Hey friends,
This is Jay Cherrer back again with It's Our Nature.
With COVID-19 infiltrating our world so dramatically right now that the very ground we walk on seems to be trembling.
I want to come to you now with an invitation to find calm,
To breathe through your anxiety and to build your immune system through visualization and meditation.
Thanks so much for trusting me with your time.
It was through my recent cancer diagnosis that I found my way to this kind of visualization and I felt it to be extremely powerful in my healing.
So let's do this together.
So first find a place for your body to sit or lay that feels particularly supportive and restful and yet also where your spine can be aligned a bit.
You might be sitting upright or sitting with a support behind your back.
You can certainly lie down with your spine aligned by the bed or the floor beneath you.
And we'll begin with our breath as we always do as it opens and ignites our awareness and brings us into our bodies.
And in this time it may serve each of us to give attention and awareness to our lungs right now.
As many of you may know our lungs are associated with grief and maybe some of you are feeling grief for all that is being lost at this time.
Or perhaps you're feeling trepidation in your respiratory system because this virus does seem to invade the lungs and the respiratory system.
So take a deep breath in holding at the top for just a count or two and then I want to invite you to make your exhale a bit longer than the inhale.
So let's start there and I'll count for the first couple.
So breathing in two three four holding one two three and exhaling one two three four five.
Breathing in two three four holding two three four and exhaling two three four five six.
And taking this now on your own with your own counting just making sure your exhale is slightly longer so whatever fits with your way of breathing and the needs that your lungs have right now.
Now I'd like to invite you into that same continuous breath pattern with the hold at the top and the longer exhale but imagine that the breath is going right into and out of the heart.
Maybe you'll imagine that your heart has nostrils or a mouth on it.
A way to take the breath directly into your heart.
And with this way of breathing not only is the longer exhale soothing to your nervous system but to breathe in and out of the heart actually allows our organs to regulate.
To come to a place of stasis and to calm.
So visualize the air coming right into the heart now and as you inhale the lungs will expand actually giving a little hug to the heart.
And exhaling longer a calming exhale.
And as you continue to breathe imagining that the air is coming right into and out of the heart I want you to place your attention now onto the soles of your feet.
Trusting that the breath will continue as it can in a relaxing way.
So we'll do a short body scan.
Starting first with our awareness there on the soles of your feet and into the ankles and toes.
To see if you notice any kind of sensation there moving up through the ankles and the calves into the knees with your awareness.
Even the back of the knees.
Moving up the thighs on all sides and into the groin and the pelvic girdle.
Really putting your attention there for a moment on this nest of creativity.
And also include that first chakra,
The perineum,
The place of grounding and centering down.
Staying rooted despite the fears of the mind.
Just feeling any sensations.
And as we go through the body just notice whatever you notice in terms of sensation,
Energy or pain or contraction.
Maybe images or emotions.
Breathing right into what you notice and what you feel.
And onward now sensing all the organs inside your torso.
The digestive system,
Your liver,
Kidneys,
Pancreas,
Spleen,
Appendix,
All of those organs that are so faithful to us.
And up into the lungs themselves.
Just noticing as you continue to inhale and exhale what that actually feels like.
The sensation of the breath moving in and out of the lungs and into and out of the heart.
Maybe you can actually feel your heart beating like a drum.
Perhaps imagine bowing or giving a nod to those faithful aspects of our body that are with us from the beginning to the very end.
The first breath and the last.
And noticing now your chest.
The area around the collarbones and the shoulders and neck.
Bringing special attention to the shoulders and neck.
See if you can invite them to relax a little in case you've been clenching or pulling your shoulders forward and up in an unconscious effort to avoid feeling.
Or maybe you are allowing stress to dictate your body posture because of the energies of fear that have been surrounding us in the field.
So bring your consciousness there now.
Let's let the breath invite the shoulders to sink a little,
To drop.
Notice the energy that might be held there.
And down the arms through the elbows into forearms and wrists and then your hands.
You might for a moment clench and release those hands two or three times.
And as you release,
Just notice what is there in the palm and in the fingers.
There might be tingling or heat or vibration,
Numbness.
And now noticing the head and the scalp.
These heads of ours that have been working overtime for most of us.
Just imagine that your scalp and your face,
The muscles of your face and the skin can actually droop a little.
That they could sag or hang off the skull itself.
The eyes can sink back into their sockets and turn downwards,
Relaxing your jaws,
Cheeks,
Lips.
They all relax and let go.
And from here we're going to go a little deeper in my friends.
We souls who are living in this particularly precarious time on the planet.
Perhaps you feel you were born for these times or maybe you feel a lot of resistance and fear in response.
Wherever you are,
I'd like to invoke a moment of wandering into your inner wilderness,
If you can imagine that.
I invite your imagination to become very active and awake,
Open.
We need its assistance in these ways.
So as you go further inside,
Imagine that you are entering a natural world within.
Go ahead and walk further in.
