We'll begin with a bell.
Just settle in with a smile.
Letting go of self-judgment.
Acknowledging any fears or anxieties,
Excitements or fantasies with which you enter this practice.
Hey,
That's cool,
That's normal.
You can say to yourself,
But I want to put it aside for a few moments and just be present.
There's no need to blame yourself or shame yourself for having desires or distractions.
Fears or questions,
Those are all part of the human condition and part of having a healthy body and brain.
We yearn for things.
So be good to yourself.
Start with a self-compliment.
Thank you,
Beloved self,
For giving me all these visions.
And now I'm gonna put them aside and settle in.
And thank yourself for doing that.
It's all to the good.
Embrace yourself as you settle in.
Getting heavy,
Surrendering to gravity and letting your spirit be light.
And the edges of your mouth go up in a small,
Subtle smile.
Noticing what quiet is and is not.
It is not silent.
And stillness is not being a statue,
But vibrating a little on the inside,
Shifting and changing as you breathe.
And checking in on your breath.
Where is it?
How is it?
Would you like to make it a little deeper,
A little slower?
Experiment with that.
There's no right or wrong answer.
It's your body.
But you can play with it.
Be curious.
Maybe use your breath to expand your body,
To stretch,
To let go of tight muscles.
Maybe as you breathe,
You might notice your belly.
Sense your digestion.
Be grateful for food and the capacity to metabolize it into energy.
Maybe you hear your stomach rumbling.
Isn't that neat and clever?
Maybe,
Just maybe,
You could sense or even imagine your pulse,
Perhaps in your neck,
Wrist,
Or chest.
You feel your body's rhythm,
Like a drum.
In this meditation,
We'll create a series of releasings.
Releasing others,
Releasing possessions,
And releasing self-regard.
A letting go.
A recognition of what we can and cannot control and how we truly feel.
A letting go of outcomes.
Breathing deeply.
Going slowly.
Sinking in and becoming more still and slow.
In the world,
There are billions of people.
Perhaps thousands where you live.
Hundreds or dozens in your life.
None of them are you.
None of them think like you,
Feel like you,
React like you.
Each created uniquely with an irreplaceable soul and dignity.
Breathing heavy,
Yet with a bit of floating.
And all these many people you do not control and you don't need to.
They have their own destinies,
Their own struggles.
Breathe in a deep compassion for each of them.
And while you breathe out,
Let them go.
Breathing in compassion and breathing out a release of all of the many people you cannot fathom nor control.
In with compassion,
Out with release.
A few more.
Breathing,
Settling down,
Slowing.
We all have stuff.
Some more,
Some less.
Some physical,
Some metaphorical.
We possess items,
Dollars and coins.
Dollars and cents.
Currencies and furniture and trinkets.
When you breathe,
You might think you are identified with what you own,
But as you breathe,
You can recognize that you are not those things.
You don't control them.
You don't cause them to wear out or to change in significant ways.
They're just things.
They don't make you better.
They don't really make you different.
Breathing,
Sitting solidly.
Things can be fun.
Some you need,
Some you just want,
But they aren't really yours,
Not in a meaningful way.
You can let go of some of the desire to acquire.
Breathing in with gratitude for what you have and breathing out with release that you don't much need it.
In on gratitude,
Out on release.
In with gratitude,
Out with release.
One more.
Settling down into quiet and stillness and acknowledging that you present yourself sometimes as more than you need and more than you want to control,
More than you truly feel.
Maybe you have a false sense of self-regard or an inflated self-presentation.
Honestly,
We all do.
And it's so much effort to control how people perceive you.
Maybe you'd like to let that go,
Eventually be more truthful,
Genuine,
Authentic,
Vulnerable.
Breathing in a kind of authenticity and breathing out promotion,
Releasing it.
In,
Authentic,
Out,
Release of all else.
In to your truest self,
Out,
Releasing.
Continuing to breathe,
Continuing to let go of controlling others,
Letting go of controlling your possessions and letting go of controlling others' perceptions and the way you present yourself.
Just letting go.
Blessings.
