Return To Sensation

Developed over ten years of client work as a Reiki practitioner and Astrological Consultant, this 26-minute body-centering meditation is Lauren's heart offering. Utilizing self-awareness, Buddhist-informed body scan, chakra meditation, and prana-focused breath, the sensation becomes the contact point, bringing clarity, spaciousness, and calm.
This track contains ambient sounds in the background

Transcript

So,

While you're getting yourself settled,

Just taking a moment to check in with your surroundings and your body,

Maybe noticing sensations like the scent in the air.

What's the temperature in the room?

So,

As you lay down or take a seat,

Just giving yourself permission to fully settle into yourself.

You are arriving in your body.

So,

As we arrive,

Taking time to just scan and let everything soften.

If you're laying down,

Really get yourself comfortable putting a pillow under your knees,

Getting a blanket if that's what you need.

And if you're sitting upright,

Really allowing yourself to get grounded into your body,

Noticing where your feet are,

Where your seat is,

Locating your shoulder blades in space.

Again,

If you're seated,

Just tilt the pelvis under a little bit,

Tuck the chin down just a little bit.

Maybe lift your shoulders up to your ears,

Taking a deep breath,

Pulling them back and dropping them down.

So,

Finding your breath now and just noticing what the quality of the breath is.

Is there a texture,

A tightness,

A looseness?

Just paying attention.

Where and what is the quality of your breath in this moment?

So,

We'll start with three lunar breaths.

Honor in the idea of the cycle from full to empty as we do every month with our cycles.

So,

Letting a little breath out and taking a big breath in,

Big sip at the top and exiting all the breath out.

Let it go.

Empty empty empty using the diaphragm.

Come back in.

Big sip.

Empty out.

Follow and then on the last one on your own.

As you find yourself inflating once again,

Once you find that hollow,

Just allowing the breath to infiltrate the body,

Letting everything fill up and expand into the elbows and arms and temples.

Maybe you notice a difference in your body.

Maybe you notice a different texture,

Different sensation when we allow new breath to fill us back up.

We let go of the stories this morning,

Yesterday's breath.

When we really allow ourselves to empty,

We can be refilled,

Renewed.

So,

Falling into your regular breath pattern,

We just tune into our external sensations,

The things that we notice in the space,

Including your breath,

Including the rhythm,

The rise and fall of your chest and your arms,

Noticing the sensation of your nostrils and the breath coming in and out.

Our senses alert us to this moment.

And whenever we feel pulled apart at the seams,

Whether it be anxiety,

Whether it be worry,

We can always come back to the breath.

We can always come back to sensation or sound for all things that manifest in the moment or of the moment.

So,

Feeling your heart,

Maybe putting one hand on your chest and one on your belly as you step into your body.

Move the awareness all the way to the bottoms of your feet.

Can you take a breath in?

Can you follow that breath beyond the lungs,

Moving through,

Filling up and expanding your feet and your toes,

Allowing the skin to be more elastic.

Allowing your feet to take up more energetic space than the physical boundary of your body.

Just step in.

Let the toes inflate on the left and the right side.

How can you soften even further into your being,

Into your body?

Each inhale expanding and every exhale softening and settling into space.

Feel the weight of your feet,

Noticing the contact points,

Then feeling your ankles on the left and the right side.

Maybe a moment of gratitude for all the places they've taken you,

All the ability to turn and change direction,

Change perspective.

So breathe into the ankles,

Imagining an expansion happening,

A swelling,

Swallowing more space into the left and the right sides,

Exhaling to soften and settle.

Breathing the shin bones,

Breathing into the calves on the left and the right side as if each calf muscle had its own lung to expand and soften.

Breathing in the left side,

Taking in more space on the right.

We'll move up into the knees,

The knee joint and use your awareness to paint softness over the tendons,

Ligaments,

The joints and the tissue that make up these splendid bending joints.

Breathe in,

Expanding as if the patella could swell outwards,

Taking up more room,

Creating more awareness and using the breath,

The exhale to soften and settle,

Releasing any tension,

Nothing to hold on to here.

Just allowing yourself to be.