Soon you might begin to encounter or recognize a particular place in nature or a particular ecosystem,
Which I invite you to see as your immune system.
A place that feels like it is yours alone.
It feels like it is what is inside of you and it is so beautiful,
So healthy.
It could be anything,
A place that you've been to before,
A place you love or a place you've never been or even imagined,
But it is somehow home.
You feel very comfortable there.
And notice now as you enter,
What kinds of feelings does it invoke or memories or images?
And as you look around and walk into this territory,
Navigating what it offers you,
Notice if you feel that this particular ecosystem is in balance.
Does it feel like a healthy ecosystem,
A thriving environment,
A strong immune system?
Are there animals about?
Are the plants there?
Are they healthy and vivacious?
What else is there?
Is there water moving through?
Are there mushrooms growing?
Maybe you can look with your laser vision into the soil and see if the mycelium is rich,
Growing,
Spreading,
Connecting.
Do you see birds?
What is the color of the sky?
Who else is there?
What sounds alert you to the things you cannot see?
How does it feel to walk in this beautiful inner world?
If there's any part of this beautiful landscape that you are moving through that feels unhealthy or out of balance,
Imagine that you can move towards it and with your love and calm,
You can actually imbue it with a kind of injection of health,
Of strength,
Giving it exactly what it needs.
Maybe it only needs to be seen by you and noticed.
Maybe there's information you are gathering that you'll take back with you that will inform you about your needs.
Do you need more sleep or some kind of nutrient or food?
Really let your intuition be your guide here.
And your intuition involves your imagination.
This is a reciprocal relationship where you are listening and bringing your own love and calm to your own interior and it is communicating with you about what it most needs now.
Or about how strong it actually is.
In this time of the coronavirus,
Is there any part of your body that seems to need special attention or care?
And allow the sense of vibrancy and vitality that you may sense in your ecosystem to stream right into your heart now.
And take it in.
Trust it.
Believe it.
See the immune system as strong like a mighty river.
Let this be a sacred reciprocity.
Circulate your love into the inner ecosystem and let its strength and calm enter your consciousness.
Our immune systems,
When they are strong and healthy,
Know exactly how to be with the viruses that enter our bodies.
And the diseases such as cancer and other things.
So please return here to this inner world of nature and take as much time as you like.
Knowing that you can do this daily and I recommend that.
Please give a gesture now of gratitude to this place.
Really taking it in with your senses in this short time.
Be curious as to why this particular landscape showed up as your immune systems landscape right now.
And notice what it does in response.
See if you want to make a promise to return.
And with that,
Bringing your attention slowly back from that landscape,
Taking one last sniff of the air or a great listening.
Let yourself hear the sounds,
See the colors.
Feel the breeze one more time.
And then coming back to feeling your own body in its entirety.
As you do a brief survey through your physical body,
What do you notice?
Has anything changed through your feet or arms or shoulders or head or your back?
Does anything feel calmer or more alive?
What kind of wisdom do you hold now that you weren't aware of before perhaps?
So if it feels right,
Speak a sentence or two aloud now about the strength of your body and ecosystem or how it is healing now or growing stronger or maybe how beautiful it is.
Something like my rivers are flowing strong.
The wild ones abound.
My plants are growing in relationship with an underground network of strong mycelium.
Being stronger and more diverse with every breath.
I am strong.
I am safe.
My immune system knows exactly how to take care of me.
Great.
And from this place beginning to do micro movements maybe in your toes or your hips,
Back,
Neck,
Letting your head turn slowly back and forth,
Wiggling your fingers,
Maybe stretching your face.
And a couple more breaths brings us to a close here.
Again,
Remembering that great trick of letting your exhale be longer than your inhale.
That is just so soothing to our parasympathetic nervous system.
The fight or flight impulse that might be heightened right now for some of us.
So I have learned that the way to health and to healing of dis-ease in my case with cancer is to really make sure that I have a healthy ecosystem within.
Treat it as such a glorious,
Sensitive,
Wise place of nature that I am not going to poison with chemicals,
But I'm going to do everything I can to support it.
Whether it's walks in nature or nutrients,
Supplements,
Organic vegetables,
Seeing friends and giving and receiving love,
Even if it's at a distance right now.
Taking in nature,
Receiving love,
Finding ways to de-stress,
To calm ourselves,
Which actually builds our immune system,
Visualizing health and love and light in our bodies.
All of these are going to make our inner ecosystem more healthy.
And with a healthy immune system and ecosystem,
The body knows how to confront these viruses and whatever comes our way.
I can't say that often enough to you.
So I will leave you with this,
My friends.
I feel very connected to all of you.
We need each other and we are very connected in this time,
More than we even know.
We are in this together.
There is no one that is separate from this immense event on our planet.
Think of that.
What if COVID-19 has come to teach us something extremely valuable?
With that,
I give you my deepest love and respect.
And I'd like to remind you that your love and your calm is contagious and far more powerful than any virus.
Be well,
My friends.
And you are not alone.
Namaste.
