Good morning,
Sunday April 5th.
Hope you are well,
Truly.
I invite you to find a comfortable seat or to rest onto your back.
And then really softly just close your eyes.
Take a nice long deep breath in through your nose.
And sigh out and exhale.
And then place your right hand just on your lower belly below your belly button.
Your left hand up on the center of your chest just around your throat and your heart.
And with your lips softly closed,
Begin to breathe in,
Breathing into your belly.
And really letting your belly truly expand and rise up into your right hand.
Continue to sip in breath through your nose until it moves up into your diaphragm.
And then breathing deeply up into your upper chest.
Really filling your lungs until they expand and you feel that up into your left hand.
Pause for a moment.
And then calmly through your nose only exhale really slow and long.
Feeling your breath leave your chest and then feeling your belly start to squeeze and hollow out and empty completely wringing everything out.
And then if you can without rushing into it,
Sip breath in again slowly through your nose.
Expand fully into your belly.
Really let it fill.
And move that same long exhale of yours all the way up into your chest.
Breathe in a little bit more and then a long slow exhale.
And again,
Breathe in.
Fill your belly completely.
Breathe up into your chest.
Breathe out into the sides of your body.
And then a longer exhale really hollow and empty wringing everything out.
Get it all out,
All the stale energy,
The stale oxygen.
And then invite all the fresh and new and vibrancy in.
Now as you continue to breathe in this way,
Now imagine as you say to yourself,
As you breathe in,
All of the peacefulness,
All that's good,
All the sounds of nature,
Breathe it all in and take it into your energy and into your full body.
And as you breathe out exhale all the old energy,
All the stale things,
All the toxins,
All the fear,
All the doubt.
Exhale it right out,
Right out the soles of your feet and at your fingertips.
And then breathe in peace,
Joy.
Exhale out doubt and fear.
And just notice that as you focus on this breath and this breath alone,
All is okay,
All is fine.
Breathing in long full inhales,
Taking in peace and exhale release everything that no longer serves you.
And I offer you this reading.
What if,
What if our religion was each other?
If our practice was our life?
If prayer our words?
What if the temple was the earth?
If forests were our church?
If holy water,
The rivers,
Lakes and oceans?
What if meditation was our relationships?
If the teacher was life?
If wisdom was self knowledge?
If love was the center of our being?
What if?
What if on the other side of this you created a life that was all of those things?
What if you understood that every word,
Every thought,
Every action you make can create that or create what is now?
We have created an environment for this virus to exist.
But now what if,
What if we learn from all this?
What if we learn that every thought we think goes out into the world?
If everything we consume has an action,
Be it to animals,
People,
The environment,
The planet,
The earth,
Every word we speak has power to ourselves and to those around us.
What if?
I invite you today to carve out some time to remind yourself to be grateful.
And if you're up for it,
A little project,
Compile a list over the week of a hundred things that you're grateful for.
Reflect on it,
Add to it and just imagine what it is.
