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 these meditations 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.
Hello everyone.
Thanks so much for joining.
This is Renee.
I wanted to offer a meditation today on the relationship between the heart and the nervous system.
This meditation will be less really on the physiology or the anatomy and more on the energetic relationship.
We all have had complex experiences in our lives and have had times when we've faced danger,
Challenge,
Rejection,
And fear.
And sometimes we've been able to integrate these experiences and easily let them go without any ongoing ramification in our body or minds or hearts.
And sometimes these experiences have become memories that leave a residue.
And this residue kind of feels like a hardness or a layer of protection around one's being.
And this manifests as defensiveness,
As mistrust,
As the tendency to kind of check out and not be present.
We have all kinds of tactics to avoid feeling pain.
And for all of us,
The tactics that we've developed have been useful at one time.
So it's really important to not,
You know,
Beat yourself up or think poorly of yourself for having the tactics that you do to avoid pain and to know that everybody else also has them.
And it takes so much courage to be tenderhearted in the world.
It takes so much courage to feel,
To relate,
To have empathy,
And to love the person that you are,
To have self-love.
We definitely don't live in a time where we're encouraged to be self-loving.
And,
You know,
The more that we can really inhabit our bodies and love ourselves and come into right relationship with one another and encourage each other to be self-loving and in right relationship,
The less susceptible we'll be to fear tactics,
Marketing,
And whatever kind of control trips,
The corporate entities and,
You know,
More misaligned powers in the world right now might have for us.
So I think that this is a very political choice,
Especially right now,
To have a tender heart and to practice radical love.
So as usual,
You can do whatever you want for this meditation.
It's not better if you sit in a lotus pose.
You're welcome to sit in a chair,
To lie down,
To take a walk,
To move around in any kind of creative way.
And you're welcome to adapt any of the instructions that I give so that they suit you and your needs right now and know that they're always just sitting there and just sitting there right now and know that they're always just suggestions.
So start by letting your eyes soften.
And this might mean that your eyelids close,
But the feeling is that your eyeballs can feel how long they are.
Actually,
The eyes,
The nerves of the eyes stretch back into the skull all the way to the back of your skull,
The base of your skull.
And as the eyes soften back into your skull,
The corners of the eyes can relax.
The eyelids can relax.
And you can feel your whole brow and forehead widen and release any tension.
And if you've been wearing the mask of your face all day,
You might want to stretch out your face for a minute and feel that there is no need right now to talk.
There is no need to smile or to present anything to anyone outside.
You can let the skin on your face soften.
You can let your jaw relax and your tongue relax.
You can let your ears open and the skin around your ears can broaden.
And there is a sense of relaxing our sense organs—mouth,
Nose,
Eyes,
Ears,
Skin—away from whatever objects they've been busy perceiving.
Letting the eyes relax away from whatever they've been focusing on.
Letting the ears relax away from whatever sounds they've been trying to listen to.
Letting the mouth relax away from needing to form words.
And as you breathe,
Simply observing the sensation of your breath as it passes into your nose and through your sinuses,
You might even feel the pathway of your breath around your skull and into your forehead and cheekbones.
Then sense your skin,
The container of your skin.
And the skin is quite a magical organ.
You might have heard that it's the largest sense organ.
And this is because your skin is enervated by what are called dermatome.
And you might be familiar with this,
But basically different parts of your spine correlate to different nerve pathways.
And that brings receptivity and aliveness into the skin.
And so if you stimulate the skin of the back of your calf,
You'll be stimulating some nerve pathways into the base of your spine.
And when our skin suits grew as embryos and fetuses and younger people,
Babies,
They grew as a continuation of the nervous system.
So imagine now the kind of very magical and awesome entity of your nervous system.
And of course your sense organs and your head relate to it very much.
And your brain and your spinal cord.
And you might want to just check in with the place where your brain and spinal cord meet.
It's at the base of your skull in the little soft spot,
That little indentation called your occiput.
