Somatic Experience Meditation

This meditation invites you to connect deeply with your body, breath, and emotions, allowing space for both release and self-discovery. Through gentle awareness, you’ll explore how your breath moves through your body, noticing shifts in energy and sensation.

As you reflect on both challenging and joyful moments in your life, this practice encourages you to trust the process, embrace self-compassion, and find grounding in the present moment. By wrapping difficult experiences in love and affirming your own strength, you cultivate a sense of peace, resilience, and trust in your journey.

Transcript

Beginning with any position that feels comfortable for you,

And you don't have to choose tonight what you do each week,

So if you feel like you want to be supported or in a different position,

Do what is right for you this evening.

And then take that minute or so just to ensure that you're supported,

Not rigid,

So if you're seated,

Thinking of elongating the spine,

But there is that balance.

We don't want to,

As I said right before,

We don't want to be rigid,

We don't want to feel stiff,

We don't even want to feel like we're doing too much work.

So take those last movements or so to settle in.

And it is always to be said,

Or not to be said,

But you may move at any point during this meditation,

So don't feel like you need to freeze in this position.

At any point,

If you feel like you need to even shake or stand up or move in any way,

Let the body do that.

So specifically this one this evening,

We might be doing a little bit of releasing within the body,

And so if your body is giving you a little bit of feedback that you want to wiggle your feet or shake your hands,

Cry,

Whatever that might mean to you,

Go ahead and let that go.

Whatever position you are in,

I would like you to connect to your heart and your belly,

So just put one hand on the heart and then one hand on the belly.

And if there was any judgment when placing your hand on your belly,

Go ahead and let that go.

This is for nurturing ourselves this evening,

This is accepting ourselves wherever we might be.

And this one tonight is going to be more in the body,

More in the physical space,

A little bit less of the imagery this evening.

And so we're going to start really simple,

And we're just going to use the hands to feel the breath.

So when you inhale,

The hands will rise.

And then when you exhale,

The hands,

The belly,

And the chest gently fall.

Sometimes people are reversed or paradoxical breathers.

This means the exact opposite is happening for you.

So when you inhale,

You actually suck in,

And then when you exhale,

Is where the expansion happens.

I just want you to take note of what might be happening in your body.

The quote-unquote correct way is when you inhale,

There is that inflation like a balloon,

So you're pumping the body with air.

And then when you exhale,

There's that release,

Letting the balloon go,

Letting the air out.

Reversed breathing is a learned behavior.

Sometimes we do it when we are stressed,

Sometimes we do it for trauma or because of trauma.

I used to be a reversed breather,

And I noticed that sometimes when I get stressed,

I go back to it,

And then I have to kind of think about what I'm doing and change it up.

So just a little piece of information.

Sometimes this is true for someone else.

So at this moment,

We're just getting to know the breath as we are beginning.

Noticing how much the body is expanding or releasing.

Noticing the pace at which the inhale and exhale are,

And we're not even trying to change anything.

We're just going to breathe however you're breathing this evening right now.

And maybe as you're breathing,

The awareness expands a little bit further from these two points,

Meaning that maybe perhaps you can notice other parts of the body that expand with the inhale or release with the exhale.

Maybe you can notice differences between the right and the left side.

Even though the breath isn't moving past the pelvic floor physically,

Maybe you have an energetic sense,

And you can just feel the energy when you inhale all the way down to the feet,

And then when you exhale,

It rises back up.

Maybe there are physical sensations with your inhale and exhale.

Sometimes with our exhale,

We feel this just letting go and releasing.

So being very curious and just seeing what you notice as we expand past those two points where the hands are located.

And if your mind is trailing off at any point,

Just go ahead and redirect it back in.

And maybe you just stay with the hands if any expansion is making you leave the body and go into the mind a bit.

And also,

We will expand the awareness to other physical parts of the body.

And these are the parts where the breath may not touch or you might not feel the energy associated with the breath.

