Hey friends,
How are you?
It's Suzanne.
And I wanted to share with you an Ojas building meditation.
Ojas is said to be a refined quality or refined essence of Aphidoshia.
And what this means is that Ojas is our nourishment.
It's our immunity.
It's that which,
It's our vitality.
It's what keeps us strong and gives us endurance and makes life pleasurable.
If we think of the refined essence of Vata-doshia as prana.
So we understand what prana is.
There's a lightness to prana and mobility,
A clarity to prana.
And we understand that this is,
We try to capture this when we meditate and do pranayama,
Right?
And it lives in our breath and in our heartbeat,
This idea of movement and lightness again.
And the essence of our Itta-doshia is Tejas.
And so Tejas is luminosity.
It's this sort of fieriness,
The sparkle,
This luster that we have.
And we also understand Tejas in our digestion,
Like Tejas ignites us and excites us.
And these two essences are a little lighter,
A little more,
They can come and go a little easier.
But Ojas,
We can think of as the container that holds prana and Tejas.
So Ojas is incredibly important to keep strong since it is the container.
We can also think of it,
Again,
Our immunity.
And this can be our physical immunity,
Our energetic immunity,
Our mental and emotional immunity.
So you have probably experienced a time where you felt depleted,
Exhausted.
You've been going through a lot in your life,
A lot of stress.
And at heart,
It's hard to maybe wake up or find energy in the day,
Or even you find yourself getting a little sicker than usual.
This is oftentimes a sign of depleted Ojas.
But if you've been nourishing yourself,
You've been able to rest,
Maybe you've been on vacation somewhere where you've just been able to find some ease and routine and rhythm,
Right?
Or this,
And you feel more energized,
You feel more at home in your body.
You just feel like you just are just more comfortable and awake,
Right?
These are qualities of a good abundance Ojas,
You know?
Everything is feeling great,
Your nervous system,
Your body.
So this is a stronger Ojas.
But oftentimes in modern society,
Our Ojas gets depleted,
Especially for women that I know.
So it's really important that we keep it strong.
Okay,
So here we are.
We're moving into the winter here in the Northern Hemisphere.
The days are growing shorter.
And the earth is even saying,
Build your Ojas.
This is key right now,
This time of year.
If you think of your Ojas as like a bank account,
Right?
So you know how you have a savings account and you build it up and you build it up and you build it up until maybe at one point,
There's so much abundance that you can almost give it away.
It's just this give and take of energy because you've got plenty,
Right?
And there's just this ease when you live like that.
But if you live in a place where you're always depleting,
You're taking out of the bank account,
Using it over and over again,
What you'll find is this depletion will wear you down.
It'll make us nervous.
You know,
It'll make us anxious.
And oftentimes people feel that depletion this time of year,
Especially when the nature is saying,
Slow down a little bit,
Right?
It's getting darker outside,
Cooler outside.
This is a time again to anchor and to settle.
But what happens is we go out,
We go to parties,
We celebrate,
You know,
We stay up late,
We eat lots of sugary foods and we just keep up an energy that just can't sustain us during the season.
So it's just a great practice to build our Ojas.
All right,
So we're going to do a little meditation on Ojas,
Right?
And this meditation is just brief,
Just to tap into the quality of it.
But just a reminder that when you get off of the meditation and you move into the rest of your day,
Continue to see like,
What are the things that I can bring into my life that will build my Ojas?
So who are the people that I want to surround myself that make me feel anchored and calm,
You know,
And supported?
What are the foods that I can eat that make me feel that way,
Right?
The prana rich foods that are growing or that are seasonal right now,
The warming foods,
The warming spices that just make me feel like I'm getting a big hug from my food,
Yeah?
What are the practices that I can do?
I can,
Can we meditate?
Can we do our maybe restorative yoga?
Make sure we get out in nature,
Take walks,
Move slowly,
Take hot baths,
Practice Abhyanga.
There are lots of practices that we can do too.
All right,
So let's go ahead and go into the meditation now,
All right?
So when you're ready,
You can sit in a chair,
You can sit on the floor,
You can lie on the ground,
Whatever works for you.
Let's do this.
So sitting comfortably for a moment,
Hands can rest on your legs or in your lap.
