World Peace Meditation

This is a special, guided meditation dedicated to world peace. And, more specifically, peace in the Middle East right now (Oct 2023).

Meditation may not seem that important or like an obvious starting place for what we can contribute... But when we can regulate our nervous systems, ground our energy, and connect deeply with our hearts that IS the place where we can make the biggest impact--because we can respond instead of react, and we can bring a calming, grounding presence instead of adding to the chaos.

If your heart is hurting right now, if you aren't sure what to do or where to begin, start here.

Peace is many things, and it all begins with coming back and listening to your heart.

Thank you for taking this journey with me. Sending so much love to you all and to our world.

*Please note: I preface this meditation with an 8-minute talk and story at the beginning. It helps set the stage. If you'd like to dive right into the meditation, please skip to about the 8-minute mark.

Transcript

Good morning and welcome to the artist's morning.

My name is Darius and This is a very special guided meditation That is dedicated to peace the world peace And more specifically to peace In the Middle East This meditation is made at a time where there is a lot of pain and chaos and Suffering in the Middle East and It might seem like a silly thing to do to meditate for peace.

There are real tragedies happening now and I understand that and my personal belief is when we are able to regulate our nervous systems and Ground our energy and connect deeply with our hearts That is the place where we can actually make the biggest impact Because we are not Reacting we are responding we are Able to bring calming grounding presence Instead of adding to the chaos,

Which can be very easy to do because there's so much happening So my intention with our time together is to slow things down Go into our hearts so that we can feel our hearts because sometimes when there's So much pain in the world in our worlds on our feeds We shut down And I get it.

I do it sometimes too And my belief is there is a middle path where we can keep our hearts open and Also not Overconsume Content particularly graphic content to the point of paralysis where we Freeze and we're actually not able to help ourselves or help anyone else This reminds me of a story about the Buddha Before the Buddha became the Buddha there are many stories and The ones that stand out for me When the Buddha was born many miracles happened trees would bend down to help his mother during labor and these wonderful miraculous things would happen and the priests came and told Siddhartha's father his name was Siddhartha before he was the Buddha that this is a very special boy and He will either become one of the most powerful kings in history or one of the most powerful spiritual leaders in history and his father Made a decision then and there that he wanted him to be a king so they sheltered Siddhartha from Any suffering any pain any aging any sickness so that it wouldn't activate his heart They never let him see flowers that were wilting or aging people in the in the community Shut it off.

Don't let him experience pain suffering death Of course,

That's not how the world works One day he snuck away And he saw how much pain and suffering there was he saw a Very old person.

He saw a very sick person and he was shocked and Eventually Siddhartha would run away and lean further into that side and he would begin Very intense fasts he would put his body through incredibly difficult things.

He wanted to amplify the pain and suffering to the point where he was fragile and frail and nearing death himself So from one extreme to the other completely shut off heart to fully taking in the intensity of pain and suffering to the point where his power diminished and then according to stories and legends One day Siddhartha was sitting by a tree near a river Meditating and many things happened that I won't get into for our meditation today but he began to meditate and he saw a man in a canoe and this canoe had the potential to tip to one side and throw him out of the boat or the other side and throw him out of the boat and instead this man in the boat found a middle path and in this middle path with all these potential Options to fall out of the boat and get thrown into a chaotic situation By staying centered by staying on this middle path He was able to achieve peace and in that moment Siddhartha Became Buddha There's something really beautiful about this story That feels very relevant to what's happening now we can try but ultimately it won't work to shut ourselves and ignore ourselves and Ignore the pain and suffering that is inevitable.

That's a part of life and the other side of the boat if we lean too far and And fill our lives and our feeds and our minds and our hearts with nothing but suffering We will rob ourselves and our communities and the world of our power our ability to take actions to make impact and To positively influence our world Let's Get ready to meditate now find a nice comfortable seat And if your eyes are open I'd like to invite you To close them now As we begin to go inwards together before we attempt to impact to influence to serve our external worlds Before We seek peace outside We start by seeking peace inside and before we seek peace Inside We need to get real and honest by listening to our hearts If your attention feels scattered There are many things pulling Your focus away That's okay.

That is the work We're gonna use our breath To bring us back in to our hearts with our eyes closed With our bodies as still as possible We're going to take a few deep breaths Following the breath Down our nose down our throats Into our hearts Into our bellies Throughout the meditation.

I'd like to invite you to continually Breathe deep and long Let's do one together now Breathing in through your nose Watching your chest and belly expand Holding holding and letting it all go The fastest way I know to regulate our nervous systems is by taking deep breaths Particularly breathing in through your nose if that's available to you Holding and then breathing out through your nose You can't breathe through your nose,

That's okay.

You can breathe through your mouth This will immediately begin to calm your nervous system down When we can regulate our own nervous system And we can ground our energy This is a place Where we can make a big impact with our external world How is your heart?

How is your heart?

The first step of peace is listening deep listening without judging without Trying to change fix or rescue just listening if your heart feels Numb or distant or if your heart is having many big Feelings if you're open to it,

We can support your heart here by placing one hand on your heart one hand on your belly and Just holding yourself Breathing deeply here Letting your heart know You are safe here You are safe here You are safe Here,

You can leave your hands here.

