Saying Yes To Life

Do you feel disconnected? Defeated? Are you looking for direction? Welcome the vitality and power of your own aliveness in this uplifting talk and meditation practice. This recording is from one of Selena's live Insight Timer classes.

Please note: Sound quality is lower than normal due to the nature of the live class and hum of the computer fan.

Transcript

Welcome.

Welcome in the fullness of life.

Welcome in this moment,

This moment,

And this moment.

This moment where there is nothing and everything.

And it's all for you.

It's all for you.

This life,

Your experiences,

Whether you feel really depressed or you feel really joyful and are excited,

It's all for you.

This whole experience of life and its expansion and contraction and ups and downs and everything,

It's all for you.

So welcome.

Welcome.

I don't think I introduced myself.

Maybe I started to in my mind.

My name is Selena Layel.

I'm a yoga and meditation instructor,

A transformational coach,

And an awakened life teacher.

And I am you and you are me.

You're having this experience of life together right now in this moment.

So let's think about our practice today for a moment here.

I invite you to just pause whatever you're doing.

Pause all the chatting,

The hearting,

Anything that you're doing physically with your body.

And with your eyes open,

Just notice how you're holding your body.

Are your shoulders hunched forward?

Are you crossing your arms?

Are your knees or your ankles crossed?

Do you feel kind of like you're leaning forward and there's some contraction in your belly or your chest without any judgment and without changing your body position?

Just notice it.

There's nothing to judge here.

We're here together to become aware and to consciously choose.

So just notice what's happening in your body with the eyes open.

And if it's difficult with eyes open,

Feel free to close them.

But just notice how your body naturally is in this moment.

Are you squeezing your hands or your toes curling?

Are you unconsciously contracting or flexing different muscles in your body?

Maybe your glutes,

Those buttocks muscles are really tight.

And maybe you feel that same kind of tension throughout your abdomen.

Just notice how your body is holding itself in this moment.

And then if you've closed the eyes you can open them.

And I invite you just kind of become aware of a couple of thoughts that you think throughout the day.

Again you don't have to have the eyes closed.

You're welcome to if that makes it easier for you.

But just kind of reflect,

Okay throughout the day what do I find myself thinking about?

Do I think about how grateful I am all day long?

Do I think about how much I really wish I had a different job?

Do I think about how I'm so mad at somebody or I can't forgive somebody?

Just kind of notice a couple of the reoccurring thoughts that you have throughout the day.

And of course it may change day to day but we kind of have some consistent thoughts that we think about ourself or the world.

Oh man people are just selfish or I'll just have to keep working more and more and I'll never get to where I want to be.

Just kind of notice a couple of your reoccurring thoughts.

Thank you.

Eyes are open.

Now if I have these patterns in my body,

Maybe I cross my arms often or I'm always crossing my legs.

Maybe I'm always hunching forward.

Maybe I always feel some tightness in my belly or my hands are like this.

And just just an awareness here or just a reminder that many of us live in these patterns without awareness.

Meaning well if we were to notice and say throughout the day how am I holding my body,

You might notice wow I was really clenching my fists or wow my shoulders are really forward.

But you may not have been aware of it before that point and that's okay.

This is how most of us are living.

So if I'm holding these patterns in my body throughout the day and I'm having some of these reoccurring thoughts,

Whether they're expanding thoughts like thoughts of gratitude or appreciation or love or maybe more constricting,

Contracting thoughts about something that's wrong or something I don't like,

With this awareness in this moment of these patterns that we hold in the body and these reoccurring thoughts,

I invite you to just use your power of awareness,

Of intuition,

Of perception and just notice what life experience you're having within these patterns.

For example,

If I have the thought that I'm never good enough,

How do I feel in my day-to-day life?

Do I feel insecure?

Do I keep myself away from people?

Do I create distance in my relationships,

Especially intimate relationships?

Just become aware.

And again this is not about judgment,

This is not about wronging ourselves,

This is just awareness which allows us to shift if we so choose.

So just notice the patterns that you carry in your body and the patterns you carry in the mind,

Are they creating the life experience that you're wanting?

Not from judgment.

Are they creating the life experience of what you're wanting?

And we're not here to fix the mind or change the body,

We're just here to notice.

Now some of you may be saying,

Yeah,

Yeah you know what,

I really think about people I love every day and it just lights up my heart and I feel kind of an ease throughout the day and I look forward to seeing people and I look forward to what's going to happen in my life.

And some of you may be noticing,

Wow,

You know these thoughts that I think and how I hold my body,

I kind of feel disconnected from others.

I feel like there's a guard or a wall between me and other people or wow,

You know what,

These thoughts I'm thinking,

They're not making my life any better.

If anything I just kind of feel crummy all day long,

Maybe I feel more depressed or I feel more of a sense of disconnection or defeat.

You feel me?

Let me know.

How is this resonating for you?

Are you becoming aware or present to how the physical and mental patterns you're living in are creating your experience?

All right.

And if you're not totally resonating with my words,

No problem.

I invite you fully as you are.

You may find that they resonate as we move deeper into our practice together.

Yes,

Yes,

Yes,

Sandy,

Slowly becoming aware.

This is the nature for each of us,

The nature of life,

The nature of the mind.

