Challenge Day 1 Reset & Refresh: Breathe From The Heart

Welcome to Day 1 of Insight Timer's Reset & Refresh Challenge. Today's session with Sarah aims to familiarize yourself with the pulse of your own heart, the center of your being. The heart is a place you can go when you want to find what is hidden or yearning inside of you. Here, you'll start to establish a pure and intimate relationship with yourself; a necessary step for building a fulfilling and transformational 2024.

Transcript

Welcome to Day 1 of Insight Timer's Reset and Refresh Challenge.

Your call to break free from the ordinary,

Let go of what's been holding you back,

And step into your life with a fresh perspective.

Let's jump into today's session.

Hello and welcome to Insight Timer's Reset and Refresh Challenge.

My name is Sarah Blondin,

And alongside fellow teachers Alex L.

,

Stuart Sandeman,

And Justin Michael Williams,

I'm honored to be here to help make this year a time of intentional living,

Purposeful action,

And transformation.

If you're like many of us,

You might be finding yourself stuck in the monotony of everyday life.

Running over four weeks,

This challenge is a call to break free from the ordinary,

To let go of what's been holding you back,

And to step into this new year with a fresh perspective.

It's an opportunity to breathe life into your most ambitious goals and learn strategies to stay strong.

All that's required of you is to carve out ten minutes a day away from routine and expectations so you can focus on yourself.

Remember when it comes to growth and improvement,

Consistency is the sculptor and change is the masterpiece it creates.

So let's get started.

This week the challenge is going to be focused on reawakening our childlike sense of wonder,

Awe,

And curiosity.

It's about finding our hearts and coming back to the rhythmic pulse of our own being.

So I'm going to begin with a short story,

And I'd ask that your mind and your heart be open to what you're about to receive.

Someone told me the greatest grief we have suffered in life was the moment we were born and we lost the drum of our mother's heartbeat.

Suddenly the rhythm that nursed and comforted us as we grew into life was lost.

The very backdrop of existence as we knew it,

The one reassuring sound,

Fell silent.

And there we were,

One small babe beginning the journey of our lifetime with what felt like our home being taken away.

This brings tremendous tenderness into my being,

Because I know we actually needed to lose the sound,

However painful,

For one intention,

Which was to actually go in search and find our own.

We are meant to find what is hidden inside of us,

Something that is ours,

Closer than our breath,

Closer than our mother's heartbeat.

This grief that we feel at our birth sets in motion an insatiable need to search for something in our own breathing bodies.

We actually often look outward for it,

But this yearning will not stop until we reach the still point of our great rhythmic hum.

There is a drum to be found.

Our mother's was only the message she could send,

The instructions,

An imprint,

The point on the map we perpetually seek.

It is our hearts we're meant to find,

And it's here now,

Under the noise,

The grief,

The pain of our forgetfulness,

And it's closer than you realize.

So I invite you to stop whatever you've been doing to look gently here with me in your ordinary breathing body.

If you'd like,

Just get comfortable and close your eyes and feel your warmth turning inward to find the fire in your core.

And I'd like you to bring your attention to the heart's center,

Where the heart lives.

And I want you to imagine for me that your heart is breathing.

Notice in order to reach this place in you,

You have to slow down and rest.

You have to lean into the heart's center.

This is the heart's first instruction.

To find your drum,

You must slow down and arrive restfully on the shore of your heart.

Imagining still that your heart breathes and grows with every breath,

Softens with every breath,

And feel the sense of relief.

All those years ago,

Each of us lost the drum of our mother's heartbeat.

And since then,

We've been walking around the world looking for what is inherently within us.

So we begin here,

Knowing the path has led us to ourselves.

This is how you begin a conversation,

An intimate relationship with your heart.

There's no pressure to improve or be better here.

Just think soft,

Undefended,

Porous.

Imagine your heart is breathing.

Breathing with and from our hearts.

Boom.

Can you hear your drum?

Can you feel it?

Boom.

What we begin to notice when we invest our time and energy into breathing into and with our hearts is a sort of reconciliation,

Quieting of our mind,

A quieting of our restlessness.

Each time you visit your heart in this way,

To just quietly come to know how it beats,

How it breathes.

Imagine it as an investment that grows with time,

That deepens in time.

Bit by bit,

Let your own heartbeat nurse you back to life and wholeness.

Let it remind you of a home.

Feel the heart calling.

It just wants to be with you.

It's a place that you go to get love.

Let it breathe safety and well-being through your body and your bloodstream.

Imagine your heart is breathing.

Taking a deep breath,

Coming to open your eyes.

Seeing with eyes open if you can still feel the heart with you.

This is where we begin.

This is how we start the conversation.

A heart is a place where you can go.

And throughout your day,

Try and touch base with this space,

Especially if you're getting wound into a tight ball of forgetfulness.

Here,

The heart breathes.

The drum is this close.

Wonderful job today.

I just want to thank you for really taking the time to reconnect with your heart.

We know when we have met someone that's seated in their heart.

We can feel it emanating from their being.

There's this deep well of compassion and awareness that just embraces us in some mysterious,

Otherworldly way.

I know it seems simplistic,

But it really is a bridge to a deeper relationship with our lives that will continue to inform and change the way we live.

I look forward to tomorrow where we will be meeting the other aspect of your being that is also deeply connected to your heart and your well-being,

Which is your breath.

We'll touch into how to move through our life breath by breath,

Heartbeat by heartbeat.

Reviews

I’ve done many of Sarah’s meditations. Once again she finds a different angle to go deeply within. A combination of her voice, her chosen words, and the background sounds that starts my day off in a beautiful heart space. Thank you Sarah.

Like hearing the voice of an old friend, Sarah has the gift to be able to soothe and inspire at the same time. Just what I needed to hear this morning. Thank You.

Thank you for your voice, for the rhythm and the kindness.

Thank you I am stepping into a fresh perspective of my life. I feel so good.

I've been a member of insight timer for 18 years now and it's a wonderful tool for learning and tracking one's spiritual journey.

This is one meditation I come back to when feeling low, to ground me back to the essence of “me.”

Sarah you are helping, with others, to heal my soul. I wish one day I could thank you in person...🫂🫂

I loved the reflection of losing our mothers heart beat when we are born...

Sarah is always so magnificently, but gently, impactful. My heart is full ♥️

Beautiful to connect with the heart. I loved how it allowed space for deep empathy for one often overlooked, oneself! Excellent. Thank you Sarah!

What a beautiful meditation and so important a focus on the heart, the wellspring of life ❤️. Thank you Sarah 🙏❤️🤗✨!

Sarah, I can listen to this over and over. It brings me back to connection with my mom who passed and the courage it takes to move forward from the womb into the heart space. 💖🙏

It feels easier to start my day now and look forward to tomorrow.

My absolutely favorite teacher! We need to slow down to tune in... yesss!

This meditation helped me to see my physical heart as a reminder of the Source that animates me. Of the love that already exists and is waiting to be found. What a gift.

I have done this before and I’m ready for we start in 2025

Such a wonderful, deep practice. The revelation of the presence of heart beats in our lives is profound and comforting.

Incredible. Very relatable and easy to align with… loved it.

So many resonating points on why I came to this meditation. Thank you

A simple start to my day and connection to the drum 🙏