This might be sensations of heaviness or lightness,

Gripping or letting go.

There might be pain points.

There might be points that feel supported.

And the parts even can include underneath of the hands.

So maybe under the hand on your chest,

You notice that there's some heaviness.

Maybe your belly feels fluid and open and free.

And just like the breath,

I want you to be exploratory with this aspect as well.

So if for example,

A point feels pain,

Is that pain just one little dot?

So going back again into the physical body and noticing and defining,

If you will,

To yourself what a point might feel like.

So again,

Being really exploratory with the body.

Maybe as you're doing this,

You want to stay in one part,

Or maybe you want to move on and explore another part.

And acknowledging that sometimes when we are asking to do this,

It's not accessible or we don't know the answer.

And that's okay too.

So maybe you just stay with where you feel movement or things that you do know.

And I will say that if you have an inkling that something might be feeling a certain way,

You're not wrong.

If you would like to keep the hands where they are located,

If that feels good and comforting,

You can keep them there.

If you want to remove them and place them where it feels comfortable,

You can do that as well.

And with our awareness still inside of the body,

I want you to now call to mind an area of your life where you're having a bit of difficulty.

Maybe it's associated with a person,

Or it is a situation that repeats itself,

Or maybe perhaps even something new.

And what shifted?

What do you notice when I asked you just to start to think about it?

And it might even just be subtle.

Maybe that one place that had pain was at a number three,

And it just went to a number four.

Or maybe you just skipped a breath or held your breath for a second.

It doesn't have to be a very big change that happened.

And now we're going to go ahead and switch to the exact opposite.

I want you to think of now an area of your life that brings you deep joy.

It could be something you're proud of,

Something you're working on.

It could be a very special person.

It could be a moment that just happened today or this week,

Or something that always brings you joy.

And what started to happen here?

What changed?

What stayed the same?

And now we're going to go back to the other side.

So we're going to use the same situation,

The same thing that you just brought to mind.

So an area of your life,

A difficult situation or a person that you're dealing with right now.

Same one,

Not a different one.

And notice again,

How do you physically feel?

And this is where we start to analyze.

We start to associate meanings as to why we're physically feeling a certain way.

I want you to drop that.

And I want you just to simply notice what the body is doing.

So think about when we went to the breath in the very beginning,

We stayed really simple with those two points.

I want you to narrow your focus to maybe one area or two and just explore those.

Is it one point of pain?

Is it different on the right versus the left?

Is it a large surface area or small?

And at this time,

Perhaps also things might be shifting automatically in your body.

So when you hold your awareness in the body,

Sometimes the body will just do something.

So you might just all of a sudden take a breath or you might notice that your toes are just beginning to move or your fingertips.

And so this is that opportunity to just let the body do what it needs to do and try to really stay inside the body as you're doing so.

We're going to do this one more time.

So go ahead,

Pull yourself out of here.

Go to your joyful situation.

What's the same?

What do you notice that's different?

Do you feel the need to move or change anything that you're doing?

Meaning the position that is.

And then this will be the final time.

Let's go back over to the difficult situation,

The same one that we've been using this whole class.

And what do you notice now?

Sometimes the sensations in the physical body lessen.

Sometimes they're different.

Sometimes we even notice something that we might not have noticed before.

And if a part of the body wants to move,

I invite you to do it slowly.

So even if your toes are wiggling,

Just let them do that.

Don't try to go as fast as you can.

And maybe perhaps this time as you're thinking about the difficult situation,

You're going a little bit deeper into the situation or a little bit deeper into the little bit deeper into what exactly that person is doing that bothers you.

Maybe perhaps answers are coming up that you're in your physical body.

And so be free and just go in whatever direction feels right.

Don't feel like if I'm directing you somewhere and you want to go somewhere else,

Go ahead,

Go there.

But I do invite you if you go down a path of a story,

Only go a little bit and pause and come back into the physical body.

