Just feeling that clear channel of energy so like your pelvic floor is in the same line as the back of your neck and your skull.
That's a really nice visualization for myself so if that works for you feel free to see that.
You can allow your eyes to gently close if you feel safe to do so.
You can always practice meditation with the eyes open so just listen to whatever you want to do.
You can open them when you want,
You can close them when you want,
But if you do keep the eyes open at any time then just practice softening your gaze and sort of letting your vision glaze over so that you're not fixated on one point.
You can kind of see everything around you.
Let's start today with three big cleansing breaths.
So inhale long and slow let this breath kind of take a take a bit longer than usual to fill up whatever that looks like to you and even once you think you're full see if you can take a few more sips of air and really fill up and then whenever you need to just slowly again letting that go like you were pushing the air out through a straw just really gently depressing the body decompressing the body and again once you think you're empty see if you can push a little bit more air out of you.
Just letting your inhale come naturally you can do that two more times at your own pace and you can add some visualizations into this if you need it if you want it.
You can envision light and love and positive energy coming into your body life force and then with your exhales you can envision anything that's holding you down anything you don't need right now can envision that leaving your body.
Taking one more full round.
And just letting your breath return to a natural state whenever you're ready.
And the general rule for breathing if you need to decompress more so look throughout your day if you're feeling very stressed in the classroom or at your workplace if you allow your exhales to be longer than your inhales that will automatically calm the body down the nervous system and if you're feeling tired need some energy then letting the inhales be either the same length as the exhales or maybe like one or two moments longer but typically we could all benefit from a longer exhale in today's world.
You can start to relax your face but even before you relax your face notice how your face is naturally holding itself so instead of going right into softness and feeling everything be soft notice how you already are right now maybe your shoulders are kind of hunched up toward the ears maybe your stomach is tense that happens to me a lot your eyelids can often tense up and your jaw can really be a point for a lot of people.
It could also be your hands,
It could be your feet,
It could literally be any place in the body so just do a quick body scan for yourself and see where you're at and each time that you see an area of tension or you notice something you can allow that area to soften and to release just by checking in.
So you notice the shoulders are hunched.
Okay shoulders you can relax,
Forehead you can relax jaw you don't have to be holding up right now you can let go and so on throughout the body.
You can soften the corners of your mouth and your lips and also soften your scalp and your hairline and the ears.
I find a lot of small areas of tension but tension nonetheless resting there.
Let's start to notice the posture a little bit more so if it helps you you can visualize a small piece of string going up and down your spine from the root of your spine in between the sit bones through the lower back the middle and the upper back up through the back of your neck and the crown of your head.
So you can envision this string connected to the earth so gently holding you into place but with freedom so you can use that anchor visualization the anchor grounds you to the floor but you still have that freedom to move that freedom of constraint that's security and you can envision the top of your string gently being pulled and connected to the heavens above so that you feel the crowd of your head and the base of your spine reaching in opposite directions and just notice how that clears up so much space in your organs in your heart center.
Oftentimes when we're sitting all crunched up our inner organs don't have space to breathe the energy has less space to move around freely so the wider the more space that we take up the more the energy can flow within us.
So maybe you can feel your breaths coming a little bit deeper and you can feel your chin tuck just ever so slightly toward your heart center so that you feel that length in the back of your neck the head's not being thrown back it's just right in the center basically just aligning your posture to a place that feels lights and aligned and comfortable for your body so if I mentioned anything that doesn't feel good in your body trust your body first you know better than I do these are just things that work for me.
You can do some exploring maybe finding places that feel better for you and you can notice what the bottom of your rib cage is doing sometimes I find it often wants to flare up when I fix my posture so there's like an arch in my back and you can just try to knit those the bottom of the rib cage under so you feel your spine being supported and soften your hips and your pelvic floor and your glutes that your whole pelvic region is relaxed there's a lot of tension that comes up there I find and once again you can soften the shoulders and let that release the muscles in your arms let that release the muscles in your hands and your fingers find a little bit of stillness start to notice your breath again you can watch the breath as it enters your body and just following it observing where it goes observing how it feels you can almost feel yourself mentally stepping back and up and into that role of the observer so practicing observing your breath without control some days it can be easy other days not so much just honoring exactly where you are today noticing if any thoughts come up of how you want to change where you are today how you wish you were somewhere else or any of those judgmental thoughts as you notice the mind having those thoughts that is what brings you into the present those thoughts are going to happen they will be there and the purpose or the goal of our meditation practice is not to totally erase those thoughts it is just to not identify with them those thoughts are not who we are you're all gonna have negative thoughts and judgmental thoughts as we notice that we're having those thoughts we can separate ourselves from them and remind ourselves that those are just thoughts they are not facts and the only facts that we can trust in ourselves is the fact of our breath our heart beats all of our body's natural functions that happen without any of our control you don't get credit for our heart beating you can bring your attention to the very tip of your head maybe seeing that string tucking you up a little bit taller start to visualize a disc of light just about a foot above the crown of your head to start you take a few moments to let this visualization come to you so don't try too hard to see this disc of light just it's already there so just see if you can notice that disc of light that is there foot above the crown of your head and what that looks like to you maybe it has a certain color or tint to it maybe there's like an aura radiating from it