Thank you for taking this time to practice with me today.
First,
Show some gratitude towards yourself as well,
For making it a point to take time out of your day to be still and to reflect.
Today's practice will be focused on balancing worry with openness and certainty.
Worry can be a difficult emotion to balance and a difficult emotion to put aside.
It's impossible to not have any worry,
But when worry consumes us,
At least for myself,
I can really see how it can take over my life,
Maybe preventing me from doing things that I might enjoy or preventing me from really living in the present moment.
This practice will incorporate the healing sound of the spleen.
This is coming from the Taoist practice of the six healing sounds.
I will be demonstrating the sound,
So not to worry if this is your first practice with me.
To begin,
Please find yourself in a comfortable position,
Whether that's seated or lying down,
Or maybe you need to take a walk.
Find yourself in a position that is best for you today,
Maybe taking a look around your space,
Noticing the colors and objects and beginning to see your space as a safe place for you to relax,
Beginning to gently get in touch with your breath,
Noticing the inhales and exhales,
Maybe feeling the belly expand with each inhale and contract with each exhale,
Giving some extra attention to where your breath is going.
Taking longer,
Fuller inhales and exhales will signal to the mind and the body that it is okay to slow down,
That there's nothing to worry about in this moment.
And as you flow with your breath,
Feel free to close the eyes if that feels right to you.
Connecting further within,
Checking in with the mind and the body.
However,
You're feeling in this moment is okay.
You may not be relaxed just because you're meditating,
And that is fine.
It's important to check in with your body and accept it where it's at.
And if at any point in practice,
The mind becomes too busy or you lose focus,
Or maybe the emotion of worry is too much for you at this time,
That is okay.
Acknowledge your thoughts and simply return to your breath.
Return to an aspect of the present moment.
And before we get into the sound,
We'll take a deep,
Full breath together,
Exhaling out the mouth,
Sighing and letting go of anything that you'd like to.
Taking that breath in and exhaling,
Really letting some tension go,
Allowing some stress to leave the body,
Settling deeper into that surface that you may be seated on.
Introducing the spleen,
This organ tends to hold on to worry while it's balancing virtue is openness.
The color of the spleen is yellow.
At this time,
You can scan the body for this emotion of worry.
Maybe worry is constantly just a word that's on your mind,
Or maybe you have some specific worries that are popping up right away.
Just accept whatever is coming up for you.
If it's okay to explore,
Allowing these worries to float in the mind for a moment.
And as you further focus on this worry,
Maybe you can find some worries that are no longer serving a purpose for you.
Worry can be helpful at times,
But maybe as you dig deeper,
You're finding that this worry does not have a purpose.
So with this practice,
We'll be using a healing sound to imagine that we can let go of this worry.
The sound that we'll be using for the spleen is who,
W-H-O.
It will sound like,
And you should feel it really coming from that spleen area,
Which is on your left-hand side,
Directly under your rib cage.
So preparing to gather up this worry on your next inhale,
Deeply breathing in and exhaling with the sound,
Gently holding the sound out for as long as your breath allows.
It may be short,
It may be long,
But there's no need to force and hold the sound out.
We'll do this two more times,
Deeply breathing in and exhaling.
And one final round,
Gathering up this worry on the inhale and exhaling,
Imagining that you've let go of some of this worry,
Worry that is no longer serving you.
Settling deeper into the surface that you're seated on,
As we begin to bring our focus to openness and certainty,
The balancing virtue of worry.
You can envision the color yellow,
The color of the spleen,
Imagining that a yellow light is touching the top of your head,
Floating down the body,
Carrying with it this openness and certainty.
You can feel this virtue continue to spread throughout the rest of your body,
This glowing yellow light helping to balance out this worry with openness and certainty.
And with this continued focus on this virtue,
Gently allow a smile to physically form on your face.
It may feel strange at first,
But just explore it.
And as you hold the smile,
Imagine that you can smile down to your spleen,
Showing gratitude for all that this organ does to support you,
Holding that smile out for another breath,
Maybe even noticing any shifts in the mind or body with that smile,
And gently relaxing the muscles in your face once again,
Continuing to hold on to that balance that we've created,
Knowing that whenever you may feel overwhelmed with worry,
You have this innate ability to remain open and certain,
Having trust that everything will work out as it should,
Taking in a full inhale,
Really filling the belly with air,
And exhaling,
Maybe slightly moving the shoulders or the neck.
And as we begin to let go of this practice,
Remembering that you have this openness and certainty within,
Taking as much time as you need,
Making some small movements,
And gently opening the eyes when you feel ready to do so,
Slowly taking in your surroundings once again.
Thank you so much for practicing today.