Connecting in with the thigh bones and the muscles of the thigh,

Just letting everything swell and expand out,

Softening,

Taking up more space,

Trusting these stabilizing muscles,

Trusting your body and exhaling to soften each side.

We start to feel the back body,

The glutes,

The lower back,

The strong muscles that support the spine.

And we'll imagine a point of light on the left knee cap.

Draw up through the left knee cap with your breath.

Connect the knee to the hip using a point of light,

A point of contact to draw in and exhaling out the right hip joint.

Breathing in from the right hip joint,

The right knee cap to the right hip,

Pull up and exiting out the left side,

Softening.

Breathing in left knee to left hip and breathe out the right hip joint.

Right knee cap to right hip joint drawing up and exit out the left side.

See what you can soften here.

Can you let your glutes relax,

Let the back body soften and be supported,

Be held in space?

Start to feel the sensation of all the pelvis carries,

The magic of this area,

This mobility point that connects the left and the right side of the body.

The assertive,

The receptive connects the lower and upper half from where we will ourselves to move into the joints that actually mobilize us.

Connects the front to the back body where we're going,

Where we've been.

And then the beautiful expression of the material and the spiritual meeting here through all the source of our biological being,

The part of us that lets go,

The part of us that bonds to another,

The part of us that creates,

That feels pleasure.

Just imagine everything softening and unfolding here,

Just letting your whole body relax in space.

And we're going to draw a point of light,

Maybe a pearl,

If you can imagine that.

We're going to start to draw an infinity loop connecting the left and the right side of the body.

So you move your breath left to right,

Over and under,

Softening and soothing as you wrap this figure eight,

This golden thread,

This pearl luminescent energy,

Looping back and forth,

Breathing in and out,

Integrating and softening the sacred sacrum.

And start to feel the softness of your breath fill up the lower body,

Filling up the lower belly,

Expanding out the sides of the body,

Imagining your breath filling up the back body,

The lower back,

As if your kidneys could breathe in.

We start to breathe in and fill up this well of energy at the base of our being,

Exhaling to let it diffuse and soften,

Moving the awareness up to the solar plexus,

The center of will just above the belly button,

Just below the ribs,

This whole area of energy and drive,

The tummy compass that we listen to.

Just imagine regulating the fire inside of you,

Either building it higher by adding more fuel,

More resource with the breath,

Or calming it down if you're feeling fumey,

If you're feeling a little too hot right now.

We can allow space just by poking the fire inside of our being with our mind's eye.

We can create more space,

Just allowing everything to regulate and settle.

So you fill the breath in the belly,

Pushing the belly up to the ceiling and exhaling,

Imagining your back,

Your awareness dropping into the spine,

Drawing your awareness,

Crawling your awareness up the upper half of the spine,

Noticing if you can feel the back of your ribs,

You feel where they connect in with your body.

So keep moving that awareness up through the shoulder blades and wrapping around the awareness moves to the sternum,

The front body.

So just swiping your awareness around this region,

Do you feel tightness?

Do you feel a blockage?

Do you feel armor that needs to be set down today?

So just noticing anything that's coming up,

Any thoughts or feelings that arise as we tune into the rib basket and the sternum,

Connecting with the heart plexus.

So feeling your heart beating beneath the ribs and the sternum and this part of you that is seen,

That receives the sight of others as you see and receive others,

This front body where we connect,

Where we hug,

Where we hold space for one another.

Bring your awareness down to your left palm,

Imagining a point of light here,

Sparkles or luminescence.

We're going to imagine that pulling up through the arm,

The elbow,

All the way into the heart,

Breathing into the heart space and exhaling out the right side,

Just allowing that heart energy to pour from the center over to the right side,

Drifting out of the right hand,

Circling back to the left,

Receiving reciprocity,

Pulling into the heart,

Exhaling out the right side.

You might imagine for yourself that you can breathe in through the back of the left shoulder blade and drawing into the heart space,

Expanding into that heart center and then allowing that light,

That breath to flood out both arms and extending out to the heart matrix,

Your community,

Everyone surrounding you.

