Hello and welcome.
The following is a guided meditation by Renee Seals,
A somatic movement educator,
Energy worker,
And astrologer.
This meditation is intended to help support your embodied meditation practice.
If in the recording you are prompted to do something that doesn't feel good for your body,
Please adapt and modify to make it work for you.
Please also note that the content of this meditation sometimes explores deep and subtle states and memories,
And sometimes guided visualizations.
You are encouraged to work with discernment as you practice with them.
If any of the guidance Renee offers feels too activating or uncomfortable,
Please listen to your body's knowing and pause the recording until a later time if you wish to return to it.
These guided meditations range anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes and do not require any supplementary equipment to participate.
We hope you enjoy.
Hi everyone,
Thanks for listening.
This is Renee Seals and I am here today to offer a guided meditation that's a basic mindfulness meditation that I use a lot when I'm thinking about what it means to be connected and how to feel connection.
You can do this meditation anywhere.
You don't need to be in a standard or classic seated meditation position,
Although it's probably good to be intentional when you engage with a meditative practice.
So whether you're sitting down or lying down or moving around,
Be in a space where you can really give your attention and focus to this intention of mindfulness.
Okay,
So let's just all start by taking a deep breath in.
Feel your breath.
Just this is so simple.
Just keep breathing.
And as you inhale,
Feel how that breath touches the inside of your throat and how your inhale fills up your chest and maybe moves into your back and your belly.
As you exhale,
Notice the quality and the feeling of exhaling.
Notice how the inhale touch of your breath on your nostrils is cool and the exhaling touch of your breath on your nostrils is warm.
As you inhale,
You're receiving life-giving support,
This magic thing called oxygen that is created from the plant life on our planet.
And every inhale delivers that oxygen into your blood,
So your lungs and your heart work together.
And the oxygen is carried on your blood into your entire body,
And every cell in your body requires oxygen.
So every tissue in your body you could think about breathing.
Every cell in your body is in a constant state of generative energy,
Transforming oxygen into energy.
And when you exhale,
Your exhale is fed back into a conversation that the flora and the fauna have.
So the plants and the green life on our planet give us oxygen,
And animals take oxygen and transform it into CO2.
And the trees and the plants breathe that in and transform it back into oxygen.
So just as our lungs and our cells are in a constant state of respiration,
We function kind of just like a cell and are part of a greater respiration of our planet.
As you breathe,
Notice if you can relax any feelings of holding on or holding up or holding in.
And again,
This doesn't matter what you're doing,
So you can be active and also start to consider the idea of yielding.
And by yielding,
I don't mean complacency or right-of-way to something else or someone else.
I mean a quality that you let into your body where you don't strive.
And the way that I like to begin to do that is by noticing my connection to gravity.
So as you continue breathing,
Also bring your awareness into whatever contact you have with the flora or with the earth.
And notice how this contact rises to meet you also.
So the force of gravity means that we're constantly connected and brought back to this planet,
To our home.
And just like we're part of a greater respiration of the planet,
We're also part of a family,
And there are so many ways that people have languaged this for a long time,
But commonly we hear about the earth as a mother,
Mother Earth.
And you might feel this in considering what gravity is.
So gravity is a force that not only keeps us tethered to the earth,
But also keeps us from falling out into space because our planet right now is hurtling through the kind of endless vast space of our galaxy and the universe and a huge unknown.
And around the form and the material of our planet we have an atmosphere,
And in this atmosphere oxygen and air is trapped.
So there is a container,
Containment,
That the earth creates that keeps us tethered to her,
That keeps us protected,
And that also gives us life.
So as you yield into whatever you're touching right now,
Into the force of gravity,
Imagine in your whole body the feeling of kind of resting into the support of a loved one.
And the way that your internal defenses can soften,
The way that your skin can actually start to soften,
And the way that your heart can start to open a little bit.
And regardless of any of your life circumstances,
Just consider that this relationship between you and the earth is inherently loving.
And then come back to your breath.
And again just notice your breath and maybe it's changed from when we began.
So the quality of our breath is constantly changing,
And its quality shifts in response to our activities,
To our perceptions,
To our emotions,
And to our thoughts.
Basic awareness of breath could be one of the most valuable tools that any of us have,
Especially when it comes to navigating things like stress or conflict.
