Good morning and welcome to The Artist's Morning.
My name is Darius and I am so grateful that you and I get this time together.
Our practice today is intended to remind you of the power that exists inside you right now.
Let's begin our practice.
If your eyes are open,
I want to invite you to close them now.
As we begin to go inwards together,
Nice and slow,
Giving yourself a chance to really arrive in this moment,
To land in your seat,
In your breath,
In your body.
Let's begin taking deeper,
Longer breaths together,
Bringing fresh new energy in with our inhales and letting go of old,
Unwanted,
Unneeded energy with our exhales.
New creative energy in,
Old,
Stagnant energy out.
Continue taking deep breaths,
Allowing a gentle softness to work its way through you,
Softening your forehead,
Softening your shoulders,
Down your arms,
Down your back,
Down your torso,
Your hips,
Your legs,
Your knees,
Your shins,
All the way down to your ankles,
The tops of your feet,
The bottoms of your feet.
Letting go of all of the old,
Unwanted energy,
Seeing if you can notice a little bit of joy in your body,
Maybe a little bit of pleasure and ease.
The deeper breaths you take,
The more you'll be able to access this joy,
This pleasure,
This ease.
There's no way to get this right or wrong,
I promise.
Your brain might try to tell you you're not doing it right,
But that's just what brains do sometimes.
Come back,
Come back to the breath,
Back to your body.
There is so much power inside you right now.
Even if you can't sense it,
Even if you deny it,
There is power inside you right now.
I want to invite you to gently place one or two hands by your neck,
Just gently,
And take a deep breath here.
Make some noise.
Do you feel that?
The vibration and frequency of your voice.
Let's try it again.
Deep breath in.
There it is again.
You can place your hands down.
Your voice.
We are freeing our voices now.
May our voice be free today.
May it be honest.
May it be clear.
May it stand up for truth,
Freeing your voice and the power that exists inside your voice now.
I am allowed to speak my truth.
I am allowed to be bold with my voice.
I am allowed to be brave.
I am also allowed to be silent and choose to listen.
The choice of how and when I use my voice is 100% in my power.
Just sit with that notion right there.
The choice of when and if to use your voice is 100% in your power.
Maybe you deny this.
Maybe you don't want to look at this.
That's okay.
It does not take away the fact that you,
Dear artist,
Have power inside your voice right now.
Let's take another deep breath here.
Big exhale with some noise.
There's nothing you need to do here.
There's nothing that needs to happen with your voice.
If there's something you want to do here,
If there is a truth you want to share,
A story that's ready to be told,
A deep belly laugh that you want to release,
A song that your soul's ready to sing.
If today,
Dear artist,
You choose to use your voice,
Just imagine for a moment what adventure you might find yourself in.
What could happen today,
Dear artist,
If you truly freed your voice,
Freed your heart,
Freed your spirit?
And if you are not sure,
And if you feel nervous,
All of that is totally okay.
It's okay to be nervous.
It's okay to say no thank you.
And it's okay to grab that mic,
To take a deep breath,
And to free that incredible voice of yours.
Stay in the energy of play.
Of joy,
Of adventure.
There's nothing serious happening here,
Dear artist.
It's an exploration.
Let's take a deep breath together here,
Breathing in.
Big exhale out.
This is our last song this morning.
I'm going to mostly sit back and stay quiet and invite you in to some more play,
Some more joy,
Some more depth and connection with your voice.
What could happen to your day,
Your week,
Your year,
If you gave your voice even 10% more permission to take up space?
Bravo,
Dear artist.
Bravo,
Dear creator.
Made it to the end of this meditation,
And for that I am so grateful.
Hopefully you got a little bit of quality time with your voice.
Took some time to reflect on what could happen to your day,
To your week,
To your year.
If somehow,
Some way,
You found yourself able to give your voice a chance to expand and grow and be more you.
For those of us that are joining live at the artist morning,
I'm going to put 20 minutes on the clock and share a journaling prompt to help us continue this exploration.
And of course,
If you're catching us on a replay,
Perhaps on insight timer,
You can do the same.
Thank you once again for meditating with me.
My name is Darius,
And I will see you next time.
