And then I invite you to join me in closing your eyes if you haven't already.
First allow your body to soften.
Just taking a few sweeps through your body,
Inviting in softening,
Inviting in relaxation.
As you're bringing in the softening and this relaxation,
Feel as if there's a golden thread connected to the crown of your head.
Lifting you,
Growing you vertically.
Creating more space between each vertebra.
Taking an elongation to your whole spine from the tail up through the crown of the head.
Not compromising that sense of softening and relaxing through the tissues and the skin of your body.
And drop your attention down into your lower belly,
About two inches below and behind your navel.
And the yogic chakra system,
This is the second chakra.
Sanskrit name is swati sthana,
Meaning one's true home.
Something that helps us to live what matters most to us is to live semantically oriented from this belly center,
From this true home inside.
This is not the home of the personality or the ego.
This is the home of our embodied truth,
Our embodied depth,
Our embodied wisdom.
From this orientation in the lower belly,
We just simply become aware,
Become aware of the natural breath,
Trying to shift or change it in any way.
Yes,
Become aware,
Present to our surroundings.
Noticing sounds,
Noticing temperature,
Noticing sensations in the body.
Noticing our thoughts.
Without getting lost in the following of thought.
Dropping down and in.
We're aware of what's at the surface of our experience,
The thoughts,
The sensations,
The sounds in the breath,
The sounds.
And what's at the depth of our experience,
That which is holding all of those things.
Backdrop to all those things.
Sky is the backdrop to clouds.
So meditation is not about never thinking,
Never getting distracted by surface.
It's about kindly and compassionately catching ourselves,
Guiding ourselves back to our depths.
Being present and aware,
Noticing the breath in the belly center.
So what we do in our meditation cushions is like a microcosm of what we do in our lives.
We catch ourselves,
We get off track and we bring ourselves back to what is true,
What is lasting,
What is deeper within us.
A place within us that has never rocked and doesn't change.
Just like the blue sky is always there beyond any storms or fog or anything happening in the weather.
You get to a certain altitude,
Only blue sky.
So we'll sit like this in silence together for a bit longer.
Noticing resting our awareness in our bellies,
Noticing the breath.
Noticing gently bringing the mind back to rest here when it wanders off.
Again,
Bend remains intact.
Thank you.
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