Tuning Inward

This guided meditation is an opportunity to check in with yourself, to soften and release any tension or anxiety and to tune inward, into the melody and inner wisdom of your body. Cherish this time as you 'tune out' your busy life.

Transcript

Finding your way into stillness,

Into a comfortable place whether sitting down or lying down and just taking a bit of time to adjust and reposition and then settle into that most comfortable position.

Melting the shoulders and shoulder blades downwards away from the ears,

Softening the belly and hips into the surface under you allowing gravity to support and ground them downwards.

Relaxing the arms and legs,

Hands and feet and softening the muscles of the jaw,

The eyebrows and the mouth.

Closing the eyes thereby closing out the external world,

The hustle and bustle,

The frenzy and busyness of your life and just shutting down here taking time to tune inward.

Turning your attention to the air as it enters in and out of your body.

That fresh air that comes in and the stale air that moves out.

Breathe in,

Hold and then breathe out releasing and clearing the stale air out with a deep sigh or a long exhale.

Taking a few moments here to inhale,

Expand to the fullest expanse and exhale to deflate all the way to empty.

Inhale,

Feel the ribs,

The chest and the belly expand.

Exhale,

Decompressing and pausing to notice the body void of air.

Inhale,

Allowing the air to enter and circulate through the belly and the chest and exhale watching as the air flows out.

Continuing with this pattern,

Noticing the temperature of the fresh air as it enters into the body as it circulates and stirs up any debris or loose waste that's in the body and on the exhale that debris,

That waste and those toxins being carried out of the body.

Air comes in on the inhale,

Air and loose or stale energy releasing on the exhale,

Filling into this rhythm,

Observing that cycle,

Letting that flow melt you further and further inward into your body.

Deeper and deeper sinking into those sensations.

Continuing to follow the wave of the air in and out,

Easy in and easy out.

And with that,

Beginning to notice the nuances of the breath,

The quality,

The tempo,

Even the vibration of it.

Your breath is the metronome of your life.

It tells you so much of the experience of your world.

So becoming aware of the musicality of your breath,

Of the circulation of the air and sensation of it through the body,

You can tap into the musicality of the body itself.

And we often hear about how music is the universal language,

The language that where words fail,

Music speaks.

And that's because music carries a set of unique codes and patterns which are in fact universally understood and felt.

Music is a frequency of vibration and an energy that is transmitted across time and space between all physical matter,

Between you and the chair or the floor that you're sitting or laying on,

Between you and the building that you might walk by on a street,

Between you and the trees that you will walk by on a trail,

Between you and your loved ones,

Between you and everything that surrounds you and everything that's within you.

So our breath is an energy,

Our life force energy with a vibration and a frequency that is playing out the music of the body.

And so here we can begin to attune to it,

Begin to awaken to the rhythms and flows throughout the body,

The music of your body as indicated by that tidal rhythm of the breath in and out.

And so noticing here,

What is the melody of the breath?

Is it soft and gentle,

Fast or staccato,

Shallow or sharp?

And without changing anything,

Just observe what the breath is telling you about your present state.

In the same way that we are attuned at recognizing the underlying tone,

Emotions and messages conveyed in music,

So too can we recognize those features of the melody that contribute to the expression of emotion in our bodies.

So taking time here just to watch.

And perhaps there are different areas of the body that are playing different melodies.

The breath might move through different areas with different speed,

Resistance,

Ease,

Intensity,

Or a slightly different expression.

So with each breath,

Observing and syncing the body with the pitch,

The rhythm and the tempo of the wave of the breath.

We all have this innate musical sense.

So tuning inward and tuning into the features of the music of your body.

What's the emotion,

Message or feeling that's laying just beneath the surface of your skin?

Breathing into those membranes,

Organs,

Muscles,

And cells,

And exposing what might lie within.

Is the body speaking to you?

What might it be trying to convey?

The language of our bodies is heard,

Felt and known.

It communicates with us all the time.

And the breath is the indicator of what's going on.

It's the metronome of your life.

So if you embrace that,

What else might be exposed in this moment?

We know,

For example,

That our heart races when we're scared,

Excited or stressed.

Our breath is shallow and short.

We know that our heart beats slow when we're calm,

Blissful and happy.

Our breath in that moment mirrors the slowness and it's deep and long.

So our experience is not binary.

There's a full spectrum of melodies that we play without even realizing it.

And we can practice this awareness of the spectrum of possibilities.

We can observe them in real time and recognize what they mean or how they shift from the tracks when they don't support our wellbeing.

So tuning in to the frequency,

The tempo,

The pauses here,

Sitting with this conscious breathing.

Most of the time it's expressed without our notice.

So sitting here with the in and out consciously aware.

Knowing too that in any moment we can tune into this,

Feel the vibrations,

Listen to the song within us,

Understand the score and then be empowered to change the rhythm,

The cadence,

The beat so that it creates the melody that we want,

Not one that's conducted by someone else or external influences.

Knowing in any moment you can adjust the volume,

The pitch or the speed like a musical conductor.

So bringing your hands to rest on your heart,

Breathe in deep,

Expanding the chest,

The lungs and breathing into your heart,

Holding here and then a deep and long exhale out,

Releasing any last little tension.

Tuning into how your body feels now.

Were you able even in those few moments to soften the tempo,

Smooth out the pitch,

Lower the volume or unnecessary noise?

Were you able to breathe space and ease into some tense areas in the body or were you able to quiet down the activity of your mind just for a moment?

Ceiling that in now,

Thanking your body and your breath,

Taking a deep breath in full of gratitude and long breath or sigh out to clear out any lingering stagnant or stale air from deep within you.

Taking a few more breaths,

Sitting in that gratitude and then beginning to notice the air circulating around your physical body,

The temperature of it as it swirls around you,

The sensation of it as it moves across your skin.

Your skin,

What separates you from the outside world yet in the same way,

The layer of connection between you and the outside world.

Bringing your awareness to this outer surface of your body and beginning to sense and gently,

Slowly connect back to your external world again.

First watching the air movements,

Then perhaps tuning into sounds around you.

Then beginning to softly twitch your fingers and toes,

Bringing some slight movement into the body.

Maybe extending that into a stretch of the arms and legs out long.

And then whenever you feel called to come back to your physical reality,

Fluttering those eyes open.

Just being gentle and slow as you re-emerge from your tranquil stillness and be gentle with yourself as you move throughout the rest of your day,

Continuing to carry this conscious awareness with you.

Thank you for spending this time with me.

Have a beautiful day,

Dear one.