I'm Nora Speakman,
Thank you for joining me.
I'd like to ask you to just get settled,
Whether that's sitting in a chair in a comfy position or lying down.
Whatever just lets you let go in the moment.
Just releasing anything that may be binding up our body,
Maybe shaking out our hands and our arms,
Letting our core and our legs just relax.
This is your time.
This is your time.
Let's take some deep breaths.
We're going to try to inhale for seven seconds.
And then hold for four.
And then do the longest release in our exhale that we can.
And when you're ready,
Go ahead and repeat that sequence again.
Inhale for seven.
Hold for four.
And then the longest release.
When we do our breath work,
It reminds us how we can return to that center and that space within us.
Life,
Our heartbeat,
The gift of every breath,
The ability to exhale and just release.
We don't hold our breath throughout the day.
There isn't anything that we have to hold.
We get to receive and then we get to let go.
So today I want to talk about and meditate upon how do we choose life in the middle of what we are all experiencing in a global pandemic,
In this time of fear,
In this time of unknowns,
How do we still choose to remind ourselves of the presence and the gift of life?
Although it's life interrupted,
How can we minimize what stands between us and our actual experience of life?
So I want you to take just one more deep breath and then we're going to get into our meditation.
In.
And we hold.
And we release.
We all live as one on the depths of our being and what sometimes can feel like the dangers of experience.
What I've found is asking myself as I set out for the day,
Who am I choosing to bring with me as a companion?
Am I bringing fear along for the ride for the day and maybe even letting fear drive?
Or am I going to choose to bring along peace,
Some clarity as companions?
So as we are relaxing in this space of just letting go,
I want you to visualize yourself choosing.
What does peace feel like?
How do you experience the companion of peace and clarity?
I want you to notice when you think of peace,
What picture comes to mind?
Is it the sound of a river?
Maybe you're at the ocean.
Maybe you're in a meadow with a bunch of beautiful butterflies.
And I just want you to notice and be aware of what that does for your breathing,
How peace and clarity make your heart feel,
How your body when we experience peace just sort of gets really heavy because it's relaxed.
Every morning,
We have the chance to wake and love,
The chance to welcome surprise and awe.
And we are also asked to make our way through the day,
Sometimes through the tensions,
Through suffering,
Through surrender,
And it truly makes living a way of being.
Ultimately,
I believe we have to risk being new.
And how we do that is through the gift of presence.
We remain present in the only moment that is the eternal moment,
Which is now.
We experience our bodies,
Our minds,
And our spirit drinking and absorbing peace and love.
We hear with our heart instead of with our ears.
We accept the grace of our humanness.
We realize that life has always been a journey.
This one may be a little bit tougher.
There may be more struggling to enter and embrace things as they are.
But all we have to do is the present moment.
All we have to do is accept our small part in the way of things.
And with our part,
We add that to the fire of those around us.
And that's how we cultivate oneness,
Love.
That's how we open up to joy.
We choose to see each other and we hold nothing back.
I want you to picture those that you typically go through your life with,
Especially now that we're having to be in a holding pattern.
And I want you to visualize looking upon them tenderly with understanding,
With compassion,
With love.
Listening,
Seeing them.
I want you to think of even when maybe you go to the pharmacy or the food store,
The workers that are tirelessly trying to provide for us.
And I want you to see yourself looking upon them with tenderness and love,
Compassion,
Understanding.
I want us to see the gift of helping each other wear down what gets in the way of us living an authentic life,
Even in the midst of craziness.
I want us to experience the kinship of gratitude as humanity.
I want us to be aware that when we dare to risk peace,
Love,
And vulnerability,
There is an exchange of warmth just like that fire that we add to one another that brings us all closer together.
We grow in the direction of community.
We remember that we are all in this together.
And how do we create that space of presence even in the midst of what can feel so anxious?
We begin by choosing.
We begin by noticing and being aware of our body.
But we also create this emptying and opening.
And that's what I want us to focus on now.
We empty.
We empty.
We deliver.
We remove the anxiety that we begin noticing in our body when we hear the news or we experience what is uncomfortable in us.
So we empty.
And I just want you to visualize yourself sort of putting all that in a box.
Put in a box fear and worry.
Put it in a box that can just be set to the side.
And I want to see yourself opening up the most beautiful gift.
And in there is peace.
And in there is love.
And in there is gratitude.
I want you to notice when you visualize how different those gifts look.
How different the boxes look.
We empty and we open.
And emptying and opening gives us the most beautiful opportunity to be present.
We ready ourselves for the privilege of these moments.
We remind ourselves to listen to the moment of every day.
We create the sacred space of opening and emptying.
Emptying and then opening.
And as we do that we are experiencing the practice of being human.
Of being together.
Of being in community.
So as we come to a close of our time together I want you to carry that with you.
I want that to soak into your spirit.
We empty and we open.
We choose peace.
We choose love.
We get to put in a box those feelings that can arrest us.
And I thank you for honoring me today as you've sat with me so wonderfully and so presently.
I want you to soak in that space of relaxation as long as you want.
And then get up when you're ready.
All for each one of you.
Thank you for meditating with me.
