any learning you might have done,
Anything you want to pick up and take with you in your daily life,
Images,
Sensation,
Mental connection.
When you are ready just open your eyes.