Feel your breath move in and down into the body.
Feel your body anchoring into the seat beneath you,
The ground beneath you.
Feel yourself just release a little bit here,
Just for a few moments.
There's no need to strive here,
No need to push or to pull,
No need to worry about the future or the past,
But instead just drop into this moment,
Whatever it is for you right now,
Just let yourself drop in.
There's so much that each of us is probably doing in our lives,
Right?
Just to live our lives.
And that's okay,
That's part of living.
But can we allow ourselves the time,
Can we make the choice,
The active choice to not do for a moment,
Just be,
Feel the sweetness of this moment.
The quality of Ojas is one that nourishes,
There's a juiciness,
A suppleness to this energy.
We feel anchored and full of vitality.
There's even a,
Perhaps a feeling of joy that sometimes bubbles up when we're in this place.
So just for a moment,
I invite you now to bring your awareness to your heart,
To the energetic space of the heart.
And as you sit for a moment,
Have the feeling that you're breathing energy and light into the heart space.
And as you exhale,
You just drop in a little more,
And relax a little more.
Inhale into the heart space,
Warm,
Golden light.
Exhale,
And you just soften,
Just feel like you're being hugged or held by a benevolent force.
Inhale into the heart space,
Exhale and relax.
Let yourself just let go,
Don't hold on.
Do this a couple more times on your own.
Heart getting a little warmer,
A little brighter with each breath in.
Skin softening,
Body releasing as you exhale.
Notice that if your mind wanders during this practice,
It's okay.
I want you to feel like on the inside,
You're cultivating a feeling of just support,
Almost like a grandmotherly hug,
Right?
From the inside out.
And now with your awareness back to the heart again,
What would it feel like just for a moment to feel as though the heart could smile?
Just feel a sweet smile in the heart space.
Now you can stay with that,
Stay with that breath in the heart if you'd like,
Or maintain that feeling of smiling from the inside out and bring your attention just for a moment to the crown of your head,
The very top of your head.
And then see or feel the crown of your head,
A warm,
Golden light.
But now I have a feeling and a sensing that the light is turning into a liquid light,
Almost like a honey,
Sweet honey.
And as you inhale,
There's a feeling that the honey,
The sweet liquid light moves down,
Drips down the inside of the body from the crown of the head to your pelvic floor.
And as you exhale,
You settle a little more.
Inhale,
Liquid light from the crown of the head moves down the central channel of the body.
And it's okay if your breath changes or whatever,
It's all right.
Just keep that awareness of that sweet honey,
That nourishing honey moving down again through the central channel of the body.
For some people,
They also will imagine something like a warm ghee,
Like a warm oil moving down the body.
That's fine too,
Whatever works for you.
Now,
The next few times you do this breath from the crown of your head,
Dripping slowly down the pelvic floor,
Making almost like a puddle of warm honey or ghee or oil,
You'll start to imagine that liquid is filling you up.
It fills up from the pelvis,
Whole bowl of the pelvis fills up and moves up through the body.
It's like just a container of liquid,
So sweet,
So warm,
Until your entire torso is full of it.
And now,
Because you can't contain it anymore,
Start to feel the warm liquid,
Honey-like liquid move down through your legs and down to the soles of your feet.
Warm liquid light moves through from the chest through the arms,
Down through your hands and your fingertips.
Warm liquid light moves up through the skull and your entire inner body is full.
You become so full of this warmth,
This nourishment that it begins to move through the pores of your skin.
And so now,
Not just the inside,
But the outside of you is covered in this sweet,
Sticky honey or oil,
Whatever it is you'd like to imagine.
You feel like it's a shield,
Like an aura of protection around you,
Strengthening your body,
Making your mental body,
Emotional body more resilient,
Finding ease in your energy body,
Perhaps even a little bit of joy again bubbles up.
As we finish this meditation,
Of course,
You're welcome to stay as long as you want,
But I invite you to move for the rest of your day,
Your evening,
Feeling fortified,
Resilient.
I know that this is just one of the many practices you can do for yourself and your self-care to help build your Ojas,
To help build that sweet juiciness and immunity.
All right,
Friends,
Enjoy the rest of your day,
Your evening,
Whatever it is for you.
You've got this.
