Hello,
Welcome.
My name is Lou Redman.
Thank you so much for practicing with me today.
Today's practice is going to help you connect to your own creative channel to help you access a flow state so that you are connected to the answers that are within you and all around.
So if you're wanting to find your direction right now,
If you're just trying to connect more to what your heart is asking of you,
Then this practice is going to help you find more ease in your body so that your life unfolds more naturally.
So one of my favorite concepts is synchronicity,
Which was made famous by the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung.
And synchronicity is when meaningful coincidences happen that are like,
Oh my gosh,
How did that person say exactly what I needed to hear when I was working through this?
And one of Carl's famous quotes on synchronicity is that it is an ever-present reality for those who have eyes to see it.
So it's always there.
And often we're cut off from it.
We're cut off from it because we're constricted in certain ways,
We're shut down.
And so today's practice is really about allowing you to open,
To figure out a way to learn how to pay attention so that you find those synchronicities flowing more in your life.
And I wanted to share with you a little synchronicity first because I didn't know what I was going to talk about today.
And I decided to open a book,
One of my favorites,
The Creative Act by Rick Rubin.
And I just opened a book to a page and the page says,
Look for clues.
And it talks about a helpful exercise might be opening a book to a random page and reading the first line your eyes find.
So I found that to be a bit of a synchronicity to talk about today and inspired me to talk about.
And one of the things that Rick also says in this chapter is,
You might imagine that the outside world is a conveyor belt with a stream of small packages on it,
Always going by.
The first step is to notice the conveyor belt is there.
And then anytime you want,
You can pick up one of those packages,
Unwrap it and see what's inside.
So I think this aligns to Carl Jung's quote of the conveyor belt is all around,
The answers are all around,
Inspiration is all around,
Synchronicity is all around.
We just have to open our eyes,
Attune ourselves to see it.
And so let's do that in our meditation practice.
So go ahead and make yourself comfortable in your seat if you haven't.
And we're going to begin with eyes open.
And what I'd like you to do is as you relax,
As you relax your shoulders,
As you relax your jaw and your belly,
Feel your legs getting heavy,
Start to slowly look around the room that you're in.
And do it in a way that is paying attention to what you've never seen before.
And so this might be a room that you spend lots of time in.
But notice what happens if you shift your awareness and start looking around and say,
What have I not noticed before?
You might notice scratches or things that are dirty,
And there might be a judgment of cleaning it coming up.
You might notice how the sun is shining on this one object that you've never really seen before.
You might notice textures.
Just let your eyes wander and see what you can see for the first time.
And then go ahead and bring your hands to your legs.
And this time we're going to do the same kind of practice,
But instead of seeing,
It's going to be sensing with our hands.
So as your hands are on your legs and your pants or your shorts,
Whatever clothes that you're wearing,
Start to notice the texture.
Slowly feel the texture of your pants.
Maybe you feel it in a way that you haven't felt before.
You might curl up part of your pants and notice how that feels to stretch or to press.
And then this is still with eyes open.
Sense what it feels like.
And then bring your eyes closed.
And notice what cutting off one of our senses,
How that shifts or doesn't shift the way that you feel the texture of your pants.
And then letting that awareness go,
Letting your arms rest gently wherever they like,
Keeping your eyes closed.
And so with different sensations,
With our eyes and seeing,
With our hands and feeling,
This is a simple practice in noticing what is always there,
But we commonly miss.
And so bringing that same intention now inwards with your awareness on your internal state.
What is always here happening in your body,
But maybe you're not as attuned to.
Feeling your breath in this way,
Noticing of any energy that's moving through your body,
Your heartbeat.
As you slow down,
Maybe you become more aware of places of tension or tightness.
Paying attention internally to what you've never noticed before.
And this one is often harder than looking outside in our room.
And just as you experience looking around your room,
That subtle shift of the answers or how new things can emerge,
Same is true internally.
And so let's just take a conscious breath here together.
Letting that go.
And working to continue to open our internal channel and flow.
