Hi this is Sarah Ritchie coming to you from Orangeville,
Ontario,
Canada to share a meditation with you.
Let's get comfortable together,
Let's really share and celebrate in this moment.
Let's allow ourselves to join in this sacred circle,
The talking stick of our hearts,
Allowing ourselves to connect in community as we connect within.
As you settle in,
Allow yourself to really begin to follow your breath as it comes in and as it goes out.
Watch and witness that breath.
See it as it releases all of the tensions,
All of the holdings,
Allowing your breath to be the path of letting go of all that no longer serves you in this moment.
Feel yourself beginning to relax,
Feel your mind easing and softening,
Feel your body beginning to melt.
Noticing the palms of your hands and the soles of your feet and maybe if you pause for a few breaths,
You may notice that there's a little bit of energy or chi or blood circulating in your palms and the soles of your feet.
Allow these palms and soles,
This energy to become the gateway to deep relaxation,
Allowing yourself to see those four connecting points as they draw relaxation into your body,
Through your muscles,
Heavy in your limbs and allowing that energy to culminate in your heart.
The spiritual teacher Don Miguel Ruiz,
Native American Toltec,
Says that we are all here on this planet living our own dream.
In the way of the Toltec people,
It is believed that we each see things only through our own perspective,
Through our own dream and that therefore we are responsible for the collective dream of the planet.
I had a colleague I worked with a few years ago,
A lovely soul,
Who would greet me every day at work saying,
So are you living the dream?
And I remember thinking at the beginning that I didn't know how to respond to that.
I didn't have a place inside of me that recognized that I am the creator of my own dream,
My own perspective.
And while we may not have control,
We definitely don't have control over the things that happen in our lives.
We do have the ability to rise up,
To allow ourselves to see things from that higher evil perspective,
To soar and to choose or make meaning,
To choose our responses.
Meditation is one of those amazing tools that enables us to come from that deeper place,
That place of reflection,
That place of grounding,
Helping us to let go of perspectives,
Of thoughts,
Of barricades that we place in front of ourselves and helping us to open up to come from a place of stillness where we can share in the dream of the planet.
So let's take this dream a little deeper.
Let's begin by following our breath with some ujjayi breathing.
Basically breathing in a kind of ocean breath,
Constricting the back of the throat ever so slightly,
Almost as if we're making the sound of the ocean or your breath hissing as you fog a mirror.
Take a few breaths to get present in this dream.
Stay with me.
I'm watching and witnessing your breath as you continue.
And then allowing yourself to sink deeper into the dream.
As you continue to breathe,
Watching and witnessing your breath,
Acknowledging that this is your dream,
That this is our collective dream of the planet.
And so knowing this,
Allowing yourself to draw up into your awareness,
Allowing your soul to float an intention up from your heart center to your third eye.
An intention,
Perhaps,
Something you would like to invite into either your own personal dream or the collective dream of the planet.
Allowing yourself to envision that dream.
Feel it in your body.
Notice the joy it brings,
The peacefulness.
Becoming aware of how that dream affects all of those in your life around you,
How it affects the planet,
Mother Earth,
The universe with its ripple.
And taking a nice long slow deep breath in,
We're going to release that dream out into the universe.
As you exhale,
Releasing,
Relaxing,
Letting go,
Trusting that the universe will take care of this dream and allowing ourselves to settle now into some deeper practice using a mantra.
The mantra today,
Sat chit ananda.
Say it with me,
Sat chit ananda,
Sat chit ananda.
And now whisper it softly,
Sat chit ananda,
Sat chit ananda.
Allowing yourself to head into stillness and silence,
Taking that mantra with you,
Allowing it to be your vehicle,
Your guide,
Your still point.
Allowing it to drift you more deeply.
And if you notice that you're distracted by sounds in your environment or thoughts or physical sensations,
Just effortlessly drift yourself back to sat chit ananda.
If the mantra shifts or changes,
Becomes louder or softer,
Becomes jumbled or distorted or even disappears,
Don't resist.
Simply allow yourself to drift back to sat chit ananda,
Sat chit ananda.
You you you you you you you you you just sit gently with your eyes closed and allow yourself to soak in the stillness and the silence,
Your presence in this moment.
And let's chant AUM together,
The hymn of the universe one time,
To seal in the intentions we set for the collective dream of the planet for your personal dream.
Taking a nice long,
Slow,
Deep breath in with me and chanting AUM.
AUM.
AUM.
AUM.
AUM.
And remember as you go out into the day that you are the dream maker,
That we are the dream makers,
That we always have the choice to respond,
To see things from that eagle perspective,
To soar above and to choose to come from a place of stillness and love.
Thank you so much for joining me today.
Once again,
This is Sarah Ritchie.
I'll see you next time.
Thank you.
Namaste.
