Live Recording - Total Welcoming Meditation

This is a class on the fundamental themes of life-giving meditation practice and an introduction to what the Instinctive Meditation tradition is. Today's theme is total welcoming.

Come experience the Instinctive Meditation tradition, where “meditation is the practice of falling in love with Life.” This is a way of learning and practicing meditation so that it becomes the most natural thing in the world for you.

Note that this is a recording of a live class I taught here on Insight Timer, so there may be some audio issues.

Transcript

Hello?

Let me know if you can hear me okay?

It says here my connection is good so you should be able to hear me.

Hi Chris.

Okay I'm glad.

Okay.

Well welcome to those of you that are here.

My name is Eden Harmony and I'm your teacher tonight and as you've seen from the description this is a class about instinctive meditation.

How many of you let me know if you've heard about instinctive meditation or if you're just curious as to what it is.

This is a way of meditating that is really freeing,

Really natural.

It's almost effortless if it could be described as effortless and easy and I've been meditating like this for many many years.

It comes very naturally to those of you who are beginners and those of you who are seasoned meditators might find it a little bit different at first because it is there is so much freedom and that can feel a little naughty or a little bit different but I'll be here to guide you through that.

So Chris and Jason are curious.

Yeah so the way I would describe meditation in the instinctive meditation tradition is that it's a way to connect with the life force.

So this power,

Almost magical,

Of being alive that moves through each one of us here,

That moves through the life that we see in plant and animal form.

All of this life force and meditating in a way to reconnect with that and through that reconnection feeling refreshed,

Feeling healed,

Feeling whole,

Feeling like everything is okay so that you can emerge out of meditation refreshed and ready to take on the outside world.

I'm curious for those of you that are here have you ever gotten in touch with your life force that which moves through you and propels you and all that you do and what has it felt like if you could describe it?

I know for me it feels sometimes it lives in the heart,

Sometimes it lives around my stomach area but there's a power to it.

There's like I said a magic to it.

Jason says unified flow.

Dee says yes I do some energy work connected for one thing joy bliss beautiful.

Yeah so these are all aspects of the way that the life force moves through us and of course there really is no right or wrong answer because you know there's so many different forms that life can take.

Welcome to everyone that's here.

I'm actually really excited I haven't done live classes for I think almost a year since I've been on Insight Timer.

My name is Eden for those of you who just joined and this is a class on instinctive meditation and so we were just talking about how instinctive meditation is the practice of touching into the life force and falling in love with the life force.

So one way in which meditation like this is really instinctive right there's a lot of like what is instinctive for us?

What is natural for us?

What comes easily for us?

And a lot of times that first requires a foundation of kind of like all-encompassing welcoming of the self.

