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.
So you're going to begin just by closing your eyes.
And wherever you are and whatever you're doing,
Notice how your body feels in this moment.
And if you need to make any adjustments so that you can be more comfortable,
Please make them.
And this means that if you're sitting and it feels hard to sit up tall,
You might want to bring a pillow or a folded blanket under your seat.
You might choose to lie down.
It might be that it's more comfortable for you in this moment to move a little bit,
To walk or to move your body,
And just simply let the words come in as you feel that movement.
So whatever you're doing,
See if you can be aligned with the needs of your body.
And oftentimes we push or pull in ways that seek to attain some kind of posture that is an idea,
Is a form,
Rather than a function.
One of the places that we often push ourselves if we're standing or sitting is in the area that is just below our lower ribs,
Kind of the middle back.
It's where the adrenal glands are.
You can feel that place if you figure out where your belly button is and go to the corresponding place at your low back.
Just to either side of your spine,
Slightly above the line of your navel is this part of your body where many of us have kind of a drive forwards and there can be a lot of accumulated tension.
So I invite you right now to breathe into your lower back and feel the way that the touch of your breath can expand your waist can bring softness and comfort into the back side of your body.
And as you feel the back side of your body,
Let that awareness spread up into the space behind your heart and shoulders and into the space behind your neck and head.
And consider this idea of spreading and broadening and spaciousness in the space behind your body,
In the back skin and surface of your body and in the space behind you.
And I want you to imagine this space,
Almost like the back of a really comfortable chair or a hammock.
So it's spreading out and it's growing up and to the sides and down.
And in that growth,
It becomes a protective and containing kind of structure.
And you can relax your back body and feel supported from the space behind you.
We'll just continue to breathe and feel the back sides of our body.
Back of the hips,
Lower back,
Back of the hips,
Lower back,
Back of the ribs and the back of your breath.
The back of your neck and your head and your shoulders.
And feel that all the space behind you is expanding,
It's growing,
And is providing support for you to rest into and receive.
Imagine your inner body.
And when I say inner body,
I mean your organs.
I also mean the ways that our attention and our attention to our body are being used.
And I also mean the ways that our attention and our body are being used.
The ways that our attention and intention through our emotions and thoughts create force within our bodies.
So an example would be a sense of expectation.
If you're waiting for something to happen,
There's often a forward moving thrust in the solar plexus,
Chest and head.
And that waiting creates a movement in the inner body that is more towards the front surface of the body than the back.
In contrast,
Fear creates kind of a shrinking and condensing in the inner body that moves more to the back body than to the front.
So bring your attention to your inner body.
And I'd like to suggest that you can imagine the container of your body,
Your skin,
Your shape,
Your structure.
And then imagine all the space inside,
Not so much in its specificity,
But just as space,
Just as space that contains mass.
And the suggestion here is to let your inner body also rest back into the space behind you.
That you feel this kind of spreading and opening and support behind you.
And that your inner body can rest into that.
So sometimes when we listen,
If we're engaged in conversation,
Particularly if that conversation is heated or has some kind of urgency to it,
Our inner body gets rigid and often kind of presses forwards or pulls back,
Depending on whether we're feeling offensive or defensive.
When our inner body gets rigid and when it starts to push or pull,
It constricts our ability to listen.
It constricts our ability to listen both to ourselves and to anyone else.
So as we come back to the practice of feeling support and spaciousness behind us,
And letting the inner body just rest into that support.
So it's not retreating,
But there's just a feeling of rest and ease,
Like you're lying in a hammock,
Like you're being held,
Swaddled.
You can rest into the back.
As you practice that,
Notice how the front surface of your brain relaxes.
Notice how your eyeballs get a little heavier.
And rest back into your skull.
Notice how your brain stem feels soft and easeful and quiet.
Just take a couple of breaths in this space and as you breathe,
Notice the quality of your breath and just feel how it moves.
And as you notice your breath,
Your mind will surely start to fluctuate.
And in those fluctuations,
You might feel like a candle flickers,
How your inner body also fluctuates.
The mind might jump into a future situation or some kind of urgency,
And the inner body will immediately respond.
There will be a hardness or a readiness that kind of jumps into it.
