This is a meditation to practice spending time with the Holy Spirit and intentionally filling up with the breath with the Holy Spirit and then on the exhale settling into the presence of the Spirit.
So I invite you to find a comfortable seat or place to lie down.
And first as you get settled in your chair or lying down on the floor or your bed maybe,
Just noticing the feelings and sensations in your body as they connect with whatever supporting you,
Whatever is helping to hold you up.
Just noticing what's in the body now as you make contact with the chair or the bed or the floor.
Bringing you into this present moment.
You can close your eyes or cast them down if you want to as a way of bringing your attention further in to your body and your breath.
Whatever you were doing or whatever you're going to do,
This is an opportunity to let all of that fall away and to simply be present in this moment,
Moment by moment,
Without any judgment.
Just allowing yourself to be right here,
Right now.
And drawing your attention into your breath.
That may be the life-giving air naturally moving in and out of your nose.
So you may choose to focus on the physical sensations in your nostrils as air moves in and out.
Or you may choose to place your attention on your chest,
Noticing that slight rise and fall of your chest as you breathe.
We're not asking our breath to do anything unique or special or different right now.
Just noticing how our body breathes all on its own,
Turning our attention to that.
Or maybe it's easiest for you to drop your attention into your breath by way of your belly.
Noticing a slight expansion as you breathe in and then a slight deflation of the belly as you exhale.
But noticing where it's most organic,
Where it's easiest for you to place your attention and anchoring it in the breath.
Because when we come home to the breath within us,
It is a wonderful,
Beautiful way of remembering the presence of the Holy Spirit,
The breath of God with us in every moment,
Any moment,
Regardless of what's going on.
The presence of the life giving spirit is right here with us.
So connecting to our own breath brings us home to that reality once again,
That the spirit is here.
And when you notice that your mind wants to drift off to something else and leave the breath,
When you notice that's wonderful,
Use it as an opportunity to kindly,
Gently,
Firmly bring your attention back home to the breath once again.
Allowing yourself to be with the breath moment by moment,
Not judging how you're doing it or how it's going,
Judging your mind,
Judging your breath.
We're not judging anything.
We're just allowing ourselves a gentle being with what's already here.
So you may return to the breath over and over again,
Hundreds of times,
Even in the midst of one minute.
That's okay.
You're practicing coming back over and over again.
So now very intentionally,
We're going to take an elongated inhale and then elongated exhale.
Working with whatever rhythm or speed is best for you,
But very intentionally as we do this,
Taking a longer breath in and a longer breath out,
We're giving ourselves the opportunity to experience again,
Being filled up by the Holy Spirit as we breathe in.
And on the exhale,
We can experience maybe some settling into the presence of the spirit right here with us.
So on the inhale,
It's a sensation of being filled up by the spirit.
And on the exhale,
It's an experience of breathing out,
Settling into the presence of the spirit.
So again,
Just in your own rhythm and your own accord,
Your own dance with the spirit,
Slightly deeper,
Longer breath in and a longer breath out.
Deep breath in and deep breath out.
Good.
Just going at your own rhythm,
Your rhythm with the spirit,
Very intentionally feeling this sensation of being filled up with the breath of God.
And on the exhale,
Settling into the presence of God,
The presence of the Holy Spirit.
Breathing in and being filled up by the presence of God.
And breathing out,
Settling into the presence of a loving God.
We do this over and over again.
Being filled up and settling in.
Being filled up and settling in.
You might be noticing that there's a rhythm that feels really good and natural for you.
And if you haven't,
That's okay,
Keep exploring,
Keep discovering,
Keep discovering where is that rhythm being filled up and then letting go and settling in.
In the last moments of this practice,
Let's let go of the intentional exaggeration and just come home to the natural rhythm of your breathing without asking yourself to intentionally breathe in longer or exhale longer,
Just to a natural rhythm.
What your body does without being spoken to or offering instructions.
Just coming home to that natural day in,
Day out rhythm of breath.
Because even there in the natural rhythm of breathing,
Even without the exaggeration,
There is this sense of being filled up by breath and settling into the breath of the spirit.
So even as we move through our regular day,
As we naturally breathe,
There can always be this coming home to,
Being filled up by this gracious sense of the presence and exhaling,
Allowing ourselves to settle into the presence of a loving God.
So the rhythm of our breath doesn't actually even matter so much.
It's just that when we elongate it,
It gives us a deeper sense of this presence,
But it's always here with us,
Regardless of whether our breath is shallow or deep.
What I find and what you may find is that when I elongate the breath very intentionally,
Slow it down,
It grows my capacity to sense the presence.
Even though the presence is always here with me,
It expands my ability to sense it by slowing it down.
So you can practice this at any time during your day.
And you may want to flutter your eyes open at this point and stretch.
You may even want to thank yourself for carving out this time to intentionally spend time with the Holy Spirit and to be filled up by that presence and to settle into the presence.
May it be a gift to you in this moment,
And may the gift ripple out into your day and your interaction with others.
Amen.
