Find a little nest and bring yourself into ground.
So for some of you,
If you're laying down,
It means ground every piece of the body you can find.
And if you're sitting,
It's more like your sit bones,
Your knees,
Your ankles and feet.
And invite a few breaths there as you inhale.
As you exhale,
Notice stillness invading your body.
Let it invite like ink color paint.
It will invite a glass of water.
And spreading in places.
Nice inhale.
Color your container,
Color your body a certain way.
And as you exhale,
Let that color spread.
The choice of the color is totally your own.
See what happens.
Are you sticking with one blue,
Turquoise color or are you moving on to purple and green and yellow?
Let's play with that for a while.
Inhaling a color,
Exhaling it into stilling the body.
As you get more aware,
Notice if there is a resistance to stillness.
Some of you feel the way to move your fingers,
Your hand,
Your neck.
Try to just accept the movement as the breath,
As the only movement.
And how is that for a while?
You can play comparing the stillness of the legs,
The arms and hands versus the movement of the chest or belly as you breathe.
Almost like a yin and yang quality all in one.
You are still and yet you are in movement at the same time.
And you are just in between.
You don't have to act on one or the other,
You are just observing the still place and the moving place.
And then for the next moment bring to your mind the feeling of the mind.
And for the next moment bring to your mind a moment of joy that you may have had this week or this month.
It doesn't have to be a big epiphany of joy,
It could be just being in a new little town for a while,
For an afternoon.
Doing new encounters with people and being pleasantly surprised.
Or just cleaning up your house and being like yes,
This feels right,
This feels great.
And whatever it was,
That cookie you ate,
That closet you cleaned,
That person you met,
That place you went to,
That good moment you had with a dear loved one.
Let that spread in your whole body,
That joy,
Feeling of joy as you breathe in.
Allow it to be in your heart and as you breathe out allow it to spread in the whole body like ink will spread in a glass of water.
Slowly but surely until it tints the whole body with color.
Stay with that joy curious,
Refining how it feels in your body when you're joyful.
Is this a lightness in your chest,
Is it a smile on your lips,
Is it a softness in your hand?
How does joy translate in a physical way?
What images are present,
If any?
What color,
If any?
Maybe a scent,
Some of you?
The orange blossom is a scent of joy.
Is it strawberry for you?
Let's say you're able to hold that joy in the body in the part where it's the most present.
And bring to your mind the emotion of kind of a little bit of unease,
You name it,
If it's sadness,
Anger,
A little emotion that was present this week and that you couldn't say was as pleasant as joy.
Maybe an altercation with a coworker or a fear you may have had regarding a job,
Deadline,
An anxiety about meeting someone,
A sadness about being far from a loved one,
Whatever it was.
Just internet,
Kind of peak in it.
You don't have to dive deep,
Deep down,
Just be like,
Oh yeah,
It was that moment this week,
Yeah,
I remember.
And maybe with it come body sensation.
For me,
Like,
Altercation with people become more cold,
You know,
It's like colding ice for me in my heart.
And it's more cool color.
It's definitely more silvery,
Bluish,
Definitely less warmth to it.
So check that.
And where is it in your body?
Is it in the same place as your joy or is it different?
For me it's more in the jaw where I tighten and more in my ribs where I kind of collapse in.
Where is it?
Be curious.
And breathe.
And instead of spreading whatever emotion that was,
The anger,
You know,
Let's transform it in your heart.
As you inhale,
Sense that emotion.
And as you exhale,
Let it be transformed,
Like if you had a transformer tool in your heart,
Transform it into compassion.
You inhale,
Sense that mucky color,
Maybe more darker color,
More cool color and sensation.
As you exhale,
Invite compassion,
Invite kindness.
And now as we did early,
Early on in this meditation,
Can you hold both?
Can you hold the yin and the yang?
Can you hold the joy you had a moment ago and that uneasy emotion and find the midway?
Know that the uneasy emotion doesn't have to tint your whole being and that as you feel sadness,
Anxiety or fear,
You can also feel joy.
Like you felt the breath in your body at the same time as you felt stillness.
Can you play with those two?
And we won't be long but just hold that for a little bit.
Those two feelings and see how they shape your inner world for a while.
See if there is a dance,
See if there is an embrace or see if the positive feeling can take a little bit more room.
Until like a magnet,
You're just going towards the more positive or if you just prefer to be equanimous in the middle and observe both without reacting.
And you can turn your palm up and like the balance,
You know like a justice image of the scale.
Where is your scale?
How is your scale waiting?
Heavier on the joy or heavier on the strong emotion or is it just right there in the middle?
And really feel free to do that with your hands just to embody a little bit this imagery of the scale,
The scale of justice that is blind.
Could you be blind?
A bit and just accept both.
And take another nice inhale and a long exhale letting this dissipate.
And another inhale and a long exhale.
Repeating in your mind everything is perfect as it is.
Just this is what is.
It is perfect like that.
It is perfect for now,
You know.
This is what is.
Allow your eyes to open and your body to stretch in any way it wants to.
Coming out and about towards the rest of our day here.