Perhaps we focus more on those that we feel their heart presence in our lives,

The loved ones,

The teachers,

The mentors,

The family,

Maybe the unseen eyes that really support you,

Really see you for who you are and allow you to see them.

Imagine your breath,

Your heart like light pouring into this matrix,

Connecting a grid of heart centered energy and drawing into a pond from this heart grid,

This matrix back through the arms,

Into the chest and heart,

Really retrieving that energy.

I receive my many blessings.

Exhaling back out,

I share my gifts with the world that is safe to be seen.

Breathing in,

I draw upon my community,

My resources with ease.

Exhaling it's safe to be seen.

I share my gifts,

Myself,

My work with the world.

I am safe and supported at all times.

Let that sentiment through and through fill you like honey,

Just softening everything,

All the edges,

The torso is filling you up with a sense of comfort and security that you are never alone.

So we pull in and draw in and bringing our awareness up to the throat,

Maybe having a swallow or feeling a softness here as you guide your awareness over the jaw,

The teeth,

The tongue to soften,

Settle.

We'll start to imagine that you have gills on the sides of your neck,

Little slits and openings more than the nostrils or the mouth.

We're focusing on breath beyond physical air and physical lungs.

We're moving into prana,

The exception of prana,

Accepting the energy and the resources ever ready,

Ever available.

This universal energy that saturates everything in existence.

So imagine drawing through the neck and the ears.

Imagine the gills of breath,

Able to receive the energy in your immediate surroundings wherever you are.

Can you pull in from the edges and corners,

From the windows,

From the surfaces?

Can you start to draw into yourself all of the space filling up,

Creating more room within you?

And on the exhale,

Just letting any tightness dissolve as you pour yourself larger into the space,

Allowing the elasticity of your skin to fill up the room,

Fill up your surroundings with you,

Your you-ness,

Stretching your awareness into space.

And drawing that next breath in,

Starting to pull really closely into the self,

Pulling all the way into you.

And on the out breath,

Imagine your body starting to sprout.

Can you imagine yourself as big as a tree?

Can you imagine yourself as big as a redwood tree?

Can you take yourself up into the tree line and the skyline and the clouds?

Can you imagine your feet rooted on the earth?

Can you imagine that sense of feeling grounded in space?

And spreading your arms,

Spreading your energy up into the tallest,

Widest,

Vastest version of you you can imagine,

Unobstructed by any bothers or worries,

Unobstructed by any other being or any limitations that we perceive of ourselves.

There's none of that here.

There's just space.

So much room in all directions,

All opportunity,

All room,

All space.

And in this vastness,

Taking your mind out as far as you can perceive,

We'll draw the arms into the heart,

Imagining them sweeping the space into our being.

I belong here.

I belong just as any rock or tree,

Any being,

Any creature,

I belong in this world.

And just by virtue of being,

I can take up space here.

I belong here.

And imagine your mind reaching up to the cosmos now as if you could drift your awareness up into that massive plane of space,

So much space we can't perceive it.

Connecting them with the celestial bodies and the constellations,

All the room and the light,

Remembering that you are the same stuff as the stars,

The same as the moon and Neptune and Mars.

Take it all in.

Take in all that space.

Imagine your crown opening,

Being able to breathe in like a vacuum,

Just drawing into yourself all the space,

All the room,

All the breath that you could possibly receive.

And on an exhale,

Just allowing this huge causal energetic body of yourself dissolving,

Bursting into light,

Bursting into stardust and just settling and swirling through space,

Just showering back down to this room and your face.

And feel the temperature in the room.

Feel your face.

Feel your skin.

Settle your eyes.

Settle in.

And we'll take a last few breaths together.

So drawing a slight clench to the throat,

Keeping the lips sealed in Ujjayi Pranayama breath,

Drawing an oceanic sound into the center of your mind.

We're going to focus through the nostrils into the center of the brow.

So draw into the brow center,

Out through the temples,

In through the temples,

Out through the brow,

In through the brow,

Out to the crown of the head,

Top of the head,

Into the crown,

Out through the brow,

In through the brow,

And out through the top of the head.

Just let it be.

Let it settle.

Find your breath.

Notice your skin.

Notice the space.