Meditation To Celebrate Yourself

In this 20-minute guided meditation, we begin by celebrating the 3-year anniversary of Artist Morning (the meditation group I started at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020) -- which also led me to create a community here, on Insight Timer.

Meditating with you all has become one of the major highlights for me and I can't imagine life without it. That said, we are here now so let's explore, support ourselves, play, and find out what's alive in this moment.

Transcript

Good morning and welcome to the artist morning.

My name is Darius and I am so happy you are here.

I mean that because today the day of recording this meditation is a very special day.

Yesterday I celebrated artist mornings three-year anniversary and the fact that you and I,

No matter who you are,

If I've met you before,

If we've only been meditating on insight timer,

It doesn't matter.

The fact that we get this time together,

It warms my heart.

It's one of the great joys of my life.

So thank you for three years of holding artist morning together,

Holding it sacred,

Holding it silly,

Holding it as a community.

I've literally got goosebumps all over my body.

So today's meditation will be a celebration.

Let's begin.

If your eyes are open,

I'd like to invite you to close them now.

As we go in together,

Taking a moment to slow things down,

Slow your inner world down,

Giving us a chance to arrive,

To arrive in this moment together.

Life can have its ups and downs.

It's full of surprises.

Some are really nice and some can be challenging and heavy.

I believe one effective way to move forward,

To live a full life,

Is by slowing down,

Taking a pause and acknowledging how far you've come.

If nobody's told you in a while,

Thank you.

I'd like to thank you.

I'd like to thank you for how much you care,

Care about the people around you,

About your friends,

Your family.

I'd like to thank you for your big,

Giant,

Sensitive heart.

Sometimes maybe it feels overwhelming to feel that much.

Sometimes it might feel difficult.

When we can't feel,

We numb ourselves.

Whatever you've been through,

Wherever you're at,

You are here and I'm grateful.

Let's take a deep breath together,

Breathing into this moment.

Breathe in,

Big juicy breath in.

Hold that breath.

Keep holding.

If you can,

Take another inhale in here,

Holding and letting it all go.

On this particular morning,

You may be resistant to my gratitude for you and I'm here to say,

I don't care.

I'm gonna still give you some love.

Be resistant,

Be open.

On this morning,

Doesn't matter to me.

I'm gonna keep giving you some love.

I'm gonna be here with your resistance.

I'm gonna be here with your open heart and remind you that you are never alone.

You are never alone.

Let's try something here together.

If you're open to it,

Placing your hands in front of you,

Palms together and just gently rubbing them together,

Creating a little bit of heat.

Can you feel that heat between your hands?

And now I'd like to ask you to place them gently over top your eyes and take a moment just to feel what it's like to hold yourself,

To hold your beautiful face,

To hold your beautiful mind.

And maybe you want to just softly move your hands around your face,

Just following what feels good,

Following what feels soothing,

Holding yourself here and seeing if there's a way for your mind,

Your body to just let go a little bit more.

Even 1% more ease is beautiful here.

Feeling the love in your hands,

Touching yourself,

Holding yourself,

Soothing yourself.

If you want to drop your hands,

That's okay.

If your hands want to experiment,

Gently touching your heart,

Maybe one hand on your heart,

One hand just above your belly button.

There's no right or wrong way of doing this.

We're just taking a small part of our day and holding ourselves,

Loving ourselves,

Soothing ourselves,

Thanking our bodies for being our travel companions on this journey.

The invitation is to be here now,

Right here in this moment.

The past got you here.

The future can wait.

This moment is worthy of a celebration.

You made it here.

You've never been this far before.

You have never been this far before on this human journey.

Be here now.

And if you find yourself leaving here now,

That's okay.

You can always begin again and return to here.

Your breath has become shallow.

If you're holding your breath,

Let's open that breath up.

Let's take some more deep breaths here,

Here,

Now.

What's alive for you in this moment?

What does it feel like to place your hands on your body and to hold yourself,

To soothe yourself,

To support yourself?

Maybe you are deeply resistant to it and that's okay.

What is this silly thing you got me doing,

Darius?

That's okay.

And maybe there's access to a deeper level of self-love here.

Maybe just a little bit it feels nice and maybe more than a little bit.

This is our last song this morning.