And many of us hold tension here.
You might just relax your throat.
And if you've ever seen a picture of just the central nervous system,
The brain and the spinal cord,
It kind of looks like a jellyfish.
Then the brain is floating and then the nervous system is cascading down through the central column of the spine.
And from the central column of the spine.
And from the central part of the nervous system,
There are thousands and thousands and thousands of branches.
They kind of look like rivers and tributaries that move out from the central spinal cord into your muscles and into your skin and into your organs.
So you don't need to know what this looks like,
But I'm going to invite you to imagine that the nervous system is made of light.
And you can imagine that inside your skull,
From your forehead through the dome of the skull,
Into the base of the skull,
And down through the central column of the spine is light.
And that light is streaming out like small rivers through your entire body.
And you might offer that light to the places in your body that are a little bit more into the places in your body that are a little harder to feel,
Maybe in this moment particularly or in general.
And offer that light through your imagination as you just place your awareness in that space.
You might feel down into your belly,
Into your pelvis,
Your hip joints,
Your legs,
All the way down into your heels and feet and toes.
And just see streams of light cascading from your spine through your whole body,
In and around any places that hurt,
In and around all the places that feel good.
And now notice if these rivers,
Or I should say,
Notice where the rivers meet your skin and how their movement spreads into the skin completely.
So they might be more defined rivers within the body and then they meet the skin and it's almost like they disperse.
You might imagine like dropping a little bit of ink into some water and seeing how there's a specific pathway and then it disperses.
And let the light disperse through your skin,
Spreading through the container of your skin,
Your back body,
The back of your skull,
Your neck,
Between your shoulder blades,
Around your hips,
Over your bum,
Down your legs.
See this light dispersing in your front body,
The skin of your face,
In your throat,
In your chest,
In your belly,
Over the groins,
Down the legs,
Wrapping around your neck,
Wrapping around your arms,
Into your hands,
All the way over every single toe and the soles of your feet.
And can you imagine yourself right now as a being of light,
That from the central most part of your body there's this radiance that spreads like rivers and it meets the skin and it disperses and it glows out.
And then I want you to feel how far it glows out.
And we all have what you might call an aura or in a more scientific sense you might talk about proprioception and the way that our nervous systems can actually sense outside of our bodies.
So it's the way that you sense when someone is behind you even though you didn't hear them.
It's the way that you might sense a friend's emotional state,
Even if she showed no sign of what she was feeling you might actually just be able to feel.
So trust your intuition here and feel how far your nervous system,
Your light body,
Extends out.
And there's no right or wrong.
It might just extend like an inch or a couple of inches outside of you.
It might be so big that it holds the entire world,
Anywhere in between.
And then when you've sensed how far it goes,
Can you imagine another kind of membrane,
So not really like your skin,
Not a hol grunt or a And then when you've sensed how far it goes,
Can you imagine another kind of membrane,
So not really like your skin,
Not a tissue,
But more like a bubble and some kind of container so that the part of your nervous system,
This part that can sense out into the world and into other beings and into the space around you,
That it also has a container.
And I like to think about this container as being reflective,
Just like a bubble.
So it's reflecting out into the world around it.
And in this reflection,
You can choose what's invited in and what will simply pass on by.
And so there might be certain colors or shapes that you find very pleasing and you want to let those colors and shapes permeate through this membrane,
Radiate into your own light and touch you,
Touch your skin,
Touch through your being and all the way into your heart.
And as you feel this touch,
I want you just to soften your heart.
And literally this place between your two lungs in front of your spine,
Sometimes it's very helpful to use touch.
If you want to bring attention to somewhere,
You can feel where your heart is,
Your heart beating and feel this heart space really soft and receptive.
And so you might imagine yourself in the space that you are now,
Just kind of seeing from your inner gaze and the environment around you and without thinking about it,
Just noticing what you want to let into your space.
And it could be anything,
Anyone that you feel like,
Ah,
Yes,
I can definitely receive this and it feels good.
