So as you arrive here,
Closing your eyes and just accepting whatever comes,
Whatever comes up.
Not trying to change it,
Not trying to make it anything different,
Just really recognizing that that is here.
So if you feel comfortable you can close your eyes.
If you feel as though you'd rather keep your eyes open that's okay too.
And usually the way I arrive in my own practice is by becoming aware of my breath.
Seems pretty simple but really becoming aware of your breath is really taking that attention from everything that's surrounding you to everything that's within you.
So just starting to breathe in,
Take a giant breath and if you're laying down just kind of feeling your body settle,
If you're seated,
Maybe feeling your legs underneath you,
Maybe flat on the floor,
Maybe you're in a cross-legged position.
I like for us to start with box breathing to calm the nerves.
So if you've never done this before I'll just kind of guide you through the practice of box breathing.
So just beginning with your first breath,
Breathe in for four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Now hold for three,
Two,
One.
Exhale for three,
Two,
One.
And hold for four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Now inhale one,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Now hold three,
Two,
One.
Now exhale for four,
Three,
Two,
One.
And hold at the bottom one,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Inhaling,
I want you to follow the same cycle.
When you get to the top hold.
When it's ready to release,
Release slowly.
And then hold at the bottom.
Taking a final cycle here,
Just taking your box breath at your own pace,
Not at me counting.
Be sure to hold at the top.
Releasing at the same count and then arriving at the bottom.
Now allow your breath to slowly go back to its normal subconscious rhythm.
Rumi wrote,
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival,
A joy,
A depression,
A meanness.
Some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all.
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture.
Still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out for some new delight.
The dark thought,
The shame,
The malice.
Meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes because it has been sent as a guide from beyond.
So as we arrive here maybe think about your feelings as your thoughts and what not come into this experience as guests.
Some of them may feel uncomfortable.
Some of these thoughts may feel as though they take a hold of your body and they occupy a place within you.
Entertain them all and be grateful for whoever comes.
Whether that be anxiety to visit,
Stress to visit,
Happiness to visit,
Laughter to visit.
Entertain them all.
I want you to start to imagine a sea of blue.
Sea could be sea meaning water or it could be sea meaning the blue sky.
I'd like for you to see this blue sky,
This blue water as your consciousness.
As the waves come and go,
As the clouds roll past,
They are your thoughts.
As we move through meditation and the clouds will come,
Your thoughts will come.
Just see if you can be in this place of observing the blue behind them,
The space that is your consciousness.
I want you to see in this sea of blue a doorway,
Maybe a large doorway.
You can imagine this doorway looks like whatever you'd like it to look like.
It can be whatever color,
It could be whatever shape.
I want you to walk up to this door.
You're visualizing,
Your mind may take you on a journey now.
Just seeing a doorway in the sea of blue.
Start to investigate the door.
You may see that it is old.
You may see that it is new.
I want you to open the door,
Opening this doorway to your consciousness.
Now as you arrive,
You'll notice that there are ten steps right below you.
As we walk through this doorway and down the ten steps,
Your body will become more relaxed,
Calm.
We're walking into a space of your own consciousness and just listening to my voice,
Just hearing nothing but my voice,
Even if there are distractions around you,
Even if there are other noises,
Focusing on this place that is where your breath is and you just hear a voice guiding you into this place that feels safe.
So as we begin to walk down the stairs,
The tenth step,
You notice there is some writing upon these stairs.
The tenth step,
It says,
I am safe.
So taking a step on this tenth step,
Feeling that that safety rush through your body.
You feel your heels and feet becoming heavy,
Feeling calm.
Walking down the ninth step,
You see the writing upon it.
It says,
I am empowered.
I'm feeling your knees and legs becoming heavy,
Feeling calm,
Just hearing my voice,
Just walking down the steps.
As you reach the eighth and seventh step,
You feel your hips becoming heavy,
Your thighs.
The step has written upon it the words,
I live an abundant life.
Walking down the next sixth and fifth step,
You feel a relaxing sensation coming behind your belly,
Almost as if your internal organs are moving to allow a smile to come behind your belly.
As we move down to the fourth and third step,
The smile shifts from behind your belly to the space behind your heart.
What would that look like if you could bring a smile behind your heart?
