Title: Releasing: A Guided Journey Meditation

This is a gentle journey into yourself, where you can find kindness, connection within you, with nature, and bring forward an opportunity for release. You will find that you may expand your awareness, drop some of your stressors, and come out in a more relaxed way of being.

Transcript

Hello.

Thank you for joining today.

Okay,

Come on in and get yourself comfortable.

Whatever that looks like for you,

Allowing a space a little bit out of the way that affords some quiet with a sense of an open space,

A sense of privacy.

And I invite you to bring your awareness to your breath with the inhalation in through the nose,

The exhalation out through the nose or mouth.

And always modify anything that you need to for your personal comfort.

And as you just be with your breath,

Track it.

We're not looking to change anything at this point,

But just have the awareness.

As you continue with your breath,

I invite each of us to drop right into our hearts.

And again,

I request that we drop in even a little more deeply,

Allowing any of the voices or chatter from the outside just to slow down,

Just to dissipate and just drop right in,

Right into your center.

And it's here that I ask you to dwell for the next few minutes from this center place,

From the heart,

From the part of you that really knows how to do this.

And just give yourself a nod for showing up today,

For stepping out of whatever has had you busy,

And coming home to your center for the remembering,

The pulling together the pieces that may have been spread a little bit thin.

Continue with this expansion of the awareness with your breath and just take notice of what's going on in your body when you have that inhalation and when you have that exhalation.

And just notice if the pace of your breathing has changed.

How do you feel it in your body?

And as we continue to settle in,

I invite each of us to bring forward an intention for the highest good of all for our time together today.

May we show up.

May we drop in.

May we hold clarity and see with an expanded lens to widen our view,

To open our hearts to more understanding and allow more to come forward.

It may be wisdom,

It may be feelings.

Just allow us to expand and feel a little bit of rejuvenation.

So as we bring our awareness to our breath,

I also invite you to expand this once again to your whole body and take notice.

Are you feeling anything on your skin?

Do you notice the temperature of the air?

Can you sense the clothing brushing across your skin?

Bring your awareness to your face.

Do you feel the muscles?

Can you relax them?

Do you feel the neck supporting your head?

And can you just straighten that out a little bit?

Loosen your jaw and allow your shoulders to relax,

Perhaps imperceptibly.

Can you roll your shoulders back and opening up in that chest area,

That sternum?

Without realizing it,

You almost sit up a little bit straighter,

Your head aligns and almost feels like it's now being suspended by a string upward and taking a little pressure off.

Now I invite you to really bring in a larger inhale.

And as you exhale,

Allow yourself to have a longer and slightly larger exhalation.

For the inhalation is bringing in the new,

The fresh air,

The oxygen,

That really helps to awaken ourselves.

And the exhalation can be seen as releasing the chaos around us,

The things that we don't need to carry anymore.

Perhaps even old stories.

And perhaps you don't even know.

But allowing that inhalation to be the fresh and the newness and the possibilities and the exhalation to be the releasing,

The letting go.

Now I invite you to extend your awareness to the trunk of your body.

As you breathe,

Do you notice your ribcage is expanding?

Perhaps you notice your belly.

With that breath,

Allow yourself to almost track down the awareness.

What do you feel in your back,

Along your spine?

And your sits bones and your hips?

Do you see in your mind's eye what is supporting them?

All the while allowing the muscles to relax,

Expanding the awareness of how you're being supported and allowing a little gratitude.

Thanks.

Thanks to your body for holding all that it does.

Thanks to the environment that we take for granted that does support us.

And as you continue your breath,

Allow your awareness to go to your thighs,

Your quadriceps,

Your knees,

And down the shins and the calves to the ankles and to your feet and notice how are they supported?

What are they touching?

Can you feel them touching something?

Allowing your awareness to extend,

Actually through your feet into the earth,

An anchoring of sorts.

Now I invite you to slow your breath down.

And in a moment,

I will invite that we actually do something that's a 4-4-4-4 breath.

So for the inhalation,

You draw in for four seconds.

You hold for four seconds.

You release for four seconds.

And you hold for four seconds.

And when you are ready,

I invite you to begin for six cycles.

And as you finish up your final cycle,

Imagine yourself in your mind's eye standing in a forest.

It's spacious,

It's lovely,

It's safe.

Allow yourself to be there.

Feeling the ground beneath your feet.

And in front of you,

There is a path.

It's not a long path,

You might see five meters or so.

Allow yourself to walk on that path,

Feeling what it's like under your feet,

What the air is like around you.

And just notice the plants,

The nature.

And at the edge of this path,

There is a garden,

An opening into a garden of sorts,

Grounds.

And just take a look.

And it's very comfortable.

And in there,

There is a bench,

And I invite you to walk over to that bench and take a seat and make yourself comfortable.

And allow yourself just to fall into the rhythm with your breath.

And remember,

Here you are,

Sitting in the center from your heart.

And you're sitting in this comfortable area.

