Mindfulness for Wholeness and Wisdom

A guided meditation practice for wholeness and wisdom.

Transcript

Before you begin this visualization,

I invite you to create an environment that will allow you to shift out of your head and drop down into your body.

Turn off all digital devices and phones.

Turn on a fan to create a noise barrier.

Create a candle.

It's difficult to access our wisdom and guidance from our heads.

It's too noisy and chatty in there.

We connect to wisdom when we drop into our bodies and choose a conscious intention to receive.

We cannot receive when we're moving quickly.

We cannot receive when we're trying to figure things out.

We can only receive when we can see between the parade of thoughts and arrive at the place of breath and space.

If you need to pause this recording for a moment to create your environment,

Please do so.

Now I invite you to move into a comfortable position,

Either sitting or lying down,

And close your eyes.

Let's take a minute to focus on our breath together,

Noticing the inhale,

Noticing the exhale.

Make a conscious choice again to shift into your body,

Into your heart,

And simply notice your breath.

Watch it entering your body through your nose.

Feel it travel down into your chest,

Rib cage,

And belly.

Notice it exiting through your nose.

Very gently,

As if you are witnessing a sleeping animal,

Watch your breath.

When the thoughts float into your mind,

As they always will,

Observe them as you would observe a cloud moving across a wide blue sky.

Thoughts are just clouds.

They float into your mind,

And if you don't attach onto them,

They float on by.

Gentle,

Observing,

Witnessing,

No attachment to outcome,

Non-judgmental,

Be here right now.

These are the qualities of mindfulness.

We're going to take one mindful minute to practice focusing on our breath,

To simply place our attention inward and notice,

Simply notice what's happening inside.

Notice your thoughts,

Notice your feelings,

Notice sensations in your body.

Notice any dreams,

Memories,

Or images that may arise.

Thoughts,

Feelings,

Sensations,

Dreams,

Images,

These are what dwell inside.

These are what we tend to ignore.

These are what need our attention.

There is no goal here,

And no right or wrong way to do this.

It's just an opportunity to practice the skills of witnessing and non-judging.

And if you judge,

Simply notice that as well.

When the judging part of you is observed with compassion,

It softens and opens.

We all only need to be seen,

Even the scared parts of ourselves,

Especially the scared parts of ourselves.

Practice witnessing yourself through a compassionate lens,

As if a part of you is standing on the cliff of your mind,

Watching the thoughts,

Watching your breath,

Watching your feelings,

Coming back to your breath.

Your breath is the anchor in the sea of mind thoughts.

Your breath brings you back home.

And if there's a part of you that can observe your thoughts and breath,

What part is that?

We are not our thoughts.

We are the space between our thoughts and the place beneath our breath.

We are our wholeness.

We turn inside with curiosity.

We turn inside to observe.

We turn inward for one minute,

One mindful minute,

To practice connecting to our wholeness and strengthening the muscle of our witness self.

We turn inward as an antidote to the outward doing achievement way of going through life that dominates.

We turn inward to rest.

We turn inward to breathe.

We will hear a gong at the beginning and the end of the minute.

One mindful minute begins now.

Don't give up.

Alongside connecting to our wholeness,

This practice of quietly turning inward can help us connect to our wisdom and guidance,

Because our wisdom and guidance lives in the wholeness.

I'm going to read to you now along these lines from Rachel Naomi Remen.

The Buddhists talk about samsara,

The world of illusion.

It is the place that most of us live in.

Mistaking illusion for reality is said to be the root cause of our suffering.

Yet in some immensely elegant way,

Suffering itself can release us from illusion.

Often in times of crisis,

When we reach for what we have considered our strength,

We stumble on our wholeness and our real power,

How we were before we fixed ourselves to win approval.

What has been fixed is always less strong than what is whole.

In a time of real need,

We may remember and free ourselves.

We usually look outside of ourselves for heroes and teachers.

It has not occurred to most people that they may already be the role model they seek.

The wholeness they are looking for may be trapped within themselves by beliefs,

Attitudes,

And self-doubt.

But our wholeness exists in us now.

Trapped though it may be,

It can be called upon for guidance,

Direction,

And most fundamentally,

Comfort.

It can be remembered.

Eventually,

We come to live by it.

