Welcome to your meditation.
My name is Kristin Penhall and I will be your guide today.
Just know that however you are showing up today,
However you're feeling,
It's all welcome here.
So just taking a cleansing breath here,
Let's take a deep inhale through the nose.
And when you're ready just exhale with a sigh.
Again,
Deep inhale through the nose.
And exhaling with a sigh.
And exhaling with a sigh.
And I just invite you to pause here for a moment and feel into your body.
And I encourage you to find a place that maybe needs a little bit of love,
A little bit of movement.
And just take that movement now so maybe you want to do a little circle with your neck.
Or maybe you want to reach your arms up ahead or move the spine in a circle.
Maybe you want to do all of those things but just take a moment now to do a little bit of movement or whatever you need so that you can feel comfortable in your meditation today.
And once you're feeling that the body is more able to settle into stillness,
I invite you to either take a seat or you can rest in Shavasana.
So with Shavasana,
You'd be laying on your back,
Hands out to the side,
Palms facing upward.
So shoulder blades are firmly and softly onto the ground.
And you may find it useful to have a pillow underneath your knees.
And that can just take some pressure off of the lower back.
And if you're in a seated position you may find it more comfortable to have a bolster or pillow underneath your glutes.
Really settling into a space where you feel that the body can rest in stillness.
And of course as we go through this meditation,
You are always welcome to partake in as much or little as you want.
This is your practice.
So I invite you to close the eyes if that feels comfortable.
However,
If that doesn't feel comfortable,
Maybe you want to cover them or have a soft gaze.
And we will begin with Ujjayi breath.
Now this breath is pretty common if you've gone to some yoga studios and it sounds like the ocean.
And for me,
I find if I'm in a difficult posture sometimes it allows me to really focus on the connection to myself.
That said,
In meditation it can be really nice to just connect with that breath.
So now we're going to do Ujjayi breath.
The inhale is soft through the nose.
And the exhale is like you're fogging a mirror,
But your mouth is closed.
So if it's your first time doing the breath,
Feel free to put your hand out in front of your mouth and just see how that feels before closing it.
So just taking a nice inhale.
And on the exhale,
Like you're fogging up the mirror.
And if you feel like you've got the hang of it,
The next exhale,
Try closing your mouth and letting that swirl.
The tongue is just lightly touched to the roof of the mouth.
And it should be audible so that your neighbor could hear you.
So if somebody was sitting beside you,
They can hear you,
But not your literal house neighbor.
So not that loud.
Just continuing with this breath here.
Staying present with the inhale and the exhale.
Maybe you can begin following the breath as it enters the body and leaves the body.
So the rise of the belly on the inhale,
And the soft release with the exhale.
Shift your focus to your rib cage.
Appreciating the strength of the bones,
Keeping our important life giving organs safe and protected.
As we're going deeper into the body.
We feel the lungs.
Acknowledging the healing of each breath.
The purposeful effort from you,
Your body brings in what it needs for nourishment,
And your lungs release what is no longer needed.
Bring your awareness to your right lung.
The space it occupies.
This lung occupies the masculine side of the body.
Feeling into your inner strength,
Courage,
And power.
Bring forth the image of a triangle pointed upwards over your right lung symbolizing masculine energy.
Holding that triangle over your right lung,
Shift your focus to your left lung.
The space it occupies.
The left lung rests in the side of the feminine energy in the body.
Feeling into your ability to love,
Create,
And connect.
Envision a triangle pointing down over your left lung that symbolizes the feminine energy.
Holding space for both triangles.
Over your left lung,
Pointing down over your right lung,
Pointing up.
Invite the triangle pointing down in your left lung to move to your heart center.
Allow the triangle to rest there.
Now invite the triangle pointing up in your right lung to move to your heart center,
Overlapping with the triangle pointing down.
These triangles connecting form a six-pointed star in your heart space.
This is the symbol of your heart chakra,
Anahata chakra.
The meaning of Anahata is unstruck.
Unstruck,
Meaning there is a place inside each of us that remains unchanged through the flow of life.
Events perceived as good or bad.
This part of ourselves remains unstruck.
Going beyond the personality,
Beliefs,
Emotions,
And thoughts.
This sacred part of ourselves is always here.
Staying connected to our heart space.
And letting go of the visualizations.
And just staying with the feeling.
How does it feel to be in our heart space?
We're not judging anything that comes up,
We're just allowing what is.
And then without changing the breath,
We're just going to be a witness here.
Tune into your breath cycle.
Maybe soft and short.
Maybe it's really deep.
But we're just allowing the breath to flow.
Bringing our awareness now back to the belly.
Feeling it rise and fall,
Along with the inhales and exhales.
And then following the breath into the chest.
And witnessing the rib cage rise and fall.
And taking a deep inhale.
And exhale with a sigh out the mouth.
And again,
A purposeful deep inhale.
And exhale with a sigh.
And now I encourage you to rub your hands together,
Creating some warmth.
And then you can either place the hands over the eyes,
Or if it's more comfortable for you,
Over the heart.
But just kind of giving ourselves a little bit of comfort and warmth.
As we begin to let go of the practice and prepare to be awake to the outside world.
And then from here,
Maybe you want to wiggle the fingers or the toes,
Just kind of bringing some gentle movement back into the body.
Perhaps another neck circle.
Maybe we have open hearts,
Open minds,
And open eyes.
Thank you so much for joining me for this practice today.
And as we begin to blink our eyes open,
Or kind of slowly come out into the world again.
Just remember that this is indeed a practice.
And no matter how you showed up,
Or what came up.
It just matters that you made the time to show up.
I hope that if it is daytime you have a wonderful rest of your day,
And if it is the evening that you have a nice,
Gentle,
Restful sleep.
Thank you.