or something that is indescribable maybe you can feel some of that warmth and energy radiating down from that disc of light and that disc of light is shining down on your body so softening the muscles in your face even more the jaw the shoulders the stomach the hips the legs and the feet it's feeling your whole body feels safe underneath the glow of this disc of light noticing how that disc is connected to the heavens above this is a disc sent to you directly to you from spirit from whatever higher force you believe in and in a moment this disc will start to move through your body as I guide it to and as it does so it's going to cleanse your body of things that don't align with this light that aren't necessary for you to have right now as well as charge and energize each of your own energy centers aligning that with this light so with each gentle inhale that your body takes this light starts to sink and come closer and closer to the top of your head resting for a moment at the top of your head sort of like a crown as we know light attracts light so the light from your own crown chakra now absorbs this disc of light and welcomes it into the mind moving into your third eye space expanding the forehead and the corners of the eyes even more with this safety with this pure love feeling your brain be able to rest your eyeballs are able to rest into the sockets a bit deeper if the light sinks slowly down past the nasal cavity behind the nose and through the ears and the space between the inner ears cleansing you're listening you're hearing maybe hearing the humming of this light as it passes through your head and sinking down into the mouth softening the tongue the lips the teeth even softening the throat the neck and as it moves past your throat chakra just cleaning it up aligning it with that of love magnetically drawing away anything that doesn't align with that and sinking down into the collarbones sinking down to your heart center and drawing away anything any pain any suffering that no longer needs to exist in your heart just watching as that light takes it holds it for you and feeds any of those empty spaces with love and light slowly it's passing down the arms and the ribcage passing into the solar plexus and the belly stimulating your digestion to work perfectly exactly as it's meant to restoring any pain in the belly you're storing your stomach to that of love and of light and getting rid of any pain any suffering that doesn't need to be in your stomach feeling a sense of worthiness wash over the body you're worthy of perfect digestion the light slowly continues to sink into the lower belly and the lower arms and the hands even feeling anything that doesn't belong in your sacral space to be absorbed by this light feeling your truest sense of creativity letting that continue to spread letting that grow trusting that it's already there there's nothing you need to do letting go of thinking completely and letting this be a bodily and energetic listening watching that light as it continues to sink coming into your hips your pelvic floor and your root at the base of your spine it's like drawing away any sense of instability and jarring out any lack of trust in your safety lack of trust in where you are on your life's path and restoring a sense of trust in yourself and in where you are and in spirit in Mother Earth that feeling continues to spread as the light comes down your legs comes down into your knees healing your knees any pain you're experiencing in the joints or the bones allowing this light to send some love into these areas and continuing down the shins and the calves sinking deeper and deeper into the ankles and the soles of your feet and each of your toes and as the light slowly exits your body you can watch as any toxins or negativity that wasn't picked up from that light is automatically falls into that light and it continues to sink all the way down into the very core of the earth where it is burned up anything that doesn't serve you completely disintegrates into the air and your body is left here maybe feeling a little bit empty without these toxins or negativity weighing you down so we will now restore those empty spaces with even more light and love so can now notice a beam of light coming down from the heavens above you and let this beam of light be completely funneled into the crown of your head and feel your body allow your body to fill up with this light sort of like how water would spread through any area just letting this light slowly trickle its way into the entire skull feeling your crown your third eye and the center of your mind that's facing between the inner ears feeling this space totally fill up of light and love it becomes so full that it has to trickle down into the throat filling up any empty spaces in your throat chakra down into your heart center across the collarbones down the arms into the hands and down past the heart through the lungs and the ribs into the stomach solar plexus restoring any empty spaces here and down into the sacral space the lower belly into the root base of your spine the hips the legs the knees the ankles and the feet just your whole body from the toes to the fingers at the tip of your head every corner and every edge full of light and love as we prepare to close our practice I will repeat some affirmations that go along with each chakra but I'm not gonna say the chakras I will go in order but just notice how your body responds is you repeat these to yourself and feel them as truth I am safe I am secure I am exactly where I need to be I am joyful I am creative I am worthy of pleasure I am confident in who I am I am worthy of all great things things I am compassionate with myself and all that I've been through I am grateful for all that I've been through I am compassionate with all that I'm going through and I am grateful for all that I'm going through I am compassionate with all that I will go through and I am grateful for all that I will go through I am love and I am light I am honest with myself and with my communications with myself and therefore I am honest in my communications with others I speak truth into the world I speak love and light into the world I trust my intuition I trust my inner guide I trust the sensations that prove to be messages throughout my body I am connected clearly to source energy and connected to the energy that created all of life because I am that life I just take a moment to sit in silence and just feel your body feel your breath and trust whatever comes up whatever wants to come out allow these messages to soak into your body on a cellular level into your subconscious and trust that your subconscious will act in ways that align with these messages if it feels right for you to do so you can gently bring your hands to prayer at heart center sealing the energy in your hearts and in your hands and gently bowing your head to that highest self that source energy the energy that created you that guided you to this practice that guided everyone who is sitting here to this practice and thank yourself deeply and thank everyone else in the space deeply for their energy and their love and may this practice continue to heal you and center you throughout your days and your nights and may you bring some of this love and speak some of this love to everyone that you see and bring it into everything that you do namaste