And we come back to our breath and we come back to the feeling of softening in the back,
And the inner body rests.
So as you notice your breath,
Just notice these small fluctuations and give them space.
So as I do the next part of this meditation,
Which is to go through the whole body,
The invitation is for you,
For the inner body,
To return to this space.
And know that when you are coming to the physical Just double boat that you can mitochondrial voter and give them space.
So as I do the next part of this meditation,
Which is to go through the whole body,
The invitation is for you to keep coming back to this place,
This place of very general yield and rest.
There is nothing to do,
There's nowhere to go,
You can rest.
The front of the brain is soft.
The eyes are gentle.
And the breath is clear.
Drop your awareness down into the base of your body,
Into your tailbone,
Into your pelvis,
To your pelvic floor.
And imagine your tailbone growing long and rooting all the way down into the earth.
And feel the way that the core of the earth pulls the base of your spine.
You feel that heaviness in your body,
And you might even allow your body to respond.
It could curl you into a C shape almost.
And imagine this root growing all the way down into the very center of the earth,
Where it's molten and fire and heat.
And when it reaches that point,
Imagine the fire at the belly of the earth rising through your root,
Moving all the way up back through the crest of the earth and into the base of your body.
And feel power and warmth coming up through your spine.
And let that power and warmth pool into your pelvis.
And again,
Just feel this kind of greater sense of an inner body in your pelvis for all the space there.
And I want you to send directly into your body the message that you are here,
That your body is perfect as it is.
You have a right to take up space,
To state your needs,
That your existence is necessary for all of us,
That you are here,
That your existence is necessary for all of us,
That you bring something into this world that is unique and valuable,
That is an important voice.
And give yourself that message of belonging,
Of value,
And agency,
Of power,
That you can be here,
You can take up some space.
And then we might imagine extending this feeling into another person.
And this is a practice to do when,
Especially when someone is speaking and you don't agree with what they're saying,
Is to stop listening to their words and to start listening to them as an energetic being.
And to remember with them their groundedness,
Their connection to the earth,
The power they have in that connection,
The right they have to be here.
And in remembering that to truly wish that for them that they remember also.
And you feel it in yourself as well.
And then we'll move our attention upwards into the belly.
So the space in your,
Around your belly button,
Your inner belly,
And also in your solar plexus.
And again,
Feel that this space of the inner body isn't pushing forwards,
It's not rigid or clenched,
That there's a strong sense of vastness and support behind you.
You can relax.
And then see if you can feel and sense and send yourself the message that your desire to be here is healthy.
And the true desires that we have sometimes can be really scary.
And a lot of us have kinks or fetishes or ideas that are exciting.
And more and more there's a conscious growing and understanding in the world that there's space for that expression through enthusiastic consent between people who both agree that something is exciting.
So if you're a person who has dealt with shame around your desire,
And if you're a person who hasn't,
It's fine.
But regardless,
Can you feel that you have the possibility to engage your desire in ways that are responsible,
That are ethical,
And that are exciting,
And you can celebrate them.
And in this feeling you might commit again to right relationship,
To feeling that you value yourself and your desire so much that you will do everything that you can to support the value of someone else's desire and healthy expression of it.
That this is our power and creativity as humans.
So it can be really scary to want things,
And a lot of us can worry that that's something to be ashamed of,
That it's something we won't get,
That we're rejected,
Or you know all the feelings that come up around wanting.
Just breathe into that and allow it,
And send yourself the message that it's okay to desire,
And that you are clear within yourself as a responsible human,
That you will meet your desires in ways that are not destructive,
But that are generative and respectful.
And then we might remember for someone else,
If we sense that someone is responding to life from a place of fear,
From an idea of scarcity,
A fight to maintain power,
Or to exert control.
And we might remember for them that they are resourced,
That there is plenty,
And we might feel with them that their desire is totally fine,
That all it needs is to be felt and acknowledged.
And once it is acknowledged,
That from there we can make choices about how to get needs met in ways that are celebratory.
And come back to yourself and bring your attention into your heart space.