We all have,

You could say blind spots,

Things that we are unaware of.

That's why people or that's why we can really see other people's faults.

We can see where other people really need to grow,

But if somebody gives us feedback we're usually like,

I don't do that.

Nuh-uh,

That's not the way it is.

Because we're blind,

It's very easy to see what we think is not right or wrong in other people,

But it's difficult to see it within our own self.

So yes,

Awareness,

It takes time,

Takes practice,

Takes practice.

I'm always amazed at how much,

How much I'm still uncovering about patterns or ways of being inside of myself that I just couldn't see before.

Yes,

Yes,

I see your comments,

My loves.

Yes,

Yes,

Yes.

Yes,

River,

Once you have awareness,

You have a choice to create something different.

If we're unaware,

We're living in that unawareness.

If we're aware,

Ah,

Wow,

I'm not stuck in this one experience,

I have choice.

I can continue this way that I was when I was unaware,

Or I can choose something else.

And it's just your choice.

As I said at the beginning of our session,

This life,

All of it is for you and your experience,

Your evolution,

Your awakening to who you are.

Yes,

Heidi,

We beat ourselves up for beating ourselves up.

We have all of these patterns.

So thank you,

My love,

Thank you for your love.

And thank you for those of you who are donating and made comments about trying to donate.

Thank you.

Thank you,

Thank you,

Thank you for your support.

May you feel the wealth of generosity in your life,

Whether that is financial generosity or emotional generosity or presence generosity,

May that awaken in you more and more so you live in that freedom of generosity within yourself.

So thank you.

Thank you for moving into that energy of generosity with me and with Insight Timer to support everything that we're co-creating.

Thank you.

So my loves,

Right now in this moment,

I thank you for becoming more aware or considering the patterns in your body and the patterns in your mind.

Now we are going to shift them.

Do you want that?

Would you like that?

Would you like to shift some patterns together?

Most of us are trying to,

We're trying to shift our patterns from the same consciousness that created them.

We try to create something different from the same consciousness that created that which we're no longer wanting.

Do you understand what I'm saying?

Most of us are trying to fix ourselves or fix our problems or fix our lives from the same mentality or emotional state that created those experiences in the first place.

So if we want something new,

If we want something different,

We must shift our patterns.

We don't need to beat them to death.

We don't need to judge ourselves until there's nothing left of us to have any energy to fight.

We don't need to do this.

This is all old paradigm and it doesn't really work anyway.

We don't need to analyze everything to death.

Sometimes it can be as simple as shifting what is happening in the body or shifting what is happening in the mind.

I'll share a brief experience before we move into our practice together.

So I just finished a fantastic weekend with my beloved teacher Saima.

If you're on landscape view you can see this picture of my beloved teacher of 20 years back here with me,

Always with me,

Expressing through me all of this love for you.

Fantastic course and yesterday during our morning meditation as part of the the daily program,

I found that the mind drifted to thoughts about a movie and it was starting to think about the most depressing scene in the movie.

I mean it was just like for me it was heart-wrenching.

Now firstly,

Just for the sake of awareness or consideration,

I was already feeling some contraction emotionally before my mind sought out that image of the movie.

So just an awareness.

Oftentimes we are just having an emotional experience but because the mind is trained to survive,

A brain,

It starts to say why do I feel this way?

Because it thinks unconsciously,

All of this is unconscious,

That if I know why I feel sad,

If I know why I feel angry,

If I understand it,

If I analyze it to death,

Then I can feel free.

The mind thinks that if it understands why we feel an emotion,

We can feel free of it.

But it doesn't work that way,

Does it?

You can't think your way through a feeling.

You can only feel your way through a feeling.

You can't think your way through a feeling.

You can only feel your way through a feeling,

Through meaning to the other side of it,

Where there is ease and relaxation again.

So here I am in my morning meditation in this fantastic program with beautiful community,

Thousand people from all over the world,

Over 30 countries,

All different time zones,

All together in our commitment to growth and expansion and transformation and awakening.

And my mind takes me to the images of this movie and I start to feel so heavy in my heart and I start to feel so contracted because not only was this a scene that I in the movie that I found to be very sad,

It was one of those scenes where I felt helpless,

Where this character that I had an affinity for in the movie was dying and they had nothing they could do about it and their,

You know,

Their life dreams weren't fulfilled,

All of this pain I was feeling while I pictured this scene in this movie.

And then I had this moment of awareness.

Awareness meaning I wasn't so immersed in the experience that I couldn't be a witness of it.

Rather than being totally consumed by it,

There was a moment of presence where I could see the experience for what it was and I said,

Selena,

I said imagining this scene in this movie right now is really making you feel very contracted.

And it wasn't from a place of judgment or fear.

Yes,

Branada,

The movie was the,

I think it's the Dutch Girl,

A really,

Really beautiful potent story about one of the first transgender women at least documented in this way.

It's just a sad moment.

So,

And that's not even important,

My loves,

That's not even important.

Let's come out of the drama for a moment.

We love our drama,

We love to stay in the drama,

Let's come out of it for a moment.

So here I am and I have this awareness and there's just gentle voice inside that says,

Selena,

Focusing on the scene in this movie is causing you to feel depressed.