Right this feeling that like yeah I'm here and I welcome all of this experience because in this welcoming and you can and I'm moving my hands here too and you can't really see what I'm doing off-camera but there's this feel this I encourage you to explore like what does welcoming myself feel like there's this for me it's kind of like spreading my arms and kind of holding the space around me and then welcoming and being open to all of me this is that foundation for my life force for your life force to then feel safe enough to come through and express and start to let us know like what are our instincts what do we want what do we yearn for how do we want to create how do we want to express right so let me know in the chat what if you're moving your hands and you're like ooh I welcome all of myself here in this moment right now what kind of hand motions are you playing with or maybe it's a feeling maybe you feel it here in the heart hmm I welcome all of myself perhaps if you want to play with how that feels as you speak it I welcome all of myself placing emphasis on different words and feeling how that awakens certain parts of your system of your body I welcome all of myself I welcome all of myself right there's a little difference there Chris says definitely in my heart space yeah so what else does welcoming all of the self entail there's an abundance of understanding of the self a lot of compassion right a lot of being able to view yourself and interface with yourself with a lot of grace and you know there's nothing really revolutionary about what I'm talking about here however interestingly enough in the context of a lot of meditation traditions having this welcoming and understanding of the self as the first and foremost foundation is a little bit rare yes I love that D says it feels a little bold to all of myself yeah yeah so like I said this is instinctive meditation so you can there's like no right or wrong way to sit there's no thing you have to like focus really hard on there's a lot of like open soft warm exploration so like D said it feels a little bold I'm welcoming all of myself and you could like like earlier when I was like mmm I welcome all of myself there's like this embracing but for some of you like D it might feel like like a there's like a fierce fierceness to it right there's like a claiming of it I welcome all of myself all the parts that might not seem right that might not necessarily belong in meditation right like how many of you have experienced meditation in a way where you sometimes feel like you have to like censor yourself or compartmentalize yourself right so here in this exploration of welcoming yourself it's pretty radical in the space of meditation it's like we put aside whatever we think like those rules of what is allowed and what isn't allowed in meditation is and we're like yeah whatever is here is a true expression of the life force that moves within me and I welcome all of it so that can mean movement right playing with how welcoming feels how your life force feels that can mean speech playing with whispering certain things I welcome all of myself right how is this landing let me know if this is if you're following and if this feels natural if it feels instinctive for you so with this foundation of welcoming we're allowing our life force to start to flow as unobstructed unobstructed sorry as it can be right and then from here once we go into meditation and like even just welcoming all of yourself like that was already going into meditation but it's like from this foundation of welcoming and then like okay I feel my life force this is how it wants to move right now this is how it's expressing right now right from this foundation going into meditation it can it can of course be really natural and easy right D says it feels like something I need I love that Chris says I'm totally getting it I was just going to mention that click moment beautiful want might be a better word yes so like yeah like even I love what D is like bringing up like that the difference in like your body and and like your system like what does need feel like like I need it like for me it's like oh I need it right and then that's like a little different from like ooh this is something I want like yeah I want some of that and that's just me right so like as I'm doing this like I encourage you to mirror like what I'm saying and the hand motions I'm doing see how that moves through you and welcoming like what your version of that would be and then feeling like like how everything is moving through you in like such different ways and like that's just like your life force grooving and exploring and like these are all little mini meditations like we're slipping into meditation just by being like oh what does want feel like what does need feel like right so you can feel like this is pretty fun and this is it can be pretty effortless right and once you meditate like this it's as if stress will just magically lift away it'll kind of just blow away right not always right but as you go into these little mini practices where you're in touch you're getting in touch with like what does my life force want what does my life force feel like when I welcome it you're touching like such an intimate and deep part of yourself that by natural law it's like so much tension and stress will fall away and it's almost magical and of course the more you do this and the more you practice this and the more you're you know familiar with the ways in which your life force likes to move the more and more easier and magical like that stress release can feel can feel like so let me know I'm curious if any of you are like kind of feeling into like some of tension unraveling or unfurling just through tapping into the life force and this is what I love about instinctive meditation too because let's say I'm stressed and like yeah I can sit down and be like I want to meditate for my stress to go away and like approach it like a problem but when we enter through like the open channels the channels that are easy for us the channels that are already ready for us to touch into like yeah this is what I want or like mmm I welcome myself like yeah my heart feels like this right now when I think about all that I love about life what