Good morning,
And welcome to The Artist's Morning.
My name's Darius,
And I am so grateful you and I get this time together.
Wherever you are in the world,
Whatever time it is,
Whatever day it is,
We made it to this moment together.
We have committed to carving out just a little bit of time for ourselves to connect with ourselves.
And for that,
I am so deeply grateful.
Today's meditation practice will be intended to help you gain a little bit more confidence for your journey as you step closer and closer towards your own dreams.
I will guide you the whole way through,
No need to overthink it.
You can't get this wrong.
We're going to go slow,
And a reminder that you get to choose how far you want to lean into this experience,
How open and receptive you feel this morning.
Let's begin our practice.
Let's find a nice comfortable seat with a little bit of privacy.
And when you are ready,
I'd like to ask you to gently close your eyes as we go inwards together.
Let's give ourselves a moment to land here.
This is a new day,
A new moment.
Allow yourself to arrive.
Arrive here,
Now.
Bringing your attention to your breath.
If you are open to it,
Let's begin to take deeper,
More intentional breaths now.
Taking a nice deep breath in.
Watching as your lungs expand,
As your belly expands.
Allowing yourself to get a little bit bigger with each inhale and with each exhale.
Gently,
Lovingly letting go of anything that does not serve you.
We are clearing old energy out with our exhales,
Bringing new life in with our inhales.
And if possible,
Maybe you can find a little bit of joy,
A little bit of pleasure,
A little bit of ease in this breathing practice.
As we take deeper breaths,
Maybe something feels really yummy here for you.
This softness falls upon you.
Softening any tension.
Maybe the tension is in your forehead and these breaths just melt it away.
Softening your cheeks,
Your jaw,
Your eyes,
Your ears,
Your neck.
Just imagining it melting.
Maybe it's like 1%,
2% more joy and pleasure,
But that is a win.
Softening your neck,
Your shoulders.
As this loving softness works its way down your back,
Here it feels like a hug.
A gentle,
Warm embrace from someone you love and care about wraps your torso,
Holds you close.
And if you're open to it in this warm embrace,
Your shoulders drop and you soften and you let go.
What's it like to let go here?
If you're not ready to let go,
You don't need to let go.
And if you're ready to let go even 1% more,
Here is your opportunity.
On our exhale,
An opportunity to let go and soften into your heart.
Breathing in,
Hold at the top.
Bringing your shoulders up on the inhale at the top.
Holding,
Holding,
Holding.
And when you're ready,
Let it all go and drop your shoulders.
Letting go can be an incredibly effective way to gaining confidence,
To gaining momentum.
I want you to imagine that we are going on a beautiful hike together.
We are hiking up a gorgeous mountain.
The trees are lush.
The air is fresh.
The sun is exactly the temperature that you love the most.
The birds are singing.
You look up at the top of this beautiful mountain.
And maybe your heart starts to get excited for what you see at the peak.
Now as you take your first step,
I want you to imagine that you start to feel some weight on your shoulders.
You take your second step.
You feel this weight on your shoulders.
Now you,
My friend,
Are very strong.
You have so much potential.
You can climb this mountain with all that weight on your shoulders.
All that weight in your backpack.
And maybe,
If you're interested,
You can let go of some of this weight.
You can lighten your load as you continue to climb up this mountain.
It's up to you if you'd like to let go of anything here.
Maybe there's some doubt and uncertainty that you no longer need.
Maybe there is something or someone you are ready to forgive.
Maybe it's time for you to trust.
Trust your own body.
Trust your heart.
Trust your eyes and your vision.
Trust your community.
Trust in the universe.
Please remember this is your journey.
No one can tell you what you need to let go of or if you need to let go of anything.
Dear artist,
Is there something you are ready to let go of?
Remember you can't get this meditation wrong.
You can come back to it at any time.
And choose different things you want to let go of and see how that works for you in your journey.
We have one more song this morning.
It's a beautiful song.
And I'd like to use this song as the background,
The soundscape,
For us as we walk up this beautiful mountain together.
You have full permission to go slow.
You have full permission to rest.
You have permission to stop or even go back down.
You have full permission to take in the view.
You can stop and smell the roses,
Dear artist.
This is your journey.
You can go at any pace you'd like.
And that means you can also choose to fly.
Trust yourself.
Trust your body.
Trust your heart.
I'm going to stay quiet for the rest of this meditation and let you have some fun.
Bravo,
Dear artist.
Bravo,
Dear creator.
Wherever you are on this mountain,
Let's take a moment to ground ourselves,
Coming back to your body.
Maybe if you're open to it,
Place one hand on your heart,
One hand just above your belly button,
And just share a little gratitude with yourself and maybe this mountain this morning,
Coming back.
One last deep breath here.
Feel free to place your hands wherever you'd like now.
Thank you for going on this journey with me.
Maybe you were very open.
Maybe you were completely resistant.
Both options are totally valid.
Each day is different.
Each person is different.
One thing's for sure,
Though.
You made it to the end.
And that is worthy of a celebration.
For those that are joining live at the Artist Morning,
I'm going to put 20 minutes on the clock and invite us to continue this journey through private personal journaling.
You're catching us on a replay,
Perhaps on Insight Timer.
Of course,
You can do the same.
Put 20 minutes on your own clock and see what's here,
What's real,
What's alive and ready to be expressed through you.
Thank you for meditating with me.
My name's Darius,
And I will see you next time.
