Good morning and welcome to the Artist's Morning.
My name is Darius and today's meditation practice is going to be a bit different.
Today's theme is connecting and activating our pleasure,
Our joy,
Possibly our sensuality and intimacy with ourselves.
Today's meditation will be an active meditation.
There will be invitations for you to gently move your body,
To breathe slightly differently.
There will be some music that is more energizing.
So before we go further,
Just take a moment to check in with yourself and see how that feels in your body and if it resonates.
And if it doesn't,
It's okay to hit pause on this meditation.
And if it does,
It's okay to to test the edges of our pleasure.
Your eyes are open.
I'd like to invite you to close them now as we go inwards together.
Just notice what's alive in this moment.
What's real and accessible for you this morning.
Take a moment to connect with your breath.
See if you can stay with it from the first instance it appears in your consciousness,
To the last instance as it leaves your body.
See what it's like when you start to take deeper breaths.
Does your mind and body enjoy a deeper breath?
Maybe it doesn't,
That's okay too,
Just notice.
And let's go ahead and connect to our voice this morning,
Making a little bit of sound,
Perhaps,
As you inhale and exhale.
Giving our voice some space,
Allowing it to expand,
A gentle reminder that your voice matters.
It's allowed to take up more space in this world.
If you can't find your voice or it's shy,
It still matters even when it's quiet and shy.
Allowing a gentle ease to fall upon your head,
Your forehead,
Just softening your muscles and your face,
Your jaw,
Your neck,
Your shoulders,
Just releasing any tension.
Just letting it go as we go deeper here together,
Continuing to breathe deep.
If you're open to it,
Continuing to allow your voice to take up more space.
Your voice matters.
Your pleasure matters.
Your joy matters.
If you are resistant to those statements,
That's okay.
If there's energy behind those statements for you,
That's okay too.
Continue taking deep breaths,
Pulling the energy from your sit bone all the way up your spine,
Up into the middle of your forehead,
Hold it there,
And then release with your exhale and a noise,
Pulling the energy from the place in which your bottom connects with your seat all the way up,
Breathing in,
Holding at your forehead,
And releasing,
Breathing in,
Pulling the energy up and releasing.
One last time,
Pulling up,
Deepest breath this morning,
Hold,
Hold,
And the loudest release you've got.
And just take a moment just to feel how that feels in your body.
Your pleasure matters.
Your joy matters in this world.
You,
My dear,
Matter.
For this next part of our meditation,
I want to activate your hands.
If you are open to it,
Gently just rubbing your hands against each other,
Slowly,
Lovingly,
And seeing how open and able you are to receive that touch,
Are you able to feel yourself against yourself?
Expanding your touch up your arms slowly,
Your forearms,
Your upper arms,
Really just taking your time,
And following your pleasure,
What feels good for you,
Gently taking your fingertips,
And rubbing them against your forehead,
The sides of your face,
Down your neck,
Following your own pleasure,
And if you notice you stop breathing,
Take a deep breath and see if you can open up a little bit more,
Allowing your fingertips to work down your chest,
Your heart space,
Maybe you want lighter touch,
Maybe your pleasure wants harder touch,
The practice here is trusting yourself and following your own pleasure for you,
Freeing your hands now to go wherever they'd like on your body,
Slowly,
Softly,
And maybe your hands just want to sit on your lap and not move at all,
And that is your pleasure,
And maybe they have energy,
And want to dance,
Your pleasure is your pleasure,
Your love and intimacy for yourself is yours,
Your body is your body,
You don't need permission,
You don't need approval,
You don't need to look anyway,
You don't need to move anyway,
Your pleasure is alive and available to you at any time,
Use your breath to pull the energy up your body,
And with your exhale imagine it extending out to the tips of your finger to your toes,
And if resistance shows up and you want to sit perfectly still that's okay too,
Let's take a deep breath here together breathing in,
And just letting it all go,
With this last song I'm gonna mostly stay quiet,
It's an activating song,
There's lots of energy here,
And if you are open to it and there's energy in your body that wants to move,
I'd like to invite you to do exactly that,
Move your hips,
Move your arms,
Move your hands,
Move your breath,
And see if there is pleasure and joy and sensual energy in you that is looking for release,
And if you want to stay perfectly still that's okay too.
So so so so so let's take a moment just to land here,
Wherever you went whether you decided to stay perfectly still,
Or you leaned into the invitation to follow your pleasure and move the energy,
You made it here,
We made it here,
I'm so grateful for that,
I have so much respect to you for that,
Let's take another deep breath here together,
For those of you joining us live at the artist morning we're going to go into our private personal journaling chapter,
I'm going to put some time on the clock and we're going to just follow what's here and alive,
If you're catching us on a replay,
Perhaps on insight timer of course you could do the same,
Thank you for meditating with me my name is Darius,
And I'll see you next time.
