Find Your Center, Between Above And Below

Come home to your body. Be guided in a practice using breath and visualization to connect to the world outside of and within your body. Cultivate a sense of peace and be nourished by your breath. Feel that you are exactly where you are supposed to be, right here, right now.

Transcript

Welcome to your practice today.

I invite you to find a space that is safe and comfortable for your practice.

If this means closing the door or letting others know that you'll be here in this practice space,

I invite you to do so.

Finding a comfortable place for your body,

Whether it is seated or standing.

I invite you to first place your hands somewhere on your body,

Perhaps on your heart,

On your belly,

Maybe your own cheek,

Or cupping your hands over your eyes for a moment of darkness.

And let's turn our attention to the breath.

On your next inhale,

Place your awareness right at the space where the breath enters the body.

Receive that breath,

Follow it all the way down.

As it fills your lungs,

Perhaps it feels like it's going all the way down to your belly.

Softening the body to receive the breath,

And then allowing the breath to flow outwards,

Following it with your attention.

Next inhale,

Breathing in through the nose,

Receiving it in the softening belly,

Soft body.

Exhaling through the open mouth with a sigh,

Beautiful.

Inhaling through the nose,

Feeling the body expand.

Exhaling through the open mouth.

Third breath to arrive.

Breathing in,

Expanding the body,

Allowing it to simply soften.

And as you exhale this time,

Can you make a sigh,

A sound,

A note or a tone?

Ahhhhhh.

That's it.

I invite you to do that another breath.

Breathing in through the nose,

Expanding the body,

And softly,

Gently making a sound as you exhale.

Ahhhhhh.

And I invite you to consider that you are the only instrument in the whole universe that can make this sound.

Your voice is completely unique to you.

And so once more,

Breathing in through the nose,

Inhaling,

Expanding the body and exhaling with a sound,

With a note,

With a tone.

Ahhhhhh.

And perhaps considering that the sound of your own voice is the most powerful sound for you to hear in the universe.

You can continue breathing in through the nose,

Exhaling through the mouth with or without a sound.

Ahhhhhh.

Mmhmm.

Letting your palms,

Your hands,

Come to rest in any place that's comfortable,

Maybe on your lap,

Maybe together,

Maybe on the floor beside you.

And as you continue breathing deeply in through the nose,

Exhaling through the mouth.

Ahhhhhh.

I invite you to bring your mind's eye and your imagination to the center of the crown of your head.

And can you imagine letting that space be soft and open,

Perhaps even opening,

Making a little soft opening in the center of the top of your skull.

And perhaps your next inhale,

You can draw the breath in your mind's eye and your imagination right in through that opening in the crown of the head,

Making it soft and permeable just like when you were a baby.

As you fill your skull with that air,

Can you imagine that there is only air inside that space?

Can you feel the empty space,

The distance between the inner parts of your ears?

Can you imagine the round space on the back of your skull placing your mind's eye,

Your awareness inside your skull?

Can you bring your attention,

Your awareness to the spaces right behind your eyes,

Breathing in and filling the space with air,

With breath and exhaling out the crown of the head,

Breathing in through the nose,

Even as you imagine breathing in through the crown of the head,

Exhaling through the mouth as you imagine sending that breath out the crown of the head.

Now we're going to start to pull that breath as you breathe in through the crown of the head,

Pulling that breath down from the crown of the head down the spine,

Emptying out the throat area,

Imagining that space fully empty.

And exhale,

Bringing that awareness down into the shoulders,

Emptying out the shoulders,

Allowing the breath to flow from shoulders to elbows,

Elbows to wrists,

Wrists to hands,

Emptying out the entire hands,

Every finger is empty space.

The thumbs are completely empty.

And bringing your awareness to the very center of the palm of your hand,

Feeling it from the inside out.

Exhaling in your mind's eye and your imagination,

Breathing that breath,

That space,

That emptiness from the palms of the hands all the way up and out through the crown of the head.

Breathing in again and bringing from the crown of the head that inhale,

That space,

That emptiness down the spine,

Letting it fill the heart area,

The chest,

The ribs,

Pulling it down into the belly,

Filling all of your organs,

Your stomach,

Your belly,

And simply space.

Breathing in deeply through the nose,

Exhaling through the mouth as we continue to imagine inhaling through the crown of the head,

Filling the body down to the hips,

And exhaling from the hips all the way up to the crown of the head.

On the next inhale,

Inhale through the crown of the head,

Down the empty space of the upper part of your body to your hips,

And now sending that breath and empty space from hips to knees,

Knees to ankles,

Ankles to feet.

That's it.

Can you imagine the space inside your foot,

Completely empty?

