Invite you into your seat,
Chair,
Or bed.
Close your eyes if and when you're ready.
See if you can allow an increase in softness in your body,
As though you might emotionally give yourself a warm bath.
Settling in.
Noticing the temperature and texture of the space you are in.
Noticing that as your space becomes quiet through meditation,
There are always creakings,
Chirping,
Mechanical or electronic noises by chance.
Those can be a fun counterpoint to your meditation.
Settle in and safely take the risk to be vulnerable,
Even just to yourself.
Letting your guard down.
Letting the world swirl around you.
Becoming just a little more still,
Just a bit more quiet.
Experiencing the stillness and the quiet as a joyful release from the external world's pressures and demands.
Then notice your breathing.
You were already doing it,
You just didn't notice.
Is it strong?
Shallow?
Expansive?
Struggling?
From your breath where it is,
Go into where it can be.
A little deeper,
A little longer,
More conscious and aware.
Slowing down just a little.
Settling in and let gravity do most of the work.
As we begin to use our imagination and inner vision in this meditation,
You may become nervous or agitated.
That's okay.
You're safe.
I'm guiding you with my voice.
You can return to your breath at any moment just to soothe yourself with the continual presence of your breath.
In deeply and out slowly as a way to soothe yourself.
Assuredly,
There are places in your life of holding and constriction where you feel bound up.
Grief,
Criticism,
Difficult job or onerous tasks.
The places in your life where you do not feel agency or freedom.
Could be as simple as family demands or as complicated as family demands.
As much as you can without tensing,
Just acknowledge those restrictions.
The places,
Spaces and times in your life where you lack complete freedom of control and choice.
Not fun,
But typical.
You're breathing.
You're settling in.
Where do you feel that constriction in your body?
Breathe into it.
As you breathe in and out,
See if you can guide your breath and its vital oxygen to those places where you feel restricted,
Even oppressed.
And give them freedom to release.
Breathing in,
Extending liberation to the parts of yourself that are restricted and breathing.
Surely you have a loved one,
A friend or an acquaintance who suffers,
Who is held back,
Who lives an incomplete freedom.
Draw a person like that to your mind's eye.
Acknowledge them with curiosity and compassion and an awareness that we can't solve their problems,
But we can offer them our heart and soul in some measure.
Breathe with them out of their constriction or restriction or oppression.
As you breathe in,
Help them find capacity.
As you breathe out,
Wish them agency and continue breathing for their liberation.
This experience may bring up agitation or discomfort for you,
Your moral sense being awakened to the plight of others.
That's good,
If uneasy.
Breathe into it and breathe out and extend freedom to that loved one who needs release.
Continuing to breathe,
Deepen and settle,
Coming into an even awareness of the constriction and liberty in which we dwell.
In your mind's eye,
There is someone,
Perhaps in a city or town you have never been to and may never go to.
So distant to you that you can barely picture them.
Surely they suffer under oppression.
They do not have meaningful freedom.
And you cannot save them.
That's painful.
But for now,
You can breathe for them,
Expanding your breath as you expand for them a wish and a vision of their freedom and their liberation.
Breathing,
Extending,
Exploring and reaching out.
May all that is created be free.
