Welcome to this meditation with Kori.
Sit down and straighten your spine.
You can sit on a chair or sit on the ground in a lotus position,
Whichever you prefer.
Just sit down for this meditation.
Get comfortable.
The most important thing is that your back is nice and straight.
Normally when you're feeling uneasy in your body or irritated and there's that energy,
That prickly kind of heat sensation in your shoulders and maybe running through your body,
The last thing that you want to do is actually try and sit quietly and meditate.
It seems the most annoying thing in the world,
Yet it's probably what we need the most at that time.
This month from the new moon and then this full moon and the eclipse,
I felt very uneasy.
Just not settled.
Like there's that cloud of doom following me around somehow or an anxious feeling that something bad is going to happen or that kind of feeling where you feel like you've left the stove on and yet you've gone to work.
Something just doesn't feel right and that leaves me feeling really unsettled.
If you're feeling anything like me at the moment,
Regardless of the moon,
Regardless of what's going on in your life,
Try this with me.
So we are going to meditate.
We are going to make the effort to do something that we know is going to make us feel better.
But first of all,
Let's go through a couple of simple exercises that always help me.
Start by just letting your neck and your head fold over to your left shoulder as if you're stretching your head down towards your shoulder.
Do it nice and slow and gentle and just sit with your head in that position.
You're not trying to accomplish anything other than you're stretching that part of your neck,
Releasing some tension that might be in that side of your neck and your shoulder.
So you're stretching down to the left but the actual stretch is on the right side of your neck.
Start to slow down your breathing so that your muscles and your back and everything start to relax a little bit.
Just feel the stretch getting deeper as you breathe deeper.
See if you can surrender into it and allow your head to fall just a tiny bit more towards the left.
Then bring in your neck back up to the central point.
Take a breath here in the middle.
Just feel the release of the stretch.
All of this is done really slowly and gently so no pressure,
No exerting in any way,
Just gentle stretching.
And now drop your head down to your right shoulder.
Slowly at first,
Very gently.
Breathe in nice,
Slow,
Deep,
Relaxing breaths as you do it.
Just loosening up the tension in your neck and the back of your shoulders.
You can do this with your eyes open or just naturally let your eyes close as you stretch.
See if you can go a little bit deeper down to the right shoulder.
Breathing nice,
Long,
Slow,
Deep breaths into that space.
And then gently slowly bring in your neck back up into the central position.
Staying still,
Breathing deep and slow.
Notice the sensation of a release in both sides of your neck,
A loosening sensation.
Now what I want you to do is squeeze both of your shoulders up to your ears,
Really,
Really,
Really tight as if you're creating tension this time.
Bring them all the way up like you're running into that itchy,
Irritated,
Frustrated feeling in your shoulders.
Like really run towards it.
Pull your shoulders up towards your ears.
Full,
Full tightness.
And then slowly let your shoulders drop and just breathe into that release.
Once again,
Start squeezing your shoulders really tight up towards your ears as tight as you possibly can,
As if you're chasing and embracing that uneasy feeling.
Full force stepping into it.
I feel you.
I see you.
I'm with you.
Pull it all the way up,
Up,
Up,
Up,
Up,
Up.
And then let go.
Just fast let go and let your shoulders drop.
Like you're releasing,
You're throwing that irritated feeling out of your shoulders.
And now just do some gentle round circles.
Just feel the difference in that part of your body.
Circling your shoulders forwards.
Changing and gently circling backwards.
And then to seal and finish that practice,
Just take a big deep breath,
Really deep,
Deep down into your abdomen and then blow out with some force.
Now what I want you to do is start to just shake your hands for me.
Just shake your hands as if we're loosening the whole area of your hands,
Your wrists,
Your arms,
Your elbows.
Shaking,
Just shaking off water,
Shaking off the tension.
You're shaking off that irritation.
Imagine that you can see it running down your arms,
Out of your chest,
Out of your abdomen,
Out of your head.
And it's filtering down through your arms,
Down your veins and you're just shaking it off the tips of your fingers.
Just let that go.
Just let it go.
It's just energy.
It's just heavy.
It's prickly.
It's annoying.
So just shake it out.
Just release it.
Simple as that.
Like there isn't a towel in the bathroom.
You're just shaking off the water.
That's it.
It's done.
It's emptying out of you.
Just keep going for a second.
Just really mean it.
Like shake,
Shake,
Shake,
Shake,
Shake.
Let the shaking start to relax and loosen the rest of your body a little bit.
So I know that you're sat down,
But just like let your upper body get into it as well.
Shake,
Just release,
Just continuously shake it out.
You can breathe out heavy as well while you do it.
Breathe out and let go.
Make noise,
Make a sigh.
Sometimes we feel really uncomfortable in meditation,
Like we're supposed to be super quiet.
So still,
So quiet.
But this kind of meditation we're releasing and we're using the physical energy in our body,
The physical movement of our body to just release the stuff out of us.
So if you want to and you feel like it's good or even just try it if you don't feel like it's good,
Try it with me.
Just sigh really big like,
Like a nice big like,
Oh,
Thank gosh.
Kind of sigh.
Just let yourself feel that.
Oh gosh,
This is so good.
I'm getting rid of it.
It sucks.
It's annoying me.
It's filling my body and making me heavy and cranky and I'm just like,
Let it go.
Do that for a minute with me.
Just shake,
Sigh,
Make noises.
You can even roar if you want to.
As you shake your head and you shake your hands.
Just like really get into it.
Hopefully you're alone and you don't feel conscious and no one's watching.
And you can just really release.
This is the most healthy,
Most natural,
Positive way to release that yucky,
Sticky,
Prickly energy of feeling uneasy.
Release in that just darkness,
Letting it go,
Shaking it off.
And then if you can completely stop,
Settle in and get still for me.
Get really still.
Your breath might be heavier.
Follow it.
Start to bring it so it quietens and slows and calms back down.
Stillness.
Calm.
Quiet.
Feel your cells and your bones and your muscles settling down.
Falling into this quiet,
Gentle abyss inside of you.
Like this space there now.
You've made room for the calmness.
For that feeling of contentment.
Replacing all the yucky stuff with this,
All that you have in this moment.
This complete quiet moment.
It's like pulling the covers up on a really cold night.
Feeling warm.
And safe inside.
Nothing is wrong.
All is well.
You're totally back to your normal self.
Thank goodness for that.
You can feel that sense of balance in your body.
Like you've regained your comfortable composure.
Feeling good.
Until next time.
Namaste,
My friend.
Namaste.
Namaste.
Namaste.
Namaste.
Namaste.