You can place them down You can come back To holding yourself at any point in this meditation chaos is a vortex it can pull us in and Sometimes it's very important to pay attention to chaos to pain To danger and For each and every one of us.

There is a point in which leaning further in to the pain and suffering is No longer serving us It's time to lean back to the center find our grounding and Then from here decide what actions We want to make Let's practice together here Take a deep breath and find your center and slowly Opening our awareness To the truth that there is tremendous pain and suffering in the world There's tremendous pain and suffering in the Middle East And feel the impact of that truth most likely your default will either be to turn away and to stop looking or to lean in and Go deeper into it Neither of those is wrong Each person each situation is different my personal belief Is going too far on either extreme Will not serve you will not ultimately bring you peace So we practice Feel the energy the vortex of the pain if we lean too far in it's pulling us in It's pulling us in and there's a place in which It's actually good for us to see and witness and feel And it's awakening us It's activating us And it's giving us energy To take some sort of action To be a positive influence in the world Sometimes we need to feel the pain And that is actually the path to peace and there will be a point for each one of us Where we are losing energy Where we are no longer able to be productive to contribute to the solution our practice here when you've reached that point is To gently come back to the middle come back to your center If you find now you are leaning too far to the other side.

I don't want to acknowledge it I don't want to look at it.

I don't want to feel it.

I'm going to ignore it at some point It might be healthy for us to take a break That's okay And as we lean to the other side We might be going too far and we come back to our center back to the middle Peace is many things Sometimes peace is saying nothing and just listening Sometimes peace is actually allowing our hearts to feel deep sadness Sometimes peace is speaking up standing up and Paradoxically,

Sometimes peace is fighting fighting for what you believe is right I am NOT here to tell you what you need to do.

I Am here to remind you that you have access to the most profound source of wisdom in the universe your heart Your heart needs a break That's okay But come back to your heart Come back to your truth This is our last song.

I'm gonna stay quiet And let you and your heart Connect Let's take a deep breath here to bring our meditation to an end coming back to our bodies breathing in Thank you for meditating with me,

Thank you for going on this journey Wherever you are,

Whoever you are,

Whatever background,

Ethnicity,

Skin color,

Age,

Body type Religious belief,

Whatever it is You are worthy of love.

You are worthy of safety.

You are worthy of freedom And if you haven't heard it in a while,

I Love you There are people that love you.

Even if those people have never met you before there is love for you in the world For those joining us live at the artist morning I'm gonna put 20 minutes on the clock and allow us to do some private personal journaling to continue feeling and expressing What peace wants to come through us?

You're catching us on a replay.

Of course on insight timer.

You can do the same Continue the exploration continue the connection with your heart continue Looking into what peace means for you in this moment Thank you for meditating with me.

My name is Darius and I will see you next time

Reviews

I feel more peaceful. Thank you for the calm and insightful meditation.

Thank you so much, this means everything right now. 🙏🏼💛🙏🏼

From the river to the sea! Palestine will be free!!

Was finally able to hear the end today. This is such a caring and insightful meditation. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Here's to peace in your own heart. Breathe in and stay centered, balanced and grounded. There is always going to be pain and suffering, but you can create peace and understanding and share it with the World, just as Darius is doing. Praying for peace in the middle east and peace in my own heart today. ❤

I have a beautiful, thoughtful and compassionate heart. Thank you for your beautiful heart that you share with each of us. I’m grateful!

With love, Tracy

So powerful profound and grounding
Namaste 🕊 🙏

An important meditation for me today. Thank you 🙏🏾

Thank you for this. I have been turning away from what’s happening in the Middle East because it’s so heartbreaking. Deep down, I know that I have to look at it and feel it if I am to be any help. This pain and suffering impacts all of us. I hope we begin to see more clearly so that we may act with more love and compassion.

Bless you. The vortex was pulling me deeply in losing connection to myself and manifesting in physical symptoms. Thank you 🙏🏼

Thank you for this important and beautiful meditation! Perfect for what’s happening in our world. 🫂💕

This was incredible. True medicine for heart and the world. Thank you. Thank you.

So many feelings and emotions it’s hard to stay centered. This meditation will help. Thank you 🙏🏻 Namaste

Great grounding meditation. Thank you Darius for this story. It reminded me you can care and still keep your peace. I’ve been doing peace focused reiki meditations these past few mornings and trying to stay ‘calm’ but its so easy to get caught up in ‘feeling’ centered without realising you might just be closing off the part that feels. This meditation opened up some literal floodgates and brought up my feelings of sadness and almost like the collective fear, but in a way where I don’t feel like I’m drowning. The simple breathe visualisation was really helpful, also really cool to learn more about Buddha I didn’t know he was also called siddhartha.

🙏🙏 you always hit the spot. I had been feeling a little lost in the pain and chaos. Thank you for grounding me and helping me to steady my little boat. Much love and gratitude to you

Much gratitude so great to hear and feel the love on what is much needed at this time to shine some love on. 💖🙏