Namaste and greetings.
Simply anchoring ourselves in this breath,
Feeling the rise and fall of the chest and the abdomen,
Without needing to control the breath.
Simply being present to it.
Simply feeling it.
Recognizing that there is that aspect of us that is breathing itself as us.
There is the biological aspect of the body breathing itself.
As we can go about our day doing whatever it is that we do,
And the body breathes.
It participates in this thing called respiration.
While we are driving,
Or walking,
Or cooking,
Or eating,
The body breathes.
And there is this aspect of spirit where we recognize that that which we call by many names,
Spirit,
The universe,
Source,
God,
The infinite,
Is breathing itself as us.
So in participating in this divine breath,
In this present moment,
Because we cannot re-breathe yesterday's breath,
We cannot pre-breathe tomorrow's breath,
And we cannot save a breath for a rainy day.
We can only take this divine inhalation,
Release this divine exhalation,
Right here and right now,
In the present.
And this breath affords us the awareness of surrendering and receiving and receiving.
For we receive the breath,
And this breath nourishes the cells of our bodies.
And once that breath is complete,
Once that inhalation is complete,
Release,
We surrender it.
We do not need to hoard it.
We let it go.
And that exhalation then nourishes the plant life in the world.
This divine ebb and flow,
Yin and yang,
Breathing,
Breathing.
And as we anchor into this present moment and this breath for today's meditation,
We recognize power.
Oftentimes we think of affirmations as those positive statements,
Those positive qualities that we desire to embody and recognize in our lives.
Did you know that an affirmation can be either life-affirming,
Life-affirming,
I am whole,
Perfect and complete,
Life-affirming.
I am healthy,
Life-affirming.
I am joy in expression,
Life-affirming.
I am clumsy,
Non-life-affirming.
I never remember names,
Non-life-affirming.
I am ugly,
I am stupid,
Non-life-affirming.
And so we breathe and recognize that at any moment we can shift,
We can shift the words,
We can shift the meanings,
We can shift the energy.
So in this moment right now,
In this breath right now,
We shift.
We choose to declare,
To make statements of that which we deserve within our lives and our experiences.
Words have power.
So whether those words are spoken,
Written,
Shared as a meme on social media,
All of these are communicating language and concepts and meaning and energy.
And so in this moment we breathe and become more effective stewards who use our language purposefully.
I may feel awkward and clumsy,
What I choose to affirm is perfect balance,
Ease and grace in my movements.
While I may be challenged in remembering names,
What I affirm is there is that part of me that has perfect memory.
And I plug in and tap into it.
I get to choose words,
The statements of truth,
The declarations of who and what I am in my life experience.
And what is true for me is true for you as well.
You get to choose.
It doesn't have to be either or,
It can be both and.
I can feel great grief and sadness and still affirm and declare the truth of my being that I am love,
I am loved,
I am loving.
And that love never dies.
I breathe both and.
Respiration is not solely an inhalation,
Nor is it solely an exhalation.
It's both and.
Both and are breathing.
So I can feel,
I can speak,
I can think,
I can be both and.
And in that,
Find balance,
Find peace,
Restore my self to the awareness of wholeness,
Completeness.
And in that wholeness,
Recognize my holiness,
Truth.
So we continue to breathe,
Recognizing,
Realizing,
Shape and shift and manifest our world,
Our lives,
Our experiences.
And as today's meditation comes to a close,
Affirm,
We declare,
We anchor in,
We are grounded by the awareness and the conviction that from this point forward,
Throughout our day,
We choose our words carefully.
We choose how we talk about not only ourselves,
But others as well,
For the manner in which we talk about others must move through our own bodies.
So if I talk about another with words of animosity and anger,
With venom,
Then that poison,
The venom,
The toxicity of hatred and othering moves through my body first.
The air in my lungs breathes through my vocal cords and out my mouth.
I must be a resonant match for that first in order to speak it.
And so choose.
I choose to talk about a variety of things with love and compassion rather than I choose to talk about things with health and wellness rather than I choose.
I choose.
Blessings to you.
Blessings to the words that you choose today,
Knowing your power.
And so it is.
And so it is.
