Hi and welcome to another meditation with Mal.
I'm Mallory and today we're going to talk about change.
Recently I've had some students who've come into class where everything around them has been a whirlwind.
We get in these moments where it feels like everything is changing so quickly.
Every decision needs to be made and just we have no stability.
However when we look at ourselves we can see that we are the stability in our changing life.
We can always come back to ourselves and knowing that can bring us a little bit of peace in those moments that feel like a whirlwind.
Taking a moment to get comfortable here,
Get into whatever position you'd like to meditate in today.
I invite you to maybe even get out some of those wiggles moving from side to side,
Leaning forwards and backwards,
Moving your head from side to side,
Your neck,
And then coming to a point of stillness here.
Letting your body become still and you become grounded.
Starting from the bottom of our feet all the way up through our ankles,
Our calves,
Our knees,
Thighs,
Hips.
Breathing deeply into each area of the body.
Feeling into the areas that maybe we don't even notice on a day-to-day basis.
Continuing up the body through our spine,
Straightening out or stretching out just a little bit here.
Working our way through our intestines,
Into our lungs.
And when you get to your shoulders,
Breathing in,
Picking up your shoulders and as you breathe out,
Dropping them down your back.
We'll do one more of these.
Breathing in,
Picking up your shoulders.
And breathing it all out,
Letting them fall heavy,
Knowing that there's nothing you have to hold up right now.
Knowing you can ground even deeper and feel yourself get even heavier into the space.
Remembering that no matter how heavy your body feels,
The ground or your seat or the cushion will push back up against you.
No matter how grounded and how much we sink,
Our body supports us.
The ground supports us and we are safe.
We're going to take a couple moments to breathe here.
We'll do a 4-7-8 breath and if you are pregnant or have trauma,
Please don't hold your breath.
Just continue breathing.
Your natural breath may be lengthening out the exhales.
Breathing in for 4,
3,
2,
1.
Holding 7,
6,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
Breathing out,
8,
7,
6,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
In for 3,
2,
1.
Holding 6,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
Out 8,
7,
6,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
Again in 3,
2,
1.
Holding 6,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
Out 7,
6,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
Continue on your own here for a couple rounds.
Breathing in,
Holding,
Out,
In,
Holding,
Letting it go.
If this breath felt rejuvenating,
Calming,
And you'd like to continue with it for the rest of this practice,
Continue on with this breath.
However,
If you'd like to return to your natural breath in through your nose and out through your nose,
I invite you to do that as well.
I'll share with you a concept that Thich Nhat Hanh talks about in Art of Living.
This concept of signlessness,
Where nothing truly dies,
But rather it transforms.
He talks about a cloud and how a cloud is made up of H2O.
A cloud can become rain or snow or mist or hail and it stays H2O.
That cloud that we saw in the sky seems to no longer exist.
However,
It has simply transformed.
I like to think of our breath as doing this to our bodies.
Every breath in and then out,
We are actually a different person than who we were on our previous breath.
In a way,
Ourselves dying and then being reborn.
Transforming consistently on the breath in and the breath out.
I'll give you a couple moments here to sit with this concept of transformation and knowing that everything is always changing,
But also knowing that we can always come back to the breath as a constant,
That no matter how much we change,
The breath is something we can count on.
If you start to drift off,
Know that you can come back to yourself,
Come back to your body,
That physical sensation of the breath,
Filling it up and letting go.
We'll end our practice here with an affirmation practice or mantra repetitions,
Where you can say these to yourself out loud or in your mind.
Whatever feels comfortable today.
Starting with,
I create stability in my life.
I live my life to its fullest.
I am capable of handling anything that life throws at me.
Anything else you want to remind yourself of today?
I am capable of being the best version of myself that I've ever been.
I am capable of being the best version of myself that I've ever been.
I am capable of being the best version of myself that I've ever been.
Take the time to do so now.
And if nothing comes to your mind,
I'll share with you mine today,
Which is,
I am okay even if everything around me is changing.
Starting to wake up your body,
Starting to notice any sounds around you,
Maybe the air conditioning,
Cars,
Starting to notice your body moving your fingertips and your toes,
Maybe even circling your wrists and ankles.
And on your next breath in,
Taking a really big breath and stretching your arms up over your head or around you,
Taking up space,
Bringing this energy back into yourself.
From my heart to yours,
I thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to sit,
For taking the time out of your day to support yourself.
And as always,
Thank you.
