Transitioning into this time of meditation.
Letting go of what was.
What could be,
Those are not here.
Just quitting.
On the life outside.
It'll be there for you.
When you get back.
To wrap you up and take you in other directions.
But for now,
This is your time.
Time for yourself.
Checking in.
How's your body?
Tight.
Coiled,
Wired,
Sleepy.
Uncomfortable at ease just notice you don't even have to use those words or any words just sensation is enough of a check-in what's calling to you,
What joints and muscles need your attention.
How can you serve yourself with joy?
Breathing in deeply to all the tight spots,
Exhaling slowly to slow yourself down.
That doing less can also help you think less actively.
Closing your eyes when you're ready,
Letting your body get heavy.
Grounding down.
Settling into stillness.
And the weight of the experience,
Letting yourself fall into the ground and the earth.
Letting gravity take over.
Maybe your thoughts become light as you ground your body in and down.
Maybe you smile a little just lifting up the corners of your mouth.
Letting your eyes crinkle.
The joy of small things and brief moments to self.
When you get distracted,
You can narrate your experience to yourself.
Oh,
There's a bird.
That's my breath.
I'm sitting.
And breathing.
I'm listening,
The air is calm.
Drawing yourself into the moment.
With thoughts or your ears or your breath,
Just.
Noticing.
Generous Awareness.
Self-love.
And again,
Feeling that joy and grounding,
Increasing it if you can as you deepen your breath.
More joy,
More groundedness.
More serenity.
Deeper quiet and stillness.
Isn't that nice?
In this meditation we'll draw ourselves through concentric circles.
The circle of community and connection.
And then the circle of creativity and passion.
And then the inmost part that we might call the soul or the sacred.
The mystery.
And you're breathing.
And you will get distracted,
Because we do.
It's already happened.
Probably happening.
Let's come back.
Deepen your breath,
Narrate your experience,
Listen to the world around and inside you.
Those are always good cues to return to the moment when you're distracted.
Keep coming back.
Drawing into the circle of the community in which you live.
The world,
The nation,
The state,
The city,
Family and friends at whatever degree of abstraction suits you today.
Feeling connected to others.
The humanity in your circle.
You can draw some faces to mind or special places of gathering.
A party,
A pool,
A dinner,
A running club.
Places,
And times you find community.
And the people therein.
Family and chosen family.
Connect to them.
Breathe with them and for them.
Enjoy them.
Gathering the people around you.
Near and far.
Breathing in deeply,
Out slowly,
Getting distracted,
Coming back.
Getting distracted again and again and coming back again and again and again.
Entering into the layer of your passion and creativity,
What drives you?
Where's your spark?
Sometimes it's distant and you might not have time for it.
But it is there.
Maybe just burning like an ember at times.
Drawing into what makes you,
You,
Beyond the community of other humans and animals with which you share your life.
What is special?
What is your passion,
Your art,
That only you can make?
Get excited about it.
Joyful.
Have fun with it.
Breathe into it.
Breathe in deeply to that passionate core,
That fiery center,
And out slowly.
And continuing to breathe.
Just staying slow,
Even slowing down.
Getting more still,
More quiet.
Never silent,
Never without thoughts.
That's the tomb.
You are alive.
Let's go through another layer,
The layer we might call the sacred,
The holy,
The divine.
The mystery,
The benevolence.
The space of the soul and beyond.
Deeper in.
The point like the pearl of an oyster that cannot be stained.
Are defaced.
Just you.
Drawing in deeper and deeper with your breath.
Slower and slower on the exhale.
All the way from community to passion to something more mysterious.
The deep inward and the vast outward.
Feeling it all.
Continuing to breathe.
Blessings.