these are all channels that are open and that are waiting for us to dive into their portals into meditation and when we go through there then it's like a backdoor way to to address stress any questions so far and meditating in this way being in touch with the life force there's our life force and then there's the life force around us right we're swimming in it right the air that we're in like an ocean of air just full of life force it like literally powers us and then beyond that it's like there's the plants there's the land there's the animals there's all this life force around us the earth the heavens and you can also start to play and dance and commune with that master life force to right like I'm pretty tired right now I didn't sleep very well last night and so a practice for me might be like replenish me life force fill me up smooth out my edges I love moving which is like totally loud and instinctive meditation and it's like I'm touching into the life force around me and bringing it to me like I need you I want you replenish me D says often with tension I want to escape into a book or something and not feel it I want to stay connected with myself and life more though this feels good yeah yeah let's talk about escape being and avoiding and yeah just all of that like turning away like when I for all of us you know we might experience like the avoiding or being overwhelmed or wanting to like hide in a different way sometimes it might be like I'm turning away I can't like I can't right or it might be like a like what D said an escape right like I can't do this let me do something else let me look at my phone like you know it feels different right the life force is moving differently and like I said in the beginning instinctive meditation has a foundation in welcoming welcoming all all that's coming up right so like let's say you're sitting in meditation like we are now and all of a sudden you think of something that freaks you out and overwhelms you and you feel like how your system changes and you're like oh like I want to turn away I want to escape see what happens for all of you bringing up like whatever situation that is for you right now see what happens to your system and to how your life force moves through you as you're bringing up right now knowing that you're safe and that's actively not happening right now so we can safely and with as much openness and welcoming and understanding as possible look at that feeling or look at that pattern again and that's it we don't need to fix it like we're not like looking at it like what's wrong how do I not feel like this anymore we're letting it come in to our experience and being like okay take up as much space as you need because I'm welcoming all of this and then whatever as it takes up this situation this feeling this way of being this pattern as it takes up the space it does noticing okay I'm starting to feel overwhelmed or I'm starting to shrink or I'm starting to get rigid and being like okay yeah that's happening I welcome that to happen that process to happen and you'll find that in doing this just being like okay I'm welcoming what's happening with with the best of my ability right while remaining safe while remaining in my body while remaining grounded right I'm welcoming all the feelings all the difficult reactions and thoughts that are going on and I'm letting the whole process play out I'm not cutting that process off and be like no like I don't want to feel it and I'm not going in there being like okay what's happening like let me see what's wrong so then I can like try and think of like what I can do next no do next time right we're not trying to fix it either there's like this all-encompassing sorry my dog okay okay okay okay okay hold on I'll be right back someone was at the door he's alerting us yeah so Gary says you described that well good I'm glad he's telling you he wants to play yeah my two came over to check him out yeah I'll show him on camera next time I just let him out but yeah where was I well tell me how are we feeling what's coming up I want to know I love teaching live because then I can interact with you and like kind of improvise based on what's what's coming up for you all but it's kind of weird that it's just like a chat but that's kind of what we're working with here so yeah I have an eye on the chat D says I have to run but so glad I joined and hope to listen again thank you you're welcome you should follow me I think I'm going to start doing more of these this is like the first time I've been live in a while but I think I'm enjoying it so far so you should follow me and I'll try to come on at a regular rate and just explore more of like what instinctive meditations like how the life force wants to move through you when I have to catch you I am late when is the next time I think Sundays are good I think the this time Sunday and I'm also thinking of one like on Wednesday so you can follow me and once you follow me you'll know you'll get a notification I think they'll tell you like when I'm live yeah I'll be back Sundays for sure so I've scheduled these to be 45 minutes so we still have a little bit of time to play tell me in the chat I want to hear from you what's what's happening in your lives right now you can throw out a word you can tell me a little bit about the situation and we can work with it in the instinctive meditation tradition and I'll guide you through what a meditation on a topic like that can feel like and look like Carrie says I wish that I could learn my lesson with anxiety hmm tell me more what do you I think I find the choice of your words to be interesting like learning your lesson tell me more I made this cup I joined like a ceramic studio during COVID I'm still like an amateur but so with anxiety when the anxiety comes right and you're feeling it was in the body well first of all so in the instinctive meditation tradition there's the welcoming right I'm welcoming the experience so let's say you're in meditation feel a little anxious or you think of something that gives you anxiety the first thing would just be to be like hmm okay I welcome this and that might like sound kind of hard and counter what you want right because it's like I'm feeling anxious and I don't like I don't want this