There are moments when life become overwhelming.
Things beyond our control render us immobile.
They make it hard for us to breathe.
Our heart speeds up beyond the normal pace and suddenly we're anxious,
We're worried and all we can think about is this huge big problem in our face.
When you're anxious,
It's hard to make sound decisions.
It's hard to make decisions from a place of love.
It's hard to hold people's experiences and it's hard to be empathetic and compassionate towards yourself.
So in this moment,
I invite you to take a deep breath in and just allow yourself a moment to breathe,
To slow your body down and to invite rest into your being.
Sometimes we love people,
We love our job,
We love the circumstances around us,
We love things so much that we feel in order to protect them,
In order to keep them safe,
In order to hold on to them.
We have to hold on to them for dear life.
It can sound cliche when they say that if you love something,
You must let it go.
But it is so true because we can love things and hold on to the point that we choke life and autonomy out of them.
You see those around you drowning and you desperately want to save them from the tides.
You want to be their life raft.
And it can get so frustrating when you know the answers,
When you have answers to improve a situation,
To improve a circumstance,
To improve someone's mental health,
To improve someone's physical health and they just won't listen.
This new year,
I invite you to release the things that are out of our control.
My grandmother would always tell me,
You can bring a horse to water,
But you cannot make them drink it.
And in the same sense,
We can pour love into people,
Emotional intelligence,
Compassion,
Patience,
All of the things that we desire for ourselves.
But if it is not a thing that they are actively asking for or actively want,
We have to be willing to let go.
Even if you can't let go for the sake of your own health,
Sometimes you have to let go for the sake of the health of the situation,
Of the person,
Of the relationship.
Because the more you hold on,
The more you find yourself anxious and upset,
Frustrated.
Your heart is racing,
You're not breathing and you are stressed because you are holding on to someone else's ship that is meant to float away to sea.
And oftentimes,
We don't even know all of the things that we need to let go of,
But we just know that we have to let go.
So I invite you to take a deep breath,
To just pause,
To slow our bodies down and to help us breathe.
I'll start with a simple prayer and then we'll move into breath work,
Then we'll move into visualization and then I'll close this out.
God,
Creator,
Universe,
However you like to address the divine,
I thank you for this moment where we get to breathe,
Where we get to have a moment of peace,
Where we get to have a moment of clarity.
And I pray that you give us the strength to let go of the things that no longer serve us.
To surround us with the support,
To remind us of the things that we deserve,
To remind us of the standard of treatment we should have from those around us.
I pray that not only do you give us the support,
But you also give those around us the support they need in order to support us.
This is a moment in time where I think you are demanding that we find new ways to take care of ourselves and that we find new ways to pour life back into ourselves.
So much life that we have poured into others and poured into meaningless situations and situations that no longer served us and to people that did not actively love us or have our best intentions.
I'm praying that in this year,
You,
With ease and with intentionality,
Help us to turn all of that love,
All of that empathy,
All of that compassion inward.
And that we would have the best year of our life because we gave ourselves everything we needed.
We put ourselves first.
And in doing that,
We honored you.
We honored your glory.
If we truly are made in your image,
The best thing we can do is to be our most authentic self and is to meet our needs and to put our needs first and to let go of the things that take us out of alignment with who we are.
So I pray that you give us that strength.
I pray that you give us the strength,
The courage to be authentic,
To be vocal,
To express our needs,
To communicate them in ways that are loving,
In ways that are caring,
And in ways that are truthful.
I thank you for all of these things.
Amen and Ashe,
I want you to take a deep breath in and on your inhale,
I want you to count to three seconds.
And then you're going to hold your breath for three seconds.
Then you're going to exhale for three seconds.
That'll be our breath count for this entire,
The entirety of this meditation.
So take a deep breath in for one,
Two,
Three,
And hold your breath for one,
Two,
Three,
And breathe out for one,
Two,
Three.
Take a deep breath in for one,
Two,
Three.
Hold your breath for one,
Two,
Three.
Breathe out for one,
Two,
Three.
Let's take a deep breath in for one,
Two,
Hold your breath for one,
Two,
Three.
Now breathe out.
And now you can return your forehead to normal.
And I want you to keep your eyes closed or close them if they aren't already closed.
