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.
Let's begin our practice.
If your eyes are open,
I'd like to invite you to gently close them now as we begin to go inwards together,
And let's take a moment to allow ourselves to really arrive,
Bringing your attention to your feet,
Noticing the temperature around your feet and your toes.
If your feet are making contact with the floor,
Just notice the stability,
The consistency of the ground beneath you.
Let's take a moment to invite new energy into our bodies by taking a nice deep breath,
Bringing new air into your system,
Breathing in,
Big breath holding at the top,
And on our exhales we want to drop our shoulders and make some noise,
Ahhhhhh.
Today's practice has three areas of focus.
It can be helpful to imagine these as a triangle.
I sometimes refer to this as the holy trinity of confidence and self-expression.
At the top,
Safety.
On the left corner,
This concept of being seen,
And on the right corner,
This concept of being soothed.
Safe,
Seen,
Soothed.
When these three are in place,
Our sense of confidence,
Our sense of self-belief and possibility become solid.
A gentle reminder that all of us are a forever work in progress.
This can seem daunting,
Or it can seem exciting.
You are continuing to grow.
You are continuing to evolve.
You are continuing to find new ways to love and support yourself.
Let's take another deep breath here,
Breathing in,
And letting it go.
There are three postures for these three states,
Safe,
Seen,
Soothed.
The key here is to slowly begin to attach pleasure and joy to each area.
Let's begin from the top with safety.
Reading the very simple mantra,
I am safe.
I am safe.
I am safe.
Imagining a warm bubble around you,
Protecting you,
But also this bubble feels really nice to be inside of it.
It's like a thousand tiny,
Teeny angels dancing on your skin,
On your body in the most amazing way.
I am safe.
Feeling safety in your body now.
That sense where you can just let go because you know you are supported.
I am safe.
I am safe.
I am safe.
Taking deep breaths,
Letting your nervous system know you can rest here,
You are safe here.
The key is to find pleasure in the safety,
Even a tiny,
Teeny little bit.
A breath that feels nice.
A tiny smile.
That feeling when the sun is shining down on you.
I am safe.
Now we're going to move to our second posture.
I am seen.
I am seen.
I am seen.
For this,
I'd like to invite you to gently sit a little taller.
Bring your shoulders back a little bit more,
Chin up slightly higher,
And let the world see you.
Everyone's on their own journey.
You're allowed to go slow.
Remember,
We are playing here.
This is a playground where we get to test and experiment our edges.
When we connect pleasure to each one of these things,
We train our mind and body to continue seeking these states.
As I repeat that simple mantra and you get taller in your spine and you bring your shoulders gently back and you bring your chin up,
I want you to see if you can do it in a way that feels good to you.
Maybe you need to change the order up or change the posture.
Let's take a deep breath here.
Breathing in.
And letting it go.
I am seen.
I am seen.
I am seen.
Tapping into that experience when someone in the world sees you,
They really see who you are and they recognize you.
I am seen.
I am seen.
I am seen.
Imagining a person,
A group,
Your family,
The world,
Your community,
Whoever it is.
Imagine them really seeing you.
And when they see you,
They respect you.
They're inspired by you.
They love you.
I am seen.
I am safe.
I am seen.
And I am soothed.
I am soothed.
I can soothe and comfort myself.
If you choose to take on the courageous act of sharing your voice,
Your vision,
Your heart with the world,
Inevitably things will come up.
Emotions will come up.
Challenges will come up.
And it's wonderful to have people to support you and communities to support you.
And if you can have a practice of self soothing,
It can make a world of difference.
For our purposes today,
This last posture,
I will invite you to gently place one hand on your heart,
One hand on your belly,
And almost just hold and hug yourself.
And again,
The key is to find your version of this that connects pleasure to this experience,
Even if it's 1%.
Let's take a nice deep breath as we get ready to go into our last song.
We leave a lot of room for you here.
Starting at the top of our triangle.
I am safe.
I am safe.
I am safe.
I am seen.
I am seen.
I am seen.
Tapping into the energy of safety in your life,
Tapping into the energy of showing up with confidence,
Sharing your truth,
And the world really seeing you.
The excitement,
The fulfillment,
The nervousness even.
It's all a part of the human experience.
And if at any point it gets too intense,
You can place one hand on your heart,
One hand on your stomach,
And remind yourself that you got you.
I am safe.
I am seen.
And I am soothed.
I am soothed.
Bravo,
Dear artist.
You made it to the end of the meditation,
And for that I am so grateful.
I am safe.
I am seen.
I am soothed.
It's a simple three-part mantra that you can say at any time.
But like all affirmations,
All mantras,
The key is not the words,
But the feeling.
The physical feeling of safety,
Of being seen,
Of being soothed.
For those that are joining us live at The Artist Morning,
Of course I'm going to put 20 minutes on the clock and allow us to do some private,
Personal journaling.
I'll share a journaling prompt as well.
If you're catching us on a replay,
Perhaps on Insight Timer,
You can do the same.
Get your journal out,
Get your clock out,
And see what's here and ready to be expressed through you.
Thanks once again.
My name's Darius,
And I will see you next time.