It could be a color,
It could be a texture,
It could be a smell.
I have my sweet 21 year old cat sitting to the right of me and I'm just imagining that her presence can permeate into my space so that she can touch my heart.
And as you feel whatever is coming in and what we're letting in right now is what we love and what we want to be touched by,
Feel that your heart can receive and it becomes softer.
Take some deep breaths as you practice this reception and let your breath come all the way down into your chest.
Fill up your heart space and as you exhale,
You can consciously relax any tension in your body.
And if tension arises,
You don't need to judge it and you don't need to wonder what made it.
You can simply say,
Huh,
There's tension arising.
That's fine.
And breathe into it and say hello.
And then continue to invite your heart to soften.
From the center of your being,
From your head and through the central most channel of your body,
There is pure light.
And that light is radiating through all of your tissues,
Through your muscles,
Through your bones,
Through your organs,
Through your veins.
And it's spreading into your skin and it's dispersing there and your skin is radiating light.
And the radiance from your inner body is spreading through your skin and into the space around you.
And you can feel it moving out in all directions,
Like a sphere,
Like a globe,
Downwards and upwards and all around to every direction.
And you can feel the place that it naturally stops.
And there you can feel its container,
Imagining like a very thin yet very strong membrane that reflects the world around,
That easily lets in what feels healthy,
What feels loving,
What feels pleasurable,
What feels beautiful,
What feels friendly.
And feeling the light of whatever that is.
Maybe it's the light of another being or the light of an object or the light of a plant.
And you can feel it streaming in,
Radiating and infusing your own light through the space around you,
Touching your skin and probably dispersing a little bit as it meets this radiance.
And then moving into you and moving right into your heart.
And as this light reaches your heart,
You soften and receive.
And in this reception,
You can feel easy gratitude.
And this easy gratitude knows that you are worthy of receiving all that's good in your life.
You can let it in.
Let it touch your heart.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Such appreciation.
Receiving the light around you.
Maybe there are certain things or people or places that you imagine outside of your immediate environment and you have such gratitude for them.
Dear friends who you've grown with over time,
Maybe have worked through some challenges,
You know that you can trust their intention.
Someone in your family,
Perhaps a beautiful spot in nature that has just filled you with awe.
A wonderful book that you read.
A beautiful song that you heard.
And let all of those people and things and places and experiences permeate in all the way into your heart.
When they reach your heart,
Practice softening your heart and just,
Oh,
Thank you.
Gratitude.
How can we receive In this meditation,
We might uncover thoughts or images or sensations that feel resistant to receiving.
And it's very,
Very common for many,
Many people to feel unworthy or ashamed or somehow unable to receive.
And sometimes this sensation is accompanied by a feeling of lack and of scarcity and a fear that there actually isn't someone or something or someplace that feels good to receive.
So this meditation is really two parts.
And this first part that we've been exploring the last 20 minutes or so is sensing that our nervous system,
Our ability to perceive in the world is infused with light and that we know that we're beings of light.
And in this knowing,
There has to be a soft heart.
And you can feel when you harden your heart and make choices for a relationship that are not coming from a loving place,
But maybe are coming from defensiveness or fear.
And when we make those choices with a hard heart,
Our light becomes diminished.
It becomes maybe harder to feel or harder to find.
So the first part of this meditation is to feel that there is light inside.
That who you are is integrous.
That there is a continuity through your entire being.
There might be places in your body where you've stored memories of sadness or trauma.
And you can spread light into these places.
And as you spread the light,
The sensation is and the message is,
There's nothing to be ashamed of.
There's nothing to hold on to.
You are good.
You are love.
You are loving.
You are kind.
You are generous.
You are whole.
You are healthy.
And you'll notice when the stories come up,
That fight against that,
That want to tell you something bad about yourself,
That want to tell you something bad about someone else or something else.
And you can notice those stories.
You can notice that they're there.
