Hello and welcome.
The following is a guided meditation by Renée 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 Renée 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 and thanks for listening.
This is Renée and this is a somatic meditation.
Somatic meditation is a style of meditation that is pretty creative and I use visualization and guided awareness through the body.
I'll ask questions and kind of invite you to feel into yourself through a lot of different layers,
Through your physical layer,
Your emotional layer,
Your mental layer,
And your kind of imaginative and maybe even psychic layer.
You can do this kind of meditation in any shape and also in any activity.
Meditation as a gesture is a focus and there is an idea that you bring your awareness and your intention towards the meditation.
So it might not be the best thing to do while you're distracted but it is something that you can do in small moments when you find yourself with a couple of extra minutes here or there.
It's something you can do maybe when you're in transit and you have an opportunity to kind of space out in a certain way from whatever it is that's calling your attention in other places.
And then of course if you can give yourself the time and the space to really just drop in and be with the meditation that's great.
And these meditations are offered kind of as suggestions and they are all ideas and imaginings and states of being that you can bring anywhere else.
So I love the idea of the idea that meditation can happen all the time and it doesn't need to look like any particular thing.
So today's meditation is called Serving Sacredness and the idea is that we can drop into a state of felt sense awareness around essence and sacredness as an essence is something that is everywhere.
And I don't want to define it for you.
I know what it feels like for me.
And sacredness is something that I think a lot of us want and particularly that we want when it comes to how we apply ourselves in our lives and what we feel like our work here to do on earth is or what our purpose is.
And I think that if you found your way to this meditation this is probably you as well and I'm not going to make this assumption for everyone that everyone wants to be in service to sacredness but I think a lot of people do.
And so if you are finding this and sitting with me for it or moving with me for it then this is for you.
So let's begin in any shape and find a way to make yourself comfortable.
So for me I'm sitting and I've got just kind of a traditional meditation cross-leg seat but I'm aware that I can sit in such a way that my spine is long and I feel comfortable and supported.
And so if you're sitting then make any adjustments that you need so that you can feel comfortable and supported and if you're lying down or standing up or moving around do the same thing.
And just take a few moments to check in with the physical state of your body and notice any kinds of distractions that might be present.
You could turn your phone off,
You can close your eyes,
You can I don't know tell your kids you'll be back with them in a little bit and then come into your own experience in some way.
And for me the quickest and easiest way to come into my own experience is to tell my face and head and brain to relax.
And this is usually the withdrawing of outward moving energy and especially in my eyes and around my brow where if you are focusing this part of your body,
This part of your face usually has an intention outward or forward so you can kind of feel that your face and eyes and forehead are kind of resting back and away from anything that they might be paying attention to.
And even though you're listening to your body,
You're also listening to your body even though you're listening to my voice speaking into your ears also let your ears relax.
And just trust that whatever words are floating into your ears at any given time are the right words for you to hear and so you don't need to try with your ears to pick up on exactly the you know the meaning or the words that I'm saying just kind of let your ears also be open and relaxed.
And then from here coming into the breath is a really easy and direct way to get present.
And the nature of anything as it's observed is that it notices it's being observed and then gets a little shy and aware of itself or maybe starts to perform.
So you don't need to do anything with your breath but as you start to notice that your breath might naturally change.
And as you bring attention to your breath you might feel an instinct to take a deeper breath and if you do then go ahead.
And whenever I bring attention to my breath usually I notice how long it's been since I've paid attention to my breath and I'll feel the way that I habitually breathe which is often a little shallower than when I'm paying attention.
And then I'll feel the way that I'm paying attention to my breath.
And then as you bring attention to your breath you can notice where in your body it moves.
And of course you're inhaling and that breath is coming in and filling your lungs up and your lungs are quite massive organs in comparison to some of the other organs in your body.
And they extend all the way down to your bottom ribs and all the way up underneath your collarbones and forwards to the front of your chest and into your back body.
And they're voluminous and you know really kind of amazingly textured organs.
They're full of porous tissue and blood and these branches just like trees,
Tree roots that spread out into smaller and smaller pathways.
And so as you breathe you can feel the circumference of your breath and the volume of your breath and you can invite your breath to travel all the way down and all the way up and forwards and back.
And your lungs as organs are pillows for your heart and they wrap around and embrace your heart.
You take a full breath in it's kind of like you're giving your heart a hug.
And when you exhale,
The exhale is the natural pattern of the lungs.
It's the diaphragm releasing into its relaxed state.
And for some people the exhale feels a lot easier and for some people the exhale feels a lot harder.
And so whatever it is for you in the exhale can you let yourself relax?
Can you let yourself kind of just rest?
So as you inhale you are drawing in life force and any life form on earth breathes and we respirate.
