Welcome.
This is day five.
And it's all about ease.
And ease is such a beautiful word.
Like sometimes when you just say it,
When you just feel it,
You do,
You find yourself in this downstream flow because that's exactly what ease is.
It's being patient and accepting and understanding and stable and everything you've been practicing up to this day.
The thing is we're really,
Really great at helping other people and holding space for other people in other situations that we do often forget about ourselves.
So it's really important to cultivate ease.
We have to actually hold space for ourselves.
So in order to do that,
We check in with our emotions and we meet ourselves fully present.
We meet ourselves fully present.
And that's exactly what you have the opportunity to do today in this meditation.
That whatever the present moment contains,
We accept it as if we have chosen it.
And that's hard because sometimes the present moment is not what we want.
It's not where we want to be.
It's not what we thought it would be.
And if you're in the state of depression or you're feeling down,
Or maybe a state of disease,
To find ease is really frustrating and it can make you feel a little bit lost.
So if you're in that place of wondering how the heck you're going to get some ease into your life,
This downstream in the flow,
No worries kind of feeling,
The best thing to do is to play with contrast.
Excuse me.
And what I mean by that is in your guidebook,
There's a place that asks you on day five where you feel stuck in your life.
So it's important that you write those things down so that you can become more aware of them because sometimes actually when they're in your head and you just perpetuate them and you don't take the time to sit with them or write them down,
They might actually be better than you think they are.
Sometimes our heads make life or certain experiences or situations worse than they actually are because we just sit there and go in circles with these thoughts.
So it's important that you write down where you're stuck.
Maybe it's just one place.
Maybe it's a hundred.
And you'll also find that when you write things down,
Negative things such as this,
It actually allows them to lose momentum.
They lose power.
So it's quite amazing to put these down on paper then say,
Oh,
I can handle that.
Or,
Oh,
This isn't as bad as I thought it was,
Or maybe it is.
And we look at square in the eye and we figure out action items,
Things we can do,
Connect with ourselves,
Hold space for ourselves and allow things to be exactly as they are,
Knowing that nothing is permanent.
Change is consistent.
It's constant.
It's the guarantee in life.
So take a big deep breath in and release it out.
No matter where you are.
We imagine as we released out the breath,
We go down the stream.
It's such a beautiful flow.
And the whole point of this journey of life is to be floating down the stream.
It's not to get to that destination.
It really isn't.
We've heard it time and time again,
But imagine if you were on a raft and you just picked up the raft and you said,
Eh,
This is boring.
I'm just going to stick it back in the river where my end point is.
You'd miss the entire adventure.
The rocks that get stuck in the middle.
Everything underneath and everything above is all part of the process.
And that's where we really need to go back and find that patience and the acceptance,
The understanding and the stability so that we can have this ease.
We can hold that space for ourselves.
From here,
Take another really big breath in.
You gather it all in whatever it is that's going on and you release it out.
Imagine you're going downstream again.
It feels so good to even go find a source of water,
River or stream and watch it while it's going downstream.
It's so beautiful.
It's so beautiful.
It's so beautiful.
It's so beautiful.
It's so beautiful.
It's so beautiful.
It's so beautiful.
You're going to find a source of water,
River or stream and watch it watch it go.
Watch it from two perspectives,
Watch it facing downstream and watch it facing upstream and just notice if you feel differently.
It's a little homework for you guys.
If you have a stream or a river nearby your house.
So,
Let's go back to the beginning.
We're going to do a little mouth check,
Wiggle the hips.
We close our eyes.
We purse our lips open,
Do a little bit of a smile,
Knowing that everything is always rigged in our favor.
It's always working out for us.
It is,
It is,
It is,
And we start to breathe.
So,
So so so find your breath.
Breathe in,
Breathe out.
Bringing yourself back always in such a gentle way.
With all of this sitting in silence and connecting to ourselves,
It allows us to keep a strong sense of who we are,
What we stand for,
And the biggest practice is we're able to drown out the noise around us.
When it gets really loud,
We keep expanding into everything we know to be so true for us.
Start to stretch out the legs.
Wiggle the toes if you need,
The hands,
The wrists.
So,
How do we keep all this?
How do we find the ease?
Well,
The answer is quite simple.
We do,
We continue to sit.
We do make the time for connection,
Whether it be 20 minutes or two.
My dear Ellie Richter,
She's in Charleston,
South Carolina,
But she wrote these words and I find them so gentle and so true and they give us options because when we leave our meditation seat,
We do go back into the world and to integrate ourselves can be a challenge.
And she says instead of fighting a line,
We need to find the way to connect with ourselves.
And so,
We're able to do that.
Instead of fighting,
Align.
Instead of defending,
Hold space.
Instead of pushing,
Listen.
Instead of forcing,
Allow.
Instead of worrying,
Trust.
Instead of convincing others,
Live and let live.
Instead of competing,
Collaborate.
Big breath in.
Big breath out.
I hope you continue to connect to sit,
To meditate in your own way.
Whether you repeat this course over and over or you find a way that works for you,
It is so important that we show up,
That we lead by example,
That we continue to grow and expand into what is so true for us.
So,
So,
So much love for you guys.
Thank you so much.
