How can I keep my heart open during these times of fear?
Welcome to a meditation on releasing anxiety and fear.
Just find a comfortable cross-legged seat,
Whatever feels right and good for you in this moment and feel the cushion or pillow or floor supporting you.
And as you find yourself coming to stillness,
Just begin to notice your breath,
Taking a smooth inhale and a soft exhale.
And as you feel yourself sitting here,
Sit bones sinking down into the earth,
Feel the top of the head floating upward.
The spine is stacked but relaxed,
Allowing the eyes to fall closed if they're not already,
Keeping the lids lightly touching,
The lips softly touching,
The jaw relaxed,
The skin of the face relaxed.
And as you follow your inhales and exhales,
Bringing your awareness to the here and now,
Take your focus into your heart.
Imagine your heart as feeling hollow and drop right into that hollow chamber and into the sense of not knowing.
There are so many unknowns around us right now.
We're often prone to pride ourselves on knowing something for sure.
And now is a time of a lot of uncertainty.
So let's just acknowledge that we don't know.
Let's acknowledge that we don't know exactly which information to trust,
That we don't know exactly if we'll be safe or if our loved ones will be safe,
That we don't know how this will all unfold exactly.
And in this hollow space,
It may also be an air of anxiety or fear.
And as you notice this,
Also notice the quality of your breath.
Are you holding in any spots on the inhales and the exhales?
In the yoga Sutras,
Patanjali tells us when the mind is cluttered to breathe,
To exhale anything that might be disturbing our thoughts.
Exhale,
Exhale,
Exhale.
And we hold that breath out,
Releasing anything that might disturb our minds.
So as we inhale passively through the nose,
Finding flow and exhaling completely,
Letting go of any major effort and imagining your breath like a soft,
Fine thread of silk.
Exhaling through the nose,
Exhaling softly.
And as you exhale down from your throat,
Your heart,
The navel,
All the way down into the root,
We just simply offer any anxiety or fear to release down into Mother Earth,
Slightly holding the abdomen in just to release the exhale completely and ground any of the fear.
As the inhale comes in,
Just allow it to passively begin to float through the body.
And then exhale again,
Just taking any fear,
Anxiety from the throat to the heart,
To the navel,
To the root,
Down into Mother Earth,
Releasing completely,
Holding the breath out if that's there for you,
Maybe just a little bit longer and allowing the inhale to passively come back in.
As we take another exhale,
Just non-grasping,
Releasing all of the uncertainty,
All of the not knowing,
And just being right here,
Right now,
Knowing that with our breath,
There is no past and there's no future,
There's just this moment and this one and this one.
There's no possessiveness.
It is not my breath.
It's not your breath.
It's the breath of all living beings on this planet.
Collectively breathing together,
Just take a few soft inhales and exhales,
Trusting that you are grounding your fear,
Releasing negative thoughts and inviting in new vitality,
Just letting go and surrendering on the exhale and then allowing fresh new prana,
New energy to move through you.
When you're really ready to release and surrender,
We can truly be in touch with this ground beneath us where we've released this fear.
And as the fresh prana comes in,
Bringing vitality to the systems of this miracle of our bodies,
As it nourishes our integrity and our resilience and our ability to uplift.
We inhale,
We breathe this energy up through the throat,
Exhaling completely,
Releasing the energy into the oral plane all around you,
Exhaling,
Finding the energy coming from the earth rising up through the body,
Releasing up and out of the crown chakra,
Top of the head.
We find this new vitality,
This clarity,
This inner strength as we exhale through the center,
The channel of the body,
Then bring the energy and focus back to the heart.
We stay quiet and trust the breath.
We send this loving and compassionate breath to our families,
To our communities and to every creature on the planet,
Big and small.
Let's take a few easy breaths,
Focusing on your heart,
Clear,
Bright,
Beautiful,
Full of love and wide open.
When you're ready,
Just beginning to bring your awareness back to your senses,
Sitting in stillness as long as you wish,
Fluttering your eyes open when you're ready,
And soft breaths,
Deep breaths in the here and now.
Zoham.
Namaste.
