SRS Session 14 | Balance

In session 14 we look at the balance point that lives smack in the middle of our mind's typical 'one way or the other ' vantage point. This meditation includes both a guided visualization and an affirmation practice. The Spiritual Recalibration Series is designed to help you expand your awareness into a new, more open, curious and expansive way of being in daily life. This impactful series comprises 33 sessions, each with a short topic (the recalibration) followed by guided meditation. Meditations include affirmations, visualizations, and brief periods of quiet, musical stillness.

Transcript

Okay, Welcome back to the Spiritual Recalibration Series. Thank you for embarking on this series and opening yourself to a new way of being. My name is David, And this is Session 14, Balance. Find a comfortable seat in a space where you can allow yourself 20 minutes or so, Undistracted, To focus just on you. A quick reminder, To get the most out of this series, Please be sure you've listened to the Welcome Session, Session Zero. Here we go. So we've spoken before, So I think maybe to orient, We'll talk about this with the number three and the number two. So the number three reminds me of that three-legged stool that we've spoken about before, I think, Whereby just in life, We tend to be really good at that. We've maybe figured out our physical health. We pay attention to that to whatever extent we do, But we're at least aware that there's stuff we can do for our body and our health. And sometimes we do it, Sometimes we don't, To varying degrees for each of us. But that's our physical health, So we're aware of that, And it's part of our life. In one way or another. And then the other leg of the stool, Or another leg of the stool, Is kind of our intellectual development, Our education, The knowledge that we gain, And we use that knowledge and that education to whatever extent we do. So we read books and we watch things, And so we kind of nourish ourself that way, Kind of that brain, Intellectual side of things. And then the third leg, Which is often, For various reasons, In kind of this secular society that we tend to live in, Especially over here in the West, Is kind of just that something else, The spiritual aspect of life, If you will. That personal growth, That self-awareness, Consciousness, All of that stuff. That's the leg that often is missing. And you're here now exploring this, Here doing this meditation practice, So maybe it's not so much missing anymore. Maybe it was, I know for me personally, It was missing for the majority of my adult life until a minute ago, Relatively speaking. But the idea with the three-legged stool is that it's unbalanced without all three legs. So if one of those legs is missing, It falls over. So there's that. I kind of like the idea. It's the image of that stable stool on those three legs. And then the other bit was then number two, And kind of we go into this sort of binary balance, Left, Kind of left and right, Standing on two legs. So we've heard all this before, Living a balanced life, You know, The work-play balance, The balance of power in a relationship. What are some common ways we think about balance? I get curious about it, Because we kind of know when we're out of balance. We know when we're leaning just too far one way, Spending too much time doing one particular thing with not enough awareness on whatever the other side of that thing is. It's interesting to think about, I was reading not that long ago about kind of how the opposite sides of one thing are actually all one thing. So it's like left and right, Just as a basic example. We can think of them as opposite, But they are a balancing, Just the one side and then another of one thing, Like having money and not having money. It's balancing sides of one thing. We tend to think of everything, And this is the nature of our mind, In a binary way, Black and white. I don't know. I think it varies, I think, By personality type, As far as the extent to which each of us thinks of things in terms of black and white versus the gray, That space that's kind of in between. I remember years, I think the first time, I'll give you a personal real example. The first time I really got involved in thinking about politics was when Barack Obama was running for president the first time. I never really had much of an interest in that stuff before then, But I got caught up in all that political stuff, And I found myself watching a lot of, Then soon thereafter, Watching a lot of the cable news that was just on the liberal side of the Democrat, That one side. After a while, Years maybe, I realized that I was just becoming kind of just cynical, Because I was spending so much time kind of getting input on that one aspect, That one way of thinking about things, And that starts to create an other, Like the people who don't agree with me. What happens