Welcome.
For this meditation,
I am going to be the voice of your soul.
I call you my friend.
You are my closest and dearest friend.
I invite you my friend to take a nice long inhalation through the nose,
Noticing the sensation of the breath as it moves through the sinuses.
And then a long exhalation through the mouth,
Noticing the temperature of the air as it releases.
And do that again,
Taking a long inhalation through your nose and holding for a moment at the top.
Notice that pause before you exhale.
And then as you exhale,
Slowly and gently releasing.
My friend,
Continuing to breathe,
Staying with your breath as I sit here right next to you.
Breathe with you.
My friend,
I'm sorry you are feeling so heavy,
So burdened,
So down.
My friend,
I'm going to observe with you the breath.
Noticing the expansion of the belly and the rib cage and the chest as you inhale.
Noticing the pause and noticing the contraction in the chest and the rib cage and the belly as you exhale.
My friend,
I'm going to hold your hand as you go into your body and ride the waves of sensation as they ebb and as they flow.
My friend,
I'm going to be by your side as you feel the undulation of emotion as it comes in and as it goes out like the tide.
My friend,
May I place my hands on your back as you watch your heart and breathe with it?
My friend,
Feel the warmth of my hands.
They allow you to go deeper to your heart center.
That place that is outside of the physical body.
That place that is fed by feeling and intuition.
Take a deep breath there.
Noticing sensation in the chest and the upper back and the shoulders.
As you breathe in and as you breathe out,
Staying present with yourself in that place we call the emotional heart.
Dearest,
I'm going to kiss your forehead as you breathe with the movie of your mind.
Relaxing that space between the eyebrows.
The seat of our intuition.
Our thinking mind.
My friend,
I'm here with you as you watch your thoughts as they roll through like a strip of film.
I'm here smiling with you.
Aren't they all something?
Notice the pause between them.
Take a breath there.
Let the words start again.
Watch them move.
Sometimes fast and sometimes slow.
Stay with your breath.
I'm here watching with you.
My love,
I invite you to close your eyes if they're not already closed and take a deep long breath in.
Then hold it.
Release when you're ready.
Nice and slow and soft.
Now do it again.
Taking that deep,
Long,
Slow breath in.
Holding at the top.
Then gently,
Ever so gently letting it go.
Maybe one more of those long,
Slow breaths.
Why not?
And now take it all in.
The body,
The heart,
The mind.
Take it all in through the breath.
See how it's clearing the channels?
Watch it clear.
Stay present with the whole self.
You're like one big cell now.
Just breathing.
One big cell being breathed.
Take some quiet moments to just be with yourself.
Just you and me here and now.
The breath connecting us.
Bask in it.
Simple beauty surrounding you.
Clear strength filling you up.
I love you,
My friend.
Say those words to yourself.
I love you.
If it's hard,
Imagine you're saying them to someone you truly love.
I love you.
One day,
Perhaps they will flow out of your mouth like honey.
I love you.
Keep breathing,
My friend.
I'm here with you now.
I'm here with you always.
Keep breathing.
