Welcome.
My name is Raquel Jordan,
And I'm going to be guiding you through a short meditation practice.
So if you could find a quiet room or corner,
A space where you can have a seat,
Either on a cushion,
A chair or lying down on your back.
Wherever you've chosen to find your seat or your rest,
I want you to place one hand on your heart and one hand on your stomach.
And just take a moment to greet yourself to your practice.
As you start to tune into your breath,
Notice which hand feels like it's moving a little bit more in your body.
You'll work towards leveling out the breath so you're breathing evenly as best that you can into both hands at the same time.
Gently exhaling from both hands at the same time.
I want you to notice whatever is connecting you to your mat or to the floor.
And beneath that note the firmness,
The stability of the ground beneath you.
And you'll take the next three breaths and I want you to imagine on the in-breath breathing up your spine,
Up to the space behind your eyes.
And as you exhale,
Breathing down your spine all the way out into the floor to help you ground.
Again,
Breathing up the spine on the in-breath.
On the out-breath,
Let it pour down the spine and into the floor.
We're going to work with a mantra for this meditation session.
And this is one of the many approaches to a meditation practice.
The mantra we're going to work with is Sat Nam.
And many of you might have heard this phrase before in a Kundalini class.
Sat meaning true,
Nam meaning identity.
So as we move into the silence in this meditation,
I want you to assign as you breathe in the word Sat.
As you breathe out the word Nam.
So that each time you are taking a cycle of breath,
You are echoing back to yourself,
Your true identity.
The identity beyond titles,
The hats that you might wear in your day,
The job you've been given or the dynamic you play out in your family.
True identity expanding so that you begin to see yourself in the sky,
In the trees,
In the earth.
So as we begin taking one hand to the heart and one hand to the stomach,
We'll begin contemplating the phrase Sat Nam.
Sat Nam.
If you find your focus drifting,
Bring yourself back to the mantra Sat Nam.
And just as when a cord is stricken,
There is a vibration,
A sound,
Your thought is creating a vibration in your body.
So continue to strike the cord of thought attuning to Sat Nam.
And just as much as you are putting forth the effort of repeating this mantra,
I want you also to work towards softening your body to receive the message,
What is your true self.
Notice how you're feeling in your own body from repeating the mantra.
Attuning to your true identity.
I want you to also recognize that you have been given a gift.
What is one gift or gifts that you've been given that you are meant to share with the world?
What is one thing that you can do today?
And if the one thing that you can do today is focus on your breath,
Simply focus on your breath.
If the one thing that you can do today is give yourself love,
Give yourself love.
Acknowledge now in this moment,
What can you do today?
I want you to bring your awareness back to your hands,
The feeling of your body fully present,
Recognizing your true identity.
Bring your awareness back to whatever is connecting you to the ground.
Note the firmness of the ground beneath you,
That support that you've been given.
And whenever you're ready,
You can slowly start to take your attention to the peripherals of your body,
To the toes,
The crown of your head.
And taking your time to transition yourself back to opening your eyes and carrying on with the rest of the day.
