Good morning and welcome to the artist morning.
My name is Darius and I am so grateful you and I get this time together.
Today's meditation practice is intended to help you come back to your center,
Come back to focus,
And come back to a deep sense of presence.
A reminder that perfection isn't a thing.
If you're trying to get this right,
You're gonna be disappointed.
We are playing together.
Progress over perfection.
Even if you can get 1% more present,
1% more grounded,
That's a win.
Let's begin our meditation.
If your eyes are open,
I'd like to invite you to gently close them now as we go inwards together.
What do you notice here?
What's it like to get just a little bit closer to your heart?
What's alive in your heart space?
How is your heart this morning?
Taking a few deep intentional breaths into your heart now.
There are many things in the world that can pull our attention away from ourselves,
Away from our center.
When we collect our energy and we are able to stay present and focused,
We are able to bring our fullest self to each encounter.
This gives us access to confidence,
To clarity,
To charisma,
To courage.
What I'd like to do with this next part is a simple breathing exercise.
It's called box breathing.
It's very popular and I think the reason it's so popular is because it's so effective.
Whenever I am feeling really scattered,
Two minutes of box breathing and my attention comes back to my center.
It's a really simple exercise.
It's called box breathing because imagine the four sides of a square box.
There are four states we inhale for four seconds,
We hold for four seconds,
We exhale for four seconds,
We hold for four seconds.
It's that simple.
We're gonna do it four times and at the very end we're gonna simply hold our breath for as long as we can.
Don't over do it and then we'll see if anything has shifted,
If any of our attention has come closer to our center.
Let's begin.
Get nice and comfortable.
Ideally you are sitting.
Let's begin with our inhale.
Inhale for four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Hold,
Three,
Two,
One.
Exhale,
Three,
Two,
One.
Hold,
Three,
Two,
One.
Inhale,
Three,
Two,
One.
Hold,
Three,
Two,
One.
Exhale,
Three,
Two,
One.
Hold,
Three,
Two,
One.
Inhale,
Three,
Two,
One.
Hold,
Three,
Two,
One.
Exhale,
Three,
Two,
One.
Hold,
Three,
Two,
One.
Inhale,
Three,
Two,
One.
Hold,
Three,
Two,
One.
Exhale,
Three,
Two,
One.
Hold.
Here I want you to hold as long as you can.
Again,
Not overdoing it.
And when you are ready to exhale,
I want you to let it all go and then fall into whatever breath feels natural for you here.
And simply notice if anything feels slightly different.
For me,
I often feel like I've collected my energy,
Collected my thoughts,
Collected my awareness,
And I've pulled them into my heart,
Into my center.
There's a clarity here.
There's a clearness here.
And if you notice,
There's a lot of tension in your forehead because you're thinking so much,
Or tension in your jaw.
Let's soften your forehead,
Melting away any tension,
Bringing softness to your jaw,
Your neck,
Your back,
Your spine's gentle but tall.
What's it like to be here,
Now,
In this?
There is a little bit of power here for you.
Can you feel it?
There is clarity here for you.
Are you open to it?
There is a deeper sense of focus.
We have one song left in our meditation this morning.
I'm gonna mostly stay quiet and allow you to just be.
Be here,
Now.
I want to send you a blessing from my heart to yours.
Whatever's coming up for you on this day,
I wish you the best.
I wish you confidence and courage to be yourself,
To speak in your voice,
To share your perspective,
Your truth,
Your vision with the world.
I'll leave you with your heart,
With your soul,
With your body,
For the rest of the song.
I hope you enjoy.
Bravo,
Dear artist.
You made it to the end of this meditation.
For that,
I'm so grateful.
For those joining live at the artist's morning,
I'm gonna put 20 minutes on the clock and allow us to do some private,
Personal journaling to continue the experience of being present,
Of maybe setting some intentions for our day.
And if you're catching us on a replay,
Perhaps on Insight Timer,
Of course you could do the same.
Put some time on your own clock and see what's here and ready to be expressed through you.
Thank you once again for meditating with me.
My name is Darius and I will see you next time.
