Today's meditation will focus on the waning moon.
You will come into this present moment together and then for the first several minutes of the meditation I will share some information for you to ponder about the moon.
Then we'll move into our time of meditation.
You can use this meditation during the waning moon or any time when you need to surrender and release.
This meditation is for anyone who wants to draw inspiration and permission from the moon regardless of gender identity or expression.
Centering in together.
Close your eyes if that feels comfortable for you.
Take an inhale and release the tension from your forehead.
Scrunch your eyebrows down and then release,
Letting them come to a natural relaxed state.
Release any conscious pressure around your eyes,
Breathing in and experiencing the relief of fully focusing inward.
Giving space to your internal self,
Free from performance,
Free from requirement.
Unclench your teeth and move your jaw around a few times and then let it come to a natural resting place.
Breathe in through your nose,
Pause at the top of the inhale slightly and then breathe out again through your nose.
Breathing slightly at the bottom of your exhale.
As you breathe,
Scanning your body for any other tense places,
Checking to see if your shoulders are up by your ears,
Is your belly clenched,
Fingers and toes open and relaxed.
Be here and find your ability to bring peace to any moment simply by slowing down and grounding.
The waning moon corresponds with the season of fall.
Waning means that the illuminated portion of the moon is decreasing,
Slowly getting less bright each night leading to the new moon.
This is similar to the season of fall when our hours of daylight slowly decrease until we reach the winter solstice.
The waning moon corresponds to the luteal phase of menstruation.
This is the phase,
Post ovulation,
When the body is preparing to either sustain a pregnancy or to release the endometrial lining if there is no pregnancy.
Either way the body is preparing for rest during this time.
So this is a great time to support your body with soothing rituals that nourish you and help conserve energy as you move into a lower energy time.
Remember that this advice can be used by anyone whether or not your body follows its own cycle.
You can choose to use the waning moon in this time even if your body is not tracking in the same way.
Fall time and the waning moon can also be a time of harvesting,
Taking time to reflect in gratitude for the intentions that you brought to completion during this cycle and also beginning to clarify that which doesn't serve you.
The week prior to menstruation often gets a bad reputation with PMS.
But what if instead of blaming your mind and your body for being irritated you tried to tune in to the irritations and figure out how you can make changes that may ease those irritation points.
Often when we find ourselves at a time when we're not able to tamp down those feelings that's information for us.
Often our intuition is beginning to ramp up during this time.
So take a minute to tune in and to trust yourself and to not just immediately dismiss those feelings.
As your body prepares to let go try and capture some of that energy to let go of whatever you need to to think through what are some things that you can shift and change.
This meditation involves focusing attention on the heart and on the breath both to hold on to what we are grateful for and to let go of what we no longer need.
To give acknowledgement to the light and the dark within us and to find acceptance for all of it.
So once again thinking about your body,
Thinking about your breath,
If you need to adjust your posture to find more ease please do so.
Quieting your mind,
Letting go of any information that you took in and knowing that you can return to it later.
Coming back to focusing on the breath.
Realizing how just by bringing awareness to your breath,
Your breath starts to change.
If you would like you can begin to intentionally extend your inhales and your exhales.
Perhaps adding a count of five to your inhale,
Pausing briefly and then a count of five for your exhale.
If it helps for you to have a kinesthetic cue you can gently rest your palms on your belly and feel the rise as you inhale and the fall as you exhale.
Picture yourself as the waning moon,
Holding space for light and dark.
Not questioning what is,
Allowing the ebb and the flow.
What would it feel like to just allow yourself to be where you are from moment to moment,
Day to day,
Trusting that how you're showing up is how you should be showing up.
Picture yourself as a tree that doesn't feel anxiety as the leaves begin to fall,
As the branches are bare in the winter and doesn't feel better about itself in the spring when it starts to bud and bloom.
Nature is perfect in all of its forms and so are you.
Now,
Start to imagine that as you inhale you're bringing gratitude into your body.
If it helps you can imagine a soft cloud of gratitude enveloping you and your inhale draws some of that cloud into your body.
What rises to the surface as you center in on gratitude?
As words or images rise up,
Let them softly float by on the cloud without needing to attach to them or start thinking more deeply about them.
With each inhale cultivating gratitude and each exhale sinking you down deeper into yourself into that inner sanctuary of knowing.
Noticing any sensation in your body as you dwell on gratitude.
Where does the gratitude live in your body?
Maybe place a gentle hand there.
Staying in this space,
Slightly shift your focus to anything that you want to release.
This could be harmful beliefs,
Self-doubt,
Regret,
Ruminating thoughts that are connecting you to people you no longer want to be connected with.
Trust whatever it is that rises up from your inner knowing.
Your body knows.
You know what to do.
Once again,
Let words or images float by without needing to attach to them.
As you exhale,
Imagine all of it leaving your consciousness.
I will start to bring the meditation to an end.
But as always,
Take as much time as you need.
When you're ready,
Release any control of your breath and let the body breathe for you.
Beginning to bring your awareness back to this time and space.
Gently wiggling fingers and toes and blinking open the eyes.
I encourage you to take a few moments to process through writing down anything that came up for you.
