As you are arriving into a comfortable position,
You can take your time getting into a space.
If you are going to be listening to this with the intention of staying still and not moving,
Then take your time getting into that position.
This can totally be listened to if you are doing things,
If you're kind of walking around your house or getting some things done or even stretching,
Maybe doing some yoga.
Hopefully,
No matter how you hear the words or what you're doing when you hear the words,
They'll still be beneficial to you.
But if you are listening to this with the intention of sitting down or laying down and meditating on this,
Then take your time getting to that position so that you can find a place of stillness and you don't feel the need to fidget throughout the practice.
As you are getting comfortable,
You can just pay attention to your spine and what your spine is doing.
You can think about your shoulders and where they are in relationship to your hips.
Try to get them to be somewhat in line with each other from a front view and a side view.
If for whatever reason that doesn't feel right in your body,
If it feels like you're leaning back when you do that or forward too much,
Then listen to your body first.
That goes throughout this entire practice today.
And every meditation practice you do,
Whether the teacher says it or not,
Listen to your body first.
If anything is ever suggested that doesn't feel right or feels like not what you should be focusing on or like it's causing more harm than good,
Then listen to those instincts in your body first.
And you can allow the cues to be starting points or suggestions.
So as you are arriving,
Once you get into that comfortable position,
If you're in a space where you feel safe to do so,
You can allow your eyes to gently close.
And marking your arrival to this practice with a big and intentional cleansing breath.
So exaggerating your inhale but letting it be slow even though it's exaggerated.
So slow and long and deep.
And then just pausing for a moment once you are full and just noticing what that feels like.
And without straining whenever you need to,
Slowly decompressing.
Slowly letting that air go.
Pushing more air out of you and then pausing in that stillness and that emptiness.
Allowing your next breath to come naturally as it needs to.
You can breathe just like that a few more times if you'd like,
If that felt helpful to you.
By exaggerating the inhales,
The pause at the top of the inhale,
The exhale,
And the pause at the bottom of the exhale.
Just exaggerating the four parts of your breath.
And at any point you can release the control of your breath or release the guidance of your breath.
And just simply allow your body to breathe itself.
So just remembering how the breath can either be voluntary,
You can intentionally guide it to be deeper and slower if you'd like,
But it can also be automatic.
And most of the time it is automatic.
You don't have to think about breathing in order to breathe.
So just practicing bringing your awareness to the breath and leaving behind the guidance,
Leaving behind the control.
And looking at your breath just like a tide,
Like the ocean,
The waves kind of rolling in.
You do nothing to control that.
There's no guidance required of you for the waves to turn in.
They just will do so as they're ready.
And just like your breath,
It will naturally fold over into an exhale when it's needed and naturally rise to an inhale as it's needed.
And also know that if focusing on the breath is something that does not feel good for you,
As I said before,
Do not focus on the breath.
Do not do what doesn't feel good or doesn't feel relaxing or at least interesting or curious.
And if the breath is not a comfortable place for you to rest your awareness,
You can bring your awareness into the palms of your hands.
And even if you are being aware of your breath,
You can split your awareness to the palms of your hands now too.
And just notice any sensations that exist in the hands.
And fully relaxing the fingers and all the muscles here.
And just recognizing that pulse,
The pulsing of your veins running down your arms,
Through the wrists,
Into the hands and the fingers.
And bringing some awareness into your heart center as well.
And feeling the unique rhythm of your own heartbeat.
And then noticing the relationship between your heartbeat and your hands.
Just noticing how they are connected.
How all the energy and love that is in your heart is also in your hands.
The direct line of connection down the arms.
And then bringing some awareness into your forehead.
And just by resting your awareness on the forehead,
You can feel some of the tension just melting away.
And then you can consciously allow this area to soften even more.
Allow the eyebrows to expand and soften.
And the corners of the eyes.
Allow your jaw to hang into place.
And feeling how that softens the muscles across your cheeks.
The muscles around your nose,
Your nostrils.
Softening the muscles in the ears.
The hairline,
The scalp.
Softening the mouth completely,
The lips.
Almost feeling like all the muscles in the face are hanging off of the bones.
Just un-gripping.
And any expression that was on the face,
Just feeling free to melt away.
And then starting to notice your neck and your shoulders.
And as you notice the neck and the shoulders,
You can feel the highest point in your body,
The crown of your head.
Almost being magnetically drawn up toward the sky above you.
Just like there was a string at the crown of your head and someone's gently pulling it.
So feeling how that will lengthen your spine naturally.
Lengthen the back of your neck.
And allowing the shoulders to fall down and away from the ears.
So they're in a neutral position.
They're not pulling back and they're not curling forward.
They're in that space right in between where the heart is in line with the shoulders and with the arms.
Softening all the muscles of your chest and your arms and your hands.
Letting all that softness continue onto the rib cage.
So that your rib cage is feeling safe to just rest on the lungs.