So as you feel your breath,
Can you also feel the presence of your breath?
And it is a presence,
The force of your breath that fills your body.
Can you feel that presence as inherently loving?
So that as you inhale,
You receive into your body what gives life.
And as you exhale,
You're part of this larger system.
And if your eyes are closed,
Then gently allow them to open.
And let's begin just with basic mindfulness.
Notice that your breath is always loving.
And just with basic mindfulness,
Noticing what we see.
I'm aware that as I'm saying this,
There might be listeners who don't have the facility of vision.
And in which case,
The function of seeing,
Of vision,
Is also something that exists in our imagination.
And I would say that whether we're seeing from our eyes or images that occur in our minds,
Both can have impact and both can affect our breath.
So choose something.
And again,
This could be something that your eyes see or something that you see in your mind.
And without labeling it or without thinking about what it is,
Just notice.
Notice the texture and the shape.
Notice if there's an emotional response or attachment or aversion that comes up.
Notice all of the emotions that are in your mind.
Notice all of the intricacies of what this thing is,
And as you notice it,
It might change.
Notice how you can look closely at something and you can focus your eyes,
And you will have a particular kind of sensation in your eyes and in your forehead.
Or you can soften your eyes or soften your internal gaze.
And then it's as if whatever you're seeing is just delivered to you,
So there's no reaching out.
And I'll invite you to do this kind of noticing so that your eyes are soft and your forehead is relaxed.
And you don't need to get bound up or tightly held onto whatever it is that you see.
But at the same time,
You're not fluctuating,
So there's a steadiness.
Our eyes are intricately linked to our nervous systems,
And when our eyes are stressed out or when they get hard,
It has a similar effect on the nervous system.
Many of us spend a lot of our days looking at screens and driving and paying attention with our eyes,
So it's important that we take time to relax in these organs and relax their functions.
And see if you can link your eyes or your imagining with your breath,
So that as you inhale you feel an expansiveness.
Maybe you feel the whole periphery of your vision or the whole periphery of your skull.
And as you exhale,
You can see that your eyes are still relaxed.
You can feel the whole periphery of your skull.
And as you exhale,
Relax.
You feel a kind of conscious release or letting go of any hardness or tension.
So with every inhale,
There's an expansiveness or a broadening of what can come in through the eyes or through the imagery.
And with every exhale,
There is a relaxation of any gripping onto one image or one form.
And then allow your eyes to close.
And now let's all shift our attention towards what we can hear.
And wherever you are,
There's going to be ambient noise.
If you're in a building,
You'll hear the sounds of the building.
You'll hear the sounds that are happening outside.
You'll hear the sound of air as it passes over matter.
You'll hear the sound of your own breath.
You might hear the sound of your own pulse or blood in the tiny veins of your ears.
The invitation here is to be as broad and inclusive as you can in what you're hearing.
And just like with seeing,
To relax any gripping or attaching to any one sound,
Including the sound of my voice.
And you can imagine the space inside of your skull and inside of your body as wide open.
And any sensory information that comes in just comes in and it can be there and it can stay or can leave.
And all of that is fine.
And the listening that you're doing right now happens in every instant.
Because you can't listen to the past and you can't listen to the future.
You just have to open your ears and notice what sounds are arising right now,
Right here.
And then see if you can link your breath to your ears.
So even though when you inhale,
That inhale breath comes into your lungs.
As I mentioned before,
Your breath,
The oxygen you breathe is carried on your blood to all the cells in your body.
So can you direct your breath into your ears and the space around your ears?
And as you inhale,
Feel that flow of breath,
That expanding warming breath,
Travel into the flesh of your ears and into the curves and their contours and your ear canals.
And as you exhale,
Can you allow whatever waste,
So the blood and the exhale deliver waste out of the body.
Can you allow the exhale to release any waste from your ears?
Maybe a loud sound that you heard years ago is still rigging in there.
There is tightness from so much sound and loud noises in our daily environments.
You can imagine your ears like cone shapes,
Narrow where they come into your skull and expanding infinitely outward,
All the way out of our atmosphere so you could hear the sounds of the planets and the space and stars.
And bring your attention to your skin.
And notice the sensations of your skin.
