Good morning,
Welcome to this meditation.
I invite you to just find a little place on your mat or wherever you're listening to this meditation and just ground yourself,
Plant yourself,
And then breathe in deeply through the nostrils,
Hold at the top of your lungs,
Shoot the breath down into your belly as if you're inflating a balloon and do that again.
It's a real feeling of pushing the air down into your body and seeking out with your mind the bits of your body that that somehow know they need oxygen,
Really intentionally moving the breath there with your mind's eye,
Seeking out far-off bits of your body that haven't had attention for a while.
Maybe you've got a sore foot,
Creaky toes,
Twindly ankle,
Tight calf muscles,
Sore knee,
Perhaps you've got a thigh strain or a groin strain,
Maybe your lower back hurts,
Maybe your glutes hurt.
Just intentionally draw the energy up through each part of your body,
Sending light,
Breath to each bit,
Come up through your spine,
Draw the energy up through your spine into your shoulders,
Roll them around a little,
Just moving the breath through each vertebrae,
Each sinew and then feel it go down through your arms,
Take another breath,
And shoot it down through your body.
Feel that energy in your fingers and toes,
Give a little wiggle,
Maybe move your neck around a little,
Can you feel any or hear any little creaks and pops?
I certainly can.
I find as I'm aging,
I often get little creaks and pops that I've not heard before.
Just breathe,
Send some oxygen to those creaks and pops,
And then bring that energy up into your mind's eye,
Do you feel centered,
Do you feel comfortable in your body,
Do you feel at home in your body?
It's okay if you don't,
Maybe just for now,
Try and move into it,
Try and lean into it,
Try and just feel safe in that beautiful body.
Bodies are so amazing,
The way they work,
Without us having to think or do anything really,
They just keep going and yet so often we take them for granted and I can for so many years abuse them,
Whether it's through just not eating well or exercising not enough or too much,
Smoking,
Drinking,
Taking drugs,
Not sleeping enough,
Stress,
Chronic stress,
All these things,
Just relying on our bodies to keep going,
Not consciously thinking about all of the work that's going on behind the scenes in our magical mystery vehicles,
As it were,
To keep us powered up,
To keep us to keep us moving through the day and the night.
And I just invite you today to just think about the quiet magic of your body,
The miraculousness of it,
Maybe it's not quite how you'd like it to be,
Maybe it's too skinny in your eyes,
Maybe it's on the plump side in your eyes,
Maybe it really is just not working as it should or could and it's disappointing you today,
Maybe,
Maybe you're aging and your skin's losing its elasticity and maybe you're just wishing things were different when you look in the mirror,
But I invite you today to think about all of the amazing things that your body is offering you and that your body gives to you and serves to you on a daily basis.
It's yours,
You're not getting another one.
I've spent years,
Decades not being comfortable in my body,
Wishing I had a different one,
Such wasted energy.
I invite you today to just breathe into the the magic of the fact that we have bodies at all.
I invite you to find that that space,
It's almost outside your body where you're kind of looking in and saying wow,
Wow,
It's amazing what our bodies can do for us really,
How they can perform under pressure,
But it's also amazing what they do when we love them and invest conscious energy in them when we,
When we choose to love them,
Not just ignore them,
But really take care,
Not just take them for granted,
Really consciously think about the fuel that we're ingesting or what are we eating,
What are we,
Why are we eating it,
Is it because we're being,
You know,
And this is something that I did for years,
Is I eat all my feelings unconsciously,
I'd sort of be eating away and then 10 minutes later I'd think wow,
I've really consumed that entire packet of Doritos and I just invite you today to be conscious,
Imagine you're having a romantic relationship with your body,
Imagine you're in love,
Every last ounce of food and fuel that you put into yourself,
Is it something that you would share with a lover,
Is that what you would want for your lover,
Somebody you really,
Really cared about,
I invite you to see your body as your lover,
Not just as a temple,
As a phrase,
See your body as a temple,
But it's not just a body,
It's about seeing it as a temple,
It's about seeing it as a as a gracious living breathing entity that is so resilient and so kind and so symbiotic to our needs and so responsive when we choose to invest in a conscious relationship with it and I say this from personal experience,
Having spent years abusing my body and that's something I just don't do for today and the results are so much kinder and I invite you to share in that,
I invite you today to just really think about how you can build a romantic relationship with your body,
Perhaps it's about rubbing beautiful lotions on,
Perhaps it's about going to the doctor and getting that x-ray,
Perhaps it's about really just consciously thinking about what you're putting into your body,
Not making drastic changes but just pausing before you put something in,
Pausing before you take that extra mouthful of whatever you know might not be what you need right now,
Or that extra sip of an unnecessary drink.
I just invite you to really bring consciousness to your relationship with your body,
Treat it as a lover,
Recognize it,
Acknowledge it,
Enjoy spending time with it,
Ask it what it needs,
Identify its needs,
And then work out a plan of how you can meet those needs,
You know,
It doesn't have to happen overnight,
It's just being conscious,
It's just being it's being open,
It's just not ignoring,
And I say this from a place of personal experience where I ignored my body's needs for so long and it caused so much physical and psychological pain over time,
Not just for myself but for the people around me.
So today's meditation is an invitation to really,
Really look at your relationship with body,
To fall in love with your body,
To give yourself permission to have that love affair,
And to enjoy every moment of watching and feeling that love affair unfold,
Relishing it.
I'd like to do this meditation to a close today with a prayer that is dear to me.
Dear God,
Where will you have me go?
What will you have me do?
What will you have me say?
And to whom?
Amen.
And so it is.
