MOL: A Dedication To The Light Within

This is a Virtual Meditation on the Lawn session hosted by the Contemplative Sciences Center at the University of Virginia with the guest facilitator, Ina Stephens. This guided meditation focuses on honoring the light within us. Virtual Meditation on the Lawn is a free online live program hosted from September through May.

Transcript

Okay.

Hello everybody.

Welcome to virtual meditation on the lawn.

My name is Ina Stevens and I'm from the department of pediatrics.

I'm actually a pediatric infectious diseases and I am also the director of the pediatric medical yoga and integrative health clinic here at UVA.

And I am extremely honored this morning to be giving virtual meditation on the lawn.

And I've thought a lot about this meditation today,

Especially like right after the holiday of Thanksgiving.

And I don't know if many of you know,

But today is actually the first day of Hanukkah and Hanukkah is the festival of lights.

It's the holiday of lights and actually the word Hanukkah itself means dedication.

And so I'm kind of taking this to mean the dedication to the lights and the light within.

And I like to kind of focus on that.

And I find kind of feel that the holiday of light is telling me as I'm lighting the candles at night to slow down,

To quiet down,

To find that holiday of lights inside.

You know,

We spend so much of our time,

You know,

Thinking about the future and running around and all entangled and all entangled in my thoughts from the past and to actually take a moment to feel the light of the present moment.

I think that kind of is what the meaning of Hanukkah is really meaning to me,

Particularly this holiday season.

And I'm going to ask you today to kind of feel that igniting that light inside as we sit here and do this meditation this morning.

I also wanted to incorporate a little bit of movement to this meditation this morning.

Again,

Being very much a yoga teacher,

I want to kind of move.

And I feel that after some of the sluggishness of this holiday that we all sat around and probably ate a little bit,

It's going to feel good to move just a little bit in your chair and ignite that light within.

So with all that said,

I'd like you to see if you can find your seat on your chair.

And that means to just kind of feel your body in that chair,

Feel your seat,

Feel your legs,

Heavy planted on the floor,

Maybe you want to lean back into the chair and feel a little bit of support from the back of the chair.

But wherever you are,

See if you could also center some of your attention to that light right in your very center,

That light in your heart,

That light within.

And if you find it easier to maybe close your eyes and just listen to my voice,

That's great.

Or if you want to keep your eyes just sort of looking at the floor at half mast,

Do that.

But wherever you are,

Plant your hands on your top of your thighs and take a very,

Very,

Very deep inhale through your nose.

And as you exhale it out,

Feel that presence,

Feel that light right inside your breath.

And the light is actually the gateway to your own presence.

See if you can really feel it as you take another big inhale through your nose.

And as you exhale it out,

Just let go everything that you thought about the Monday morning after the holiday was bringing you.

Let go of all that rush.

You don't really need to do anything.

You're here at this moment.

Again,

Inhale through your nose.

And as you exhale it out,

Let it out this time with a little bit of sound.

Let it go as you relax your body.

And with your next inhale,

Drop your hands to either side of your chair and inhale,

Let your arms come all the way up overhead,

Reaching up overhead,

Clasping your hands right over your head.

Take a very big inhale and look up to your hands.

And as you exhale it out,

Let your arms go down one more time.

Let them drop to the back of the chair.

Again,

Inhale,

Arms come up,

Reach out wide,

Lift them up overhead.

And as you exhale this time,

Clasp your hands and turn them inside out so your palms go all the way up to the ceiling.

And then reach down with your right elbow,

Reaching,

Pulling it down with your hands clasped and your left elbow is just behind your head.

And if it feels good to you and you have your head in the back of your arm,

Of your left arm,

Lean back using your left arm,

Your left elbow almost as a pillow.

Feel that stretch in your shoulder,

Waking up your upper back.

Take a deep inhale and let both arms go up,

Reach them back up all the way to the ceiling.

And on your next exhale,

Reach your left elbow all the way down,

Right elbow goes up to the ceiling.

Again,

Keeping your hands clasped,

Feeling a nice stretching feeling all along the right side of your body.

And if it feels good,

Lean your head back just a little bit into the back of your right forearm and your right elbow,

Awakening your spine,

Stretching your shoulders.

Take another inhale and reach those arms all the way back up.

Now keeping them clasped,

Reach both hands all the way over to the right.

Keep those feet planted.

Keep your back straight as you look up all the way under your left hand.

Take another inhale and bring yourself back up seated straight in the chair.

Now let's go the other way.