And so respiration comes from the Latin root word spirare.
I don't know if I said that right.
It's S-P-I-R-A-R-E.
And this is the the root word of both inspiration and expiration.
And in the Romance languages these are the words for breathing,
For inhaling and exhaling,
Or some kind of variation of them.
And so this word spirare is related to spirit from also the Latin word spiratus meaning breath.
So respiration and perspiration,
The ways that our bodies kind of intake and outtake are related in language to the idea of spirit.
And in English what we think of as inspiration or aspiration are the ways that we receive guidance and then both direct and kind of feel ourselves navigating towards what we want to express.
So as you breathe in consider just really what it is to breathe on a very basic and also very profound level and that you're taking in spirit into your body.
Whatever spirit is and spirit in this case is the life force that exists on this planet.
And there's a spirit to everything.
There's a spirit to you as an individual.
There's a spirit to humanity as a race,
As a species.
There is a spirit to any plant.
There might be a spirit to a moment.
And spirit has its own essence and that essence is probably inarticulatable and undefinable.
It might be able to be felt but probably couldn't really be spoken or expressed in any satisfying way.
And so as you breathe,
Feel the breath coming into your body and ponder the question of how do you know yourself and what really is your essence as an individual,
As a human being here on earth at this time.
Your body is comprised of billions and billions and trillions of cells and all of those cells somehow know themselves as part of you.
Every one of those cells requires oxygen.
Every one of those cells also respirates.
It takes in oxygen and sugar.
It metabolizes it expresses it releases its energy and is part of the cycle of life that moves through all living forms here on earth.
And what is it about the essence of you that knows yourself and sustains yourself?
And so as you draw in your breath,
You can breathe into that essence as mysterious as it might be and let it be an open-ended question.
And as you exhale,
You can imagine your essence,
Your presence,
Rippling out and vibrating into the everythingness that is shared here on this planet.
The air that we breathe,
The atmosphere that contains us,
The humidity in your breath that is of course part of the water cycle on earth that moves through all plant life and all animal life.
This is also part of you and you contribute to it and you are made of it and you are affected and you affect.
And as you breathe in,
You can breathe into the essence of the question,
What are you?
How do you know yourself?
And let that just be an open question,
A mystery that hopefully will always be a place to linger,
A place to abide and to explore.
Because when there's answers,
When there are forms where we go,
I am this,
All the time we do that,
But those forms are always incomplete and we are always that,
But those forms are always incomplete.
All of your identities,
If you think of all the ways that you say I am,
While they all might be true in some way,
None of them are complete.
None of them fully express the essence of you.
However,
When you get kind of fixated,
When one gets,
We get fixated on the I am,
Then we're getting into a state of ego and from an I am place,
We'll want things and we'll have aspirations to feed the ego.
And so,
Of course,
On the planet right now,
There's a lot of greed and a lot of aspiration towards capital gain.
And this aspiration has become a really destructive force on our planet.
And another aspiration that seems to be leading a lot of people on a lot of kind of movements is some kind of revenge or competition.
And so again,
It's kind of,
It's an ego,
Like I am better than you.
I'm going to win,
You know,
I'm going to topple you.
And greed and competition aren't really that different.
And they're instincts that arise in everyone.
And you see these instincts coming up in really,
Really young children,
And really,
Really old people and everybody in between.
And so it's good to notice them when they come up and not to feel necessarily like ashamed or like,
Oh,
That's a horrible thing.
I can't have that.
But to notice it and to be in a place of choice with it.
And to have some discernment.
So greed and aspiration,
They can be these kind of gross effects of basic needs.
And they're not the same thing.
So any living being,
But particularly any human,
Will have some basic needs.
And we'll need shelter.
We'll need comfort and a sense of support from other humans,
Community,
Love,
Relationships,
Safety.
We'll need sustenance,
Nourishing food that sustains our body,
That gives us what we need to be healthy and vital.
Maybe that stuff isn't always like the most delicious or immediately satisfying,
But nourishing food that feeds our bodies the nutrients that we need.
Of course,
We need to breathe.
That's kind of the first and foremost.
We need oxygen to survive at all.
And we need clean water.
And we need clean air.
And beyond those basic needs,
Things get pretty abstract.
And so we'll need to be healthy and be healthy.
And we'll need to be healthy.
And beyond those basic needs,
Things get pretty abstract.
And that's oftentimes when our egos come in and we tell ourselves,
Oh,
I need that article of clothing,
Or I need this amount of money,
Or I need this person to really like me and validate me,
Or I need to have that title,
Or I need to drive that car.
So I want to invite you right now to come to the next level of life.
And I want you right now to kind of check in with your present state of ego.
