Natural Doorway To Rest

A Natural Doorways meditation makes use of a pleasant memory to ease us into relaxation and rest. For this meditation I will guide you for twelve minutes or so and the music will continue but gradually fade away for the rest of the recording. There is no chime at the end of the recording to disturb your rest.

Transcript

Welcome.

For many of us,

An easy doorway,

A natural doorway into meditation is to recall a time in our lives when we felt pleasure or joy,

Or stood in awe perhaps of the wonders of nature.

Maybe it's a memory that warms your heart,

Maybe a memory of some accomplishment.

I did that.

You might recall a time when your attention seemed to expand beyond normal and touch something greater,

Something essential within you,

Perhaps some truth.

Or maybe it wasn't so grand,

But you still felt transported.

Maybe humans have been experiencing these feelings probably before there was language to speak of them.

Maybe it was a time when you looked up at the night sky and felt utter wonder and vastness.

When you held a loved one and your heart filled to bursting.

Maybe a time when you were held.

You might have been walking or running or playing a sport and you felt so much in touch with your own life force,

Your own power,

Your own freedom.

Perhaps a time when you sat by a river conscious of its flow and entered a state of stillness so profound that time seemed to slow or even to stop.

Any of these might be a time when we spontaneously experience a meditative state.

It just happens.

But we can also make these experiences intentional.

We can learn to be able to find that state,

That stillness,

That feeling of being full of the joy of life anytime we need it.

We can bring these memories back,

Allowing our attention to rest on their rhythms.

It's in such moments when something good happens at a deep level that we make friends with life.

Give yourself some time to remember some of your favorite experiences.

Any time when you naturally took a breath and felt the pure joy of being alive.

Any of these moments can be something that you claim as your natural meditation,

As a natural way for you to make meditation intentional.

If nothing immediately comes to mind,

Don't fret.

Take a few conscious breaths.

Perhaps feel some tension leave your body as you exhale.

Allow your mind to open and see what comes.

It doesn't have to be the most wonderful time you've ever had.

Just a time when you felt joy or perhaps peace.

Take some time now simply to bask in pleasant experiences that you have had.

Excuse me.

It might be hard to choose,

But right now can you pick one experience,

One memory that you like being with,

That you want to remember to re-enter.

Is it possible for you to call up those feelings?

Perhaps to remember what it felt like to be in your body during that experience.

You might even feel some of that same bodily experience here and now.

Maybe it's a sense of how you are breathing.

Maybe a fullness in your chest.

Maybe the sense of being with yourself.

Perhaps a sense of joy in your heart.

Maybe the touch of a hand.

Maybe a sense of joy in your body.

Notice how your awareness floats through the memory of your experience.

Perhaps seeing parts of it,

Perhaps the whole,

Perhaps finding something new.

Can you accept that right now you have nothing to do,

No obligations,

Nothing to be,

Just things to feel?

This is a way of being deeply in touch with yourself,

Of coming home to yourself.

You're honoring your own experience,

Your own wisdom.

This can be your own instinctive natural doorway into connection,

Into freedom,

Into the feeling of being nourished.

Let it wash over you,

Hold you,

Let it fill you.

Let it fill you.

If you can stay with your experience for a little while longer,

You might notice that different associations may come,

Different feelings,

Different thoughts,

Different memories.

All of this is part of the journey,

Of the journey of remembrance.

Maybe your experience reminds you of something else,

Another memory,

Maybe even a fantasy.

Let yourself be with whatever feelings or thoughts or desires arise.

Try not to push anything away.

Give yourself permission to feel whatever comes up.

Let it fill you.

You may start to notice that the details of your memory have faded,

That what remains is a cloudy afterimage.

But the warmth,

The joy,

All the good feelings that your memory brought to you do remain.

Let yourself bask in this warmth,

In this gracious light of memory.

Over time,

Even those feelings might fade,

And you will be left with a quiet peace.

Allow that peace to fill you as you move to rest.

Let it fill you.

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