And in your heart,
Feel your capacity for love,
For attachment,
For connection,
And also feel the grief and sadness that is there when we care about people,
And we're worried for them,
Or we lose them,
Or unfortunate circumstances befall them.
Feel your heart and its capacity to care.
Notice as you feel that space any currents of fear,
Acknowledging them if they arise,
Allowing yourself to remember the support behind you,
Just holding what is.
Imagine the capacity of your heart getting bigger and bigger,
Allowing everyone in,
Finding all the reasons that we care about other people.
We care for them and hope that their experiences are joyful and that their bodies are healthy,
That they are safe,
That they have circumstances which allow them to grow in good ways.
And if you consider another person who you might find in front of you at some point,
And especially in a moment where you might feel uncared for,
Or you might feel that this person is small-minded in their ability to care for others,
Can you feel this feeling of care and can you remember it in them?
Not imposing it upon them,
But trusting,
Trusting that there is a space in their heart that genuinely cares.
Feeling the layers of fear that might be there,
The fear of loss is so big.
Remembering in yourself how good it feels to care for others and remembering that for them.
And from there we feel the connection that the heart has to the throat and voice.
And as you relax your tongue and your lower jaw and feel your throat open,
Remembering that the truth that you can speak from your heart,
From this position of caring,
From the comfort that you have with your own desire,
From the connection that you have to the source of power that is the earth,
That when you speak from that place your voice is clear,
That your voice is needed.
Feel an inherent sense of trust in your throat,
Trusting in the words that you have not yet spoken,
And offer a prayer to your voice that you might use right speech,
That before you speak you will consider first if it is true what you're saying,
Second if it is kind or if it is helpful,
And third if it's ready to be received.
We know the power of our voice and we know the power and maturity that it takes to listen,
To hear someone else's voice.
We know the experience of hearing truth that we are not ready to receive and the ways it can create even a greater wall.
And with the power of our voice we can bridge a gap by listening to the ways that we speak,
By speaking with truth,
With intention,
With power,
And also with consideration and thoughtfulness.
We can remember that for one another by reflecting through our voices the words that we hear,
Especially when we hear intentions of care.
We can affirm the voices of others that might speak many things and especially when they speak in ways that we know are generative and thoughtful,
We can celebrate them.
We can support one another to speak with honesty,
With kindness,
And with consideration.
And let your attention move up into your eyes and into your brain.
You feel that the space inside of your skull is remembering the vastness behind you,
Lots of spaciousness and ease.
Feel all the space between your thoughts,
So much information that might be coming in.
And also there is whatever is arising in the moment that you can hear the sound of air,
That you can see qualities of light that you can smell,
That you can taste.
And the pause between each thought remember the greater mystery of what exists outside of our quite small realm of existence in this huge,
Huge,
Huge amount of space that our home,
This planet,
Is traveling through.
All the mystery and all the things we don't know.
And allow the quiet space between your thoughts to grow bigger and bigger.
And in the space between yourself and another,
You might remember together the mystery,
The vast amount of unanswered questions,
And whatever ways each one knows how to pray.
You might dwell together in quietness and allow what is unknown just to be unknown.
Feel the space behind you,
This vast amount of space,
The space between all the molecules and all the fibers and the structures that you might feel.
Feel that the space behind you is expanding and spreading,
And creating a soft and steady presence for you to rest into and trust.
If it feels right for you,
You can bring your hands together and allow the base of your thumbs to touch your breastbone.
There's a word that has been fairly ubiquitous for a while and many of us say it often and forget what it means.
But when we consider Namaste as a mantra and as an affirmation,
We remember that when we know goodness in ourselves that we trust and expect that in others.
And when we mistrust ourselves and know our own malice or resentment,
That we expect the worst from others.
So can you feel in yourself that there is divinity,
That there's the working of a mystery,
That you don't know what it is,
That there is a huge context and an unfolding in the wheels of time and space that cannot be understood from this moment or from any single personal viewpoint.
Can you feel that your body is exactly right as it is and that whatever is arising in your life is a teacher?
And if you choose to bow your head towards your heart,
You might consider that really all we're here to do is listen.
So I hope that this meditation can serve you in the coming time.
I care about you and thank you for listening.
Thank you for practicing.
Namaste.