And to find one thing that you're in a place of needing that you actually don't need.
And I definitely have plenty of those things.
And I think anybody alive probably does.
So this is not a shame-based exploration.
This is just being curious,
Like,
Okay,
Where is my ego in places that are probably beyond what I actually need on a very fundamental level?
And when you find that thing,
It's probably not that hard to think of what it is,
Or one of the things.
I just want you to attune to what it feels like to be in the place of needing or wanting in that way.
And how do you feel it in your body?
So for me,
I feel a quickening in my heart rate,
And kind of a tightness and a flutteriness,
Or like a,
It's like the residue of anxiety that comes up in my diaphragm and my chest.
And that feeling has a forward-moving momentum.
So it's reaching out and it's wanting something,
It's propelling me.
And attached to my feeling of neediness is also a bunch of fear.
And the fears are all over the place.
They range from fears of scarcity that are really,
These kind of basic fears like,
Oh no,
If I don't have that,
Then I'm going to die.
Or I'll be somehow extremely unhappy.
And then they move into very abstract fears,
Like if I don't have that,
Then I won't be as good as this other person,
And I won't be able to succeed in this particular way that I want to succeed,
Or something like that.
So pretty abstract coming into layers of my conceptual mind,
But not really about basic needs.
So can you check in with yourself and kind of notice what the sensation is of this desire and this feeling of wanting or needing?
And then notice if there are associated fears.
And these two states of being,
You know,
The desire is an attraction,
It's propelling you,
And then the fear place is an aversion,
And it's repelling you.
And so you can kind of feel the way that magnetism works in your body and in your brain and in your emotions.
And just be curious,
Just notice what it feels like.
And you don't need to try and make it go away,
All you need to do is notice it.
So then when you've done your research,
And feel free to pause the recording if you need to,
And oftentimes,
Like if I'm doing my own meditation,
Not requiring it,
Then I'm going to just pause the recording and just notice what it feels like to be in this place.
And then when you're recording your meditation,
Not recording one,
I like write things down and I'll draw pictures.
And I do this kind of creative research as well,
Where I just I want to know,
Like,
What is that feeling?
What is it hinge on?
What are my hooks?
So I might express them in some way and give myself language or different kinds of images for it.
So feel free to take the time to do that as well.
But then when you're ready,
Just come back to your breath.
And come back to this space of kind of an open field of awareness,
Withdrawing your eyes and your ears and your face and whatever parts of your being we're starting to reach out into different places,
Letting them soften and retreat back into your own center and feeling the simple movement of your inhale and your exhale.
And then I'm just gonna start to say a couple of things.
And as I say them,
I want you to imagine them and let the sensations float through your body.
So imagine the way that the ocean tide rolls in and rolls out.
And see the swelling of the wave and how it comes in and rolls on the shore and the ocean water permeates around all the grains of sand and then it pulls back in.
And imagine how in the deciduous forest,
In the leafy green forests,
There are the summer months and the winter months.
And all of this beautiful foliage will sprout out of the branches and big leaves will grow and they'll absorb sunlight.
And they'll take in the sunlight and they'll pull it through and turn it into energy.
They'll pull it in through their branches and into the trunk.
And then in the autumn months and the colder months the leaves will fall.
And in the coldest months the roots of the tree will contract a little bit and energy will draw in and conserve itself.
And in that drawing up and in,
What's happening is fortification of the wood.
And then as light and heat start to come again,
That strength that's been building all winter expresses into growth and the roots start to relax and expand and grow deeper into the soil.
And the branches then express and expand and there's this flooding of leaves that open up and allow the sun to come and kiss them.
And see that movement of expansion and contribution.
And feel it in your body all the way to the tips of your toes and the ends of your hair.
And then imagine how on the forest floor there are all kinds of little creatures,
Little animals,
Big animals,
Flying insects,
Insects that live in the ground,
In the canopy of the trees there's all manner of birds.
And all the animals are eating the plants and some of them are eating each other.
And they eat and they take in whatever nutrients and they absorb and then they have energy and part of the byproduct of their energy production is their poop and then they poop on the ground and they eat and they take in whatever nutrients and they absorb and they take in whatever nutrients and they take in whatever poop and then they poop on the forest ground and that then starts to seep into the earth and the fibers and the nutrients in their excrement then become part of the soil and its fertility and grow into the plants and then the plants are eaten by the animals.
And of course the plants also when they in the earth and become part of the fertility of the soil.
And you might feel in your own body there's this rhythm the way that everything that you've ever consumed,
Any food that you've ever eaten is somehow a byproduct of animal or plant that has given its life whether it's willingly or unwillingly and then it's become your body.
And in some way whatever your body is producing the energy that turns into your life force the energy that is passed through your body and defecated out this all goes somewhere.