You might feel temperature,
Weight,
Qualities of cloth.
And again,
Just like sound and just like sight,
Can you let sensation be almost non-specific?
So you notice the sensation and you feel it,
But you don't need to name it,
And your attention doesn't need to stick there.
This is an especially interesting practice if you have a sensation like itching.
There is a lot of potential there to just really investigate what it means to be non-attached.
And then all of these practices with our senses,
We're simply practicing choice.
So we might react to an itch immediately and not even think about it,
Just like we might react to a sound and shy away or get startled,
Or we might react to something that we see.
And reactions aren't bad,
But they can become really habitual.
So in practicing meditation and basic mindfulness,
We notice what our habits are.
And we start to create more possibility for choice.
So if you have an itch,
You notice,
Ah,
I have an itch.
And then you can just be with the sensation for a second.
And then you may or may not decide to scratch it because sometimes just noticing something makes it change.
So perhaps the itch isn't even there anymore.
And as you notice the sensation of your skin,
Notice how your breath is so incredibly linked to your skin sensation.
And as you inhale,
The touch of your breath can travel into the entire container of your skin.
You might feel the movement of your organs pressing out into your bones and your muscles,
Into your skin,
Into your clothes,
Into the space around you.
As you exhale,
You can feel the softening of your skin and the way it relaxes over your skeleton and your structure.
And our skin is our first and most immediate defense between what's inside of us and the external world.
And just like our eyes and our ears and our minds,
The skin can become hard and defensive.
And when the skin becomes hard and defensive,
It draws the connective tissue that's underneath it and can cause tension in our muscles,
Which can then pull on our bones,
Which can then pull on our organs,
Which can then pull on our spine,
Which then can affect our heads and everything that is in our heads,
Like our brains and our eyes and our ears.
So notice if there are parts of your skin that feel hard,
That feel tense or that feel numb,
And there's nothing to do if you notice those places except notice them.
And consider the potential for breath.
And then open your eyes again and see if you can be in this internal awareness in your skin sensation,
Your breath sensation,
In your eyes and your ears sensation,
Even as you consider the external world.
So this is a little bit of a test here,
And I'm going to invite you to think about something you have to do.
And I want you to notice even as soon as you hear those words,
Kind of what happens in your body or what happens in your attention.
And as you start to think about those tasks,
What happens in your body and what happens in your attention.
And I want you to imagine whatever that task is,
Whatever it is that you're going to do,
And imagine it just kind of in front of you as maybe an object or an item on your list.
And can you perceive it and stay present in your breathing,
Feeling your breath,
In your seeing it,
In your hearing it,
And in your sensing it.
And then imagine a person,
Someone that you know,
Someone that you're close to,
And imagine them in front of you.
And as you imagine them,
Can you stay present in your breathing and feel your breath?
Can you stay present in your eyes and feel that your eyes remain soft and relaxed?
Receptive?
Can you remain present in your ears?
You might imagine that this person is speaking,
And just like I'm speaking now,
You can hear them and you can allow their words to penetrate into you,
But there's no need to grasp onto them.
There is no need to strive to hold them.
And can you remain present in sensations that you feel in your body?
So these basic mindfulness practices are so simple.
Really,
All that it is is checking in with what's happening right now.
And if you're alive,
Then what's happening right now is that you're breathing and that you're in a body that's perceiving things.
And when we're not mindful,
We get caught up in our thoughts and in our ideas and in our striving and our assertion of the shoulds and the right ways and the arguments and blah blah blah.
So I found that this really basic practice is super helpful when I'm feeling stressed out,
When I feel polarized,
Like in an argument or if I'm trying to prove something.
And it's really easy,
It's really simple just to come to our breath,
To feel our bodies,
And to pay simple attention.
So I hope that in offering this to you,
You now have the tools and the memory of this guided exploration to carry with you.
And if you can find small moments in every day just to practice,
Then it doesn't have to be long.
And you can do it while you're engaged with your tasks and relating to others.
And in fact,
Being mindful with your tasks and in your relationships will probably increase your joy in those situations,
So I definitely recommend it.
All right,
That's it for now.
So I hope that this has been useful and enjoyable for you.
And I hope that you have a great rest of your day or night.
Until the next time,
Be well.
