Welcome everyone.
The name of today's practice is one day at a time.
It's a phrase that I learned in the AA program,
But it's useful for anyone and everyone and all of us.
When we're facing times and moments of uncertainty,
Of chaos,
If we're just generally wired to be ungrounded,
Which I know I am,
This is a really great practice to bring you back into the now and into what is happening inside your body.
And also who and what is holding you in this moment of potential need or in this moment of just wanting to deepen our connection to source.
You can do this meditation either lying down or sitting up,
But you want to be comfortable either way.
And let's get started.
Begin with your eyes closed if that feels comfortable for you.
Otherwise you can keep your eyes just softly open.
Feel the very crown of your head softening and relaxing.
Notice the space in between your eyebrows and the skin around your eyes softening.
Relax your cheekbones and your jaw,
Your teeth.
Rest your tongue in your lower palate.
Relax your shoulders,
Soften the muscles in your stomach.
Relax all the way down into the pelvic floor.
Wiggle around your toes,
But relax your legs.
Beginning really gently by giving yourself some space and some time.
Even if it feels uncomfortable.
If you feel anything that wants to be moved through right now,
Even in the beginning,
Allow yourself the freedom to cry,
To release,
To feel pleasure,
To really welcome the full human experience.
Our ability to experience joy is directly connected to our resilience and our threshold and capacity for pain.
And for many of us,
This is,
You know,
An ever deepening,
Unfolding journey of allowing ourselves to feel and be held inside of it all.
Feel where your natural breath is moving.
And this isn't about calming down as much as it is about being really honest about where you are and who you are in this moment,
What you're noticing.
We're going to do a few minutes of a breathing practice to connect to the heart and also really embrace what it is that you're feeling or maybe what's,
You know,
Being blocked from being felt.
The way the breath works is that it inhales and exhales in and out of the mouth.
So start to let your body move a little bit,
Either rocking forward and back or side to side.
If you're lying down,
Just wiggle a little bit in your chest.
We'll begin inhaling and exhaling in and out of the mouth at a pace,
Something around like this.
Stay with your breath.
You might feel a little lightheaded at some point,
That's okay.
You might feel a tingly sensation in your body that's welcomed.
We're not going to do it for too long,
So keep breathing and start to really take your awareness and your attention down into the center of your chest,
Acknowledging all the things that your heart has been carrying and allowing anything that wants to be cleared from the heart to be cleared,
But also mostly just embracing what it is.
Really feel into what's alive in your heart,
What's stuck in your heart,
What is the sensation or the feeling as you breathe to the front,
To the back,
To the sides of your spiritual heart,
Which is this vortex and this energy center initially of the emotional watery being,
Vibrational being that you are.
At its depths is the core of our connection to our infinite nature.
Right now we're just acknowledging the human-ness and what feelings are alive for you and what wants to be felt,
What wants to be soothed.
Keep your body moving.
If you're lying down you can stretch your arms over your head,
But really move in a way that maybe you wouldn't normally.
And just stay with it another minute.
We're going to do a little bit of sound.
And as you do the sound with your exhalation I want you to feel the space from your throat,
The middle of your throat right down into the space behind your sternum.
This whole line and channel of energy,
There's a nerve there that also soothes and regulates our system.
So the sound will be something like this.
Don't worry,
Be as loud as you can be.
Take two more breaths like that,
Exhaling with sound and really letting anything,
Especially energy from the outer world,
The collective consciousness that's maybe not even your fear,
Your anxiety,
Just let it out.
Feel your chest,
Feel the vibration moving out of your body and then breathe that loving breath right into your heart.
Take that last breath of sound.
And then start to breathe nice and deeply in and out of your nose.
Staying focused on the heart center and just bringing a super loving juicy breath.
Maybe there's a new freedom there,
Maybe there's a tenderness.
Sometimes the sadness that we feel is actually a tenderness and if we're really alive,
We're going to feel like crying and laughing at the same time and none of it makes sense on a certain level.
So just let yourself feel what's alive.
And you're just going to for the last couple minutes here,
We're just going to use the mantra and the vibration of the word yes into that space.
And what you're saying yes to is to your aliveness,
To the wildness that lives in you that can hold and carry so much beyond anything our minds could imagine.
One day at a time,
Continuing this process of being human,
Of living with a connection to a source and a power greater than anything that we could be on our own.
Just whisper silently yes,
Yes to the feeling that's inside of you.
One of my teachers would always say,
There's nothing more holy than the human heart and I feel that very deeply in my own.
And gently let the repetition of the mantra yes fall away and just take a moment of gratitude for this life,
For the love that surrounds your body,
For the grace and all of her power.
You can gently let your body move from side to side.
You're lying on your back come to lie on your side.
And when you feel ready,
Can let your eyes gently open and just take in what you can see,
Let this feeling inside of you extend through your eyes to all the things that you see in the space where you are.
Thank you so much for joining me.
You should be really proud of yourself for taking this time to come back into living one day at a time.