And so wherever you are,

If you have gone down the path,

I'm going to actually ask everyone to pause right here and we'll just do a check in with the body,

Kind of like we've done it for the very first time.

Just noticing what you might notice right here at this time,

This present moment because you've never been here.

And I invite you to think of the situation in a sense of positivity.

Meaning that maybe if it's a situation where you're feeling really stressed and you want an answer,

Maybe you're not supposed to learn the answer just yet.

How does that feel?

How does it feel if you just trusted that you were taken care of?

That even if you are in this disgusting place with this situation,

That maybe there's a lesson to be learned here that is for your greater purpose,

For the greater good of who you are and what you might need to learn or what perhaps you might need to teach somebody else.

What if that person is supposed to teach you a lesson?

Or what if they're supposed to show you who they are and so you need to make a decision to not be around them?

Thinking of it in a sense of this beautiful lesson that it is here for you to learn,

It is here for you to grow,

Even if it doesn't feel good inside the physical body.

Truly believing that we are never given anything that is too much for us.

We might feel like we hit that very ceiling,

But it's all that we got.

And we always can power through it and we can always surrender into it and we always have support.

Trusting in yourself.

Trusting that you are capable.

Trusting that you can handle anything.

How does this make your physical body feel?

Noticing how you feel in this present moment.

And a little piece of energy is that our words,

Our thoughts,

We have energy tied to them.

And so in this moment,

This difficult situation,

Can you wrap it in love?

Can you truly trust it's supposed to be happening?

Even just wrap it in light.

Maybe wrap yourself in that light.

And truly know that you are supposed to be here and that you can handle this.

And maybe perhaps even right now,

Thinking of messages that you could say to yourself when dealing with this.

I trust the answer will be clear.

I let go and let this unfold how it's supposed to.

I know I am capable.

I am deeply supported.

How do these words physically feel inside?

And whether you fully understand energy or believe it or not,

This is a fact right here.

Your body feels different when you say these type of words to yourself.

And so I invite you for these last moments or so to sit in silence with yourself.

And sit with these positive words.

And you could even turn it into a breathing affirmation.

Inhaling,

I trust.

Exhaling,

This will unfold how it's supposed to.

Or of course,

Whatever words work for you.

And I will give these moments for yourself in silence.

Take a moment or so to just finish up where you are.

So maybe you just do a couple more affirmations with your breath.

And then start to bring yourself back into your room.

I'd like you to reconnect with the places in the body that are supported,

Whether you're sitting in a chair or lying down.

Noticing the points of the body that are connected to the stable surface below you.

Noticing your feet.

If you're sitting,

The parts of the feet that are connected to the ground or the floor.

If you're lying,

It would be the heels.

And then draw your awareness down into your root chakra.

This is located where the perineum is located.

This is a sphere that is of a red color.

And so from this red sphere,

Your root chakra,

We're just going to imagine a root,

Like a tree,

Growing from this area down into the earth.

So it'll go down through where you're located,

Through the foundation,

All the way into the earth.

And then imagine it going through all of the layers of the earth,

Into the center of the earth,

Where there is a silver sphere.

And you're just going to wrap your root in and lock you in.

And one last time for our class this evening,

I'd like you to notice how you physically feel.

And that includes your breath or whatever you might notice right now.

And we will then,

For our final moment,

Connect to our heart space,

Whether you want to stack your hands on your heart,

Whether you want to put your hands in prayer,

Or you just want to draw your awareness to that area.

The space underneath or behind or below your hands is where your heart chakra is located.

Unconditional love,

When we are balanced,

Is in this space.

I want you to,

One final time,

Say to yourself an aspect that came up from this meditation in a positive manner.

So whether you did create an affirmation,

Whether you came to a realization,

Say it to yourself right now.

And feel it,

Feel it in the physical body and notice how it feels.

It is always an honor practicing with you.

From my heart center to each of yours,

Namaste.