Hello and welcome.
Sometimes our experiences of the world,
Both internal and external,
Can feel overwhelming,
And our perspective not only on our circumstances but on life in general can become very restricted,
Limited,
And narrow.
To gain perspective and clarity,
Especially in such times of need,
The Stoics of ancient Greece and Rome had a practice known as the View from Above,
A visualization technique used to remedy anxiety,
Bring in tranquility,
And give the individual a truer sense of their own place within the universe.
I invite you to join me for this calming and insightful ancient practice.
Start by getting comfortable.
Sit or lie down in a posture that feels comfortable for you,
And make sure there aren't any immediate distractions in your environment.
Once you're settled in,
Let's get clear about why we're doing this meditation.
Set a specific purpose for yourself in this meditation.
It might sound something like this,
I want to feel less stressed,
I want to gain perspective on my circumstances.
The last part of our preparation is committing to following through.
Set an intention for yourself now that you will follow through and see to it that you complete this meditation.
During this meditation,
We'll practice non-judgmental awareness.
If you become distracted,
If your mind wanders,
Just return your attention to the meditation.
No judgment or criticizing here.
We're going to use our attention to move to a variety of things,
Giving us perspective,
Clarity,
And increasing our awareness.
Let's start by focusing,
As many meditations do,
On the breath.
Move your conscious attention and focus to the part of your body where the breath is most noticeable.
For many of us,
This is right at the entrance of the nostrils.
Continue breathing and keep your awareness on the part of the body where this breath is most noticeable for you.
You don't have to change your breath or worry about trying to control it.
Your awareness on this part of the body is enough.
Stay here for a few moments.
Now let's expand our attention to all the parts of the body involved in breathing.
For example,
Your stomach,
Lungs,
And throat.
Feel any sensations that may be occurring in these parts of the body and bring your conscious awareness to them.
Stay here for a few moments.
Now let's expand our attention to every sensation in your body.
Have total body awareness and fully immerse yourself in the sensations that you may be experiencing all throughout your body.
Now expand your attention to your environment.
Listen to sounds that may be occurring around you.
Immerse yourself in your sense of hearing now and take account of any noises that may be occurring.
Stay here for a few moments.
Now we're going to shift to using our imagination to take inventory and account of our own place in the world.
Let's start by visualizing yourself meditating wherever you are.
Take a few moments here.
Now expand your visualization to yourself and your city.
At the same moment,
At the same time that you are meditating,
There are thousands of other people going about their days and lives.
You are one person among these thousands.
Stay here for a few moments.
Now expand your visualization to include yourself,
Your city,
And the whole world.
There are thousands of cities in the world with thousands of people.
People with their own hopes,
Fears,
Dreams,
Excitement,
And suffering.
You serve as a part of this whole.
One among billions.
Notice just how large the world can feel.
And if you're putting your attention on this,
You'll notice that your own circumstances,
The problems that may have seemed so large and unresolvable to you even a few minutes ago,
Start to kind of shrink as we realize that there are billions of other people and we serve as one part of this whole.
Take a few moments to immerse yourself in this experience.
Now I want you to slowly bring your attention back to your body.
You may want to introduce some gentle movement in the fingers or toes.
Start to gracefully exit the practice.
This is a practice that can be done daily to continually instill within us that stoic virtue of wisdom and sense of the world around us.
I want to end with a quote from famous stoic Marcus Aurelius.
In his work,
The Meditations,
He paraphrases great philosopher Plato to give us perspective.
He states,
One who would converse about human beings should look on all things earthly as though from some point far above upon herds,
Armies,
And agriculture,
Marriages and divorces,
Births and deaths,
The clamor of law courts,
Deserted wastes,
People of every kind,
Festivals,
Lamentations,
And markets,
This intermixture of everything,
An ordered combination of opposites.
Perspective is something so important to live a well-rounded,
Wholesome life.
Thank you so much for joining me and I hope to see you again soon.
