Expansion Meditation

This is a visualization meditation designed to help you broaden your perspective and experience the present moment in the most full way possible.

Transcript

Today we're going to do an expansion meditation.

Start,

Get into your most meditative stance.

To be comfortable throughout this meditation,

You probably want to be sitting in a chair.

You can start by making sure your feet are flat on the floor,

Legs are crossed,

Or else you'll start to get uncomfortable.

Next,

Check in with your sit bones.

Make sure you're sitting square in the chair,

That you feel comfortable sitting down.

Make sure your back is straight,

Your neck is straight.

Your hands can be resting on your knees,

Or you can have one inside the other with your thumbs touching just in your lap.

Your eyes can be closed,

Or you can have them slightly open,

Just gazing down at the floor before you.

Not looking at anything in particular,

Just holding a soft gaze.

Finally you just want to check in with your jaw,

Make sure it's relaxed.

Make sure your tongue is just resting at the bottom of your mouth,

Maybe just touching the back of your teeth a little bit.

Start to really focus on your breath.

Lower all of your attention to the feeling of the breath entering your body.

If it helps,

You notice the coolness of the air as you inhale,

Passing by your nostrils or your mouth,

Or the warmth of the air when you exhale.

You can check in with where the breath is stopping today,

Maybe in your throat,

In your chest,

Maybe it's getting all the way down into your belly.

Start to notice the rhythm of your breath today.

It's the rise and fall of your body,

Inhale and exhale.

Time to control the breath,

Just notice where it's at.

Now that you're feeling more connected,

Shift your attention to the contact place between your feet and the floor.

Really notice any sensation,

Feeling the soles of your feet,

Feeling supported by the floor beneath them,

Sturdy and grounded.

Now start to imagine the room around you.

You don't necessarily need to look around,

Just picture the margins of your body,

Making contact with the air in the room.

Just start to picture the space that surrounds you,

Moving your attention outside of yourself.

Hold on to whatever details come up about that space,

Noticing anything you notice about the room around you.

Now expand your attention a little further.

Start to imagine the other rooms or other floors in the building you're in.

Again,

Picture any happenings or any details that you can.

What might be happening in those rooms?

What might just be in those rooms?

Again,

Try to build as vivid a picture of those spaces as you can and any people in them and what they might be doing.

Let's expand a little further.

Let's start to picture what could be happening on the street outside,

Just outside the building you're in.

Any goings on in the street,

People or traffic moving up and down,

The breeze,

Movement in the environment.

Just try to picture what's going on outside.

Then let's expand a little further and picture what's happening in the entire neighborhood that you're in.

All the different things that could be happening in the nearby community,

Different streets,

Different conversations,

Different activities,

Different people coming and going.

Again just try to notice any little details that you can imagine could be going on in that environment.

Building as elaborate a picture as you can about all that's happening in the surrounding neighborhood.

Or we expand even further.

Try to picture everything that's happening in the city or town that you're in.

All the different things that might be going on right now,

Right in this moment.

All the different events and circumstances that are happening right now in the entire city.

Now let's try to expand our awareness again to try and picture everything that could be happening in surrounding towns and cities.

It's just adjacent to where you are right now.

And all that's going on.

Let's expand again.

Try to hold in your attention everything that's going on in this moment in the entire province.

Seeing your awareness,

Picture all that's happening in the entire province right now.

Expand even further.

Featuring other provinces.

All that might be happening across the country.

Again,

Imagine the diversity of people and events and circumstances.

What might be happening in different time zones.

Expand even further.

Try to picture everything that might be happening in the entire continent.

Try to hold in your attention,

Awareness,

All the different things that could be happening through the whole continent right now.

We're expanding further and trying to picture all that's happening in the entire world.

Try to hold on to all the things that might be happening in the world right now.

The ocean life,

People,

Plant life,

All that's going on right now.

And all that might be doing and all that might be happening right now across the earth.

Allow yourself to expand even further.

Come beyond the world.

Picture the planets.

Be happy as you move through space away from the earth.

Further and further from the sun.

Further into the galaxy.

Moving outward.

So you're outside the galaxy looking in.

Try to imagine all the different things that could be happening within an entire galaxy.

Comets and stars.

Storms,

Eruptions,

Gases,

Movement,

All that could be happening in another planet.

For expanding even further.

See and imagine how many galaxies there must be in the universe.

Plants and millions of stars,

Planets,

Solar systems.

What a small part of the entire universe we must be.

As best as you can,

Try to hold on to that feeling of vastness.

The enormity of the universe and all that it encompasses.

And that's just being a small part of everything that goes on.

Really try to hold that in your awareness.

And connect with that enormity of the universe.

Think of all the life and breath that it holds.

Back even just to this earth.

Think of all the life and breath in this planet.

Think of it all,

The enormity of this world and what lies beyond it.

All of this just breathing.

Living.

Going about our day to day.

More connected through the breath.

If you can,

Try to take a moment,

Imagine your breath along with all those other breaths.

With everyone on this planet,

All the beings,

Breathing along with you.

See if you can notice how connected it all feels.

Even amongst the vastness of the universe.

Like that.

Come back to your breath.

Imagine the rise and fall within your body.

Perhaps even coming back to the feeling of your feet on the floor.

Finish with the question,

What do I now know?

What do I take away from this experience?

Maybe you'll even continue to think about the answer to that question.

To hear the chime of the meditation bell.

When you're ready,

The end of the third bell can open your eyes.

Come back to the room.