Focusing on the scene in this movie is making you feel smaller and tighter and smaller and heavier.

And then this voice of awareness within me,

It said,

What if you just shifted your thought?

What if you shifted your mindset?

I bet you would feel differently.

And part of this other part of my mind that was feeling really heavy and sad in the moment,

It was a bit in disbelief.

There was a little bit of a dialogue,

Right,

That internal dialogue.

And this other part of me feeling depressed in that moment said,

Is that really possible?

Can I just think a thought and feel differently?

Is it really that easy?

And so I said,

Okay,

I'll give it a try.

Or this part of the mind said,

Okay.

And so I just started thinking peace.

Peace.

I am peace.

I welcome peace.

I am peace itself.

I am light.

And all of a sudden,

All of that contraction that I was completely immersed in,

With the images in my mind and the feelings in the body,

All of that contraction,

It just dissolved.

It just faded away.

And I was in this beautiful state,

This grace of peace.

I didn't go someplace beautiful in nature.

I didn't solve all my life issues or problems.

I didn't all of a sudden have a different body that would make me feel more comfortable or confident or beautiful.

I didn't all of a sudden have more money.

I didn't all of a sudden have more vacation time.

I didn't all of a sudden have a beautiful partner.

Do you understand what I'm saying?

Nothing in the outside world shifted in that moment that I went from total contraction to total freedom.

Nothing outside of me shifted.

Because that's how we think,

Yes?

When I finally have this thing in my life or when I finally healed myself enough,

I'll finally feel free.

I'll finally feel happy.

I'll finally feel content or fulfilled.

Nothing outside changed.

The only thing that changed was my focus.

The only thing that changed were my thoughts.

I didn't even change my physical body,

Just my mindset.

And you might say,

Well,

Selena,

You were just thinking about a movie.

Of course it was easy to shift.

No,

My loves,

I wasn't just thinking about a movie.

Before my mind took me to thoughts about the movie,

Emotion was coming up in me.

Contraction,

Some pain was wanting to be released.

It was moving through me.

That had nothing to do with the movie.

The movie was just what the mind used to try to think its way out of the feeling.

So are you feeling this?

What are you feeling?

What are you noticing as you hear me share this?

In a moment we're going to move into a powerful practice.

Some of you have shared this with me before.

For others it may be new.

What do you feel in your body?

What do you notice in your mind?

As you consider this in your own self,

In your own life.

Wow,

What if I am really addicted to drama?

So much so that I keep choosing those kinds of thoughts over peaceful ones.

What if the drama and the pain is so known that that's what I keep choosing because it's comfortable?

Yes,

My loves,

Heavy in the body,

Resonating,

Pressure in the chest,

Softening,

Heavy.

Yes,

In the throat and the chest,

My loves.

We hold so much,

So much in our chakras,

But especially the lower chakras.

Yes,

These energetic centers.

Yes,

Some of you are feeling hope.

Wow,

Maybe there's possibility for freedom.

It isn't 20 years of therapy or changing my body or changing my whole life.

Yes,

Hope.

Yes.

River,

Great question.

Did that practice free any of the pain you are feeling or just separate from it for a while?

Great question.

Great question.

Yes,

Because what some of us tend to do is this term called spiritually bypassing,

Spiritual bypass,

Where we think if we just think a happy thought that it makes all of our feelings go away,

But what we're actually doing is repressing or repressing or shoving it down.

And I don't think there's,

There's not a step-by-step process for this.

It's not black and white.

There have been times in my life where I'm sure I went towards a peaceful thought and I was repressing.

That's not what occurred yesterday.

What occurred yesterday is I moved into an actual state of grace,

An actual state of freedom.

And part of that is because I was allowing myself to be how I was.

There was no judgment inside of me saying,

Don't feel this way or you're bad or you're wrong or it's wrong to feel emotion.

There was no resistance to the emotion itself.

There is an allowing of it and a conscious shift in the mindset.

Now if you find yourself,

And again this isn't black and white,

There are many variations of how to process emotion or how to not spiritually bypass,

Where we unconsciously repress emotion as we reach for a good feeling thought.

There,

This is,

This is a journey of our own mastery to understand the difference within our own self.

And the two last things I'll bring up before we start to move into our practice together.

First let's just take a breath.

Let's take a breath.

And another breath.

Relax your shoulders.

Just let your body be as it is.

If you're feeling heavy or tight or anything,

It's okay.

It's okay.

There's nothing wrong with feeling these ways.

So sometimes a feeling may arise and by arise all of a sudden,

I mean we're all of a sudden just locked in it.

We feel all this tension or all this pressure,

All this heaviness.

Maybe we're not even sure of what emotion we're feeling but we just feel not good,

Right?

How many of us know that?

I don't know what I'm feeling but it's not good.

And it could be many things.

I would say it's not even necessary to understand what we're feeling.

Although it can be helpful in our knowledge,

In our education,

It's not necessary to shift into something new.

So if you find yourself feeling one of those contracted or heavy moments inside of one of those contracted or heavy moments and you notice that thinking a thought about what you're grateful for over and over or really focusing on what's beautiful in your life or focusing on the thought,

I am peace,

If you find that you're just really locked inside of that heaviness or contraction in your body,

That is my cue that something is asking to be free within me.

