We'll begin with a bell.
This is dedicated for the healing of Stuart.
We're just going to slow down.
Taking some time to reset.
Whatever was before this meditation isn't here,
Isn't happening right now.
Then whatever comes next is a distant future.
Close your eyes when you're ready.
Maybe you can feel light through your eyelids.
Maybe it's in a darkened room.
Removing that sensation of the visual spectrum.
Maybe your ears get louder because you can hear more,
You notice more.
As you quiet down,
The world becomes louder.
Birds and breezes,
Cars and other mechanical noises.
Never silent,
But more and more quiet.
And more and more still as you reset from what was before and move into just this moment,
Just this meditation.
Thank yourself for giving yourself this time dedicated to meditation.
It's not something everyone does.
It's not even something everyone could do and you are doing it.
Going deeper into stillness and quiet and just soothing yourself as you feel heavy.
Maybe you stretch,
Fidget,
Let go of excess energy.
Coming in and down.
Settling.
Where's your breath?
You're inhaling or exhaling deeply,
Shallow,
Quickly,
Slowly.
Start inhaling a little more deeply,
Exhaling a little more slowly.
Just a little each time.
No pressure.
No energy behind it.
Just soothing yourself with breath.
Treating yourself to a good breath.
That's a gift.
This meditation will be about quiet,
Not speaking.
So I'll take stretches when I don't speak too.
We're just learning to be more quiet.
More still and more reserved with our voice.
Holding back.
Learning the value of not speaking.
As you not speak,
Do you notice?
Are other sounds more intense or noticeable?
Are you uncomfortable with the idea that you won't speak?
That you'll reserve your language,
Conserve your words?
Does it feel like a relief not to have to say anything?
I bet that when it's quiet,
Sometimes your mind wanders.
That feels very natural and typical and obvious.
So when it does,
Just come back to breathing.
Come back to noticing the quiet and listening.
Come back to being yourself.
Noticing your body.
Let's take another long stretch of quiet.
Let's go inward.
Deeper and deeper towards a younger and more innocent part of self.
Let's start slowly.
Just drawing in.
Coming inward.
Through the quiet,
Using the quiet as a cue.
Pull away from the world to something earlier.
Something primordial.
Just drawing inward a little at a time,
A little further down the path in and back.
Getting younger.
Younger by the moment.
Maybe already halfway as old as you are now.
To some younger and more delicate side of self.
Just breathing with the quiet.
When you get distracted,
Come back to your breath.
Deeper in,
Slower out.
Just going slowly.
Going inward.
Inward more deeply.
Back in time to the younger part,
The younger self,
Maybe even your childhood self.
Noticing your breath,
Even your pulse,
Your digestion,
Your body.
As your spirit moves in and down and back.
Breathing all the way.
Going back,
Even before the threshold of your birth,
To a time in the womb.
Distant and scarcely imaginable there.
Breathing into the embryonic self.
Small and delicate and wise.
Being formed.
Listen for its message.
What is a message you have known before you were born?
Deeper wisdom.
A message can come in words or just sensations.
Or sensations of sensations.
Stay there with your youngest self for a while.
What did you hear?
Blessings.
