Rhetorical Welcome to this Find Your Heart meditation by Gabriella Demori.
We're going to drop into our physical bodies away from that busy mind and find our hearts amidst the chaos and the busyness of our lives.
Slowly start to extend your breath,
Breathing in through the nose,
Breathing out through the nose or the mouth.
Each inhalation is like bringing in a wave of nourishment and rejuvenation to your body,
Using your exhalation to breathe those sensations all throughout your physical body,
Front and back,
Side to side.
Extend the breath a little more with each inhalation and each exhalation.
We're going to use our breath to relax each part of our body.
So starting with the top of the head,
The very,
Very top of your head.
Send your awareness there and stay here for a moment while you fully exhale deeply.
Breathing in and out,
Sending your breath and your awareness to the very top of your head.
Breathing in again and moving down to the forehead,
Breathing into the eyebrows and the eyes.
Sending your breath and your awareness to your eyelashes,
Your cheekbones.
Continue to lengthen your breath as you begin to exhale and relax the cheeks,
Your lips,
The jaw and the ears.
Unlock the jaw,
Relax your teeth,
Relax your tongue,
Resisting any urge to rush.
Dedicate and send your beautiful breath to each part of the face,
Delivering that nourishing and soothing breath.
On the next inhalation,
Sending your awareness now down the back of the head,
Your scalp.
Each individual strand of hair,
Down the back of the neck,
Side of the neck,
Front of the throat.
Open,
Relax and expand the throat,
Allow your breath to move more freely up and down the throat.
Now as we start to connect the head to the body,
Continue to travel down on your next exhalation,
Breathing in across the collarbones to the tips of your shoulders.
Spend a few breaths here,
Relaxing any tension in the top of the shoulders,
Allowing them to drop a few millimetres away from the ears.
It's as if your shoulders were becoming heavier and your neck was lengthening just a little bit with each further breath.
Coming now to the chest,
The upper arms,
Our ribs,
Back of our shoulders.
Continuing to slow down from that fiery go,
Go,
Go energy from the day,
From work,
From family.
Sending your awareness and your relaxing breath down the upper arms,
Elbows,
Forearms and hands.
Relaxing every part of the arms and hands now down to each fingertip.
Find the arms to be as heavy as possible,
Falling heavily away from the shoulders,
Away from the neck.
Send your awareness now to the back of your body and move down each vertebrae very,
Very slowly,
One by one from the base of your neck,
Down your upper spine,
Middle spine,
The lower part of your spine,
Down to your coccyx bone.
Breathe up and down the spine as if it were a tube,
Relaxing and creating space within each vertebrae.
Now the whole upper part of the body is relaxed and a little heavier.
Send your awareness to the back of your pelvis,
The back of your hips,
Relaxing your glutes,
Becoming more aware of your contact with the chair or the floor.
Allow your body to be as heavy as it can be.
Allowing the chair or the floor to take the full weight of your body.
Breathe now over the front of your belly,
The front of your ribs,
Relaxing and yet expanding the belly at the same time,
Allowing it to move more freely.
And as you breathe in and out,
Feeling the ribs expand and contract gently.
Relaxing the front of the hips,
The tops of the thighs.
Nice long exhalations over the full length of the thighs.
Front and back.
As you move slowly towards your knees,
With each part of the thigh,
Muscles and bones fully relaxed.
Send your breath and your awareness over your knees.
Moving now over your shins and calves,
Very slowly taking your time.
There's nowhere you need to be.
There's nowhere to rush to.
Relax the muscles and move very slowly towards your ankles.
Breathing deeply.
And lastly,
Moving slowly over the front of your feet to each of the toes.
Lastly,
Become aware of the soles of your feet as they make contact with the floor.
And now that our full body is relaxed,
Feel the feet on the floor and gently push your feet into the ground.
Feel the ground supporting you and meeting you.
If there are any places in the body which still feel tense or uptight or uneasy,
Just spend a few moments breathing directly and purposefully towards those places that may need some extra attention.
And when you're ready,
I'm going to invite you to find your heart space.
Come to the center of your chest,
Under your chest bone.
Find your heart.
You may like to place your hands over your heart or just imagine doing so.
Allow any tenderness or any emotion to spring to the surface of your awareness.
Tune in to your beautiful waiting heart and allow any feelings to come to the surface in this safe exploration.
There's no need to worry or engage in any story.
Keep the thoughts at bay and simply be there with anything that just is.
Whether it be surprising or familiar or predictable,
Allow your heart space to speak to you fully and honestly and openly.
Become curious and interested and open to what the heart has to say and wants to feel.
If you become a little overwhelmed or the emotions are a little intense or perhaps you're having difficulty tuning into the heart space,
Notice how the breath moves up and down past the heart and use the breath to open and expand and soften the heart space.
Allowing whatever needs to come to the surface to arrive gently and safely.
And as you continue to remember to breathe deeply,
Use your exhalation as a way to cleanse the heart space,
To get rid of or to remove impurities,
Darkness,
Chaos,
Clouds in the heart space.
Breathe out anything that feels uncomfortable or hurtful or hateful or difficult.
Cleanse and purify the heart space with your beautiful exhalation.
Breathe out anything that is difficult or uncomfortable or tense.
Breathe out any memories or images or flashbacks.
Let them leave through your exhalation.
Breathe out any worries,
Any fears you have.
Breathe out anything that keeps you up at night and keeps you stressed.
We'll come back to those problems later.
But for now,
Breathe deeply.
Breathe out anything that doesn't belong there.
And it's not to say you need to breathe out any emotion or emotion that's difficult.
Simply let go of anything that is not kind or loving or warm hearted.
Breathe out anything that doesn't belong in the heart space.
Let go a little more,
A little further,
A little deeper.
Now we're going to become more in tune with the heart space as it's meant to be.
The heart is a safe,
Nurturing and kind place for ourselves to rest.
Use your inhalation now to breathe in a cleansing energy,
A spaciousness,
An openness into the heart space.
Allow the heart to re-become how it is meant to feel.
Once we take away the fear and the stress and the worry and the hurt.
Allow the heart space to return to its original condition.
An infinite and abundant source of loving kindness and loving energy.
Breathing in a sense of gentleness,
Of kindness,
Of compassion.
Remind the heart space of how it is meant to be.
Returning it to its natural state as it loves ourselves and others without fear,
Without condition,
Without ending.
Cleanse and expand and open the heart space with your inhalation.
Remember how good it feels to be in the heart.
The heart is safe.
The heart is open.
The heart has infinite and abundant love and kindness for you and anybody you choose to share it with.
And I'm going to leave you now to be with your heart for as long as you possibly can.
Using your breath to expand the heart space.
Enjoying being here in this safe place.
Stay here for as long as you can.
Return only to your life and this day when you are ready and full of heart energy and ready to bring this new expansive cleanse space into the rest of your life.
Thank you for listening to this meditation.
