I started my meditation journey because I wanted to become less anxious,
And wherever you are with your headspace today,
I invite you to explore with me how meditation can help us find a bit more freedom,
A bit more ease today,
Using the breath and just sitting quietly and seeing what that can teach us.
One of the big things I've learned in my journey is that for us to be hurting and for us to be anxious in this chaotic world does not make us weak.
There's the pain of life which makes us anxious,
And then there's the additional pain of us not wanting to be anxious and resisting that.
And for me,
I would say,
You're weak for being anxious.
An invitation now is to just really extend compassion to our whole selves,
Even the bits of us that are hurting,
And to really connect with the fact that the anxious parts of us,
They are trying to keep us safe in an uncertain world.
We try and plan through and work through,
Hoping that everything can be okay if we think about things enough and worry about things enough.
And so the intention is good,
But we're just oversensitive,
And ultimately,
One of the key insights that we learn in meditation and in life is that change is the only constant,
So we cannot,
We cannot control the world,
Let alone even our own thoughts.
And so the only option for us is to let go of trying to control and to see if we can rest in the present moment.
And meditation is a training to be able to rest more easily,
Training our awareness to not only be stuck in thought and planning and worrying and anxiety,
But to get moments of being able to just be here.
So you can be sitting in any way you'd like to,
With the spine long,
Imagining there's a piece of string attached to the heavens,
To the top of your head,
Feel a lengthening of your spine,
A tuck of the chin so the back of the neck is long,
And then relaxing,
So shoulders relaxed.
And if it feels comfortable for you and there's only an option,
Closing your eyes and coming to your breath,
If there's an option for you,
Breathing in and out through your nose,
And begin to slow your breath down.
We can't tell ourselves not to be anxious.
Well,
We can tell ourselves,
But it's not going to help.
Often that just creates more internal turmoil,
But what we can do is slow our breath down.
And as we slow our breath down,
It's connected to our mind and body through our nervous system.
And so it is a powerful way to find more peace.
So slowing your breath down,
Softening your face with your awareness on the movement of the air coming in and out through your nostrils,
Watching as the slightly colder air comes in,
The slightly warmer air coming out,
Slowing down the breath.
And let's try a few breaths together.
If these feel too slow for you,
You can always breathe in your own rhythm.
And so breathing in two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
And breathing out for five,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Breathing in,
Breathing out.
And for this breath,
Breathing in,
We'll hold at the top,
A gentle hold,
And breathing out.
Breathing in,
Softening your face,
Holding the breath for a moment,
And breathing out,
Breathing in,
Holding the breath,
Breathing out,
Continuing to breathe slow and mindfully,
Watching the air come in and out through your nostrils.
Meditation is not about having a quiet mind,
Nor is it about trying to fix ourselves.
Instead,
It is extending presence,
Extending loving awareness,
Kindness to anything that is arising for us,
Any experience.
We talked about the pain of life,
And then us creating an additional pain,
Which is our resistance to what is happening for us,
Fighting ourselves,
Judging ourselves.
And so the invitation now is,
Wherever you are,
Wherever you are today,
Is just to extend love and compassion.
You can even imagine yourself giving yourself a hug right now.
You're not weak for finding life difficult,
And your judgments of yourself,
The anxiety of not trusting yourself to just be here and to act from the present,
All of these are just part of your life right now.
And so,
Can you extend compassion even to these bits of you that maybe in an ideal world you wouldn't want the anxious part,
The worrying part,
To meet them with kindness,
With generosity.
Another insight that we can get from meditation is that these are parts of us.
When we feel anxious,
We may feel,
I am anxious.
When we feel not good enough,
I am not good enough.
Can we notice that these feelings and thoughts,
They are experiences arising in our awareness?
And so,
There's part of you today that is anxious.
There's parts of you that feel not good enough,
But you are necessarily bigger than that.
You are necessarily bigger than that.
And so with your awareness on your breath,
Coming in and out through your nose,
Softening your face,
If you notice thinking arising,
Can you notice that this is an experience arising in your awareness?
These thoughts pop up,
And you have no control over that popping.
And so you're not just your thoughts.
Thoughts are an experience.
You are the awareness,
The witness of the experience.
And so lovingly watching your breath,
You can imagine now a blue sky,
The sun shining.
And watching your breath is like the light of this sun,
Looking at a forest on the earth below.
The sun,
The light,
Is like the light of our awareness,
What we pay attention to,
Which experiences we bring into being.
And if you notice thinking,
This is like a cloud coming in between the light of the sun and gazing what is on the earth below.
And it may be in our difficult times of anxiety that these clouds,
They strengthen and they darken into storm clouds.
And we feel that we may lose hope that this is who we are,
That I am this storm of confusion.
And down below on the surface we may see only darkness.
But through meditation we connect with the truth that the light of our consciousness,
The light of our awareness is always there.
It is the witness to all of these experiences.
And so even the most intense times of confusion for you,
Your awareness,
Your consciousness can always bear witness to it,
Can always bear witness.
And in the same way that no storm in nature lasts forever,
Trust that this too shall pass,
This too shall pass.
Change is the only constant.
With your meditation,
If you can train yourself to gain perspective,
To rise above the clouds,
To see the storm clouds are there,
To acknowledge them,
Not to fight them or resist them,
But just to simply acknowledge that they are alive in you today.
But from that perspective of loving awareness,
Of kindness.
So with your awareness on your breath,
Coming in and out through your nose,
Softening your face,
For the next minute whatever experiences arise for you,
Can you welcome them without judgment and can you simply observe without identifying with,
Without getting lost in.
And if we do get lost,
Which is part of being human,
When we notice we are lost in thought,
Gently return back to the breath.
And gently beginning to come back into your space and into your body,
With your eyes still closed,
Bringing the movement into the body from shoulder rolls,
From spinal twists,
Twisting from one side to the other,
And when you're ready in your own time,
Taking as long as you want,
Opening your eyes.
So my friends,
We are so much more wonderful than our thoughts can capture,
We are manifestations of the mysterious intelligence of the universe,
And part of this human incarnation is to find life challenging,
This doesn't make you weak.
Can you commit to your meditation practice,
Even just taking a few breaths a day,
Two minutes of practice,
Ten minutes of practice,
And on a daily basis return to that light of your awareness,
To notice that all these experiences,
No matter how intense they are,
You can handle them,
And they are just experiences,
They're parts of you,
As opposed to overwhelming you.
And every step on the journey is valuable,
So we don't need to put pressure on ourselves to find peaceful light every day,
But even if you return back to your breath and do so without judgement once this week,
That is growth,
That is practice,
And so celebrating every step on your journey.
If you'd like to explore more philosophy and ideas and movement and meditation with me,
There's a playlist somewhere selling strength and warmth for the rest of your day.
