Greetings.
This is a meditation on keeping an uncluttered place in your heart.
Keep an uncluttered place within your heart and soul,
Where daily you can go and be still.
Please make yourself comfortable,
Ready for this meditation,
Either sitting up with your feet firmly on the floor and your spine gently elongated,
Hands resting,
Palms up on the top of your thighs.
Or perhaps you may prefer to be lying down,
Especially if you're using this meditation as a means to relax and release any tension before sleep.
Preparing for sleep in this way is a wonderful habit to establish.
So I encourage you to use this meditation in either position because either way it will be most beneficial.
Together now let's take three deep breaths with a double inhalation,
Holding for a moment,
And then a double exhalation,
Releasing tension or relaxing on each exhalation.
So let's do that together.
The double breath is like this.
Inhale through the nose and the exhale is through the mouth,
Like that.
Short,
Long,
Both times.
So let's do that now.
Inhaling and relax again.
Exhaling and relax.
Last time inhaling,
Exhaling,
Exhaling,
Exhaling,
And relax.
Those long exhalations are most beneficial if you're really wanting to feel your body let go of tension and relax.
Now just breathe as the body demands.
Please don't try to control the breath in any way.
The breath is so soothing if we can simply observe it,
Knowing that we don't have to control it or direct it.
And that's what happens after your three rounds of those double breaths and exhalations.
It's a natural response to that practice.
Pause here for a few moments,
Noticing that natural flow of the breath.
Sometimes it takes a little time for the body and mind to pick up on the fact that you are allowing yourself to relax.
There is enough time now.
Evenness of breath,
Evenness of mind.
Feel that connection taking place.
There is enough time.
Once the body continues to breathe calmly and automatically,
You can turn your attention to the process of relaxing various parts of the body.
As I give you suggestions,
Your mind will go to that particular part and respond accordingly.
This is a process you can follow gently and with peace.
The intention is to find that uncluttered place within your heart and soul where you can rest and be still.
By the way,
During the relaxation of body parts,
Feel free to take a deep inhalation and sigh the breath out any time you may feel inclined.
If you do this,
Of course,
Rest once more in the calmness and evenness of the breath and continue to follow the suggestions.
Now,
Let the shoulders drop and relax.
Shoulders relax and let go.
Especially if you feel you are carrying the weight or burden of something or some situation on your shoulders.
We all do that from time to time.
The thing is to realize that you are carrying unnecessary or unwanted burden.
And in times of relaxation and meditation,
You can release it.
Now,
Check that your arms are relaxed.
Your arms are just resting softly.
Your hands and your fingers are relaxed.
There's no grasping or reaching for anything at all.
Just let go.
Be still and relax.
Allow your back to relax now.
If you're lying down,
Feel your back sinking into the bed.
If you are seated,
Be aware of the soft elongation of your spine without any rigidity.
And you might feel that your chest is open.
Let your mind peacefully travel along the back of your legs now.
You're not forcing anything,
Simply feeling and allowing.
So often in our daily life,
We do force ourselves to do quite a lot of things.
But in the time of your relaxation and your meditation,
You don't need to do that.
Be aware of the back of your thighs,
The back of your knees,
The calf muscles.
Be aware of the heels,
The soles of your feet,
The toes on the right foot and the toes on the left foot.
Feel the feeling of softness on the top of your feet.
Then let the mind travel up your legs,
Relaxing lower legs completely,
The shin bone on both legs,
The knees on both legs and those thigh muscles.
Pause a moment and feel both legs,
Both feet and toes completely relaxed and light.
Our feet and our legs carry us along through life.
And it's important that we consciously rest our legs and our feet.
Allow your hips now to relax both the left hip and the right hip,
Perhaps a feeling of spreading and opening and widening.
Now be aware of the abdominal area.
Feel those abdominal muscles softening and sinking into the body,
Allowing both the small and the large intestines to relax as well.
Our internal organs are capable of holding onto tension just like our muscles that we're aware of.
As you breathe that calm,
Easy breath,
Feel all the internal organs in that abdominal area relax.
And know that behind this awareness of relaxation that your peaceful breath is sending the vibration of calmness throughout your whole body.
It's quite tangible.
Feel that vibration of peace.
Coming into the chest area now,
Be aware of the rib cage,
The lungs and the heart.
Much of our feelings emanate from the heart.
We can have a happy heart,
A generous heart,
A loving heart,
A sad heart,
A heavy heart or an open heart.
All these feelings we all have from time to time.
Pausing here and feel the quietness now and the calmness of your heart.
And within that quietness,
Slowly,
Slowly,
If there's any cluttered emotions that you feel in your heart,
The calmness and the quietness allows you to release them.
It is in the heart now that you can be still.
There can be many emotions and feelings,
But for now we want an uncluttered heart,
A quiet heart,
A loving heart,
A compassionate heart.
There's no clutter in the heart,
Only the quietness,
Loving feelings and compassion to all sentient beings.
Feel at the heart of your uncluttered heart is simplicity.
You are simply present without embellishing the moment with any hopes or fears or expectations.
With that feeling of simplicity comes a great deal of ease and peace.
Try that,
Just feeling the simplicity of being present without embellishing the moment with any hopes or fears or expectations.
Feel the essence of simplicity within.
Your wisdom will guide you and reveal its deeper meaning.
And this might happen over time.
When you revisit this meditation,
You're revisiting that simplicity in your heart.
And there's something profound and beautiful about that simplicity.
So I let you have one minute's silence now and I'll call you back.
As we come to the close of our meditation now,
Begin to breathe a little deeper,
Slowly and gently,
And hold on to the feeling,
That inner feeling of peace and unclutteredness.
Perhaps even if you unclutter the feeling in your heart,
You may also feel that unclutteredness occurring in your mind,
In that restless mind that we all experience.
It takes time and it takes practice.
Keep on keeping on moving towards that quiet heart and the calmness of body and mind.
We spoke of uncluttering both the heart and the soul in order to feel inner stillness.
You may feel a more tangible sensation of clutter or restlessness in the heart,
But the soul is pure consciousness and the soul needs only to remember how pure and divine that it really is.
It is through a regular practice of meditation that the soul qualities of compassion and loving kindness,
Among other qualities as well,
Become present in our life.
So resolve to practice again.
Many blessings to you.
Have a wonderful day or a very peaceful sleep.
