Let Go & Bring In

Life-force energy (Prana) is a very potent force for healing and transformation. In this mindfulness-based practice, you will use the power of your own breath to let go of what is not serving you anymore and bring in what you want to grow, manifest and cultivate in your life. It uses a combination of mindfulness practice, grounding, guided visualization, and breathing and is suitable for any time of the day or year.

Transcript

Welcome to this 10 to 15 minute meditation with me.

My name is Nadine.

And before we get started with the meditation,

I want to give you a few details about what you can expect from this next 10 to 15 minutes and what you're supposed to be doing or not doing.

So first of all,

I recommend practicing this meditation in a seated position.

So if you can find a chair,

Sofa,

The bed or sit on the floor,

Just on a place where you can sit comfortably with an upright spine.

And if for any reason at all you cannot sit for that amount of time or you're not comfortable seated,

Of course,

You can also lay down on your back.

That is totally fine as well.

Just make sure you can find any position that you can maintain more or less comfortably for about 10 to 15 minutes.

And of course,

During meditation,

If you need to move or change your position,

Feel free to do that,

Right?

So don't try to like sit completely still if anything,

Any pains or aches come up.

All right.

And then all you have to do during this meditation is follow along.

So just following my instructions,

Following my voice.

And it is absolutely normal and okay if you have thoughts.

So your mind is most likely going to try to distract you with thoughts,

With to-do's,

Worries,

Fears,

With anything,

Because that's the job of the mind.

Each job is to think,

To solve problems,

To find problems to solve.

So that is just normal and human.

So we're not trying to stop thinking in meditation.

But what we're trying and practicing is awareness.

Awareness of the thoughts,

Emotions,

Feelings of whatever comes up for you.

So if you're seated and you'll notice your mind is trying to distract you and you're wandering off,

Just be aware.

And then once you'll be aware of that,

Once you notice that,

Just come back,

Come back to my voice,

Come back to the instructions again and again and again.

As many times as you need to do that.

Okay.

All right.

So let's get started.

So before we start with the meditation,

I just want you to kind of shift a little bit,

Jostle a little bit in your seat side to side,

The left and right,

Shifting the weight from your left foot or left sitting bone to the right.

If you're laying on the floor,

You can just kind of roll a little bit side to side,

Just to find your balance between right and left and just settle into that balance to find some stillness.

Feeling your sitting bones,

Maybe the soles of your feet rooting down into the ground or the chair or the surface underneath you.

And then from that groundedness and rootedness,

Find a gentle lift up through the crown of your head.

So your spine gets nice and long,

But still maintaining the natural curves of your spine.

Without tensing up the back or the shoulders.

And then let's take a deep inhale through your nose,

Shrug your shoulders up to the ears and then exhale out the mouth and just let the shoulders relax down your back without pulling them down.

Two more times.

Inhale,

Shrugging the shoulders up to the ears.

And with the exhale,

Side out,

Let it go.

Relax the shoulders.

One more time.

Inhale deeply.

And exhale,

Release the breath,

Release the shoulders.

And then just keep the shoulders resting on your ribcage,

Chest nice and open.

Allow your eyes to close or find a soft gaze to the ceiling or to the floor.

And then first,

Just bring your attention to your natural breath without changing,

Controlling,

Trying to manipulate the breath.

Just follow the natural movement of your breath in and out of your body.

And notice where you feel the breath the most in your body right now.

Is it in your belly,

In your ribs,

Your chest,

Maybe the throat or the nose?

There is no right or wrong or good or bad answer here.

It's really just observing what is it for you.

Where do you feel your breath right now?

And then noticing the quality of your breath right now.

Is it slow,

Is it fast,

Is it deep or is it shallow?

Is it choppy or does it flow freely?

Again,

Just observing,

Just noticing without any judgment,

Without any fixing or changing.

Really feeling the movement that the breath creates in your body.

So on the inhale,

Can you feel a sense of expansion,

Spaciousness happening?

And on the exhale,

There is a sense of release,

Letting go,

Emptying out.

Again,

On the inhale,

Filling up,

Filling the torso,

Expand forward,

Sides to the back.

And on the exhale,

There is a sense of contraction back towards the midline.

Now can you feel the air,

The breath as it enters through your nostrils?

You feel there is a sense of coolness as you breathe the air in.

Follow that sense through the nostrils down to the back of your throat all the way down into your lungs.

And then as you exhale,

There is a sense of warmth.

Maybe you can feel that warmth on your upper lips as your breath leaves your body through your nostrils.

Just follow these sensations a few more rounds of breath.

Really feeling how the breath travels from the nostrils into the lungs and then out again.