Rather than just trying to shift,

Something is asking for my attention.

I don't need to analyze it.

I don't need to understand it.

I don't need to make it go away.

It is asking for my loving presence.

So if you find yourself in that kind of experience,

I would invite to go into your body.

You don't have to know why you're feeling the way.

Remember,

Come back to my example that I just shared.

This story that my mind was showing me about this sad movie had nothing to do with what I was actually feeling.

And this is what it is for many of us.

Most of the time,

Most of the time an emotion is just arising for one reason or another.

It could be because we feel tired or because we've pushed ourselves too hard or it's just stress-releasing or it's just feeling relief actually and it needs to come out through tears or through breathing,

Whatever it is.

The mind then makes a story that has nothing to do with it.

It sure seems like they're related.

Oh that person did this or oh that one time.

It often has nothing to do with what we're feeling.

It's just emotion moving.

Emotion,

The motion of life.

Energy moving.

So if you find yourself caught in one of those moments where you just don't feel good and shifting the mindset isn't serving you,

Go inside and tend to your emotions.

Feel your body.

Feel your body without trying to make the feelings go away.

Find the place where it's heavy or tight,

Contracted,

And just breathe into it in your body.

And just keep breathing into it and when your mind tries to tell you why you think you feel that way,

Just say thank you mind.

Not now.

I'm not going to listen to that now.

I'm just going to keep feeling my body.

Just come back to your body and breathe and breathe and breathe.

You can also welcome those feelings into your heart.

Your heart is like the sacred fire of transmutation in itself.

So you can imagine that fear in front of you and just gracefully,

This is a teaching of Saima,

My teacher,

Gracefully just bring that fear into the home,

The sacredness of your heart and allow it to be held or transmuted,

Dissolved in the heart.

If it's rage,

Bring it into the heart and just let it be there.

Maybe you just feel the rage as you welcome it into your heart.

That's okay.

Feel it.

That's how we experience that relief.

Yes.

So those are a couple of side practices so that we're not repressing.

But the practice that we're going to move into now is a practice where we are consciously going to shift different patterns within us to naturally move us into a space of greater expansion.

We don't need to analyze anything.

We don't need to consciously feel deeply.

We are going to practice shifting the patterns of the body and the mind.

You may recall a long time ago at the beginning of this of this time together,

We were noticing the patterns in our bodies and we were noticing the patterns in the mind because now we are going to move into a practice of shifting those patterns.

So thank you.

Thank you for your presence.

Thank you for being here.

I see many of you have been chatting with each other throughout the talk.

I invite you as we move into the practice.

I know you love to just share your thoughts and support each other.

And I invite you to set your phone down.

I invite you to take your hands away from your tablet or your computer and give yourself this gift.

This is for you,

My loves.

This is for you right now.

This moment is your life.

However you're feeling,

Whatever your mind is thinking,

This is your life right now.

Not a year from now or 10 years from now or a month from now when something happens that you're waiting for.

This beautiful moment in all of its glory or pain is your exquisite life.

So let's be in it fully together.

Yes?

You don't need to respond in the chat.

Yes?

Just say yes with me if you're open to it.

Just say yes.

Alright,

Great.

So shifting the patterns.

Shifting the patterns.

So the first thing I'll invite you to do,

If you can move your body,

I'm not going to do it because I'm going to stay in frame,

But if you can move your body,

If you can stand up,

I invite you to stand up right now and just move your body.

Just move your body a little bit.

Shake your shoulders,

Your hips,

Your feet,

Your hands,

Your move your head,

Every part of your body.

If you can't move your physical body,

Breathe deeply.

We'll all breathe deeply together whether we're moving or not and if you can't move your body,

Imagine it.

Imagine in your mind that you are just shaking every part of your body.

We're creating some space for something new.

Yes?

Maybe jump around a little bit.

Let's keep breathing a few more deep breaths together.

Turn your torso,

Move your body from side to side.

Move your head.

We have so much rigidity in the head and the neck.

Be mindful as you move it.

Great.

Great.

And let's come back to a seat.

And you may notice you already feel a little different just moving the body.

So the practice we're going to move into is priming.

Many of you have experienced this with me before.

Some of you have experienced it from the source with Tony Robbins,

One of the most successful humans on the planet.

If you've never heard of Tony,

He is just a phenomenal powerhouse of transformation in people's lives and he's very mainstream which means that he's very accessible.

And some people may think,

Well this big loud guy,

I'm not really into him,

But he is such an embodiment of the heart,

Of service,

Of love.

And the combination of these practices that makes up what he calls priming.

It's part of his daily practice.

And you can think about that.

We are moving into a practice of one of the most successful people on the entire planet.

Not just financially successful,

Spiritually successful,

Meaning fulfilled,

Heart expanded,

Free,

Open,

Loving,

Generous,

Kind,

Enjoying life to the fullest.

All of those levels of success,

Yes?

So Tony practices this every day.

So you imagine if this is what he does to support him in all of his evolution and service on the planet.

Can't hurt for us.

So this practice again,

It's a combination of different techniques and they all happen to be some of my personal favorite yogic techniques,

Visualization techniques,

Yogic practices.

