Today we'll be practicing a meditation to cultivate an awareness of the inherent aliveness that is present in our body at all times throughout our day.
We'll begin just by settling into the body for a few moments.
So I just invite you to find a comfortable seat wherever you may be today as you're listening to this.
And either allowing your feet to make contact with the floor or if you're in a kneeling or cross-legged position,
Allowing your knees to make contact with the floor.
So just feeling this connection to the earth,
This sense of groundedness.
Noticing where your body is making contact with whatever seat you're in today.
Maybe noticing a weight in the back of the legs or the lower back.
Maybe you feel held and supported by the seat.
Beginning to allow the body to settle and you might feel the just gentle hug of gravity towards the earth.
Maybe imagining that there's a string coming off the top of your head,
Gently pulling your spine,
Your neck,
Your head upright and towards the sky.
So the spine is in an upright yet relaxed posture.
Maybe rolling the shoulders up towards the ears on an in-breath.
Rolling them back down.
Noticing that opens up the heart area.
Maybe tucking the chin in slightly towards the chest.
Again,
Helping that spine elongate yet remain relaxed.
You might want to place your hands either in your lap or on the tops of the thighs.
You can experiment with placing the palms facing upwards in order to cultivate a sense of openness or energy if you're feeling a bit sleepy.
Or you can place the palms facing downward in order to cultivate a sense of groundedness.
I'll just check in with the breath for a few moments as well.
There's a few different sensations you can explore feeling the breath in today.
It might be in the rise and fall of the belly or the chest.
Maybe the sensation of air coming in and out of the nose,
Changing temperature as it comes in and out with each breath.
Just exploring those different sensations of the breath and settling your awareness on whichever one feels most intuitively nourishing or available for you in this moment.
Telling the awareness to settle as the breath comes in and out of the body on its own.
This breath can be a gateway into this awareness that we're cultivating of the simple presence of being alive within the body.
You might feel this aliveness as the breath coming in and out of the body wherever you're noticing it.
You may notice it in the center of your heart area,
The energetic heart.
We don't need to go up into our head to think about being alive or to inquire about it or to have any other thoughts.
We're simply noticing in this moment there's a sense of aliveness that's in our body.
There's this inherent radiant presence of being here in this body,
In this life,
On this planet.
Just becoming curious what shifts when you just become aware of this fact that's been present for your entire life.
It's been present all day no matter what you've been doing.
Noticing what emotions,
What feelings or sensations may arise.
Just place our awareness on the inherent aspect,
The inherent vibrancy of being alive in this body.
We even bring a slight smile to the lips.
Maybe feel this radiant in the heart area.
It can be quite natural for gratitude or excitement to even well up in these moments or even feelings of sadness or this sense of regret that might be popping up for not having tuned into this sense of aliveness.
Maybe we feel like we've been on autopilot.
The invitation here is to allow all of these feelings to arise without judgment.
Then once again,
Return our awareness to that sense that in this moment we are alive in this body and allowing our awareness to rest in the center of our heart,
Our energetic heart,
Feeling that aliveness welling up with each breath.
Each moment offers this radical possibility of newness,
Of aliveness.
If the mind wanders,
Which it will,
Simply returning it without judgment back to this feeling of being alive,
This radical possibility,
This radical agency we have to go about our lives in a way that aligns with our values.
Just resting in this space.
Nowhere to go,
Nothing to do.
Simply allowing the body to breathe itself,
Allowing the body to be alive as it is,
Knowing that each moment is passing,
Is fleeting.
Nowhere come a time when we won't have this aliveness inside of us.
Allowing gratitude,
Allowing clarity to naturally emerge.
As we come to the end of our practice together,
I invite you as you end this meditation and move into the rest of your day to just explore how you can bring this awareness of your inherent aliveness,
This vibrancy into your daily life.
It might be in small moments or it might be in the way you interact with others or the way you see a tree or flowers by the road.
It's allowing this awareness,
This limited time we have in this body,
On this planet,
Allowing it to illuminate your life.
When you feel ready,
You can bring your awareness back into the space that you're in,
Blinking open the eyes if they've been closed,
Maybe making small movements with the hands,
Just waking the body back up.
Just seeing if the room that you're in,
The space you're in,
Looks any different from when you started the practice.
Just bringing this curiosity with you into the rest of your day.
