Inner space meditation.
Let's take a moment to settle in and get comfortable.
You might want to turn your cell phone off and sit where your body is supported and where you won't get fatigued.
Take a moment to drop your awareness down from your head inside your body.
Engage your senses.
Notice the sound of the breath,
The air at your nostrils,
The coolness of the inhale,
The warmth of the exhale.
Feel your belly rising and falling with the breath and notice how the breath moves through your body,
Where it moves easily and where it moves not so easily.
Not trying to change anything or judge anything,
Just becoming aware in this moment what the breath is doing in your body.
Invite your body to let go of any tension.
Feel your brain shift to the back of your head and grow heavy.
Feel your jaw release so that your molars don't touch.
And imagine a waterfall of warm water,
Warm relaxation washing down your head,
Down your shoulders,
Down your arms,
Down your torso,
Into your pelvic floor,
Down your legs,
All the way into your feet.
Imagine you could pull the plugs from the soles of your feet and just let any tension drain out.
Notice if there's any tension or clenching in your toes.
Invite them to let go.
Feel your fingers.
Let them relax and let go.
Imagine you could sprout roots from the soles of your feet into the earth,
Going down through the soil,
Into the rock,
And feeling the solid support beneath you.
The earth,
The same matter as your body,
Your kindred spirit.
Lengthen your exhale so that it's longer than your inhale,
Breathing from your belly.
Let yourself be breathed.
No effort,
Just surrendering to the body,
Letting it breathe you.
Who is breathing?
Let source breathe you.
Sensing into the aliveness in the body,
The body that is in the moment,
Vibrant,
Awake.
Not stuck in a thought,
But fully here,
A resource that you can always draw upon.
If your mind is getting too busy or you feel tense,
Feel yourself drop down into your body.
The body is intelligent.
Its life force doesn't have to tell it what to do.
It doesn't have to tell the body when to blink or what to manage or control.
It's in flow.
This flow is a resource to you,
So feel yourself scan your body and notice a place in your body that feels particularly good.
Let yourself marinate in that feeling,
Just taking it in.
Be aware of the space in your body,
The space in between the cells,
The space in the cells.
Breathe in empty open space like the sky into your body,
Giving everything room to stretch out,
To feel no pressure whatsoever.
The body present,
Always here,
Awake and alive.
Feel yourself dissolve into the body.
Presence is that place that we can dissolve into,
Where there's no story of me.
There's just the experience of breathing,
Feeling the sensations in your body,
And then beginning to notice the spaciousness that is like the background where everything arises from.
Your thoughts,
Your feelings,
Your sensations.
What would it be like if you identified with the space rather than the matter,
The thoughts,
The feelings,
Even the sensations?
The body provides a vehicle for consciousness and the breath provides a tether to the present moment.
And when you let go and just rest in the body,
The body has its own way of bringing you into presence without trying.
Coming into that presence,
Letting yourself rest,
Nothing to do,
Nowhere to go.
With each breath,
Letting go of any tension,
Any things to do list,
Any mental chatter,
And just dissolving into the breath.
The breath that creates more space to the space that is your essence of being in the first place.
Feel the stillness of that empty space.
It's like a screen where everything is projected upon like a movie.
And you can step back and watch the movie without being pulled in or yanked this way or that by emotions or thoughts.
Observe everything arising on this screen of empty open space,
Pure consciousness,
Awareness itself.
And notice if you would,
If there's any place in your body that feels uncomfortable or tight or perhaps there's a nagging thought that you just can't quite let go of.
Follow that thought down or that uncomfortable feeling like a string into where it first arises in the body.
Where that first impulse of the thought or the sensation is and bring your awareness to the edge of it.
Not into the center of it,
Just to the edge.
From that edge,
Breathe a molecule of empty open space into that discomfort.
And breathe another and another.
And keep them coming until you're aware that you're actually changing the constitution of this discomfort.
Observe what arises as it changes and becomes more spacious.
Not trying to change anything,
Not thinking about it,
Just noticing,
Becoming aware of what is below the level of consciousness that you might not usually notice.
But now you have the opportunity to dip down a little deeper.
Tend to this discomfort with kindness,
With compassionate curiosity,
Not trying to change it or manage it,
Just being aware.
Notice as it melts into that space,
As if it becomes milder,
Quieter,
And rest in the space in between whatever arises.
Not pushing,
Just allowing it to gradually dissolve into space,
Molecules of empty open space.
Like the sky lives inside of you,
Infinite,
Limitless.
And this spacious awareness is cognizant.
It's intelligent.
It's consciousness itself.
Now I'd like you to bring your awareness inside your torso and specifically inside your heart.
And do the same thing.
Breathe and molecule of empty space into it,
Diluting it,
And another,
And another.
Just keep them coming.
Sometimes the heart feels threatened and has a hard time letting go.
It feels like it has to protect itself,
Armor itself.
When you can give it empty space like this,
It feels safer.
It can dissolve into the space around it without a direct confrontation,
But a gentle melting.
Feel your heart melting and opening layer by layer,
Letting that innate life force which lives in the body,
Which shows itself as empty open space on the deepest level of pure awareness.
Let that pure awareness bring a sense of ease and openness and well-being.
Like you have all the time and space in the world.
The spacious awareness allows us to come home to our awareness which is innately wise and knowing.
It dissolves any obscurations to that clarity so that we can widen our point of view and see the big picture and feel spacious and free.
Feel your body like a cloud,
Completely transparent,
That you can breathe right through.
Let yourself dissolve into that space.
Just breath.
Space.
Empty.
Open.
Free.
And throughout your day,
Take a moment or two to drop into your torso and connect with the core of that life force energy,
Of the spacious awareness which will set you free.
Thank you for joining me today.
Many blessings to each and every one of you.