The metaphor that's often used when we feel cut off from inspiration,
Creativity,
Our own answers,
When our life feels stuck,
Is the faucet and the water.
And so we are like the faucet.
And the water is always there,
The water,
The current is always going around.
But sometimes we're just closed,
We're turned off.
And so first acknowledging that,
If you are the faucet,
Acknowledging that there's this stream,
There's this current that is always present,
And we just have to shift into it.
And so as you scan your body,
Maybe notice again if there's any places of tightness or tension.
Heart blockages are often places that really cut off this flow.
So you might notice that maybe there's a heaviness or a tension in your chest.
Or maybe you notice something somewhere else.
And with the intention to bring more current into our body,
Invitation as you breathe to imagine that as you breathe in,
There's energy that goes from the top of your head down your spine.
And as you breathe out,
Feel the energy going from the base of your spine up to the top of your crown.
If there's any yogis listening,
This is kind of like the energy of a cow and cat pose.
You might breathe with that movement.
And if you'd like to do a little subtle movement,
You're welcome to,
But you don't have to.
So breathing the energy down the spine.
And breathing the energy back up.
Just take a few more really,
Maybe breathing deeper if that feels good for you.
Feeling the energy move stronger or just gentle.
Just a gentle movement finding that flow up and down your spine.
And then from here,
Explore a question that you've been asking yourself or an answer that you've been looking for in your life.
And so it could be something profound like,
What is my purpose?
How am I here to serve?
It could be simple,
What is my next step?
And it could be something specific like,
What should I do in this relationship?
How should I approach this problem that I'm having?
And let this question be in your heart.
Almost as if we were to just like write it inside your body.
Just letting this question be here.
Continuing to feel that flow up and down your spine.
And really being with the question.
Not needing to find an answer.
We're just letting it rest.
We're giving it attention.
And one way to bring more synchronicity into our life is to pay attention to what has heart and meaning.
What opens your heart?
What brings in gratitude or love or connection?
And then what is meaningful to you?
What connects to something that you care about?
And so being with that question.
Paying attention to it with heart.
Remember Rick's quote,
The world is a conveyor belt with packages all around it.
All we have to do is look.
Look for the places that have meaning.
Open.
Go inside.
See what messages are there.
What insights come.
And so that will be an intention that I would like you to take with you through your day.
With this question.
To look around.
To look for the synchronicity that is ever present.
To go into things.
To check out a book.
To try to see what's new in your environment today.
And how you're seeing is actually mirroring back something that you need to know or receive.
And doing this in an unattached way.
That's the key here.
We can't be attached to finding the answers.
You have to be open and receptive.
And so taking just another moment here to feel your body open,
Receptive.
And almost as if you put your hand on your heart where that question is.
Give it some extra love.
We all have questions that we're sitting with and living into.
And that's the beauty and the mystery of life.
Is not to find the answers.
But to be on the path.
To be a seeker as you might relate to that.
And it's in the seeking that we find ourselves.
That we become who we're meant to be.
And so letting go.
Maybe giving this question up to the great mystery if that's resonant for you.
Letting go of attachment to finding answers.
And remember how you're paying attention right now.
How you're noticing what's happening internally,
Externally.
This way of being.
This flow of the energy up and down your spine.
Let this be.
Practice this.
Try it out.
Walk through your day like this.
And see what unfolds,
What answers,
What insights come.
Let's take one last breath in.
And letting that go.
And slowly opening your eyes.
Maybe again looking at your room.
Seeing what is still new.
Seeing how things maybe are shifted.
Maybe there's more wonder,
Curiosity.
And so I thank you so much for taking the time to practice and explore this.
And pay attention in this way.
I wish you good luck today and hopefully this week as you continue to bring this attention into your life.
Obviously you're welcome to come back to this practice to cultivate that way of attending to our environment.
And I hope those answers and those synchronicities start flowing.
And enjoy this great mystery of what we can't comprehend and how things come to us.
So sending you lots of love.
And I hope to practice with you again very soon.