It's not like it just leaves you and then ceases to exist.
There's a cycle it all goes somewhere and then becomes other things.
So in this cycle that we are living in,
In this expanding and condensing state that's simultaneous and all the time,
The life eating life and the life birthing life and the life eating death and the death birthing life that these cycles are happening all the time and they happen on tiny levels and molecular levels in our cells.
Our cells are constantly reproducing and also dying and they happen on big levels with big bodies and they happen on massive levels with whole ecosystems.
And right now we're living on earth when during a time when there is a lot of influence from ego and so things that are being birthed and energy that is also part of a death force a lot of that is hooked to the ego of humans being greedy and wanting things that are beyond their basic needs.
And the greed and competition even if it's just a small instinct that comes out in a small way in a relationship,
There's accumulation and there's movement and there's compliance and there's complicitness.
And when certain elements of our beings encourage elements in other beings or ignore,
Don't disrupt,
Don't protest,
Then energy can grow and become its own kind of life form.
So the invitation right now is to invite yourself to be a servant of sacredness and sacredness is something that is existent in nature and of course you your body is nature.
You are nature.
And can you breathe into the part of yourself that is very much a link in the chain a link in the chain of nature.
The intelligence of the earth where there is abundance,
Where there's plenty,
Where there is growth and birth and also death and composition and decomposition and giving and receiving are part of the same thing.
And can you imagine that natural order where anything that's given becomes part of what is then given.
So anything that's given becomes part of what is given.
A life is given and then it is decomposed and recomposed into more life.
A breath is given and that breath becomes the breath of another being.
And as you inhale can you feel that you're a recipient of this generosity.
Anything you've eaten and all the air you breathe and the water you drink and any resources or objects that you have in your possession that they've come from somewhere.
And as you inhale can you feel the sincerity and desire for yourself and for all beings to have their basic needs met.
To have breath,
Clean air to breathe,
Have water,
Clean water to drink and to bathe in to be cleansed by.
To have a comfortable shelter.
To have safe and loving connections.
To have enough to eat that's nourishing and wholesome.
To have any other things or experiences or activities that could inspire generosity in one's heart and a feeling of true happiness and contentedness.
Can you breathe that in as a sincere desire for yourself and for all beings?
And then remember the sensation of ego and you don't necessarily need to go back into it right now.
Maybe me saying it just calls it up,
It did for me.
But you can feel the difference between the sensation of ego and the sensation of this sincere desire for wellness for yourself and for all beings.
And as you notice that difference then let's just settle into a prayer.
And you can take my words in and see how they land for you and take what works and reframe them as you need.
May all beings upon this earth and the earth itself have love,
Have safety,
Have comfort,
Have nourishment and the sustenance we need.
May we release ego-based aspirations that cause suffering for ourselves,
For other beings and for the planet.
May we become discerning and ever more aware and present with the ways that we separate through our ego attachments,
With the ways that we isolate our greed and competition.
May we resolve these habits.
May we include the well-being and the happiness and contentedness of others in our hearts and in our desires for our own well-being and happiness and contentedness.
And then you might just ask for help and guidance and assistance from your own awareness,
From any kind of guides or spiritual mentors that you feel around you,
And the request for help would be to cease any ego-based aspirations and to turn your aspiration and your inspiration towards creating wellness,
Well-being,
Happiness,
And contentedness for all beings on the earth as well as the planet itself.
And to trust that that greater wellness would also be something that you receive and that you are completely deserving of receiving.
So we're living in a time on earth when when important decisions need to be made for everyone.
If you live with privilege,
It's a time to start to let go of some privilege.
To let your money and your resources be shared with those who have less.
If you have the means to make choices around sustainability and making purchases that are less destructive on the planet,
This is the time to do it.
And if you live with influence and are able to influence people with more power and privilege,
Then this is the time to do it.
And as a recipient of generosity,
And we're all regardless of what the life status is,
We're all recipients of generosity at its most basic from the earth,
From the planet itself,
From the oxygen and the air and the water.
If you're a recipient of generosity,
Then this is a time to practice trust in as many ways as you can.
And in as many ways as you can to reduce the tendency for competition and for greed and one upmanship to know that these instincts and ourselves contribute to larger currents and patterns.
And so the more that all of us divest,
The more we can be able to do that.
And so we're all recipients of generosity.
And so the more that all of us divest,
We can reinvest in other systems that are more generative to well-being.
Thank you so much for practicing this meditation.
Please continue with it in whatever way suits you.
And yeah,
If you've received benefit from my work,
Then please consider sharing it.
And thank you so much.
Wishing you all the best.
And happiness and safety and nourishment in all ways.
Thanks for listening.
Bye for now.