Fatim,

Again this practice that Tony practices is called,

He calls it priming.

And you can find practices of this on YouTube.

He has it on YouTube so you can find it there and practice it with him.

It's awesome.

And you may recognize these practices individually.

They may be practices you already incorporate.

Yogic practices,

Visualization practices,

Yes?

All combined for this powerful way to shift.

So shake your body again.

I feel you,

I feel you.

You're starting to get back in your patterns,

Back in the feeling that life doesn't really work well for you and there's defeat and doubt.

Shift it.

You are powerful my loves.

So let's shift it by shifting the body,

The mind,

And the emotions right now in this beautiful practice together.

Yeah.

Say yes with me.

Just say yes.

Give me,

Give me some energy with your voice.

You don't have to type it.

Just say it inside of yourself.

Say it out loud.

Practice being alive.

Practice being in your body with me.

Yes,

Practice saying yes to your own self.

Yes to your life.

How much time do we spend saying no?

No to this person.

No to that opportunity.

No to that thing.

Come on.

This is your life.

This.

So here we go.

There are,

We're going to move into the basic practices of priming.

It changes sometimes in Tony's way of offering it,

But we're going to move into just the few basics of it.

So our first part of this practice is going to be breathing.

In yoga we call this Bhastrika.

It's a type of breath practice that's very powerful.

I've been practicing this with my teacher Saima for 20 years and it is a potent practice for shifting those patterns that we looked at in the body.

And the breath is so powerful in itself.

It shifts what's happening in the nervous system.

It enlivens the cells with fresh oxygen and it also wakes up prana.

Some of you may know this word prana or chi or ki.

It is beyond the breath.

It is life force energy itself.

And when we breathe in this way we are activating this life force energy in every cell and every part of our body.

So let us move into our practice now.

I invite you to have some space around you so that you can move your arms.

We are going to be moving the body.

If you want to shift the body we need to move the body.

And again if you can't move your physical body,

No problem.

Practice all of this in your mind.

Yes?

Anissa is saying,

Say no to your no's.

How about just say yes to life?

And of course boundary setting and being able to say no is a very healthy and important practice in our mastery.

That's not what we're referring to right now,

Right?

We're referring to being open to life.

So yes my loves,

Yes to life.

Yes I see you.

Fantastic.

So for this practice let's first work with the physical posture.

We're going to sit tall in our seat.

So rather than slouching sit up straight or relatively straight.

Let's roll one shoulder up and back and the other shoulder up and back.

Let's do this a couple of times so that we're opening the chest consciously.

We'll reach the arms up to the sky.

I'm going to reach them a little more to the sides.

You can see my hands but feel free to reach them up to the sky.

We're going to inhale and then as we exhale we're going to cover the thumb with the fingers.

Just gently,

You don't need to squeeze.

Cover the thumbs with the fingers and then bring with energy,

Bring the arms back down to the sides of the body so that your inner arm makes contact with the rib cage.

This activates the nadis,

The energetic pathways through the body.

So we inhale and then we exhale.

We cover the thumb and bring the arms back down.

Inhale reach up,

Exhale down.

Inhale reach up,

Exhale down.

And again you can reach the arms up rather than out.

I'm just doing this you can see my hands.

Exhale to come down.

Inhale,

Exhale.

Inhale,

Exhale.

Vastrika Pranayama.

Exhale.

Very good.

Now the breath work itself is a powerful exhalation and we're going to do this a couple of times throughout our practice.

So the way that it can be helpful to start if you're unfamiliar with this practice,

We're only going to inhale 50% of our lung capacity.

One way that can make this challenging is if we take a deep breath in.

It's difficult to forcefully exhale all of the air out because the lungs are filled to capacity.

Don't worry you don't need to remember any of that.

All you're remembering.

.

.

Thank you Fatim for asking.

So again in in some practices you will hear contraindications for this practice.

It can never hurt to share them.

I've studied with masters who say everyone is welcome to practice this.

They never share the contraindications and I've also shared with teachers who offer contraindications,

Meaning who shouldn't practice.

So I will share that information with you and and I'll let you decide in your in your feeling sense with yourself what serves you best.

Generally people who should not practice this breath technique are pregnant women if you have heart conditions,

Epilepsy,

High blood pressure.

So if you if you are if that resonates with you if you're one of those people where you resonate with one of those conditions that I just shared I leave it to you to choose if you engage in the practice or not.

You could also just engage in the breathing practice a little more gently because in a moment you're going to see this is focusing on a very strong exhalation.

However again if you would like to engage you could just focus on a little more of a gentle exhalation rather than so forcefully and powerfully.

Yes and you'll still receive great benefit even just breathing in and out deeply you'll still receive great benefit so your choice Fatim thank you for sharing that.

So here we go the breath we inhale only 50% of our lung capacity and then we exhale forcefully through the nostrils.

