Welcome to this meditation for cultivating peace with Erin Lee.
Finding a comfortable seat or laying down in a way that allows for a good posture,
A long tall spine,
Yet relaxation elsewhere in the body.
An invitation to close down the eyes or if you do choose to keep them open then let your gaze rest softly on something ahead of you.
Focused yet effortless.
The intention of this meditation is to cultivate peace.
Peace is a natural state of being yet it can be challenging to feel peaceful when there's a lot of movement in life going on.
Whether that's in our inner world,
In the way of thoughts,
Emotions,
Maybe physical dis-ease,
Tension or perhaps the outside world feels busy.
Other people or your environment.
For the purposes of this meditation it doesn't matter whether your outer world or inner world feels stormy.
The pathway to peace is to first notice where disharmony exists.
This then awakens the potential to return to peace again.
So let's begin by looking within.
First resting the awareness on the nature of your breath as it gets experienced in your abdomen.
Feeling any sensations in your belly that arise and dissolve away on each breath in and each breath out.
Resting your attention here on your abdomen.
Focusing on the felt sensations of each inhale and each exhale.
Continue doing this.
Returning your awareness again and again onto your belly.
Noticing the influence of the breath there.
You might notice that every so often the mind has other ideas about what it would like to focus on instead of the felt sensations of the breath at the abdomen and that's okay.
We're here to notice when our awareness is placed on our object of focus,
The felt sensations of the breath at the belly.
And with just as much interest we're here to notice when our awareness is placed elsewhere.
All you need to do when you notice that the mind has wandered elsewhere is with a great sense of kindness gently guide the awareness back in and place it on the felt sensations of your breath at your belly.
It's likely that with time sitting or laying here that you've already become aware of any part of you that's not at peace.
Without going into a story about it,
See instead if you can get curious and just identify or label the parts of you that are beckoning your attention away from the breath at the belly.
Maybe it's that you're able to rest your awareness on the abdomen and the felt experience of the breath there yet in the background you become aware of parts of you that are not experiencing peace.
Are they thoughts or one thought in particular?
Is it tension in the body or another sensation in your physical body that's pulling on your attention?
Is it an emotion,
A sense of restlessness or boredom or perhaps frustration or impatience that's arising in the space that you're creating here?
If nothing's coming up for you that's okay and if it is then that's okay too.
Everything belongs here.
We're cultivating a great sense of being at peace with everything that's in this space.
It's the noticing of what's here that counts.
Noticing any part of our inner world that's seems to be holding on to something,
Gripping on to something.
If that's happening simply watch over it with a sense of curiosity as if it were very interesting to observe.
The moment that you notice what you're noticing is the moment that we loosen the grip.
Our awareness becomes more spacious.
Beyond any experience of tension or disharmony lies an ability to soften.
So as you continue to sit or lay here breathing in and out noticing the felt sensations of the breath at the abdomen.
In the background of your awareness see if you can soften any unnecessary tension elsewhere in your body.
Use the breath out as an opportunity to loosen the grip a little.
Softening the skin that envelops your body.
Perhaps you could relax the insides of the mouth a little more.
Relaxing the tongue all the way down to its roots.
Softening the creases in the corners of the eyes while the spine remains integrous.
Perhaps there's an opportunity to ease off tension in the shoulders as you remain here breathing in and out.
Consider how you were always the master of what goes on inside your own head and heart.
That this in fact is the one thing that you have total control over.
It's no one else's responsibility to monitor or decide what goes on inside your own head and heart.
That you're completely responsible for this and you know what's going on in your head and heart.
You get to choose what stays in your head and heart and what you could gently let go of with love.
Making this time to look within and create more space in the mind and make more expansion in your heart allows you to choose more peaceful actions in life.
There's a space for the choice of peaceful actions to land.
This is a part of you that's innate.
Peace is a part of your true nature.
It's just that sometimes the goings-on of everyday life that we resist,
Put a wall up against,
Don't agree with,
Expect to be different,
Sometimes these parts get in the way of the truth of your peaceful nature.
Bringing awareness to the way of your breath now,
Smoothing out each inhale and each exhale.
Allowing each in-breath to be like a gentle breeze traversing your inner landscape.
Each breath out is an opportunity for you to release anything that you now wish to let go of.
Breathing in peace and breathing out for peace.
Breathing in peace and breathing out for peace.
Breathing in peace,
Breathing out peace.
The clarity of peace never goes away like the sky,
It only gets temporarily clouded.
All you need to do for peace to shine through is to release your grip on life.
Instead allow it to be just as it is in this moment.
Being peaceful doesn't mean that you don't take action,
Instead your actions are born from a place of peace.
Bringing your awareness back to your breath now,
Noticing the felt sensations of the breath at your belly.
Breathing in a little deeper,
Gently part the lips to release a long breath out through an open mouth and giving thanks to yourself for making this time to cultivate peace.