And as you look down,
You see the words written on the step,
I am surrounded by wealth.
As you walk down the third and second step,
You feel this sense of calm,
A sense of ease,
And you're hearing nothing but my voice just coming into this place of calmness.
You see the words written upon the step right below you as you take the step onto the second step that says,
I'm alright,
Everything is okay.
And walking on to the final step,
You feel your jaw and hinging,
Your brow unsquinting and just feeling this heaviness and your entire body,
You're feeling so calm,
So relaxed.
The final step,
Repeating the words as you started this trip down ten steps,
It says,
I am safe.
As you come to the bottom of the steps,
Your body feeling heavy and relaxed,
You're starting to come into this place where your mind wants to take you to all these beautiful places.
It wants to take you to where you can visualize and see,
Maybe starting to conjure up stories,
Remembering those stories are simply clouds or waves in your sea of bloom.
Focus on the sea of bloom.
Come back,
Know that those clouds,
Those waves,
They are simply passing,
They are guests in your guesthouse,
Many of which do not tell the truth.
As you come down onto the path,
You'll notice it's rocks and maybe brick road,
Maybe you're seeing trees and plants planted all around it.
You'll notice there is a picture,
A picture by the side of the road,
Or a street sign or a billboard,
It is a picture of the Buddha.
There's a particular time that is depicted on this picture,
It is the time where the night before the Buddha's enlightenment,
He was visited by Mara.
Mara is known as,
In some depictions,
As a demon.
In some instances,
It is a metaphor on how we can tackle challenges.
Mara is sometimes depicted as fear,
It is depicted in my translation as anxiety,
As things that are sometimes unwanted in our experience.
So as the Buddha was teaching,
Sitting by the Bodhi tree,
Mara was taunting him.
I want you just to see what that picture would look like as your imagination starts to wander here.
And one of the friends of the Buddha,
Maybe a student,
As the story goes,
Said,
Should we get rid of Mara,
Should we move Mara away from this place?
The Buddha said no,
And walked straight up to Mara and said,
I see you,
Mara,
Come,
Let's have tea.
This story really is about naming fear,
It is about naming those things that we don't want to talk about.
So as we come into this meditation,
You may start feeling feelings of financial insecurities,
As we're in a time of uncertainty,
You may be feeling uncertain about your health,
You may be feeling uncertain about the way that tomorrow will turn out.
And just as the guest house by Rumi,
Welcoming them in,
We can take these feelings,
These maybe unwanted feelings and say,
I see you,
Come,
Let's have tea.
By naming this fear,
It loses its power,
By naming this scarcity,
By naming this thing,
It puts us in a place where we can reduce the limbic activity around it,
Activate the resourcefulness in our brain and the prefrontal cortex and just begin to recognize that that is there.
So as we arrive here at this sign,
This picture,
The demon,
Looking at maybe you now,
You see this picture as a demon staring at you,
What feelings does this bring up?
Recognizing that they are there,
Not trying to change them,
Not trying to make them anything different than they are,
But simply recognizing that they are there.
And then allowing,
Allowing them to be there,
Just as the guest house in Rumi saying this dark thought,
This malice,
Meet them at the door smiling,
Accepting these experiences with the warmth and compassion that we can offer,
Just as we offer tea tomorrow.
So maybe you see these thoughts,
These feelings coming up and they don't feel so good,
They feel tense in your body,
They feel as though you want to remove them or bypass them,
I want you to just to recognize they're there and allow them to be there.
As we allow them to be there,
We get to kind of be more on an intimate level with them.
We can see what is true and see what is made up.
You see your mind is a really good storyteller.
Your mind is going to take you to beautiful places even now as I speak,
You may be off of the picture of you and Mara.
I want you to come back,
Come back to this picture and I want you to maybe see the picture move,
See the picture coming into what you are experiencing and not what is being projected upon you to experience.
Rather than the demon being there of Mara fearfully,
Maybe backing away,
Let me come closer,
See the painting as though you are holding out your hands tomorrow,
Welcoming.
You see in the last paragraph of Rumi's guest house he says,
Be grateful for whoever comes because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.
Maybe these feelings,
Maybe this is experience that we're all having in this time of uncertainty is indeed something we should be grateful for now.
