There's something really powerful about being in our lives,
In our bodies.
If you put on the beginner's mind,
Step into a little bit of the observer space,
You might notice that you're running around from day to day with your consciousness kind of hovering above your head like a helium balloon.
This is a kind of mechanism that we are learned or that we Adopt ourselves.
To keep us out of the vulnerability and the exposure of really being in our bodies and in our lives.
In a world where it's not always acceptable to be authentically honest,
To be fully yourself,
Where we are expected to sit behind screens or in offices and suppress our needs and desires in order to work,
It's really hard to be completely present and in our bodies.
But we can start to cultivate spaces where we do check in and tap into that space and really sit with ourselves and feel our bodies and feel our life through our bodies.
This tapping into sensation and pouring yourself into yourself,
As I like to call it,
Is a beautiful way of understanding what is really alive inside ourselves.
This is vital if we're trying to understand what is it that's blocking us?
What is it that is getting us stuck?
Why are we struggling to move forward?
What needs do we have?
What do we want to create in our life?
All these questions can be answered through starting to feel what is alive in the body and working with the content that we discover there.
So just as you are,
I want you to take a seat.
Sit comfortably with your spine up straight.
If you're in a chair,
Make sure that your feet are firmly on the ground,
Legs uncrossed.
If you're sitting cross-legged in a kind of yogic pose,
Make sure you're comfortable.
Pain is not a way that we can soften into our experience.
So it is vital that you make sure you're comfortable.
In all of the guided meditations that I share with you,
You are allowed to shift,
To move,
To undulate your spine,
To sound.
And I actually recommend breathing really deeply in the beginning.
Inhaling deeply.
And then exhaling with an audible sigh.
You can imagine that you are emptying out your mind.
As you are breathing.
Starting to drop into sensation by feeling your seat.
The pressure of your bum on the seat,
On the pillow.
Feeling your feet.
And the kind of tingling.
Sensation that we can sense inside our feet.
Similar with the hands.
Relaxed in your lap or resting on your knees.
Sense the inside of your hands.
And fill your spine,
One vertebra stacked on top of the other.
Not arching over.
Or bending forward.
A slumped position in the spine often reflects a disconnection or a dissonance with life,
A kind of apathy or inertia.
And an arching forward or an overarching.
.
.
The kind of leaning into a reaction to life.
So try to find the space in the middle that feels relaxed.
Intuitively aware.
Hmm.
And now find your breath.
At the place where it feels the most accessible to you.
Maybe in the rise and fall of your chest.
Or then the expansion and contraction of your stomach.
Or at the temperature change at the tip of your nose.
For now just breathing naturally,
Noticing if your breath is shallow.
Noticing if you're holding it every now and again.
And just try to bring it to a smooth natural rhythm.
The practice of meditation.
That I truly believe in is the practice of returning.
So if you notice that you've gotten lost instead of beating yourself up or perpetuating the story that you're a failure or that this is not for you.
Simply see it as an opportunity to practice the return.
Coming back to your body.
Coming back to your breath.
Coming back to yourself.
I'm going to guide you in a visualization meditation.
And again,
There's no right or wrong way to do this.
Just let images come up intuitively.
Listening to my voice.
And allowing yourself to see whatever it evokes.
Slowly we are starting to open up the imaginal space.
And allowing our intuition and the natural ability of our mind to create.
To come into being and trusting.
It to be the way that it is.
Mmm.
Imagine above your head a golden ball of light.
This light is your creative potential.
Your energy,
Your capacity,
Your presence.
It's all the same thing.
Imagine the beautiful sparkling quality of your own light.
And from this golden ball of light.
You can imagine beams of light stretching out into the world like sunbeams from the sun.
These beams of light is your capacity,
Energy,
Presence going towards the things in your life.
At the end of each being,
You can imagine things that are occupying your capacity right now.
To-do lists,
Plans.
Projects,
Ideas,
Commitments,
Relationships,
Conversations,
Dynamics.
Place it all in this mind map.
Visualizing the golden light connected to each of these things.
Starting to practice.
The observing mind.
As if you're meeting these things for the first time.
The beginner's mind.
And you are just observing.
Noticing that some things might be closer in your awareness.
Placed at the front of your mind.
Connected to thick,
Bright beams of light.
And others might be more distant.
Far out with a dull stream of light connected to your golden ball of light.
Hole's still there.
Occupying some of the space in your being.
You are taking stocks.
