It's normal to feel overwhelmed by the turbulent nature of these wild times and by the uncertainty of so much change and by the nuanced complexities of all that we are being asked to face in our everyday lives.
This is a meditation practice that I use often as an antidote to the overwhelm so that I can engage in my life from a place of ease and with vitality,
Clarity,
Presence and more compassion.
I hope this meditation serves you well too.
Please just take a moment to place yourself here and to find a seat,
Be that upon a cushion on the floor or up on a chair or the edge of the couch and allow yourself to really settle into that seat.
Allow yourself a moment to slow down and to arrive.
Feel your hips upon whatever it is that you're sitting on.
With each and every exhale,
Allow yourself to settle a little heavier into your seat.
As your seat settles downward,
Feel an uprightness to your spine.
Without so much effort,
Just experience the groundedness of your hips and the levity of your spine.
And allow all of the muscles and the tissues around your spine to simply soften as if your spine was a nice tall coat rack.
And then the tissues around the spine,
Around the neck and the shoulders and through the torso.
They're just like limp coats hanging over that coat rack.
And now simply turn to the breath and feel its touch as it comes and goes through your nostrils.
Just place your awareness right there at the very tips of your nostrils and experience the breath coming and going.
Now begin to trace that sensation of breath in and back a little bit.
So as you inhale,
Feel the breath come in through the nostrils.
Travel in to the head and back.
As you exhale,
Sense the breath move forward and back out through the nostrils.
Just allow yourself to be really present for this sensation of breath as it comes in through the nostrils and back in to the head.
Then forward and back out through the nostrils.
Now begin to trace that sensation of breath in a little deeper.
So in through the nostrils and back and then trace the breath as it brushes down along the belly of the throat.
And as you exhale,
Sense as it brushes up along the belly of the throat and back out through the nostrils.
Simply tracing the movement of breath and the movement of life in through the nose and then back and down along the belly of the throat as you breathe in and up and out as you breathe out.
Keep it simple.
Now in a little further as you inhale in through the nose,
Back and down along the belly of the throat and now experience the breath as it drops and expands into the space of the heart.
Feel it land and pool in the space of the heart.
Now as you exhale,
Just allow your attention to soften in the heart space even as the breath moves up and out.
So as you inhale with awareness,
Trace the breath through the nostrils along the throat.
Feel it land and spread in the space of the heart.
And as you exhale,
Allow your awareness to remain in the heart,
To rest in the chest space even as the breath moves up and out.
And in this way,
We simply begin to build presence in the heart and allow our mind and our thoughts to take refuge here in the space of the heart,
To rest here.
And if your mind starts to get busy,
It's not a problem,
It's perfectly normal.
Simply invite your attention back to that sensation of the breath through the nostrils along the belly of the throat and then to drop and spread the space of the heart as you breathe in.
And as you breathe out,
Just allow your attention to rest in the heart space.
It's almost like the breath is a waterfall that comes in and down and lands and pools in the heart space.
You can keep your awareness there in the pool of the heart even as the breath moves up and out.
Now for a moment,
Both at the top of the inhale as well as at the bottom of the exhale,
Allow the breath to stand still just for a moment and rest your mind completely in the space of the heart,
Relax completely in the heart space.
So you linger just a moment in the space between breaths as you take rest in the heart.
Allow yourself to steep in the simple yet profound effects and what it is to just be present to the breath and rest in the heart.
One more full cycle of breath here.
For the last couple of moments here in this meditation,
Just allow yourself to be at rest in your heart beyond any effort with the breath.
Allow yourself a moment to simply be at rest in your heart.
Let that be enough.
You can remain at rest in this state of being,
In the heart space for as long as you like.
Namaste.