Everything is safe,

Everything is just lovely.

And now is your time.

So I invite you right now to look around you and notice there's extra space on the bench.

And it seems that a very large leaf has fallen and is right there.

And it almost looks like a place setting,

A plate.

It almost looks like it's meant to hold something.

So with a large inhalation,

I invite you to ask yourself,

What do I need to release today?

What do I need to bring forward?

And however it comes to you,

Allow yourself,

If you would like,

To raise your hands up to your heart and to receive whatever is within you that has come forward and draw it out and then just set it on that lovely leaf next to you.

And then take a look at it and allow yourself just to observe it,

Not making any connections to it,

Not putting emotions to it.

And if stories start,

Just say,

No,

No,

Thank you,

Mind,

But not right now.

And then as you continue your breath,

And you're looking at this,

I invite you to ask yourself,

What else needs to come forward along with this?

And if there's nothing else,

That's okay.

And if something else comes forward,

Welcome it,

Receive it,

And place it next to yourself.

And as you continue your breath,

I invite you to ask yourself as well,

Giving a figurative nod.

And I invite you to continue your breath,

The inhalation in through the nose,

The exhalation out through the nose or mouth,

And ask yourself one more time,

Is there anything else that needs to come forward now?

Please show up for me.

And once that is complete,

I invite you to almost lift your head imperceptibly and take in that breath,

Feeling the freshness of the air and saying,

Okay,

So the part of me that knows how to do this,

Please also be here.

And then look back over to the side and say,

What is it that I need to know today that I have not been seeing?

And allow yourself to continue with your breath.

And if you hear a response,

Get curious,

And ask another question.

It may start with,

But why?

And maybe a thank you.

It also may be a,

How can I help you?

Allow yourself in this time and in this space to get curious,

To be holding the compassion from your heart,

From that center,

And to be in non-judgment.

And when you feel like you've received something new,

Or there's information,

Or you're at peace,

I invite you to look back to that place where you may have set down one thing,

Two things,

Three things,

And say thank you.

And in your mind's eye,

Have a clarity of what you can release.

And if there is something you can release,

Give yourself permission to pick it up,

To look right at it and say,

Thank you so much.

But it is now time to release you.

And you may want to be holding it in the palms of your hands,

Open palms upward,

And imagine that as you release it,

It transmutes,

It disintegrates.

You can even blow on it,

Almost like you would as a child in the dandelion fluffy seeds,

Just allowing them to release.

And remember your breath with the inhalation of the fresh,

The exhalation of the releasing.

And if you need to do this a few times,

That is all well and good.

To allow yourself the time of another three cycles of breath to complete this.

And when you're ready,

I invite you in your mind's eye to actually stand up,

Allow yourself to stretch up into the air,

Like really stretching your body,

Extend your hands way above your head,

Even go on to the toes,

The balls of your feet,

Right up on the toes,

Really allowing yourself to extend themselves.

And as you do that stretch,

Like you want to touch the canopy or the sky,

Take that large inhale and exhale and then just relax.

And allow yourself to start walking back.

I invite you to take a pause,

Looking around you,

Noticing how the air feels on your skin.

And just imagine your body a little bit more relaxed.

And allow yourself to walk to the edge of the garden,

Expanding your arms.

And just expanding the awareness of your breath,

Noticing how the earth feels beneath your feet.

And just allowing a smile to come across your face.

Almost an imperceptible nod of thank you.

Thank you for this space.

Thank you for the part of me that knows how to come home right to the heart,

To the compassion,

To the non-judgment,

To the releasing,

And to the seeing,

Even the things we don't really like.

So now I invite you to just come ahead.

You've got the path to come back on,

About four or five meters.

Coming back to that original spot,

Almost as if you can step right into yourself once again.

And as you come in and settle into this body that you left just a few minutes ago,

Allow yourself just to notice.

Does it feel a little more relaxed,

A little more spacious?

And so before we wind up,

I invite you to,

With just a bit of curiousness,

Imagine being inside,

In the space in between all of those cells.

Just bringing the awareness to that space that is all around.

Just notice it,

Just feel it.

And imperceptibly,

As you inhale,

Allow those spaces to expand.

Just giving a little more openness for you.

And allow yourself to bring your awareness back to your breath,

Your inhalation,

And your exhalation.

And bringing those connections that we had started from the feet and bringing them back up,

Drawing them back up through your legs,

Up to your trunk,

Right to your heart.

And down from your head,

Neck,

Shoulders,

Meeting right in that center place.

And I invite you just to thank yourself for showing up.

And give a nod and say,

We've got this.

I've got this,

Whatever this is,

That's going to be changing.

But feel this moment,

Feel this place,

Feel the space,

And know that you can come back here any time you need a pause.

And so when you're ready,

I invite you just to bring forward a little bit of movement,

Bringing forward a little understanding and allowing that everything is all right.

Hey,

Thanks for showing up today.

Have a great day.