I'm gonna stay quiet.

Just give you and your beautiful,

Brilliant human some time to hang out and connect.

Bravo,

Dear artist.

Bravo,

Dear creator.

We made it to the end of this meditation.

We made it to three years of Artist Morning.

This would not be possible without you.

Maybe this is your first meditation you've done with me.

You're still a part of the community.

Maybe you've been here since day one.

You're still a part of the community.

Artist Morning would not be possible without the kind,

Creative humans that support it,

That encourage it,

That open their hearts,

That open their ears,

That open their hearts,

That celebrate each other.

This has been one of the most meaningful things I have been a part of and I'm so grateful for each and every one of you.

For those of you that are joining us this morning live at the Artist Morning,

As always I'm gonna put 20 minutes on the clock and invite you to do some private personal journaling.

If you're catching us on a replay for our Insight Timer community members,

We got lots of love for you too and of course you could do the same.

Put some time on your clock,

Get your journal out and just see what's here and ready to be expressed through you.

It doesn't need to be good or bad,

It mostly just needs to be honest.

Thank you for meditating with me.

My name is Darius and I will see you next time.

Reviews

I truly do love your meditations. Your voice is calming. Thank you 🙏

Thank you too for what you do!
I love how much you are showing empathy for the resisting parts inside.
Celebration, gratitude and love for myself- with your meditations, I am opening up to them. Thank you!

I really needed this one today. Fortuitous would be a good word. I'm really deep in my depression but I'm crawling my way up and out. I won't stop but it's pretty damn hard. These help. Thank you. 💙

Congratulations🎈🫶🏼🎉👏🏻🤗👏🏻🤗👏🏻🎊🎈🎊🎈3 years of pure love and inspiration movement towards regenerative change 💓👏🏻👏🏻🎊Much love to you my dear friend 💓🎈🎊🙏🏼👏🏻

Thanks for this cellabratory meditation! When things feel whacky it’s so important to step away and move inward to remember the vastness of aliveness. Thank you for this beautiful journey.

Thank you, Darius for your love, authenticity and support. I love the Artist Morning and never miss a week. Keep up the good work, sacred brother. You’re doing big things!❤️❤️❤️

Thank you so much Darius, you are a gift to this word. Congratulations for 3 years of trying to help the world getting better, and you really do help. Please continue for many more years. Let me know when you plan to come to Switzerland. You're invited any time. Have a wonderful day, too. 😊

That was ahhhhmazing. Much love to you Darius and I could feel your live coming through the meditation. Congrats on, as you said, “making it this far.” That idea really made me smile. All best to you! —Deb

I’ve been on Insight for several years - this was one of my favorite experiences. Thanks for the space, the guidance and your love. I’ll be back for more. Thank you, namaste.

Congratulations Darius! I am grateful for you as well 🙏☺️💕

Thanks you Darius and congratulations to you and us all for making it further than we’ve ever been before 🙏🏻💖✨🎄🌎✌🏾🦉👁️🦈💥🌿🌼🎯🪷🦋🌈🌴🙏🏻🎁🙌🍭🫶🏻🕊️

I enjoyed your warm voice and loving soul. I laughed, I cried, I am thankful 😌🙏🏻

Left this meditative space feeling so grateful for my life and all the things I’ve accomplished up to this point. A beautiful reminder to look back every once in a while at how far we’ve come 💛

Thank you Darius. This meditation was great to celebrate myself being 49 years young & for meditating with you for 3 years. It was so uplifting & made me smile 😊❤️

Amazing and even while I was doing it, I shared it with
others! Congratulations Darius and Artist morning on three years! I think I listened to your first post three years ago! And you are one of my favorites! Thank you for the gift of celebrating me ! I celebrate you!

Feeling so much gratitude for you and this community. Thank you for creating such a beautiful space, Darius.

I’m so glad I’m a part of this community! Thank you and Congratulations on 3+ years and to many more!

Congratulations on 3 years! Happy to be on the journey with you

Celebrating you celebrating me
Celebrating now needed to celebrate today
Thank you!

Always a great pleasure to be guided by you Darius.
Congratulations on reaching this anniversary!! Wishing you many more years to come. And Thankyou again 🙌🏼💜🙌🏼