Good morning,
Good afternoon,
Or good evening.
Wherever you are in your day,
Take a moment to feel gratitude for everything that brought you to this meditation,
Where we'll talk about learning to trust yourself,
In your body,
In your mind,
And in your spirit.
Find a place where you won't be disturbed.
This meditation is best practiced sitting,
But if you feel called to lie down,
Please feel free to do so.
Close your eyes,
Or soften them,
Looking gently at something beyond your seat.
Do any last minute fidgets so that you start to begin to settle into stillness.
One of the first steps to building trust with yourself is to truly accept yourself where you already are.
Accepting does not mean becoming complacent.
It means looking at yourself through an honest lens and treating what you find with compassion.
In service of that,
Let's check in together.
Notice your body first in stillness.
What parts feel stiff,
And what parts feel open?
Are you tight?
Tense?
Now,
Allow yourself to move around a little.
Maybe you arch around your back.
You can raise your arms up over your head.
Notice these gentle sensations that you can create in your body with movement.
And when you're ready,
Let's return to stillness.
Now let's go slightly deeper.
Without changing anything,
Let's notice our breath.
How is the air flowing through you?
Is it shallow?
Deep?
Is it quick or slow?
Is it long,
Or is it a bit more rapid?
Now start to play with your breath a little.
Become curious.
How would it feel if I imagined my breath going down deep into my pelvis?
Or what if I hold my breath at the top and the bottom?
Take a few moments here.
Now we're going to go even deeper and notice what's happening in our minds.
Notice that we are noticing thoughts.
We are not judging thoughts.
Notice if your thoughts are coming quickly.
Maybe they're a little sluggish.
Are they persistent,
Showing up repeatedly,
Taking up space in your brain?
Or are your thoughts coming and going,
Fleeting,
Ephemeral?
Stay here with your mind for a few more breaths.
We're going to take a deep breath in together in a moment.
And when we do this,
I want you to allow yourself to exhale using your abdominal muscles to press your belly back towards your spine quickly,
Deeply,
And with strength.
It might sound like this.
Let's do one together.
Inhaling and holding at the top.
Biggest breath you can get.
And sharply release.
And here at the bottom,
See if you can expel just one more sip of air,
Getting rid of all the stale energy held in your lungs.
Excellent.
Take a few normal breaths,
Starting to regulate your breathing and allowing your body to come back to center.
For this practice,
We will be going inside and allowing answers to flow to you.
I will ask questions and you will breathe deeply,
Allowing answers to come to you.
We are not grasping for answers.
We are not forcing sentences to pull together in our minds.
We are simply allowing our soul,
Spirit,
Higher power,
God,
Creativity,
Whatever you believe in,
We are allowing it to supply us with answers.
Answers may come in the form of words.
They may be pictures.
Maybe the colors dancing on the inside of your eyelids will shift or change or move.
Maybe and likely there will be at least one question where you don't find an answer.
That is okay.
Simply asking yourself the question encourages the mind to pursue answers subconsciously.
It's like when you can't remember something,
That tip of your tongue feeling,
And then later you're occupied with something else and it pops into your brain.
Suddenly we know the answer.
These questions are challenging and they're often broad.
That is intentional so that you can color inside the lines or outside the lines.
I want to stress again that it is so important to let the question go when it's time,
Even if that means you release the question before you have an answer.
Your subconscious will work on it as you live your life.
Take a few natural breaths now.
I'm going to ask the question.
You are going to breathe in and silently repeat the question to yourself at the top of the inhale.
Hold here for as long as is comfortable at the top.
And while you're up there,
Know that this is the space where we are letting the answers flow into us.
Whether or not you have an answer,
You're going to release your breath when you're comfortable.
There will be five questions and let's begin.
Question number one.
What part of my identity am I most willing to share with others?
Allowing your breath to facilitate answers.
I'll repeat it once more.
What part of my identity am I most willing to share with others?
And then if you haven't already,
Take an exhale.
Allow one or two normal easy breaths.
Question number two.
What part of my identity am I most comfortable with?
Holding the air at the top of the inhale.
I'll repeat it once more.
What part of my identity am I most comfortable with?
And let the question go.
Take one or two easy breaths.
Question three.
What part of my identity would I most like to change or improve?
I'll repeat it once more.
What part of my identity would I most like to change or improve?
Whenever you're ready,
Let the question go.
If you haven't already,
And a couple of easy breaths.
Question four.
First,
Think of the person you'd like to become.
What is your favorite part of your future self?
Can you relax as you hold in?
I'll repeat it once more.
What is your favorite part of your future self?
Let the question go.
Last one.
Question five.
What can I do today that will help embody that self?
This is an important one.
This is the one where you can take action.
Once more.
What can I do today that will help me embody that self?
Make this your longest hold so far.
And when you exhale,
Breathe slowly this time.
Release the question.
Let's come to stillness.
Our only movement,
The rise and fall of our bellies and chest.
Recenter yourself with your natural breathing.
This next practice will be affirmation based.
I will offer you three sentences which you can repeat to yourself either silently or aloud.
You can take these affirmations however you'd like to.
Perhaps you just listen.
Let's begin.
Breathe naturally as I offer these words.
I commit myself to the things I say I will accomplish.
I work hard to accomplish small goals and steps.
I treat myself with compassion as I learn to trust myself.
Come back to your breath.
Where do you notice it?
Is it in your belly,
Your chest,
Your throat,
Tip of your nose?
Breathing easy.
Now as we're coming to a close,
Let's recognize that one of the most effective ways to build trust in yourself is to make decisions,
Even if that means making mistakes.
You don't want to sit petrified and paralyzed by your fear.
The most courageous people are not fearless.
They just don't let their fear stop them from doing what they want and need to do.
Let me say that again.
The most courageous people are not fearless.
Let's come back into the world,
Starting to wiggle a little bit,
Noticing things that you hear,
And take your palms together at your heart center.
Before you go,
I encourage you to seek the answer,
To really answer,
Come up with something,
The following question.
What small goal can I and will I accomplish in the next 10 minutes that will bring me closer to the person I dream of being?
Setting small goals that you can do right now.
Maybe this meditation is that accomplishment.
Thank you very much for meditating with me.
May all beings be happy and free,
And may my happiness and freedom contribute to the happiness and freedom of those around me.
Blinking your eyes open.
Thank you for coming to practice today.
Namaste.