It is not an easy situation,
It is not something that I would want to have happen over and over,
But being grateful for the experiences that do come out of tragedy,
Being able to spend more time with family and loved ones,
Being able to see changes in our environment,
The noise levels on our streets,
The pollution levels in our cities and just watching those things decline and really saying I'm grateful for this part of the experience.
I'm grateful that we are constantly in evolution and Mother Nature is healing.
Just as I can heal,
So can she.
Just as she heals,
So do I.
As we are here allowing these feelings to rise up within us,
You may see that some of those feelings surround financial insecurity.
Many of us are out of work or looking for work or not knowing when we can return to work or finding very creative ways to explore our employment.
Maybe look at a financial hardship as this picture of Mara.
Mara is the financial hardship and here you are holding your hands out saying I welcome you.
I'm not thrilled you're here,
But I welcome you with whatever I can and being grateful.
You see there is no lack of abundance in this world.
There is no place that is scarce.
It is only in your mind that you're finding scarcity.
If you look around you,
If you get into nature,
There is no scarcity in trees.
There is only abundance in the amount of trees and leaves and birds and grasses and flowers.
The only place of lack of abundance is what we create and thus we can create the opposite.
These feelings of lack of abundance come from our previous experience or a fear of something that we think might happen.
Coming back as we breathe maybe that gives you an unsettled feeling.
You may feel some sort of shift within you and I want you to just to breathe through that.
Just breathing it in.
Maybe going back into that box breathing where you hold at the top and then as you release it holding back again at the bottom and breathing in holding at the top releasing slowly and holding at the bottom.
You can come back to this as often as you want,
As often as you feel this unsettled feeling.
Now that feeling that is there we recognized it.
We allowed it to be there.
Now I'd like for you to investigate that feeling.
Where that is coming from.
That message of scarcity that you may be feeling.
Where does that come from?
Probably a past experience.
So that feeling of scarcity.
Wayne Dyer said that try to imagine a state of unlimited possibilities being possible.
One of our greatest tools is the power to visualize.
So in this meditation I'd like for you to visualize what the best possible outcome could be in this situation that you are in.
What is the best possible outcome?
Maybe it's a new opportunity.
Maybe it's booming business after the virus.
Maybe it is a change in jobs.
Maybe it is a new avenue for technology to meet your business.
I want you to visualize in this moment a happy and abundant life that is filled with all kinds of prosperity,
All kinds of changes,
And you welcoming Mara to tea.
Unafraid and ready.
What does that look like for you?
Investigating those feelings.
The ones that didn't feel so good.
Now we're introducing something that is positive,
That is happy,
That is changing.
The neuro pathways within you.
These neurotransmitters that are always firing.
Now we're offering something a little bit different.
We're offering something that feels good.
By being positive with all the things that are happening around us,
Even gratitude in a place where we could find lots of negative.
As we walk away from the picture of you and Mara walking down the pathway,
Maybe feeling some feelings of investigation of where these feelings of scarcity came from,
These feelings of fear and anxiety feelings,
They probably came from new sources,
Information overloading,
A previous experience with something maybe similar.
I want you to walk down this path and you will see in front of you that there is a brick wall.
This brick wall can be any color of your choosing.
It's up to you how you would like to visualize this particular wall.
I'd like for you to see this wall and there is writing upon it.
It could be in graffiti,
It could be as a mural,
It could be the most beautiful mural,
Or it could be the most elementary graffiti.
It doesn't matter.
What I want you to see is the words that are written upon it.
As you walk up to it,
You will see that it says the words,
I am surrounded by wealth.
I am surrounded by wealth.
Now as you look around,
You will see all these trees full of leaves and birds and you will see maybe a lake or a stream,
You'll see animals and insects.
You will see abundance all around you.
There is no difference between that abundance and the financial abundance that you may be seeking.
Bob Proctor says that if you can hold it in your head,
You can hold it in your hand.
So as we are shifting this visualization to a more positive place,
One that doesn't bring us anxiety,
That doesn't allow these feelings to attach to our body and bring us into a place where we feel heavy or we feel sick,
We are now shifting into a place where we can find it to be more manageable,
Where we can find more peace.
I am surrounded by wealth,
The wall says.
And as you look around,
You recognize that it is true.
The only limit that you have is the limit of your own thinking.
