Meditation For Context With Dr. Diana Hill

This guided meditation explores a sense of inner freedom through breath, awareness, and spacious presence. You’ll begin with an energizing breathing practice before gently shifting into a more open and expansive state of mind and body. The meditation guides you to notice thoughts, emotions, and sensations without becoming entangled in them. It offers a powerful experience of releasing tension, softening resistance, and reconnecting with a deeper sense of ease and possibility.

Transcript

So we'll do a meditation today. I think we'll start with some some breath work and then we'll do a meditation. Are you up for Wim Hof? Can we do three rounds? What I like about Wim Hof is that the playing with, So Wim Hof is where you do a repeated inhale, Like full body. We'll do like 30 and then on your 30th you exhale and then you hold the exhale and that's where you play with freedom. So what you'll notice is on the exhale there'll be all of the inflexible mind, Inflexible heart, Inflexible self, You know all the things that will show up. I don't want it to be this way and then can you experience freedom with that discomfort. So it's a good little physiological practice and then it also makes you feel really good when you're done with it. So we'll do three rounds of Wim Hof and I'll guide you through that and then we're gonna do a freedom practice. Okay so bell ringing. Okay okay here we go. So we can do this breath work with the eyes open if you want to rest your eyes sort of unfocused on something in front of you or you can close your eyes if you like. But it's really important to have that nice long spine so you can imagine that there's like a zipper at the base of your sacrum and then you want to zip that zipper up and as you zip the zipper up make sure you get the back of your neck and you draw your chin slightly in and the crown of your head up to the sky. Zipping up your spine you can also let your shoulders drop and your heart open and then you can place your hands in a mudra on your lap. You can place them palms down if you'd like to sort of maintain the energy within your own system with your own body. You can place them palms up if you want to have more of an exchange of energy with the space around you and you can just play with it whichever seems to fit for you. And I like to place my first finger and my thumb together to make a little bit of a circle and we'll take just one slow long breath in just one big long soothing nourishing breath together breathing in and breathing out. Then we'll do a maybe two rounds of Wim Hof. So this first round we're going to breathe in together about 30 times and you just breathe as much oxygen as you can full body breath and less focus on the exhale. So 30 breaths we breathe in deep breath out get your whole body into it don't be afraid see it lean forward so free to breathe breathing in about 10 more last one big breath in hold at the top exhale completely complete and utter release letting go holding at the bottom letting go of your face letting go of any tension letting go of your hips letting go of your grip noticing your mind let go of your mind notice the discomfort let go around it and when you're ready deep breath in hold at the top allow your lungs be full nourished and then exhale one soothing rhythm breath one soothing nourishing breath and then we'll do it again we get a chance to try again 30 breaths in really go for it can you make it bigger whole body breath Diane's got it she's smiling free to breathe breathe 10 more last one exhale completely all the way complete full exhale release grace can you let go a little bit more around it can you experience peace even with this can you open up the back of the body and if you need to breathe in you can breathe in can you hold it a little longer without holding can you surrender and when you're ready deep breath in exhaling and letting your breath come back to its natural ease and we can begin with freedom of the mind can you notice the spaciousness in your mind right now the space in your head maybe even dissolving the edges around your head the space around your head freedom in your mind so that things can flow through your mind without you grasping or gripping or believing may your mind be free there's lots of stories that come into your mind that block your freedom so can you just for this little bit let them go let them be without picking them up noticing their pull without being pulled so many stories pulling but you are free in your mind your mind is free and you take the responsibility of choosing this freedom you can choose to be free in your mind right here and now and then you can bring that awareness down into your heart space noticing a soft open spacious flexible heart may be free in your heart you can actually physically feel the spaciousness of your heart you can open up your heart at the back open up your heart at the front dissolve the edges of your heart so that space of your heart it's expansive and big enough to hold whatever difficulties may be in your heart you can feel their presence your pull without being pulled your heart is spacious and free and you take responsibility for this heart choosing freedom and then can you feel this spaciousness and this freedom in your whole self your whole being your whole body your identity but also the you that is so much more than this body or this identity your big expansive spacious self dissolving the edges of yourself you are free and can you notice the pull of the self without being pulled settling into freedom and spaciousness of the self the self that's behind you and above you and around you free expansive self and from this free mind and this free heart and this free self you are also free in your actions you are free to choose how you want to be skillful actions because you can feel the pull to act in a certain way or do a certain thing without being pulled when you are free you are free in your whole being you are free in your whole being free to choose and often what bubbles up when you experience freedom in this way natural sort of bubbling up or rising up is an experience of compassion or love openness when you are free you're more loving to yourself and to others you're more open you're more giving because you have everything that you need and from this place of compassion and love and freedom I'd like to bring into mind our sangha member Susan and just offer to her this mantra that you've received for yourself may you be free in your mind may you be free in your heart may you be free in yourself may you be free in your actions may you experience total and complete freedom right now and then I'd like for you to bring into mind a person or a group or an animal a space or place in nature that you would like to offer this reminder to this mantra of freedom to so bring to mind whatever comes to you and bubbling up of compassion a desire to offer this love and imagine this person or this space or this animal or this group before you and wish this for them may you be free in your mind may you be free in your heart may you be free in yourself may you be free in your actions may you experience total and complete freedom right here right now and then we can gather up that same mantra and offer it back to ourselves receive what we have sent out may I be free in my mind placing a hand on your own heart may I be free in my heart placing another hand on your belly may I be free in my heart in myself placing your palms up on your lap may I be free in my actions may I experience total and complete freedom right here and right now and just take a minute to experience it to feel it and then we always close with three bows first bow is to our being true nature we bow to ourselves our true nature buddha nature and the second bow is to becoming to the truths to the dharma the teachings and teachers and the third bow is to belonging to each other we belong to each other to our sangha all beings thank you very much