Morning Meditation: Stairway To The Sun

Start your day awakening into presence and vitality. Bring spaciousness into your mind and energy into your body. This practice is a gentle yet powerful combination of moderate breathwork and visualization, designed to help you move into your day with intention, stability, energy, and inspiration.

Recorded at Camp Cortez Studio (Los Angeles, CA).

Transcript

Hi,

Welcome.

My name is Ana Lise and today I'll guide you through a short morning practice to awaken vital energy in your body and create spaciousness within your mind for the day ahead.

As you start to shift from your night of rest into this invigorating practice,

Find a comfortable seated position with your back supported and your spine straight.

Allow the eyes to be closed and soft,

Your eyelids like curtains creating an intimate and safe space in which you can start this day by attending to yourself and honoring your body.

Let your arms rest down alongside your torso,

Your hands resting on your thighs with palms facing up as a symbol of opening and receiving,

Or down to support you with grounding and stabilizing.

Take a deep breath in through the nose,

Feeling the air expanding your belly,

And breathe out slowly and softly through the mouth.

And let the breath be natural,

Welcoming in gentle inhales and soft exhales.

We are going to practice a breathing technique known as the stair step.

If you have recently had abdominal or chest surgery,

Skip the following instructions and continue to breathe naturally in and out through the nose with a soft belly.

Remember that all bodies are unique,

So make this practice yours,

Respecting your own pace and returning to natural breathing if needed.

We will inhale in four parts,

Taking little steps of breath in through the nose,

Filling the lungs with more air with each step of inhalation.

Inhaling,

Pausing,

Inhaling,

Pausing,

Inhaling,

Pausing,

Inhaling,

Pausing.

The diaphragm and abdomen remain firm after each pause.

When we reach the top,

We will hold the breath for a moment and exhale through the nose gently and completely,

Without straining and briefly pausing at the bottom with our lungs empty before starting the next cycle.

It's going to sound like this.

Inhale deeply through the nose to start and out through the nose and let's begin.

Inhale deeply through the nose to start and out through the nose and let's begin.

Inhale deeply through the nose to start and out through the nose and let's begin.

Inhale deeply through the nose to start and out through the nose and let's begin.

Inhale deeply through the nose to start and out through the nose and let's begin.

Feeling your body moving as you breathe and the sensations that are awakening within you.

And when you complete your next breath out,

Let all effort go,

Coming back to your natural rhythm of breathing.

Breathing in through the nose and breathing out through the nose.

Becoming aware of your whole body breathing.

Sensing your skin and embodying this expansive and magnetic energy you have just generated.

Your day begins with the sun awakening from its night of rest,

Slowly moving up through the sky offering its light and warmth to you.

So imagine that you can sit right at the horizon under the darkness of the universe,

See solid and strong roots growing from your sit bones deep into the ground.

Slowly the sun begins to come up appearing first at your coccyx at the bottom of your spine.

The brightness and warmth burning right at your root chakra bringing a vital energy and starting to awaken your spinal cord,

Invigorating your nerves with each new breath.

As you inhale the sun moves up to your sacrum,

Your sacred bone.

Exhaling its vibrancy helping you feel grounded in your body and in this moment.

Vibrating at a frequency of openness to change,

Fluidity and pleasure.

As you inhale this bright sun is moving up to the lumbar spine.

As you breathe out it floods your solar plexus and your belly with creativity,

Inspiration and confidence.

Inhaling the sun moves up to your thoracic spine bringing warmth into your heart and spaciousness into your lungs.

Exhaling bringing forward tenderness,

Compassion,

Kindness and courage.

Inhaling the sun moves up to your cervical spine bright and expensive.

Exhaling the heat clears your throat allowing it free access to your heart.

Today you will voice your truth with assertiveness and with grace.

And leaving your spine the sun moves up to your head finding your third eye point in between your brows.

Bringing you clarity,

Intuition,

Perception.

