Hello and welcome.
I'm Julia Frohdahl and this meditation is offered to help you cultivate the ability to be present and open-hearted in your daily life,
Even when things aren't going the way you hoped or planned.
This meditation can also be used to help get yourself unhooked when you're caught up on something and unable to let go.
It's a practice that over time will make residing in a field of openness and acceptance easier and easier to do,
Even in the difficult moments.
So please set up a comfortable seat for yourself and begin to establish a quality of groundedness and presence in the body.
Let the lower body sink into the earth while the spine extends upwards effortlessly.
Soften the belly and allow the heart to spread.
That's what it does naturally when allowed.
Allow the heart to spread.
Allow the body to move naturally as you breathe.
Let it open and close.
Relax the throat.
Relax the inner ears.
Relax the plates of the skull.
Allow the body to move naturally as you breathe.
Soften the corners of your eyes and bring a little smile to the face.
Soften with this smile.
Soften the hands.
Now begin to notice any sounds around you and accept any sounds around you just as they are.
Notice the feelings in your body and accept the feelings in your body just as they are.
Accept the busy mind just as it is and let the running stories in your mind,
All of which are about the past or the future,
Neither of which exist.
Let the running stories in your mind start to fade from your interest and just be right here right now with me.
Let yourself be just as you are and no one else you need to be.
Let yourself begin to become nameless.
Begin to shed all the things about your identity that you hold onto.
Just let them fall away.
Just let them fall away and become nameless.
And feel the inner space become more and more vast as the boundaries of the body and mind dissolve.
Become borderless and spacious as you feel nature living and moving through you.
Be aware of the breath moving through you.
Be aware of the heart beating within you.
And as you open to this quality of vastness and spaciousness,
Allow anything that wishes to to arise in that infinite space.
Just let it come and go in the beautiful silence and space.
Let any thoughts or images rise and fall as they wish and do nothing about them.
They're simply thoughts and images like clouds and birds moving through the sky of infinite possibilities.
To spend a minute in this infinite space,
Allowing all things to come and to go just like them.
And now take a deep breath in and a long,
Slow breath out.
And again,
A deep breath in and a long,
Slow breath out.
Next,
I'm going to invite you to repeat a series of mantras silently after me.
These mantras are to help train the mind to be open and present,
To rewrite the programming that causes us to close.
I'll invite you to repeat the mantras a few times.
So here we go.
You can repeat after me if you'd like.
I release control.
I surrender to the flow.
I release control.
I surrender to the flow.
I release control.
I surrender to the flow.
I greet all beings and experiences with an open heart.
I greet all beings and experiences with an open heart.
I greet all beings and experiences with an open heart.
I can stay open when things are difficult.
I can stay open when things are difficult.
I can stay open when things are difficult.
I greet all that I encounter with the aspiration to see more clearly.
I greet all that I encounter with the aspiration to see more clearly.
I greet all that I encounter with the aspiration to see more clearly.
I release control.
I surrender to the flow.
I release control.
I surrender to the flow.
You may bring your hands to your heart or into prayer if you like.
And you may conclude your meditation here or let yourself enjoy this space of surrender and openness that you've found for a little while longer.
The recording will run for three more minutes and conclude without a bell.
Thank you for joining me.