is, When you start getting really focused in that way on one side of things, You become opinionated. We all have opinions. We all have our opinions, And it seems to me that when we become opinionated, We become pretty attached to those opinions, And this circles back around to stuff we've talked about, How the idea of being above and below the line, Are we committed to learning or are we committed to being right? If we have lots of opinions, And we're attached to those opinions, We're committed to being right, And that's okay. That's where most of us spend most of our time, But it certainly doesn't feel balanced. It doesn't really feel easy, And it certainly creates separation between us and them, Because again, Us and them are two sides of one thing, Again. So we're going to play with this now in our meditation, This visual of, I've been kind of thinking about an eagle, Or really any bird soaring, But I like an eagle because its other wings are so broad, But if you see them soaring, They are perfectly balanced. So I've been playing with that visual, That imagery of that perfect balance, Because when we feel balanced in our life, No matter what aspect of life we're talking about, Our internal life, Our external life, Our life situation, When we feel balanced, Things are easier and more peaceful, When we're not so far one way or the other, Yeah, Okay. So let's see if we can help that resonate a little bit. So let's close down your eyes if you're comfortable with that, Close the eyelids gently, Eyes soft behind the eyelids, Check in with your posture, If you're in a chair, Make sure your feet are flat on the ground, It's hard to balance if your feet aren't flat, If your feet aren't supported down there, You can try that for just a second, If you're sitting in a chair, Lift one foot up and feel the difference in your body, You kind of start having to work, Place that foot back down, Get yourself nice and balanced, Palms gently placed on the thighs, Either palms up or palms down, Your choice at the juncture of thighs and abdomen, Or a little bit further forward if that's more comfortable for you, Letting the breath flow naturally, No need to control it, And tuning in to these affirmative words about balance, Just a few repetitions, If you memorize it, You can say it out loud or just follow along in your mind, As an eagle gliding across a clear blue sky, I am in perfect balance, Centered, I am at ease with myself and with all things, I am at peace, As an eagle gliding across a clear blue sky, I am in perfect balance, Centered, I am at ease with myself and with all things, I am at peace, As an eagle gliding across a clear blue sky, I am in perfect balance, Centered, I am at ease with myself and with all things, I am at peace, Tuning into the feeling behind the words with intention, As an eagle gliding across a clear blue sky, I am in perfect balance, Centered, I am at ease with myself and with all things, I am at peace, Just allowing yourself to say, To speak the affirmation in a whisper, As an eagle gliding across a clear blue sky, I am in perfect balance, Centered, I am at ease with myself and with all things, I am at peace, Just in your mind following along, As an eagle gliding across a clear blue sky, I am in perfect balance, Centered, I am at ease with myself and with all things, I am at peace, Letting the words go, Staying for a moment with the feeling of balance, Good, Allowing yourself to tune into your breath now, Just for a moment or two, See if you can notice the breath in the nostrils, The air passing, The mind wanders, It's okay, Notice with intention, Bring it back to your breath, So let the breath go, Don't have to watch it, Draw your gaze gently upward, Behind closed eyelids, And allow yourself the visual of you sitting in meditation in a meadow, A field, A field of grass, And the grass extends, The field extends all the way out in front of you, Where it meets a clear blue sky, There's nothing but grass, Nothing but the field, The meadow, And this is true all the way to the left, As far as you can see, And all the way behind you it's the same, And all the way to the right, The meadow meets the sky, You are in the center of it, The sun is directly overhead, Feel the balance here, And overhead, Directly in front of you in the sky, You see that eagle gliding, Gliding straight ahead and getting smaller as it gets further from you, Smaller, Focused on the bird now, Smaller, Smaller, Until it's out of sight, Until it has expanded into this open sky, As you allow yourself to expand into this open, Peaceful, Calm, Easeful way of being here, Now let the visual go, But stay for just another moment or two, In this place of balance, Of centered ease, Good, Good, Now take a normal breath in and out, Prepare to come back to the space where you are, You can stay like this for as long as you like, And when you're ready, Open your eyes.