Now if your sinuses are completely clogged and you can't exhale through the nose I invite you to bring the teeth together they gently touch this is another practice but we're not going to move into this today teeth are gently touching so we're not squeezing just gently and exhale through the mouth so I inhale through the nose 50% actually through the mouth in and out of the mouth so I inhale 50% and I exhale strongly now that's only if you can't exhale through the nose so let's all try this together we'll inhale 50% to begin and then forcefully exhale and you'll notice that after you strongly exhale the in-breath happens on its own so let's relax the breath again inhale 50% exhale strongly very good now you'll notice two things and we're going to get into it in a moment I know we've been speaking a lot today so firstly I invite you to place your hand on your abdomen relax your belly let it be as soft as it can be and as we inhale the belly will naturally expand if it's relaxed and when we exhale it will naturally contract so the navel naturally moves back toward the spine as we exhale so we inhale it expands exhale it contracts I'll turn to the side inhale can you see I think I'm high enough inhale exhale inhale exhale so you can see that and again if you if you find this difficult or awkward or challenging I invite you to just play with it for some this can take years I know a woman that this took 20 years for her to get of practicing regularly semi-regularly so please know that as long as you're breathing fully great we're moving the energy so let's move into the practice and we're just going to dive right in so we inhale halfway so inhale 50% reach the arms up as we breathe in and then we exhale forcefully and when I say forcefully I mean strongly forcefully is strongly so we exhale strongly inhale yes so we can kind of see what's happening now I'm in a really bouncy chair so my body's bouncing but notice that I'm not doing any of this with my shoulders sometimes moving towards the breath we end up kind of getting into this little shoulder dance we're just focusing on this expanded and contracting yes and you may feel light-headed two things first of all remember we are not fully inhaling if you fully inhale and then try to fully exhale you'll start to hyperventilate because you won't be expelling all of the oxygen the air so it's a half inhale half exhale and yes that lightheadedness is that oxygen moving into the brain moving into the blood it's also the expansion of prana ki chi this life force energy in us we start to feel like the space around us is vibrating sometimes or we're expanding yes do we need to breathe into the diaphragm so faith the diaphragm is what pumps the lung the air in and out of the lungs so the diaphragm is going to do what it naturally does when you breathe the diaphragm is working for you so just focus on half inhalation and then forcefully exhale strongly I don't like that word forcefully strongly exhale so we inhale halfway we exhale strong and I think it's beata yes great question you'll find that there's a natural rhythm that starts to happen after that initial breath of inhaling only 50% 50% exhale you may find that you're able to take short full breaths but again no need to focus on all of the mind the body has an innate wisdom and knows what to do so let's just practice just practice and if you find that the pace is too fast for you go slower if you find that the breathing feels uncomfortable that's okay you can just naturally breathe in and out you don't need to focus on the strong exhalation please choose whatever feels best for you today if we're breathing deeply and fully that will serve even if it's not basthurika pranayama yes so now we're going to move into our whole practice together all of that explanation let us move into the practice you're welcome to have the eyes opened or closed so Linda's asking is there a certain amount of time that was all demonstration my loves that was all demonstration so now we're going to move into it together and I will guide us through the process so you don't need to worry about when to stop anything like this yes so here we move into our 15 minute practice now not 15 minutes of breathing just a couple of rounds of breathing and then we'll move into the rest of the experience so let us sit tall reach the arms up inhale 50% and forcefully strongly exhale as you bring the arms down relax the breath relax the arms be still be still and just breathe naturally breathe naturally eyes are closed feel tingling or vibration expansion and now we'll move into another 30 repetitions please go at your pace whatever breath technique you've chosen and we'll move a little faster if you choose relax the jaw a lot there to be a space between the teeth eyes are closed though if you choose the gaze rolls up so that you're looking between the brows at the first eye reach the arms up inhale 50% and exhale strongly relax the breath relax the body be still breathe naturally feel yourself expanding vibrating and one more round of 30 repetitions move at your own pace reach the arms up inhale only 50% of your lung capacity to begin relax breathe naturally and allow the body to be still very still feel the shoulders soften the belly and the chest soften and bring your awareness to your heart your beautiful heart feel the tenderness of the heart the softness of the heart the love of the heart and if you can't access any of those qualities of the heart it's okay just breathe into the space of the heart maybe you imagine a warmth or a light in the heart bring to mind a moment from your life that you feel truly grateful for a moment that when you think of it it starts to fill you with this sense of ease or this sweetness or this joy or this peacefulness recall a moment a memory that really fills you with gratitude maybe it was a beautiful experience you had a vacation a trip traveling being on a retreat being with your loved ones getting married bring to mind one memory that is only full of gratitude for you and remember remember it in detail what was happening how are you feeling in your body in your heart in your mind how are you feeling in your body in your mind in your heart in your mind in your mind who is with you feeling totally relaxed let's take a deep breath in and out together now recall another time from your life even if it was 50 years ago recall another time that you feel truly grateful for maybe it was a special moment a peaceful moment a loving experience remember it in detail what was happening around you what colors could you see what did you feel in your body how good were you feeling in your emotions feel the gratitude that you have for this moment from your life and now let us choose one more memory that awakens gratitude could be anything but a memory that truly opens your heart in this experience this expression of gratitude that softens your heart that expands your heart remember all of the details and feel it in your body let's take a breath together just breathe deeply breathe deeply and really fill the lungs with your breath and breathe completely out inhale fully expand the lungs exhale through the mouth or the nose until all of the air is out nothing left inhale you may feel that oxygen moving into the brain this expansion or tingling in the brain inhale strongly exhale strongly inhale strongly deeply exhale strongly completely three more breaths like this inhale exhale inhale exhale inhale exhale and feel