I'm like welcoming it feels like really far out from where I am right now all right and that's fine like what does it feel like what would it feel like to give yourself like just a little more permission to welcome it or to at the very least be like a little more open to it right and in that like incremental like widening of what's okay and what's allowed to come up during meditation you're you're giving your life force more space to work with like and to move through you now sometimes I can hear what it's trying to tell me other times I run from it like a scared child do you mean we're curious yeah curiosity I like that curiosity is another great way to approach it if welcoming feels like kind of weird that's totally fine you could be like okay what's happening here right and Gary like you said you sometimes will run from it right and so if you find that happening during your meditation you're like anxious and like you're like oh I want to run from it maybe to go from like wanting to run from it to being curious is like that spectrums like a little it's like that distance is too far right now like that gap is too much for you to close that's fine right what would it feel like to maybe let's say you feel like you want to run away from it what would it feel like to like give yourself a little more space to maybe slow down and just like kind of walk away from it instead right so the whole thing about working with things like this in the instinctive meditation approach is like kind of meeting like meeting your life where it's at like meeting the way your life force is moving as it is and then being like what would it feel like to give it a little more space a little more safety a little more curiosity openness understanding just a little more we don't you know we don't have to swing to like compassion and like my anxiety is gone and I'm like super happy now right you can just kind of like titrate a little bit for those of you who've taken chemistry you know like titration it's like you add a little bit more you had a little more welcoming you had a little more safety you slow down a little more and you'll find with the space a little more space your life force can now move through that space be it through like what Gary is saying something it's trying to tell you like more of that can make its way through and like you can kind of you can receive more of what it's trying to tell you you can hear more right or with that more space it's like maybe there's just some emotion that wants to come through right and it's going to be different each time and for each of us one thing the life force loves is safety true deep primal safety that feeling of being held that feeling of being supported the life force loves it and it needs it really to thrive so depending on the severity of the anxiety maybe even curiosity is just a little too too much right now right maybe we go like deeper deeper deeper into the roots like of the foundation of what the life force is telling you it needs which is safety so what does safety feel like in the body in your hand movements what kind of safety do you yearn for do you need and do you want I'm gently tenderly going in that direction and this is different very different from saying things like I'm safe I'm safe and we'll taking care of like maybe affirmations like you're saying it and you're like yes I'm safe I'm safe and maybe like you're saying it and it feels good because you know that it's like kind of helping hopefully and then your head you're like yeah I'm safe like you look around you and like you're I'm safe right but on a very deep and primal level like it's that's there's a little bit of a misalignment like it doesn't like the safety is like not really there at that level quite yet so an instinctive meditation we work a lot with like the foundations of what the life force needs of what it wants and in my experience teaching students in my own experience working with things like this one of the first fundamental things that the life force needs safety right what does it feel like to give yourself a little more permission to yearn for that type of total animal safety in that permission welcoming the emotions that come up welcoming your experience as you're feeling through this with tenderness and compassion feeling the way that it by bit your life force relaxes and takes up a little more space so let's begin to transition out now one of the things I love about the instinctive meditation for that the transition is very respected and when I speak of the transition it's like how may I move from the depth of meditation to the fullness and richness of life of the outer world taking the time I need giving the space I need for some of us it might be movement like stretching looking around others of us might be more tactile maybe touching your body or like I've got like a little rock here I'm feeling like as you're transitioning out of meditation feeling the way your life force is like shifting and moving there's like a gearing up like a little bit of an activation like mmm time to I'm in California time to go make dinner time to move on to the next part of my day thank you all for coming if you enjoyed this I invite you to follow me my name is Eden you can explore the meditations I've put on the profile and it's like all different themes but the foundation is the same it's like how can I explore what's happening with myself in a really open way in a very kind way in a way that doesn't feel like I'm imposing something on myself when I sit down to meditate if you have any questions I invite you to our thoughts I invite you to type it in the chat or you can message me because this was a free class I would appreciate any donations if you like this and with your support I can continue to share this beautiful bold and thrilling way to meditate I'll be here again next Sunday around this time I hope to see you there again all right bye take care

Reviews

I'm so glad you recorded this live and put it up. When I have joined your lives, I have been thinking that you seem to be experiencing meditation in a very deep and blissful way, which I haven't seen before, and am keen to experience myself.
Alas I have missed quite a few of your lives recently, so thanks for putting this up.