Reach both arms all the way over to the left,

Looking under your right arm,

Your right forearm,

Your right armpit even if you can,

And exhale,

Bring it back up.

Now let's just drop the right hand and reach under your chair with your right hand and reach all the way up with your left.

So you get a huge stretching feeling all along the left side of your body and take a big deep lean all the way over to the right,

Really opening up the right and left side,

The left rib cage.

Take one more deep inhale and reach up with the left arm.

Let's go the other way.

Drop that left arm all the way underneath the left side of your chair.

Reach up the right arm,

Reach it up to the ceiling and take a bend all the way over to your left side,

Getting a huge stretch all along the right side of your body.

Take one more inhale and reach with the right arm,

Bring them back up.

Now let's engage the shoulders.

Let's lift up both shoulders,

Lift them up and drop them back.

Lift up both shoulders,

Reach them forward and drop them back.

Do that one more time.

Big inhale,

Lift up both shoulders and drop them back.

Now go the other way.

Lift them back and drop those shoulders front.

Lift those shoulders back and drop them front.

One more,

Lift them up and drop them front.

Now open up both of your arms and reach around and give yourself a huge hug.

So grab onto opposite shoulders and really give yourself a big,

Big squeeze.

Take a deep inhale and try to remember the last time you gave yourself a really big squeeze.

And exhale it out.

Open up your hands,

Shake them out.

Now take your right hand and reach around to the back of the chair.

Take your left hand,

Reach it all the way forward and see if you can grab the back of your chair and turn over your right,

Looking over your right shoulder and getting a little bit of a spinal twist.

A big thoracic twist,

Awakening your spine,

Awakening that light within.

Take one more deep inhale and exhale it out.

Come around back to the front.

Take that left hand and reach around the back of your chair.

Bring your right hand all the way front forward and see if you can find that spinal twist on your left hand side.

Take a deep inhale and look over your left shoulder.

Again,

Feeling the thoracic twist,

A nice spinal twist,

Awakening you,

Awakening your breath.

Take one more deep inhale and bring yourself back around.

Bring your arms all the way up one more time.

Big inhale.

Feel that breath,

Feel that light and bring your hands down to heart center.

Now find a little bit of space in your chair and bring up your right leg and cross it over your left foot.

So I'm going to move and see if you can see what I'm doing to a figure four and see if you can open up your right hip,

Your right legs,

Take a big inhale and just lean forward fold and see if you can drop your hands to the ground as you lean over feeling a little bit of a stretch in your right butt cheek,

In your right hamstring with your legs in a figure four.

Take one more deep inhale and bring yourself back on up.

Bring your leg back,

Squeeze your knee into your chest.

You can shake out your leg a little bit and plant it then again on the ground.

Take your left leg and take your left ankle,

Cross it over your right knee,

Opening up your hips,

Finding a figure four with your legs again,

Opening up for a big hip opener.

Take a deep inhale and exhale.

Bring yourself forward fold again,

Opening up,

Stretching your left hamstring,

Your left butt cheek.

See if you can release a little bit of the tension in your body.

Take one more inhale and bring yourself back on up.

Bring your legs back forward and just stretch out your leg a little bit or squeeze the knee into the shoulder and plant yourself back down.

Sit back straight up into your chair.

See if you can find your center again,

Just a little bit of centering.

See that you notice some of the movement,

Some of the energy and some of that light that you just awakened and opened up in your body.

Let's take a very deep inhale.

Inhale through your nose,

Reach your arms all the way up over your head and bring your hands down to heart center,

Both hands in front of the heart,

What we call Anjali Mudra.

And see if you can find that light within.

See if you can find your center.

See if you can just focus in on your breath.

Your breath is always there for you.

It'll be there for you for the rest of the day and for the rest of your life.

And whenever you find it a little bit difficult and you're finding yourself a little bit scattered,

See if you can just refocus,

Find that center,

Find your breath and find your light.

Let's take one more deep inhale through your nose,

Exhaling it through your mouth,

A little bit of a sound,

A little bit with an ah.

Now take this one last moment for yourself.

Take this moment for yourself and remind yourself that you took this time out of your day for your own practice,

For your own centering,

For your own light.

And thank yourselves for taking this time out of your day for you.

Take one more deep inhale and we'll close this practice with an ohm.

Ohm.

Thank you all for sharing this virtual meditation on the lawn with me today.

I hope you can take a little bit of this light and carry it with you for the rest of your day.

Thank you very much.