Hello and welcome to this guided meditation.
Before we begin,
Find yourself in a nice comfortable position.
Perhaps you are seated on the floor or a cushion in a chair with your feet firmly planted on the ground or even lying down.
Wherever you are,
Simply begin to notice the way the body feels right now.
Noticing what the senses are perceiving.
Any noises in the room,
The soundscape around you.
Noticing any aromas or tastes.
And beginning to notice what the skin is sensing,
The pressure from the floor or the chair.
The temperature of the air on your skin.
And turning a bit more inward,
Noticing the way the body responds to the breath.
Is it tight and restricted?
Or is it expansive and easy?
Notice this without controlling or manipulating the breath.
It's just an observation.
And slowly begin to deepen the breath as you draw it in through the nose.
Allowing the belly to relax and expand,
The chest to expand.
And then exhaling out through the nose,
Taking your time.
Understanding that easy cycle of drawing air in through the nose.
And slowly releasing it out through the nose.
And I invite this visual into play here as we breathe in,
The lungs expand.
Putting a bit of gentle pressure around the heart.
Almost like a nice little hug,
If you will.
And then the exhale allows the lungs to contract,
Giving the heart space to expand.
So the inhale fills the belly and the lungs opening the chest,
But the exhale allows that heart to take up space,
To grow a bit.
So that each breath,
The inhale as well as the exhale,
Provides this expansion,
This opening within the various areas of the body.
And taking a moment here just to notice if there's any discomfort or perhaps even pain in the body in this moment.
There's a bit of tightness or tension.
And we're not going to get caught up in the story of why,
How.
We're just noticing it.
And then I invite you to take your hands and gently place them on an area where you feel tense.
Perhaps it's very physical on the hips or the knees,
An area of injury.
Or perhaps it's bringing the hands to the head,
Placing the palm over the forehead,
Finding tension in the mind and the thoughts.
And just allowing your hands wherever they are,
Maybe even on the heart,
On the belly,
To apply a light pressure against the skin,
Allowing a soft merge of the boundaries,
A blending of the touch,
A physical acknowledgement of the discomfort or the pain,
The tension,
And a witness to our body's response to that.
Keeping the hands where they are,
Beginning to deepen the breath again.
The inhale pulls in that nourishing combination of oxygen and nitrogen.
It pulls in new,
Fresh air.
And the exhale releases a bit.
This area of tension almost enters into this cleansing cycle with the breath.
Inhale washes it,
A new filling the areas of tension,
The areas of discomfort with a little bit of newness,
A little bit of air,
A little space.
And the exhale carries out excessive tension,
Carries out what we're able to release right now like a hand that is clenched,
Even when it is no longer holding an object.
Become alongside of that tension,
That grasping,
And encourage it to slowly begin to release,
To relax.
We become present with our feeling,
Whether that is in a physical capacity or a mental and emotional capacity.
We allow the hands and the breath just to be present with that.
Just taking a few more deep breaths here.
Having that feeling to be seen,
Heard,
Acknowledged,
Or witnessed,
And allowing the ease of breath to comfort it,
To bring it back into alignment,
Even if just a little bit.
And slowly lowering the hands down,
Either resting them on the thighs or relaxing them next to the body.
In the next round of breath,
We inhale through the nose,
And then allow the exhale to come out through the mouth.
Two more times of that,
Just inhaling through the nose,
Exhale out through the mouth.
And once more,
Inhaling through the nose,
Exhaling out through the mouth,
Finding relaxed breath once again,
And slowly coming back out of that deep space,
Allowing the senses to once again inform you with their perception of the room,
The space around you,
Noticing what the skin is feeling,
What the ears are noticing.
And when you're ready,
Gently blinking the eyes open,
Returning to this space.
Thank you so much for joining me for this brief meditation on feeling.
May you come back to this practice as often as you need,
And may it help you to navigate both areas that you are familiar with and territories that are uncharted.
Thank you again.
Namaste.