But the meditation is to just continue to send the light.
Let the light infuse.
And as the light infuses,
You might feel that your heart can soften.
That there can be a relaxation,
Acceptance,
Forgiveness,
Care.
You've seen the bumper sticker.
You're a human being having,
Excuse me,
You're a spiritual being having a human experience.
And our human experiences with this material that is so immaterial,
But that we think is real,
The impermanence of our bodies,
All the things around us,
Of all of our experiences,
Quite clumsy when we remember what light we have capacity for.
And as you feel your own light,
You might feel the sadness that happens when we forget light.
And there might be people in your life who have hurt you and harmed you that have caused a decrease in your own light.
And as you let this awareness spread into those places of your body and your being,
And as you let your heart soften,
You just might have some compassion for them that they have also forgotten their own light.
And that's where it's important to feel this outer container,
The membrane of the bubble of light around you.
You can think of how when you blow bubbles,
There's a sheer surface that reflects the light around,
Reflects the images around.
And as light beings in the world,
It's important that we are sensitive to what we allow into our space.
And also that there is no need to get real aggressive or fight against that which we don't want to allow in,
But we want to cultivate the ability to just be neutral and reflect back so that whatever might be harmful to us just doesn't even see us.
It'll pass on by.
But we also want to feel receptive and to let our hearts be touched by others,
By our experiences and truly by the magic of this earth,
By the beauty that we can perceive in any flower or leaf,
In the sky,
In the water,
The soil,
The mountains,
In the rivers,
The canyons.
As you let yourself be touched,
Remember that you're a part of all of this.
And as you let yourself be touched and love what you're receiving,
Recognizing that you being here to receive it allows it to exist,
The sweet exchange you have with a loved one and the gratitude that you feel for being able to go take a walk or the words you read that inspire you.
But that exchange is something that you're a part of.
You need it and it needs you to exist.
And as you receive,
Whatever it is that you can feel or think of right now that you're grateful for and appreciative of,
Really letting it in,
Letting it reside in the center of your heart and feeling gratitude for the light that emanates from that space.
This is a time on the planet when there is a lot of darkness and as darkness grows,
Each of us internally have to build our own light and know that this is an important moment,
That there is a transition that's occurring,
That we've lived for a long time as a species with external forms of power and God that have oppressed us,
That have created suffering for our bodies,
That have taught us to fear and mistrust one another,
That have created relationships that are not based in love.
And right now we have a choice to see that and to shift,
To practice each one of us trusting our choices because we feel that we're internally aligned.
We're self-reflective.
We're ethical.
We can feel when the choices we make don't feel good and we can feel when they come from a true and honest place.
And we continue to show up for the true and honest choices.
It's a practice.
It's not easy all the time.
But remembering that you're a light,
That your love will be helpful in making those choices.
So for the next couple of days or weeks or months,
However long you want to keep this practice or keep this meditation with you,
Check in with this feeling wherever you are—on the bus,
At your job,
Lying in bed,
Having a conversation.
And it could just be a second where you remember,
Oh,
There is a central channel.
The rivers that are streaming out my consciousness,
I'm aware of my skin.
I feel my capacity for empathy and sensitivity and perception spread all around me.
I have choice about what I let in,
And I choose to let in the people and the things and the experiences that touch my heart.
And then I am grateful.
And the experiences that will hurt me don't even see me.
They pass on by.
I don't get hooked to them.
I let them go.
You might practice feeling the light and the goodness of other people around you,
Remembering that with them,
Trusting that in them,
Being grateful when they show that to you,
And receiving it.
Thank you for your practice.
I hope that it's useful for you.
Feel free to stay with it as long as you want,
And I will be ending this recording now.
I make many of these meditations to coincide with my work as an astrologer.
Astrology is a symbolic language that gives context and meaning to the seasons and helps us feel our interconnection with nature and with the rhythmic cycles of this world.
Thank you so much.
And until next time,
Much love.