yourself full feel this vibration or this tingling or this light of who you are and then imagine that in your heart where you have just enlivened gratitude that this gratitude is expanding in the heart feel it as a warmth or a light that you are consciously sending or sharing with those in your life this light touching their lives your friends your family your co-workers and I feel feel this light expanding all around you not just in your heart but through your body into the space around you this blessing or this offering of the light of your own heart moving out into your entire town or city this warmth of your own heart spreading out into the entire state or province moving out into your entire country continent island this light this grace of the heart enveloping the entire planet if you're feeling any resistance in this moment I invite you to connect with your breath and just breathe deeply your heart is innate wisdom itself and this light that you are this light of the heart naturally illuminates everywhere it touches with your mind this one planet of human family animal kingdom Mata Gaia Mother Earth this one light this one home this one global planetary family uplifted in harmony peace love see or feel this in your mind and now bring your awareness back to your own heart and I invite you to think of something that you choose that you wish for your life go beyond the limited mind go beyond the doubting mind what is something that you consciously choose for your life maybe it is a type of relationship or a blossoming of your career or maybe it's something material like a home or a car or an outfit that you really love think about something that you choose for the fullness of your life and then let us imagine it as a future memory start to see it in your mind or feel it in your body use your power of thought to imagine it as if it is happening right now if it is a kind of relationship you're wanting imagine yourself in that relationship right now and all of its glory and love and beauty what would it feel like to be connecting with this person how much joy or peace would you feel if it's if it's to have an acceleration in your career how amazing does it feel to be embodying and living your career with so much success and flourishing see what that looks like what does it look like for your career to be totally enlivened manifested or if it's a physical object or or material item what is it like to to touch or to see or to feel that material item bring it to life in your mind and your feelings right now and use your breath if you find yourself getting stuck use your breath and now think of another future memory consciously create your future right now something that you choose for your life go beyond the doubts go beyond the limitations see feel feel the power of your life and then let us imagine it as if it is a kind of relationship right now and let us imagine it as if it is a relationship right now see feel something else that you are wanting as if it is happening right now not what it would be like someday but right now what would it feel like in your body what would it be like to see it through your mind what would be happening if this was already so and one final gift to you in this moment as you consciously create a future memory consciously create your powerful your fulfilled your joyful your loving your peaceful life experience in this moment use your imagination use your feelings use your mind one more future memory of something you choose from a place of unlimited nature for your life maybe it's to be awakened to be free and you see yourself sitting or walking in everlasting grace and peace see yourself loving serving others maybe you have a dream to serve the world and you see that unfolding in your mind in your heart right now let's take a deep deep breath in together exhale through the mouth ah and now move your body move your body make it big open your arms wide open your chest move your body and welcome this new energy welcome these visions these feelings welcome yourself as the powerful creator that you are go beyond your limited patterns in the body do something big right now jump up and down open your arms wide express yourself as this fullness of life no one nothing can make you full my loves only you you are already full you're already whole are you willing to go beyond the identification with the smallness of life to welcome the fullness of who you already are that's your choice that's the power you carry so another breath if your eyes are still closed slowly begin to open the eyes and welcome yourself fully as you are if you feel the body or the emotions going back into those contracted patterns take something like a power pose you know these powers that send messages to the brain you can put your hands above your head I really like this one hands above the head and you hold it for a couple of minutes and this will really help to rewire the brain or you put your hands on your hip and your shoulders back yes you can just open your arms like this welcoming of life hold it and breathe remind yourself I am powerful I have so much available to me once I shift my attention from these other patterns to something new we're all just unconsciously living in these patterns and when we start to shift them through there are many practices available to us when we start to shift those patterns something new becomes available just shifting your body my loves just shifting your body can shift how you feel and shift how you think that's okay for us very that you were only able to create one strong vision right now that's okay just focus on that one and maybe later or tomorrow try another one if for some time for some of us it's a you know we really have to develop this mental faculty this higher faculty of the imagination we've we've spent so much time not giving energy to the imagination that it needs to be reawoken that it needs to be enlivened yes so it's okay to start with that one focus on that one future memory and let it build and grow and expand and keep feeling it like it's happening right now and then maybe something else will start to arise ah yes so is this are you still here you still here this shared earlier that there was an experience of resistance and yes my love good and the resistance to this practice was due to a celebrity I'm paraphrasing this but essentially that that I that this celebrity is sharing these ancient practices these ancient practices that are very sacred and that the celebrity was sharing it and that many people only know about these practices because of this celebrity Tony Robbins if you missed that part of our session so here's what I'd love to say my love firstly any resistance that we have but and this is sharing it's about customizing the practices oh this is a really deep topic but we've already been here for an hour and 15 minutes and it's time to complete so I'm going to just bring up a couple concise points here firstly my understanding is that well actually it's not even necessary to bring up firstly many people who are drawn to study with Tony Robbins do not have any spiritual background they have zero interest in yoga they have zero interest in meditation they have no access to it even maybe they don't even really realize that it's available to them these ancient practices are available to them they're not aware of it or maybe they're just turned off by it Tony does not charge for this practice and he doesn't coin it to be his