Today's meditation is called Inner Light.
And I've been thinking about this idea of light because we use the word so often in meditation and in healing,
And we're told to imagine light entering the body,
Surround ourselves with light,
You know,
To send light somewhere that needs feeling,
To somewhere that needs healing.
But what does that actually mean?
And I know that I don't always find it easy to actually visualize light within my body.
Sometimes it feels as though I'm watching it sort of happening outside rather than actually experiencing.
And then I began to think about the word light itself,
Because light has another meaning,
As in the opposite of heavy.
And we also,
We talk a lot about feeling weighed down,
Carrying the weight of the world on our shoulders,
Having a heavy heart.
And then when something shifts,
We say,
Oh,
I feel lighter.
So perhaps these two meanings of light are more connected than we realize that the light that illuminates and the lightness that comes when something no longer feels quite so heavy.
Perhaps we don't need to visualize a brilliant white light.
Light after all.
Perhaps the light we're trying to bring to ourselves is simply the light of our awareness,
Our willingness to notice and to witness and to be present with what is here.
And perhaps when we bring that gentle light of awareness to the places within us that feel heavy,
Then something begins to soften.
We give permission to release and that's when we can become a little lighter.
So that is what we're going to explore today.
I don't need you to see anything or make anything happen,
We're just simply going to notice what it feels like to bring a little inner light to ourselves.
So,
Let's begin.
So bring yourself into comfort,
Gently retreat behind closed eyes.
And just take a long slow deep breath in and then let it go.
Just allow yourself to arrive,
To settle,
To soften.
Feel the weight of your body being held by the surface beneath you.
Let yourself be supported.
There's nothing you need to hold right now nothing to carry just for these next few minutes put it all down Let your shoulders soften.
Let your jaw relax.
As you settle into the rhythm of your breath,
Begin to notice how you feel.
Just how you are what's present in this moment right here right now perhaps There's somewhere in your body that feels a little heavy.
Maybe you notice it immediately or perhaps you need a moment just to listen.
Might be heaviness in your chest or tightness around your heart,
Weight across your shoulders,
Some feeling in your belly.
Maybe something behind the eyes,
And you don't need to know why it's there,
You don't need to find the story,
Just notice.
And if there's nowhere that feels particularly heavy today,
Then that's okay too.
Simply notice where your attention is drawn.
And now we bring our awareness to that place gently and tenderly without trying to change anything.
And now this is where we can begin to understand what it means to bring light into the body.
You don't have to see a light.
You don't need to imagine a color or a glow or anything at all because your awareness is the light.
A simple act of noticing,
Of being present.
Turning towards yourself with kindness.
So allow the light of your awareness to rest here.
Simply witnessing what is here.
Breathe.
Perhaps with each breath there's a little more space,
A little less holding.
Perhaps not,
And that's okay.
Just stay.
Allow whatever is here to be seen,
To be felt,
To be known.
And just notice what happens when you stop asking this part of you to change,
When you simply sit beside it,
When you simply offer it your presence.
Softly breathe into this space.
And as you breathe out,
Perhaps imagine that you can release just a little bit of the weight that you've been carrying.
Not all of it.
There's no need for a great release,
Just a little.
So,
Breathing in awareness.
Breathing out softening Breathing in space.
.
.
Breathing out,
Letting go.
And perhaps you begin to notice a little something changing,
Maybe something subtle.
Perhaps there's a little more room inside you.
A little more breath,
A little less density.
Feeling of becoming lighter.
Notice how that feels as is your inner light.
Not something you need to summon.
Not something you need to see.
It's something you can feel.
Light of your awareness,
A lightness that comes when you stop holding quite so tightly.
This beautiful aliveness that has been here beneath it all.
So,
Allow yourself to rest in this feeling.
And as you do so,
Perhaps allow this sense of lightness to spread.
Or does something you need to visualize simply a feeling?
As the shoulders soften and the chest opens the belly relaxes Your face becomes a little brighter.
Breath moving freely.
Space within you.
Space expanding through the whole of your body your arms and your hands,
Your chest and belly.
Your back,
Your hips,
Your legs and your feet.
Your whole being becoming a little lighter.
Or spacious or open.
And perhaps now you can sense that this lightness doesn't end at the edges of your physical body.
Something about your energy that feels lighter to you,
More open,
More expansive.
You don't need to see it,
Just feel it.
Feel yourself taking up space without effort.
Feel your presence,
Your aliveness,
Your energy.
This is the light within you.
Allow a small smile to creep into your lips.
As you realize it was never somewhere else,
This light was never something you had to find.
It's always been here.
Perhaps simply it was hidden beneath the things that you have been carrying when you bring this gentle light of your awareness to those places,
When you allow yourself to see and to feel and to witness.
Something can begin to soften.
And in the light of that awareness,
You become lighter.
And perhaps this is what it means to shine your light.
Not to try harder,
Not to become brighter,
Not to be anything other than who you are.
Simply to release,
Little by little,
What obscures it.
To remember that light has always been within you.
And to allow that lightness.
That openness,
That presence to move with you into the world.
I'll begin to feel your body once more and notice the space around you And as you return,
Remembering that you don't need to see your light to know that it is there.
Perhaps light was something you were never meant to see,
Simply something you were meant to feel.
Whenever you feel heavy.
You can return to the light of your own awareness.
Notice,
Breathe,
Soften.
And you can remember the light has always been within you.
Om Shanti.