So walking away from the wall,
As we walk back down the path,
And just maybe recalling some of the mantras or the affirmations that we mentioned earlier in today's practice.
Maybe those flash in your visualizations,
Maybe you even see them pass by in your sea of blue.
I live an abundant life.
I am safe.
I'm okay.
I'm open to receive all the wealth that life offers me.
As we come back to the picture of the Buddha and Mara,
You may see the Buddha,
You may see yourself as we visualized it earlier.
I'm just remembering the words as these feelings come up this week,
These feelings of I don't know what's gonna happen next or I'm so unsure.
I see you Mara.
Come,
Let's have tea.
Accepting that demon,
That hard feeling as an honored guest,
Just as Rumi described.
Because we don't not know what will come from the experience.
We are only simply imagining what can happen.
So if we can imagine the worst,
We can also imagine the best.
We can also shift our thinking and become pillars of calm for our community,
For our families,
For our friends.
We have the ability to shift.
The only limit is in your thinking.
So as we come back to the step,
You see the bottom step,
It says the words I am safe.
Take a step on to that bottom step and I want you to feel this warmth,
Almost this feeling as it surges through your body,
This feeling of knowing that you are on the right path,
That the limit that you are feeling was simply planted in a previous experience and that you know that you have the ability to shift it.
You are a powerful creator.
You are in charge.
Beginning to walk up the ninth step,
Just feeling the sense of peace and just hearing my voice,
Hearing these affirmations come into your experience.
Now seeing the step from this other side,
The writing on the step says I live an abundant life.
Walking up the seventh step,
You start to feel this surge of gratitude coming into your experience,
This surge saying I have everything that I need.
I don't need anymore.
What happens in the future will happen in the future.
I have all that I need right now.
I am safe.
Coming into the sixth and fifth step,
You feel this beautiful energy coming upon you,
Knowing that you are the creator of your own experience.
The fourth,
Third,
You're starting to feel this tingling in your shoulders,
This smile behind your heart is radiating.
You are radiating.
You are light.
Feeling this experience as you walk to the second and first step.
As you reach the door,
I want you to turn back and look onto this vastness that's behind you,
This vastness of your consciousness.
You painted the picture today of what you want your experience to look like.
There is a message of scarcity all around you,
But you have the ability to crumble that paper up,
Walk to the wall,
And see the words I am surrounded by wealth.
There is abundance everywhere.
Look out upon this place you visualize today.
There is no lack of abundance.
No lack of abundance in finances and health,
In resources.
You have the choice to consume or reject anything that comes into your experience.
I want you to turn and look at the door.
Turn the door knob and walk through,
Closing the door behind you.
Coming back into your day,
Maybe you just offer a conscious breath into your body.
Completing today's meditation just as we started.
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival,
A joy,
A depression,
A meanness.
Some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all,
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture.
Still,
Treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out for some new delight.
The dark thought,
The shame,
The malice,
The scarcity,
The fear,
The anxiety.
Meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.
When you feel and recognize these feelings come up this week,
Recognize them,
Allow them to be there and investigate why they're there.
Nurture them with love and look them straight in the face through your meditation,
Through your breath,
Through practices like these.
Naming them,
I see you Mara,
I see you fear,
I see you scarcity,
I see you anxiety,
I see you.
Take the fear away by naming them and invite them to tea.
Thank you for joining today.
If you would like the copy of this meditation I will see if I can make it available.
That should be on Facebook and then I recorded on zoom and also on my recorder.
So thank you for joining today.
I wanted to let you know also that there'll be other meditations that I'll be offering this week.
Those who are in southern Utah have some opportunities to do some live meditations in yoga and those will be on my event page at Ryan Bean Yoga including Wim Hof breathing and cold immersion.
Also yoga and other meditations which we'll be offering this week.
I'm very grateful that I have this opportunity to play with technology and be able to offer what I love to offer as an instructor and as a teacher of mindfulness and meditation.
To serve and to be of service where needed.
So if you need service,
If you need something and you're like hey I don't know how and I just need to reach out.
You can reach out to me and if I don't have the answers I have a large network of friends who are healers,
Lightworkers and those who may be good resources for you.
Don't sit at home with Mara.
Know that you have resources.
Namaste.