Tony shares what he chooses to do so for example I have a few different practices that I use most mornings and I could share my combination of those three practices you know I could share okay well friends this is what I do I do this practice this practice in this practice and I could say and I call it my morning routine and I could share that with you because I know it's transformed my life I'm not saying that I created them I created the routine at least for me I put combined them but I'm not saying that I created the techniques I'm not saying you can't share them with others I'm not saying that they're mine I'm just sharing with you what has transformed my life and this is what Tony has done he never said I created any of these techniques and he also doesn't say you have to pay to do these and he also doesn't say you can't share this these are ancient sacred practices and many people who study with Tony do not have access to them so in one way it is absolutely fantastic that we have someone who is mainstream sharing these practices because otherwise these people may have never never been exposed to the gift of pranayama they have may have never been exposed to the gift of using their mind and their heart in a grateful way they may have never been exposed to the ancient beautiful practice of seeing the world filled with light and feel that light coming from your own heart they may have never ever ever been exposed to it and part of what's fantastic also I think about this from time to time because I have a spiritual teacher yes not everyone is attracted to everyone there are some people who probably just see my face and they're like oh or they hear the sound of my voice and they say she is not for me Selena is not my teacher she is not my you know someone I want to listen to and that's great because there are people who do want to listen to me and the the the kind of person that that person wants to listen to is out there for them is out there for them so part of the beauty of us sharing with each other because we're all one family we're all humans we are all divine essence we are one so to have different vehicles to share the knowledge is fantastic now of course if someone is bastardizing I'll just keep that short if someone's bastardizing the sacredness of something that's something that can be looked at but I see this as an expression of different vehicles to share the light with the world different vehicles to connect with different personalities some people will never connect with you know the energy of a yogi on a mountaintop but they may really resonate with me or they may really resonate with Tony and so they might actually have the exposure in this lifetime to these sacred gifts we're all vehicles for the light no matter how famous we are no matter if we have one cent to our name or millions of dollars no matter our religion no matter if we are born in India into yogic practices or we are born someplace in a ghetto we are all one we are all one and it's okay to resist it's okay to feel resistance welcome that resistance welcome the resistance into the heart welcome the resistance we are all one though and our judgments about each other in how spiritual we are or we aren't or how how good of a person we are or we aren't all of the judgments that we carry about each other and about ourself just create a stronger illusion of separation we are one and we are all vehicles for source energy we are all vehicles for life energy so I love you so thank you for sharing your resistance so we could have this time together this part of our conversation we are all one my loves we are one we've just forgotten so yes yes my love yes room for the resistance just welcome it welcome it into your sacred heart there's always something else in resistance yes fear pain some feeling of loss some feeling of of whatever it is yes we all have there's always something behind the resistance that is a reflection of our our our sweetheart our our tenderness our our desire for for harmony or for peace that has always starts within us so that resistance is more than just a block that resistance is something inside of us saying listen to me see me love me hold me don't leave me again don't leave me again yes my love yes yes yes yes and that's okay just welcome that practice welcoming practice just welcoming it into your heart and change your body chain not not your dog I don't mean exercise more although yes take care of your body but shift your patterns shift your patterns long before I ever met Tony Robbins my beloved Guruji my beloved Saima has been teaching us from the beginning to shift our patterns if you want something new you can't create it from the same consciousness that the old patterns came from shift do something different with your body for years and years I had this this piece that I wrote on the front page of my website it was just one paragraph and it just said it just said if you want something new shift do something new try something new do something differently with your body today do something differently with your mind today shift your focus be open say yes when you usually find yourself saying no this is your life right now and if you want something different you must be willing to create something different which means choosing something different which means changing your physical patterns if you're like this all the time start jumping up and down choose these poses that send messages to your brain that something different is happening speak to yourself differently speak to others differently choose one new thought that you can focus on for the next week just one thought maybe it's a thought that says I love you or a thought that says I am a forgiving person even if you don't feel it choose something different it's all in you my loves all of it your life your power your joy your fullness your love it's nowhere outside of you it is all right here and you can wake up to it right now without having to have a perfect life your life does not need to be perfect or peaceful for you to awaken the peace that you are your life and the world does not need to be serene for you to know your serenity it is you it is all you and it's right here waiting to be welcomed in your heart so it's time for us to complete I'll show one final thought yesterday in the end of our global unity gathering which I can't wait for again it doesn't happen again until next year although we may have some other programs in between which will be wonderful part of the closing of our program is to write down different things that we are committing to and choosing for 2021 not like New Year's resolutions like an anchored commitment to life itself life itself and one of the things that I said that I wrote down is to take no no I said to I am doing something that is uncomfortable every single day I am doing something that is uncomfortable every single day whatever that is whatever that may be something uncomfortable so that I start to wake up wake up wake up come out of the sleeping giant come out of the sleeping comfort wake up wake up as Lao Tzu said wake up you're already free I love you so I love you so I cherish you we are here together in this life waking up I love you I love you I love you so you are so awesome so awesome

Reviews

💖phenomenal, thank you💖

Loved this. Thank so much!💜

Wow! That was so incredible and life changing, really. So much gratitude to you and for this. I'd love to know your morning routine!!