Thank you so much for practicing with me today.
We'll be focusing on the kidneys and on letting go of fear.
Fear can be very challenging to overcome and it's often difficult to separate our rational fears from irrational fears.
So with this practice,
We're just looking to let go of any build up of this emotion,
Any fear that we may be holding onto that is no longer helpful.
You begin just find a comfortable position.
Seated is great if that's working for you.
And begin to just settle into your environment.
Move or stretch in any way that you need to.
And fully settle into your seated position.
Beginning to notice this moment of stillness.
As you become comfortable in your environment,
You can gently close your eyes.
Beginning to go inward.
Start by following the flow of your breath exactly as it is.
Moving with each inhale,
Maybe noticing the expansion of the belly or the chest.
And moving with every exhale,
Maybe noticing the contraction of the belly or the chest.
Just meeting your breath where it's at in this moment.
Using the breath as this constant helping you to remain in this present moment.
If at any point throughout practice,
You lose focus or if thoughts come into your mind that take you away from practice,
You can gently acknowledge that the focus has shifted and just bring your awareness back to the breath.
So following the breath for another few rounds,
Inhaling and exhaling.
And I'll begin to introduce the kidneys.
So the kidneys tend to hold on to the emotion of fear while the virtue is calmness and stillness.
The healing sound that we'll use is spelled out C-H-O.
So I'll demonstrate the sound.
You will be doing three rounds of breathing using this sound with each exhale.
To start,
You can begin to connect with the emotion of fear.
You may notice just bringing up the word fear can maybe have a certain reaction in the body or maybe some specific fears come up for you.
Just allow whatever comes up to come up and as long as you feel comfortable with exploring it.
So bringing to mind fear,
Remembering once again that this emotion is not negative but it's important that we are able to let go of fear.
So on this first breath,
You can imagine that you're gathering up this fear,
Taking a deep breath in,
Making the sound.
Understanding that this fear is gently leaving the kidneys.
This fear is no longer helpful.
Taking the second round of breath,
Deeply breathing in,
Gathering up this fear and letting it go with the sound.
Taking note of how the physical body feels.
And once more,
Taking a deep breath in,
Letting go with the sound.
Emptying the kidneys of this fear for now.
And just noting again how you feel after the sound practice.
And if you feel nothing different,
That is okay.
Every time you practice will be a new experience.
So now that we've let go of the emotion,
We can focus on the virtue of the kidneys,
Which is calmness and stillness.
You can envision the color dark blue,
Imagining that a dark blue light is expanding in the kidneys.
This light brings with it calmness and stillness.
You can feel this calmness and stillness radiate throughout the kidneys,
Moving into the rest of your body.
You can feel this glow from within.
And with this focus on calmness and stillness,
You can gently allow a smile to form on your face.
Imagining that you can smile directly down to your kidneys,
Showing gratitude for all that this organ does to support you both physically and emotionally.
Holding on to that smile for just another moment.
As I introduce this mantra that you can silently repeat if it's helpful.
I comfort my fear with calmness.
Taking a deep breath in.
Once again,
You can silently repeat this phrase.
I comfort my fear with calmness.
What does this calmness mean to you?
And with that smile,
Once again,
Just acknowledging the kidneys and trying to maintain that focus on calmness and stillness.
And you can gently allow the smile to leave the face,
Relaxing the muscles once again.
And just noting maybe what came up for you during practice.
It's okay if the mind was busy and if you lost focus.
Every time you practice,
Maybe easier or more difficult.
Just see each practice for what it is.
So as we begin to let go of this focus on the kidneys,
Once again,
Show some gratitude towards yourself for taking time to practice and to let go of emotion.
You can slowly begin to reconnect to the surface that you're seated on.
Maybe making some small movements with the shoulders or the head.
Noticing any sensations in the body.
Wiggling the fingers or the toes.
And gently opening your eyes whenever it feels right for you.
Slowly reconnecting with your surroundings once again.
And taking with you that you can always use this calmness and stillness to help balance out fear.
Thank you so much for practicing.