Softening all the muscles across the stomach and the back.
So it feels like all the muscles across the abdomen are just resting on the organs.
Hugging the organs,
Protecting them.
Your hips are softening into place,
Accepting the position that they're in.
Maybe making a slight shift if they don't want to accept the position that they're in.
Feeling free to do that.
Relaxing your glutes,
The pelvic floor,
This whole sensitive region of your body.
Simply by chucking in,
Simply by bringing your awareness to this area,
You'll notice the tension will naturally dissipate.
Just by allowing it to do so.
By noticing it's there.
Softening the muscles down the legs and to the feet.
So that all the muscles just feel like they're rolling off of the bones.
Bringing attention to the soles of your feet.
And just feeling that same connection between your hands and your heart,
Also between your heart and your feet.
Your heart is also beating in the soles of your feet.
In each of your toes.
Now just seeing in your mind's eye,
Maybe your eyes are even peering up into your forehead.
Gazing into the third eye center between the eyebrows or your own personal mind screen.
Maybe just seeing the outline of your body and how much space you are taking up and the space that you're in.
Paying attention to that barrier that is your skin.
The barrier between your inside world and the outside world.
And noticing how if you zoom in so much with your awareness,
You can almost see each pore on your skin.
Breathing itself.
Gently expanding with the inhales and condensing with the exhales.
Just noticing how that barrier that you have is porous.
It's a natural filter for the world outside of you.
So that life force energy can still enter into your skin,
Can still fuel your body and your organs.
But it's naturally filtering out anything that is not welcome.
Maybe if you have a small cut on you right now,
Maybe like a small paper cut or any little wound that's on you.
Or even if you don't have that currently,
Thinking back to a time when you did.
And just bringing your awareness to the skin that is actually wounded.
Small cut,
Whatever it is.
And just remembering or recognizing all the other cuts you've had in your life,
All the other little wounds.
And remembering how quickly the skin heals.
How just by putting a little ointment on it and a band-aid,
It can heal overnight sometimes.
And even without that extra assistance,
It will heal on its own.
And just really bringing awareness to the natural intelligence of your body.
And remembering that you are not responsible for your wounds being able to heal the way that they do.
For your skin to magically mend itself together and fight off any infections and all of the things,
All the things that your body is doing for you constantly to heal you and to protect you.
And just remembering that healing,
The power that you have to heal,
Does not require any doing of you.
It is,
It's innate.
Your body is made to heal and you will heal.
You are healing,
Always.
And sometimes if we spend too much attention or too much focus on healing,
Like I have certainly done in my life,
It can sometimes have a counter effect.
Sometimes if we try too hard to fix something,
We end up making it worse.
And simply by taking a step back and allowing the natural process of healing to occur,
That is how we can truly and deeply heal.
By remembering that part of the healing process is accepting the pain.
Probably the first part of the healing process is accepting the pain,
Accepting the situation.
And remember that accepting pain does not mean that you approve of it,
Does not mean that you like it or enjoy it or want more of it.
Accepting is simply just acknowledging that it's there,
That it's reality.
And we don't have to like reality for it to be reality.
So,
The greatest service you can do to aid your own healing process,
Whether that is a physical wound,
Whether that is an emotional wound or deep ancestral wounds.
The most important and first thing to do in that process is acknowledging the wound.
It's bringing awareness to what needs help or what needs maybe attention.
What is in the process of healing already.
And if you think about it just like how we did our body scan today,
Just like how we brought awareness to the forehead and just by bringing awareness there,
The muscles will naturally start to soften and you can allow it to soften even more just by resting your gentle awareness on those areas.
And healing is a similar process so by being aware that you are in the process of healing,
It will naturally.
I'm not sure if accelerates the right word but it will naturally aid the process.
Because you are on the same page,
Your mind is on the same page as your body,
You will be kinder to yourself,
As you're in the process of healing,
You'll be more patient with yourself,
And the mistakes that you might make along the way,
Or maybe first labeled mistakes.
As you bring some attention into your heart space into your heart center.
Just start to feel the pulsing rhythm once again.
Just remember and recognize how your heart is pumping blood throughout your entire body,
That same outline that you saw that space that you're taking up your heart is connected to all of that space.
And your heart is your source of compassion,
Of love,
Of gratitude,
Of healing.
And one of the most important things through any sort of healing process is compassion.
And we often hear compassion talked about in terms of outward compassion having compassion for others,
Which is important.
But we cannot even start to think about having true compassion for others if we do not have true compassion for ourselves.
And sometimes if we're struggling with having that compassion for ourselves.
It's helpful to imagine that we are in other.
So,
Can treat yourself and the pains you've experienced the healing journey that you're on.
As you would your child,
Your best friend,
Anyone alive or past who you love so deeply,
Who can really do no wrong,
And you recognize all the different factors of what's contributing to their pain,
And you know that they are not the only one to blame.