And when you get distracted,
Place that thing.
In the mind map of golden light.
You don't have to spin into planning.
You don't have to overanalyze.
You are simply observing.
Where are you giving energy to right now?
Can that?
You might be surprised at some of the things you find there.
Once you visualize this map.
I want you to start drawing your golden light back into your golden ball of light and letting the things at the end fade for now.
This doesn't mean that you don't care.
It doesn't mean that you're not going to return.
On the contrary,
When we do this practice of drawing ourselves towards ourselves,
We can sometimes return with a lot more presence.
And intentionality.
So taking a deep breath as if you're watching a movie,
Pull yourself towards yourself.
Gathering all the particles of light.
Shimmering,
Drawing it into your golden ball of light and seeing how this golden ball of your energy is growing.
And expanding.
Becoming brighter and fuller.
As it fills up with all of your capacity.
Make this movement joyful and natural.
And when you get stuck.
.
.
Breathe and just observe this movement happening,
Naturally gathering all of you towards you.
And then we're going to crack this golden ball open and you'll follow me along as we bath ourselves in our golden light,
In our capacity.
First letting this golden light rush into the mind space.
Sweeping it clean like water rushing down a landscape.
Golden light,
Expansive space in the mind.
Relaxing your brow,
Your forehead.
Let the golden light drip down the back of your head.
Over your eye sockets.
Golden light dripping down your cheeks like honey,
Relaxing your jaw.
Relaxing your tongue and your mouth.
Golden light.
Dripping down your throat,
Relaxing your neck.
Relaxing your shoulders.
Feeling the length and weight of your arms.
Allow the golden light to fill your arms,
Relaxing your upper arms.
Your forearms.
Your wrists and elbows.
Filling the inside of your hand.
And that's your fingertips.
You can imagine a tingling sensation.
I like to think that that's creativity waiting to be expressed.
Breathing deeply and enjoying this motion,
This flood of warmth and light into your chest.
Filling your heart cavity.
The heart is already in a cage.
It's called the ribcage.
So you can allow it to be soft.
So in this process,
It might slip down your sleeve and inspire your hands.
Or float up to your ear and whisper sweet nothings.
We are de-armoring.
By going inwards.
The heart illuminated in your golden light.
And from the back of the heart,
The shadow side of the heart,
The dark side of the moon,
You're starting to sprout wings and they grow through the back of your body and open up.
Relaxing your entire back as they do this,
You stretch your wings.
You forgot you had them.
Simply by visualizing and feeling these big golden wings,
Your back body wakes up.
And you feel.
Your upper back,
Middle back.
And lower back.
Relaxed and golden.
Relaxing your diaphragm.
When you relax your diaphragm,
You'll feel the ripple down into your belly and you can imagine This golden light moving into your belly and sloshing in your pelvic bone like a bowl.
Breathing into your gut.
Your GPS,
The center of the intuition where we get the pangs of knowing.
We hold so much in our gut.
So imagine that this golden light is heating up and thawing the tightness in this space.
Relaxing your organs.
Basking in golden light,
Heating up with love.
The movement continues down and you relax your pelvic bone,
Your hips,
Your groin.
Feeling the length and weight of your legs.
Relaxing your thighs.
Your hamstrings as the golden light moves down,
Down.
Over your knees.
Relaxing your knees.
Relaxing your shins and calves.
The tops and bottom of your feet.
And every single toe golden.
And the movement continues still.
Pushing past your body,
Sprouting golden roots.
Pushing into the earth below you like a Frida Kahlo painting.
Visualize this beautiful energy growing into the earth and pulling you heavy onto the earth.
Really feel this sacred embrace we call gravity.
How we are held.
By the air.
We could dangle into oblivion,
But she pulls us towards her.
And reminds us of our belonging.
Of our cyclical nature.
Of our birthright.
As a part of creation.
And now just watch yourself breathing easily.
Seeing your entire body fold.
With your capacity to create,
With your potential.
With your sparkling golden light.
Slowly we are going to come back to the room now that you're in to this day,
That you're in the environment around you.
Keeping your eyes closed,
You can start to stretch.
You do not even have to let go of the visualization.
You can bring it into your day.
Just start to wake up with movements stretching your spine and your neck,
Taking in the sounds around you.
Rubbing your hands against each other to generate some heat.
They stream over your eyes.
Drinking in the heat and the sensation.
And cup your face,
Hold your face a little and gently open your eyes.