Traveling up to the crown of your head opening a direct channel for connection of the divine within you with the divine above.

Let the sun rest on the top of your head for a moment.

Take a gentle and deep breath in through the nose and a soft and long breath out through the nose.

And invoke a quality of mind and being that you would like to embody today.

It might be presence or patience or acceptance.

Whatever it is,

Invite it forward and see it entering your being and taking space within your body.

You can whisper to yourself an affirmation such as I am present or I am patient or whatever quality you chose.

Let it find refuge in your body.

Let it inform the way you communicate,

How you move and your behavior both towards yourself and others.

And breathing in watch the sun moving up finding its place in the sky above you.

Its light continuing to bathe you with vitality.

And breathe out through the mouth with a sigh letting this breath carry out any feelings of dread,

Anxiety,

Stress.

The way we start our morning sets the tone for the rest of our day.

So good on you for choosing to start in such a positive manner with presence and awareness.

Whatever challenge you face today,

Remember the roots connecting you to the earth.

Trust them to keep you stable through the wind no matter how harshly it blows.

Each day when we rise we have the opportunity to choose how we want to show up for ourselves,

For our lives,

For the people we love and the strangers we encounter along the way.

Each day when we rise we are being born again into our own beings with boundless possibilities for transformation and growth.

We are here to live another day and that in itself is a miracle.

I hope that today you choose to be kind to yourself and the world around you.

Thank you for practicing with me and as you move through your day may you have peace in your thoughts,

May you have peace in your words,

May you have peace in your heart and may you have peace in your actions.

Thank you.

Reviews

Thank you! I Loved the visualisation, it brights my heart and I feel ready to start my day 💖

Muito Obrigada!! Thank you so much for those precious 18 minutes. I will carry that feeling into my day.

Lovely meditation to start my day. I enjoyed the stair step breathing technique. Thank you 🙏

Beautiful words and a very gentle yet energising practice to start the day. I’m feeling grounded and motivated, thank you for your guidance 🙏🌻☀️💛

Beautiful 🤩 🌟🥰 thank you so much, I really enjoying the sunshine growing and glowing it’s way though my body! I will definitely be revisiting this magical session again. 💖🙏

Thank you Ana Liz, it was a wonderful practice. I definitely will repeat it again. Have a beautiful day. Namaste 🙏🏻💙🌈✨💜

Incredible! Much love ❤️!!! I will definitely repeat this practice and follow. My gratitude and blessings! 🙏
💫✨✨✨

This is my first time doing one of your meditation and it was simply beautiful. Wonderful pace & so nice to be left alone during the pranayama. Thank you so much for sharing 🙏💚🙏

Love this meditation. It is very well done in how you are allowed to pace yourself through the pranayama without pressure to keep up with another pace. It ends with a visualization that is wonderful for my Sunday scaries.

This was great! A wonderful way to start my day. I feel light and happy. Thank you, Ana Liz!

I listened to this just after seeing the sun rise in a beautiful place I was visiting and this meditation truly helped me affirm my presence and centredness there while staying connected to the earth and noticing the peace of the space around me.

Gentle, subtle and nourishing.

It truly felt like the sun was on the top of my head. Your words filled me with energy and kindness.

Really beautiful😍 Very centering, relaxing and uplifting at the same time, wonderful way to start the day,thank you so much 😊🙏❣️

Gorgeous, loved the breathwork to center and the somatic sun work. Will return to often, thank you! 🙏❤️☀️

Absolutely loved this meditation! Thank you so much….feeling great and ready for the day ahead!
I am in the flow 🧘🏻‍♀️🥰

Just what I needed this morning. Thank you

Beautifully spoken, and lovely practice. Thank you 🙏🏼

A lovely meditation. Both the step breathing and sun visualization. Thanks!

Amazing! Loved the breathing techniques and visualization 🙏🏼

This is a beautiful meditation to begin my day. I will definitely return to it many times. I’m so grateful to you for providing it. Thank you. 🙏🏻🥰