And I want you to picture yourself.
Picture yourself on a dock.
You see yourself at the beginning of the dock and you start to slowly walk down.
And on each side,
There are two ships.
One of the ships belongs to you.
It's a beautiful yacht.
It's glorious.
All of your friends are there,
Your loved ones,
All of your favorite foods are on that yacht.
Everything that you like,
That brings you pleasure and joy in this life is there.
And then on the opposite side,
I want you to see another one.
But this one doesn't belong to you.
The colors are off.
You see people,
Situations,
And things that no longer serve you.
Whether they served you at one point or another,
In this moment,
You recognize that those things are no longer good for you.
But there are people that you love over there.
There's situations that you loved over there,
But you know deep down that everything on that boat makes you feel terrible.
There are a few people,
Situations,
And things that I think you want to join that boat of things that no longer serve you.
And untie it from your dock.
Let it go.
And go into the boat.
The boat of people that support you,
The boat of people that love you,
The people that desire your help,
Desire your insights,
Desire your advice.
But first,
Before you can get there,
You have to untie this boat of things that don't serve you.
And you have to let it wash out to sea.
I want you to picture all of the things that are on the boat,
The people.
They could be old friends,
Family members who you have to let go of,
People that said hurtful things.
I want you to picture them on that boat and see them clearly as you walk towards the rope that is holding the ship to the dock.
Take a deep breath in,
Picture yourself walking over to the rope.
And once you get there,
When you're ready to let go,
I want you to begin undoing the knot that ties the boat to the dock.
You take your time,
However long it takes for you to undo it.
I want you to undo it.
And when the rope is free,
I want you to take a step back and just watch the boat float away.
You don't have to worry about pushing it out to sea.
You don't have to worry about forcing it to go anywhere.
But just trust that the water,
The waves,
Trust that God will carry away these things that no longer have a place in your life,
Or these people that no longer have a place in your life.
Trust the waters to carry them away in love.
And trust yourself that if you need to come back here again and untie that knot,
If somehow this ship made its way back to your shore,
Trust that through your breath,
You'll be able to untie it again.
As you picture that boat float away,
The sound of the waves,
The sea goes up.
They all give you a courage to go and join the things that you love on the boat that you're supposed to be on.
The one that leads you to wholeness,
The one that leads you to more authenticity,
And the one that leads you to mutually beneficial relationships.
Picture yourself walking up on that boat,
And I want you to take a deep breath in once you make your way on the boat's deck.
You see your loved ones,
The people that care about you,
The last person that told you that they loved you and you felt it and believed them.
You see them there.
The person you admire,
The person that inspires you to keep going,
You see them there.
You see your inner child.
You see angels.
You see the light of God.
It all appears as a bright golden light.
On your next inhale,
I want you to picture yourself breathing in that light,
That golden light flooding your lungs,
Flooding your body,
Flooding every cell with healing,
With restoration,
With the peace that passes all understanding.
I want you to picture it going into your body and trust that if you need to come here again,
That if you need to come to this boat again and be replenished and be reminded of all of the love and all of the investment in you and in your development,
That you can come here as many times as you need to.
That when we are on a journey of releasing,
Of letting go,
Of healing or grieving,
That we can heal,
We can grieve,
We can let go as many times as we need to.
If that ship comes back,
We can let it go again.
That is the beautiful thing about humanity.
When we have these moments of overwhelm,
Of frustration,
It doesn't define us.
It doesn't mean that we're bad because we're having feelings.
It doesn't mean that we're not worthy of love,
That we're not worthy of peace because peace is not happening in our life or because love is not reflected in our life.
That does not mean that we are not worthy of it.
Benevolent Ancestors,
Creator,
I thank you for this moment again.
And I pray that every listener,
Everybody who listens to this meditation,
Namely my grandma,
Who this was made for,
Is replenished and filled with your loving light and your loving energy and that they would be reminded that you have them and nobody else does.
And that you would give them the peace and the strength to let go of whatever situations and circumstances are draining them.
That you would remind them that they are meant to have peace and love and laughter in this lifetime,
In this world,
In this human experience.
I thank you for this meditation and I thank you for this moment of breath.
This has been Meditations with Desi,
And I'm Desi Hall.
I hope you got what you needed.