Good,

And now let that go.

And come back to your natural breath.

Inhaling,

Exhaling without any effort at all.

Notice if there is any tension that has crept up into your face.

Take a moment to completely relax the facial muscles,

Melting away any facial expression.

So let your forehead soften,

Your eyebrows relax.

The skin at the corners of your eyes and lips,

Let that relax and soften.

And your jaw,

Relax your jaw,

Relax the tongue,

Relax the tongue in the mouth.

Make sure your shoulders are still nicely soft and relaxed.

Now bring your attention to your exhales and deepen and lengthen the exhales a little bit more.

Allow the inhale to just happen naturally and then exaggerate the exhale.

You can breathe in through the nose and out through the nose.

Just lengthening,

Deepening,

Slowing down the exhales.

So as you are exhaling at the very bottom of your exhale there is even an active drawing back,

Squeezing back of the navel towards the spine to empty out every little bit of air.

And then you soften that to let the inhale happen.

Now bring to mind something that you want to let go,

Something that is not serving you anymore,

Something that has expired.

It can be a word,

It can be a feeling,

An emotion,

A habit,

A pattern,

Anything,

Whatever it is for you.

Bring that to your mind and imagine how you could with your exhale let that go,

Let it leave your body.

Just with the old air that you're exhaling let your thing go,

Whatever your thing is.

Release it,

Let it go.

Maybe you can let go just a little bit with every exhale and a little bit more with the next.

Or maybe you can let go right away fully,

Maybe it feels really freeing for you to just breathe it out,

Let it out.

Really cleansing your body from whatever you want to let go of.

Breathing this way a few more rounds,

Keeping your attention on that image of letting go,

Releasing whatever you want to release.

Any fears,

Worries,

Doubts.

Let that go,

Let your exhale return to a natural length and rhythm.

Now bring your attention to your inhales and start to lengthen and deepen your inhales.

So on the inhale can you feel the belly expand,

The rib cage,

The chest,

The shoulder blades and then exhale just let that happen naturally.

And again inhale a little longer,

A little deeper,

All the way up into the chest,

Feel the collar bones widening and then exhale let it go.

Keep doing this a few more rounds,

Just growing your inhales all the way up into the chest.

You might even feel that expansion and broadening happening from the center of your chest all the way out through the shoulders.

It's like you're putting a big smile on your chest with your inhale.

Good and then bring to mind something positive,

Something that you want to invite more of into your life,

Something you want to bring in,

You want to cultivate,

Manifest in your life.

And again it can be a word,

It can be a mantra,

It can be a feeling state,

An emotion,

A habit,

An activity,

Whatever it is for you.

Just imagine that you're bringing it in with your inhale,

Inhaling it into your body,

Into your system.

And it can be really allowing that word,

That thing to permeate all the cells of your body,

Let it travel out through every part of the body.

You're filling up with that thing,

That word,

The vibration of that word or thing,

That positive energy of that.

So that it becomes you,

You're feeling filled up with inspiration,

Courage,

Love,

Kindness,

Whatever it is.

Continue this breathing a few more rounds and this image of soaking,

Bathing yourself into that intention,

That thing,

That essence that you want to invite a little more into your life.

And then see if you can keep that feeling as you allow your breath to just return to a natural rhythm,

Letting go of any control of your breath.

Let your body breathe without any effort,

Just breathing on its own,

But you are still full of that positive vibration of that essence.

And then slowly start to bring awareness back into your physical body,

Feeling the container of your skin,

Your clothes,

Maybe the floor,

The chair,

The blankets,

Whatever is touching your skin.

Also feel the temperature of the air on your skin,

Really feeling the container of your skin.

And also start to visualize the room around you,

The surrounding walls and where you are in the room.

Still your eyes are closed.

And then gently start to bring some movements into toes and fingertips,

Maybe circling the wrists or the ankles out.

Just gently waking up your body with small,

Slow movements and stretches.

Try to keep your eyes closed as you do that,

Just to keep your attention inside for another moment.

Maybe a full body stretch,

A yawn,

A sigh,

Whatever feels nice to wake up again.

And then with your eyes still closed,

Just cast your gaze downwards towards the floor,

Chin drops to the chest.

And then very slowly,

Consciously allow your eyes to open to a soft gaze to the floor.

And you're just taking in more and more of your surroundings as you lift your head,

As you lift your gaze.

Thank you everyone so much for joining me today for this meditation.

I hope you feel a little more grounded,

A little more connected to yourself and your body and mind feel a little more balanced.

Have a wonderful rest of your day and I hope I'll see or hear you soon.

Namaste and bye everyone.