Inhaling from the feet,

Exhaling,

Inhaling from the crown of the head all the way down this full empty vessel of a body all the way down to your feet,

Exhaling from the feet up to the crown of the head,

Inhaling from the crown of the head all the way down the body to the feet,

Exhaling from the feet up to the crown of the head.

As you continue breathing this full body,

This entire vessel filling with air with each inhale,

And emptying out with each exhale,

Filling with an inhale,

Emptying with an exhale.

I invite you to follow that next exhale out the crown of your head,

And explore with it.

Can you send this exhale out a foot beyond your head?

Two feet,

Five feet.

Can you imagine on every exhale sending that exhale all the way out above your head,

Above the building you're in,

Above the city,

Or the country,

The continent?

Can you reach out into space beyond the stars and the planets going out to the furthest star of this entire universe,

The furthest star of the multiverse?

With an exhale,

And on the inhale drawing in from that furthest star that you can imagine,

And pulling that inhale from there all the way down into your empty vessel of the body.

And then exhaling out the crown of the head,

Breathing in this constellations,

These planets,

These stars,

This celestial world,

With breathing it in with every inhale.

Exhaling out,

And reaching out to the farthest depths with every exhale.

Inhaling,

And exhaling out to this very far distance.

On your next inhale of that celestial nature,

Pulling it all the way into their body,

And this time placing your awareness in your feet.

Allowing that same space portal door to open up in the bottom of each of your feet,

And send your next exhale from the bottom of your feet all the way into the earth below you.

In your mind's eye perhaps you can send it all the way down to the very center of this planet that we walk upon,

That we live upon,

That supports your feet and your weight and your presence every day.

And then inhaling from the center of this planet,

Filling your body up with this earthly awareness,

That earthly breath,

And exhaling through the crown of the head out to the celestial above.

Inhaling from the celestial above into the full body,

Exhaling into the earth below.

Breathing in from the earth below,

Filling up the whole body with that earthly awareness,

That earth breath,

Exhaling it to the crown of the head to the celestial beyond.

Breathing in from above,

Filling the body,

Exhaling to below.

Breathing in from below,

Filling the body,

Exhaling to the universe above.

Inhaling from above,

Fill the body with that celestial nature,

Exhaling to the ground below,

Sharing it with the earth,

The planet,

Our whole.

Inhaling from below,

From this planet,

Filling the body with that exquisite breath,

Exhaling through the crown of the head to the universe above.

As you continue breathing in this way,

I invite you to consider that you are exactly where you are supposed to be,

Perfectly situated between what is above and what is below,

Perfectly placed between what is behind you and what is ahead of you.

You are exactly where you are supposed to be,

Between what is to the left of you and what is to the right of you.

Continuing to breathe and knowing you are exactly where you are supposed to be,

In space,

In time,

In space.

Resting deeply with this awareness,

This awareness in your full body.

As thoughts come and go,

Allowing them to simply be a part of this experience,

And each time can you tune back into the body.

How does it feel to be in this space of knowing you are safe and you are sacred and you are exactly where you are supposed to be?

When you are ready,

If you are ready to come back,

I invite you to find your breath again.

Tuning into the breath,

Taking a moment to breathe in a big inhale and then shutting the doors,

The portals,

The spaces you open on the bottom of your feet and letting the exhale come out through the crown of the head.

One more breath through the crown of the head and as you fill yourself up I invite you to close that space,

That place,

That portal at the crown of your head and exhale through the mouth or the nose.

Breathing in through the nose,

Filling the whole body,

Exhaling through the open mouth.

Starting to bring your attention and your awareness to tracing the breath as it comes in through the nose,

Fills the lungs,

Expands into the belly and then releasing that breath,

Releasing the belly,

Feeling your heart space,

Feeling your chest relax,

Get a little smaller as the air leaves the body through the open mouth.

If you'd like to,

You can send a breath all the way down your arms to your hands and let that inhale bring some motion,

Some movement,

Some sensation to your hands or your fingers.

Rolling the wrists one direction then the other direction and if you'd like to,

Perhaps your hands can find each other in front of your chest and pressing together as if in a mirror image,

Palm to palm,

Finger to finger,

Thumb to thumb,

Like a mirror pressing the left into the right and the right into the left,

Perhaps with a little bit of power.

Feel your own power.

Maybe you can even feel this in the shoulders,

On your back,

The shoulder blades and then relaxing and letting that go.

If you would like to,

Rubbing your hands back and forth together,

Generating some heat,

Some warmth,

Some friction,

Telling the nervous system to come back online or waking up and then placing one hand over the other wherever your body would like to be touched.

Perhaps on your heart,

Perhaps on your belly,

Perhaps just cupping your own cheeks or making cups with your hands and placing them over your eyes,

Blinking your eyes open and coming back to awareness.

Thank you for your practice today.

Reviews

Thank you so much for this beautiful practise, i feel so centered and balanced!!