Hello,
Dear souls.
I am delighted to bring this meditation designed specifically for beginning meditators.
While those of you who have been meditating for a long time,
This is a great reminder of the different phases that we experience while doing meditation.
There are seven of them,
But know that they are not linear.
They are circular and we ebb and flow with the different phases of meditation.
I encourage you to find a good place to meditate.
You can have an altar with a candle on it if that helps for focus.
You can even do this lying down,
But I recommend that you attempt to keep your spine completely straight and do remember that comfort is essential.
Let us begin.
We are not here by accident.
We are here by divine appointment.
Breathe deeply,
Experience completely and feel freely.
Take a delicious deep cleansing breath,
Then another and then a final cleansing breath.
By focusing on something or someone whom we love,
We instantly take our hearts to a loving place.
We do this to help focus on the positive and bring our body into a comfortable and relaxed place.
Once settled into our heart,
We will be more open to whatever we experience during our meditation time together.
So bring to mind someone or something that brings you great joy.
It can be a spouse,
A partner,
A pet,
Or even an event that when you think about fills your heart with all the love you can feel.
Rest into this feeling.
One of the phases we usually begin with is relaxing and settling.
A reminder that comfort is essential.
Find a comfortable situation for your body either sitting up with the spine straight or lying down with the spine straight as well.
Give yourself permission to move if you need.
Be aware of your comfort.
Close your eyes to eliminate outer awareness if this feels good to you.
If not,
Focus on something in the room and allow your eyes to become soft.
Breathe to relax and release.
Open the jaw slightly to ease into the moment.
Become aware of that place between wakefulness and drifting off to sleep.
Now for the next few moments,
Rest and focus and find your comfort level.
Remember to move if you need.
This phase is relaxing and settling.
Focus for the next few moments.
Once you find comfort and rest into your heart,
You can begin observing and witnessing,
Breathing slowly in and out.
Now observe and witness.
Do not strain,
Just watch and witness your thoughts so you can strengthen your ability to observe your feelings,
Both physical and emotional.
Exhale longer than you inhale to activate your intellect and allow you to release negative thoughts and feelings.
You will come into your right rhythm when you practice stillness.
Now for the next few moments,
Let us practice this phase of observation and witnessing and witness the texture of your breath for the next few moments.
Something we all experience during meditation is wandering and drifting.
While holding the power of attention and practicing the breath and posture,
It is perfectly natural to have the mind wander off into thoughts,
Sounds and physical sensations.
Remember,
You are human and it is perfectly natural.
Our goal is to be in the moment.
Once we observe that we are not in the moment,
We come right back to the moment.
Your brain has been trained to process thoughts to keep you safe.
Just allow the mind to drift back to the moment.
Now for the next few moments,
Allow yourself to feel comfortable,
Observe and drift all coming back to this moment.
Let us focus on this phase of making it okay that our mind is not in the moment.
Another phase that we do is discerning or judging.
Now as we continue into meditation and you notice that your mind has wandered,
That you may not be experienced with imperfect nirvana that you expected or met the perfect divine inspiration you are seeking,
Let us turn down the chatter of judging.
You are not doing it wrong.
Please know that this is normal.
You are doing it correct,
Actually.
You are doing it right.
You are noticing.
You are already back in the moment.
While our nature is to discern if we are participating fully,
We are doing it right for ourselves right here and right now.
Now let us rest into the understanding that this phase of judging and discerning is natural and with practice you will come to know the perfect feeling of your own heart.
Let us rest in this phase of understanding,
Discerning or judging how our experience is for the next few moments.
Another phase is moving on from making a judgment.
It becomes time to yield or surrender.
Now that we know that we sometimes judge our experience,
Let us allow ourselves just to surrender and relax.
Just gently bring yourself back to the breath and remind yourself that you are human seeking a soul-filled experience.
Exhaling longer than you inhale will also allow you to surrender and relax more into the deepness of the stillness that you are seeking.
With these phases,
Let us rest knowing that we are here to experience,
Rest experience.
Let us surrender for a few moments going deeper and deeper.
The phase where we want to spend the most time is in the silence or stillness.
You might have even begun with this phase.
It is the one where we want to rest when we are meditating.
This is where the ideas,
Answers and feelings come to fruition.
This is where we are resting,
Surrendering and listening.
We will move in and out of this feeling.
It is similar to the place between wakefulness and drifting off to sleep.
These phases are not vertical.
They are circular and another phase is integration or assimilation.
You have been longing for the moments of peace we are experiencing right now.
Ask for a way to integrate these feelings into everything you do.
This inspiration may become known during any of these phases.
Meditation won't be beneficial unless you allow yourself to integrate it into your everyday life.
Ask for a feeling or a sign or an indication as to how you will do this.
And now for the next several moments let us spend time moving from phase to phase as your own personal experience allows you to.
And nowhere is this more apparent than when we experience this together in the stillness and the quiet of our interbeing.
Now go to the center of you and the quiet of you in the stillness and I will meet you on the other side.
Silence and stillness.
Silence and stillness.
Silence and stillness.
Silence and stillness.
Silence and stillness.
Now offer your body movement and bring your attention around to your body.
Move the bones inside your hands,
Your hips,
Your toes,
Your back,
Your full body.
Bring your attention around to the nowness.
You have taken great care in preparing yourself for the different phases of meditation.
Take this experience and these feelings as far into your day as possible.
And now bring your attention around behind your eyes and to your meditation space and open your eyes when you are ready.
Let us be free to feel.
Remember you are loved and how do you feel?
I encourage you to journal some of the experiences that you may have had today.
I encourage you to revisit this meditation to help understand the different phases and remember and remind yourself that you are a human looking for a soul experience.
Know that there is really not a wrong way of doing it other than not settling in and not listening.
Allow yourself to listen and just watch and see what happens in your experience.
Know that you are perfect just the way you are.
You are on your own journey and this is just one step in your practice to take you on that journey.
Know that you are loved.
You are a blessing to all who come in contact with you and my wish for you is a peaceful and calm existence.
Blessings.
