Welcome to Freedom Within Meditations with Kieran Headley.
However you are,
Whatever you're going through,
Whatever you're experiencing,
I'd like to invite you to make the space,
Make the time for yourself just for the next four to five minutes.
Give yourself this time to reset and to truly recognize that no matter what's going on in life right now,
There's always this underlying factor that things are okay,
Even when they don't feel it.
Take a deep breath in through the nose,
Out through the mouth,
Letting go,
Relax the body.
Whether you're sitting or standing,
It doesn't matter too much.
The ideal would be sitting down with your eyes closed,
If you can.
And one more deep breath in through the nose,
Filling up the lower belly even more,
And letting go fully,
Relax the shoulders whilst maintaining your posture.
Returning to a natural and neutral breath,
In and out through the nose,
And just concentrating for a moment on the breath,
Just for a few breaths.
Notice the inflow of oxygen as it goes through the nose,
Fills up the lower belly,
And notice it as it travels in back out of the belly and out through the nostrils.
Placing one hand on the belly and feeling that breath as it flows in and out through the belly.
Notice the expansion and the contraction.
You don't even need to do a single thing.
Your body is taking care of itself,
Without you needing to do one single thing.
There's a beautiful exchange constantly happening between you and the nature around you.
As you exhale carbon dioxide,
The trees and the seagrass,
Depending on where you are,
Inhales that CO2,
It exhales oxygen,
And you inhale that oxygen that it exhaled.
If you wanted to frame it in a way,
Half of our lungs are hanging out there,
Outside of us,
In constant exchange.
Feel that truth as you inhale each breath,
And exhale each breath.
And now placing one hand on the heart,
While the other hand stays on the stomach.
Feeling the breath and tuning into your heart.
Feeling the heartbeat against your hand,
And if you're struggling to feel your heartbeat,
Just move your hand around and press until you find your heartbeat.
And once you've connected with your heartbeat,
If it's racing,
Let it race.
If it's very soft,
Allow it to be very soft.
Just simply noticing your heartbeat.
Each thump of the heart,
You might even notice the pulsing in your wrist,
Or your thumbs.
And if you're truly connected,
And truly in tune with it,
You will be able to even notice your entire body pulsating with your heart.
With each thump of the heart,
There's a slight reverberation through the body.
We have roughly a hundred thousand kilometers,
Or sixty thousand miles of blood vessels,
Arteries,
And capillaries all through our system.
And each thump of the heart,
Which is the same pressure as if you were to use your hand to squeeze a tennis ball.
That subtle pressure is sending oxygen and nutrients all through your system,
And again,
Without you needing to do one single thing.
Your heart is there to support you.
In fact,
Your heart was created before the brain,
During birth.
The heart starts to form in the fetus before the brain has even formed itself.
It has its own intelligence.
It starts to operate before the brain is actually properly formed,
And you become alive before the brain is even formed.
And that indicates that there's something that wants you here.
Take a moment and truly connect with that truth.
There's something within you that wants you alive.
You don't even need to do a single thing,
Yet your heart is operating for you,
Without you needing to think.
Heart,
Pump.
Beat,
Beat,
Beat.
You don't even need to say the words,
And there it goes.
Whether we're happy,
Or we're sad,
Anxious,
Angry,
Peaceful,
Relaxed,
It doesn't matter.
Your heart continues to beat for you,
No matter your situation or experience of life.
Something wants you here.
And just as we slowly come to the end of this meditation,
Take a moment and ask yourself,
In this moment,
What could I be grateful for?
What could I be grateful for?
If I were to be grateful in this moment,
What could I be grateful for?
There's a beautiful thing that seems to happen when we take away I am,
And shift it to what could I?
If we're feeling tense,
Stressed,
The mind resists,
I am grateful for.
We can bypass that with what could I be grateful for?
I just have to tune into that.
And then if you've connected with the first,
Feel into a second.
You might even reform the question into,
What could I appreciate right now?
What could I appreciate right now?
And then finally,
You might even reframe it once again and ask yourself,
What could I be thankful for right now?
What could I be thankful for right now?
And as you just tune into,
For a moment,
Into the sounds around you,
Notice two or three main sounds.
Acknowledge the frequency,
The volume,
And even the texture of each sound that you tune into.
Maybe bring your hands back down to your lap if you haven't already lowered them from your heart and your stomach.
Take a few more deep breaths in through the nose,
Out through the mouth,
And a couple more.
Allow yourself to be more here than you were at the start.
And as we end this meditation,
Just check in with yourself and notice,
How are you now compared to how you were seven or eight minutes ago?
I tricked you,
Didn't I?
We went a little longer than four or five minutes.
I can be sneaky like that.
How are you now compared to before?
If you're the same,
There's nothing wrong with that.
Nothing wrong with feeling the same.
However,
I guarantee that if you took a pause like you have because you are listening to this audio right now,
And you've absolutely paused for a moment,
There will be a subtle shift,
Whether you notice it or not.
See if you can notice that shift.
See if you can notice what happens more subtly,
At a deeper level.
And in your own time,
You may open your eyes,
Recognizing that you're more in control of your state than you would ever believe.
Sometimes all it takes is a simple pause.
I'd like to invite you to take that self-empowerment of pausing,
Tuning into what could I be grateful for.
The sounds around you,
And your beautiful breath and heartbeat that operates without your permission,
Constantly keeping you alive and abundant.
For the rest of the day,
Just tuning into that consistently.
