Settle in,
Close your eyes,
Just begin to find your breath again.
Beautiful aspects of sitting down to our practice,
It's that awareness of breath.
How powerful the breath can be on nourishing and nurturing us.
Allow your breath to move deeper into your belly,
Expanding into your ribcage,
Breathing into the top of your chest,
Slowly exhaling and letting go.
Big breath in,
Slow breath out,
Big breath in,
Slow breath out.
Let's bring our awareness down,
To our seat or anywhere that we are connected to the floor,
Should we be lying down.
Feel yourself beginning to drop in,
Grounding ourselves,
And really feeling the support of the floor,
The ground,
And the earth.
Allow the earth to support you,
That's what it's designed to do.
And as you continue to breathe,
Allowing some awareness into how you're feeling in your physical body,
You're feeling energetically,
Emotionally,
Mentally.
These are all important aspects of self,
Rather than getting caught up in any stories or explanations,
Just aware.
And then dropping back into that sensation of grounding,
Full breaths moving in and out from the belly.
Jaw softens,
Between the eyes,
Soften.
Along with this aspect of grounding,
We connect to our first chakra,
The base of the spine.
It is our experience of feeling safe,
Safe in our space,
Safe in our body,
Safe in our mind,
Safe in our hearts.
And part of that ability to have that experience of safety is allowing ourselves to be in tune with ourselves.
And so that idea of resistance and resisting what is resisting what might be going on or how we might be feeling.
In particular,
This time of year,
Being fully in winter within the northern hemisphere.
This is our period of hibernation and grounding.
I find at the beginning,
As winter begins to set in November,
December,
We talk a lot about the approaching season and preparing to hibernate,
Preparing for more nurturing,
More nourishing times.
And then the holidays hit,
Things get a little chaotic for a while,
And then the new year arrives.
And all of a sudden we're back in the hustle,
Back trying to do all the things,
And yet it is still winter.
And so we probably can't live like the grizzly bear crawling into its cave to sleep away these winter months.
But at the same time,
It's important for us to be in tune to the seasons in order to be in tune with ourself.
And so allowing some grace,
Allowing more downtime,
Ease the pressure,
That there is always something to do,
Rather focusing on how it feels to just be.
This meditation practice and your regular meditation practice will be an incredibly important aspect of that.
Think of the seed in the ground,
In its tight cocoon-like shape,
Quiet and sleeping.
The capacity of that seed could be to grow into a beautiful tree.
And yet in this moment,
In this time,
It just is.
Not overrun with anticipation,
Not waiting for time to pass,
Just in its own space of pause.
And so if you need extra pause in this time,
You should be taking it.
Capacity of wintering,
So very powerful.
Warm and nurturing foods,
Cozy blankets.
Time for quiet.
Who only knows what the spring shall bring.
Taking a few more deep breaths.
I encourage you to continue to linger in your meditation in the stillness and quiet for a little longer.
Om,
Shanti,
Shanti,
Shanti.
I wish you peace,
Peace.
Peace.