You know that there are so many there's sometimes countless factors that contribute to wounds and to pain and to start of healing.
And you would never for someone who you love you would never make them feel like they're solely responsible for the bad things that have happened to them as well as responsible for their process of healing fully responsible.
So,
Watching yourself and the way you communicate those things to yourself as well,
And just noticing any difference in how you would talk to someone you love versus how you talk to yourself.
And just by noticing,
Maybe the difference,
Maybe the big difference between those two things,
You can start to bring them closer together and aim toward having no difference between the way you talk to yourself and the way you talk to your loved ones.
Being very patient with yourself along that journey.
And just remembering how there is nothing that is only your fault,
There is,
There's nothing that you have done that was only you're doing that is like a really bad thing or anything that caused severe pain.
There's always,
There's always always more factors than just one but we are really good at blocking out those other factors when we're talking about ourselves.
We're really good at taking on that blame.
Just understanding that that is all extra,
That is so unnecessary for you to be carrying.
And it's okay that you have been carrying it because that is natural as an empathetic person who just wants to help and make others feel better like I'm sure all of you guys feel that way to some extent if you're listening to this.
It's really natural to just want to take away others pain and just carry it ourselves because we think we can handle it.
But just over time that becomes really heavy and just unnecessary.
We can carry the pain,
You can carry others pain by acknowledging it by showing it compassion,
Love,
Also being grateful for it.
Knowing that pain is essential pain is our one of our greatest teachers in life.
And being grateful for it does not mean that we love it or accept or,
Or want more of it.
It's just being accepting of the experience that happened and recognizing how that experience has been a catalyst for things that you've experienced that you wouldn't have otherwise experienced.
As you feel the air entering your body.
As you feel the life force energy entering into your nose and filling up your body.
You can feel how your breath has the power to heal as well.
Your whole body and all of its natural functions.
They are working to heal you.
Every moment of every day.
Treating your body and your healing process as you would just a work of art,
Or something beautiful in nature,
Your favorite tree,
Your favorite flower,
Favorite mountain is something where you watch it with awe,
You watch it with inspiration and gratitude and just awe.
Yeah.
Just letting it be not feeling the need to fix or change anything and trusting the process reminding yourself that every single storm runs out of rain.
As you think about yourself and your own pain and what you hold on to until you're ready to let it go.
You can compare that to clouds rain clouds.
Every cloud holds on to rain.
That's why they are clouds there's rain inside the clouds.
And sometimes they get really big and really daunting looking and like they could burst at any moment but they still hold on to it.
And whenever they're ready,
Whenever it's time,
They let go of that rain.
This is from a Trevor Hall song but it's part of nature to hold on to pain.
It's a part of nature to hold on to something and just keep it inside you until it's time until you're ready to let it go.
So not trying to speed through any healing process.
Especially if you're in a state of awareness,
It can be kind of frustrating to be in a healing process because you're like,
All right,
I'm grateful for it.
I'm ready I'm ready to move on from it's fine.
But we have to,
We can't fast forward things we can't skip through the process just because we are aware.
We have to be sad,
We have to cry,
We have to let it go we have to rain,
Just like the clouds like over there is we have to let go of ours in a physical way.
So whatever way that looks like to you.
And again just being really patient,
Really kind and understanding with yourself through this process is the biggest key.
I found so far.
And understanding that there will be bad days.
I feel great one day and horrible the next day.
And that's a part of it too.
Just learning to appreciate the bad days,
Because they allow you to feel as good as you feel on the good days.
Okay,
Just kind of imagine that string at the crown of your head and just lifting you up a little bit taller feeling your body take up a little bit more space.
If it feels natural for you to do so or like something you want to try you can bring your hands to prayer position a heart center.
And just once again feeling that connection between your heart and your hands,
Feeling the pulsing of your palms into each other.
The pulsing of your heart into your thumbs and your thumbs back into your heart.
Just reminding yourself that you have the source to all the love,
And there is zero need for you to go out into the world and try to earn more love or earn appreciation.
Because you already have all of the love that's ever existed inside of you.
We can go out into the world and do things from that source of love from that energy and share that and naturally grow that naturally welcome more love into our lives.
So as you take a deep breath in feeling your whole body filling up the most it's filled up so far today.
And as you exhale,
Allowing anything that no longer serves you to leave your body.
As you gently bow your head bowing to your maker to your creator,
Whoever whatever that is for allowing your heart to be allowing you to hear these words,
Allowing your body to be here and function.
And thanking your ancestors angels spirits guides,
Whatever word you have for them.
Just that everlasting love that's around you all the time.
And thanking everyone in this space for completing this practice with you and for being open and receiving to this practice.
And most importantly thanking yourself for taking the time out of your busy lives for this pure act of self love and self care.
May this act continue to heal you through the rest of your days and nights.
And may you bring the same love into everything that you do,
And to everyone that you see.
Namaste.
