Hello,
This is Dr.
Lavanya Devdas,
Licensed psychologist and today's meditation is about finding your grounding amidst chaos.
I am recording this through Insight Timer which is an app with countless number of courses and meditation for our well-being.
Before I continue to introduce this grounding mindfulness today,
I want to acknowledge the hope,
The uncertainty,
The sadness,
The disappointment or anger among other feelings we might be feeling today with our current climate.
Giving words to what we are feeling is one of the fundamental principles of loving kindness and mindfulness to honour.
And now transitioning into the meditation,
If you could sit in a comfortable position,
And let your mind be in a comfortable position,
Making sure that your neck and back are aligned,
And that you are in a comfortable position,
Making sure that your neck and back are aligned,
Feeling the cushion of the chair,
Making contact with the cushion that supports you,
Feeling the carpet,
The floor or the ground beneath you,
Making contact with the precious support that holds your feet,
Feeling the cushion of the chair,
Feeling the cushion of the chair,
Feeling the cushion of the chair,
Feeling the cushion of the floor or the ground beneath you,
Making contact with the precious support that holds your feet,
If your arms are crossed at this point,
To please uncross them and place them against the support that you are sitting on or on your thighs,
If your legs are crossed,
To please uncross them as well,
And now check in with yourself using your breath,
Focusing your attention on how you are breathing,
How you allow the air from this breath to move within your body,
Anchoring you,
And now let me give you a little bit of a break,
And now check in with yourself using your breath,
Nourish your body from within,
And release the energy of stress and strain with that out-breath.
Notice how this wonderful movement of your in-breath and out-breath makes your body move so subtly and yet so important.
Breathing in,
Feeling that movement of energy,
And breathing out,
Letting that stress and that tightness from your body gently out with that out-breath.
Breathing in,
Feeling that flow of air from within,
And breathing out,
Nourishing your body and mind as you focus on this movement of air and the way your body responds to it,
And breathing out,
Gently and slowly feeling a healthy sense of heaviness within your body because it's starting to anchor itself within that breath.
Breathing in,
Nourishing your body,
Noticing your body expand in response to that in-breath,
And gently breathing out,
Kindly noticing how your body responds to your kindness by slowly letting that air out.
Feeling the stillness that may have emerged within you,
If you have wandering thoughts,
Giving yourself permission to say it's okay.
Come back to the stillness and the anchor within your body that you discovered with that breath.
Coming back to the silence within you when you don't have thoughts or an inner speech guiding you.
You're just here wholly and completely in awareness with your breath and body connected to the spaciousness around you,
Within you,
In this very moment.
Your stillness within,
Your silence within,
And the spaciousness around and within you are anchors that help you receive and remain grounded amidst chaos.
Breathing into the stillness of your body,
Silence within,
And the spaciousness that you're feeling in this very moment.
Inviting loving kindness towards yourself,
Letting yourself be within your anchor.
How am I relating to the chaos or uncertainty around me?
Letting this question drop like a pebble in the ocean.
Letting it find itself a place in this ocean.
With loving kindness knowing you may or may not find answers.
Letting this pebble rest in that ocean.
Letting the question rest within your refuge and anchor.
Breathing into it.
Inviting it into the stillness of your body.
Inviting it into the silence you may experience.
Letting the space within and around you hold this question without judgment,
With compassion.
Let it rest like a pebble rests at the bottom of the ocean.
Breathing into it.
Letting it be.
Being kind and reminding yourself.
Let my anchor of stillness hold the chaos.
Let my anchor of inner silence rest the chaos like a pebble rests at the bottom of the ocean.
Let my anchor of spaciousness within and around me connect with the chaos in a non-judgmental way.
Acknowledging this chaos within and around you as is without changing anything.
If you notice an internal narrative gently reminding yourself it is okay.
And bringing your breath to re-anchor the stillness in your body.
Letting the breath nourish just being within yourself.
Letting you breathe.
Letting you live through your connection to chaos.
Giving yourself permission to not find the answers right now.
Giving yourself permission to feel whatever it is that you're feeling within your anchor.
And now expanding that loving kindness to the communities that we are affiliated with.
To the humanity that we belong to.
May we connect to the collective refuge of stillness.
May we connect to the collective refuges of each other.
May we collectively connect to the inner silence within us.
May we support each other as one through the spaciousness that is unbounded all around us and within us.
May we connect and support each other as one through the collective unbounded spaciousness around us and within us.
And now gently focusing back on your breath.
Breathing in that sense of nourishment that the breath offers you.
And breathing out the loving kindness that you may feel in this moment.
Breathing in,
Replenishing the natural anchors of silence and spaciousness within you.
And breathing out into the collective spaciousness that holds all of us as one.
One last time,
Breathing in and breathing out.
As we conclude our meditation practice,
Bringing the intentionality of loving kindness and the collective refuge of stillness and spaciousness to bond and connect as one.
I wish all of us well and I hope that this practice helps you in any way that you deem helpful.
Thank you.