You have a place of wholeness inside of you.

It's all around you,

Like the air that you breathe.

It's your birthright,

Your innate wisdom,

Your natural self-trust.

It lives inside of you,

But it is trapped,

Buried beneath the self-doubt,

The belief that others know better,

The addiction to approval and caring what others think,

The need to please,

The pursuit of perfection,

The fear of failure and getting it wrong and making a mistake.

Underneath all of that is your self-trust and self-love and wholeness shining like an untouched diamond sitting in a shaft of light.

How do you access this diamond?

Meditation helps.

Poetry helps.

Prayer helps.

It's important to understand that even if you don't see yourself as a spiritual person,

This self-trust and inner wisdom exists inside of you.

Some people may call it God or Spirit.

If those words or concepts don't work for you,

Just call it guidance or love or self with a capital S.

The main point is that you do not need anyone else to access this place inside of you.

You only need a tentative hope that it's there,

A suspension of the belief that everyone else has it together or has access to wisdom except you.

For now,

I invite you to suspend any disbelief and join me as I guide you to connect to your guidance.

I invite you to use your imagination,

Trusting that your imagination is a doorway to a higher realm.

Ride those currents.

Suspend your disbelief.

Trust the images that arise.

Whether you believe it or not,

We're all innately creative as evidenced by our dreams.

Our unconscious sends us images and creative stories every night.

And though they may be confusing or unnerving,

There are images nonetheless that are arising from your psyche and your psyche alone.

So for now,

Trust in your imagination and trust the images that arise.

Breathe.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Good.

We're going to take one more mindful minute,

One more minute of simply noticing what's happening inside of you.

Now,

Using your imagination,

See yourself in a beautiful place,

The safest place that you can imagine.

Using all of your senses,

See what's around you.

Touch what's next to you.

Breathe in the scents,

The smells.

Listen to the sounds.

Nothing can hurt you here.

It's your safe place,

Your special place that exists just for you.

Notice what it feels like to be here.

Notice how it feels in your body to transport yourself to a place that is completely safe.

Now imagine that you can sense a loving presence near you or inside you.

This presence is highest love and it always dwells within you.

If you don't see or feel anything,

That's okay.

Continue to imagine yourself in your safe place.

Using your imagination,

Riding those currents,

Allowing this process to unfold.

Without reaching,

Without striving,

Just being here and allowing.

Eventually,

You will touch in to this place of guidance.

It's your birthright.

Your guidance is you.

It's the highest part of you that sees and sees your goodness,

Your wholeness,

Your worthiness,

Your beauty,

Your heart,

Your essence.

Whenever you want to connect to this part of you,

It's there.

All you need to do is drop down into your body so that you can learn and listen and receive from this loving presence,

This highest part of you.

Whenever you want to connect to this part of you,

It's there.

All you need to do is drop down into your body,

Into your breath,

Into your silence so that you can learn and listen and receive from this loving part of you.

Your relationship to your guidance,

Your inner wholeness will develop and grow over many days,

Weeks,

Or even years.

Be patient with yourself and trust your imagination.

There is great power there.

Infinite comfort and wisdom is all around you.

You may not feel or see or receive anything right now.

That's okay.

With time,

With practice,

With conscious intention,

You will start to connect with this most loving part of you that can show you the way.

Reviews

This was really something! worked great for me, thank you.

🙏😘Wow! So 💗nurturing ❤️comforting 🎀centering and insightful! I am blown away! I paused at moments to write down reflections… Profound!👏🎉💫🎈🎁

What a blessing to receive this meditation this morning. Thank you x

A daily reminder to drop down into the body. Stop the mind from thinking practice. Very good

Some great moments but I was a bit distracted. Will listen to it again soon :-)

So comforting, just looking inside

Thank you 🙏🏼💜

Very helpful meditation and one I will come back to practice many times.
With gratitude to you for sharing .

Thank you calming and well paced

What a soothing wonderful meditation. Thank you!

Beautiful. Thank you!

The right meditation at the right time. Very meaningful

Beautiful. Nice voice, good tempo.
Traveling inside. Finding what's asked for.

Extremely enjoyable.

Liked this very much. Would have preferred more "mindful minutes"--perhaps longer time with more stillness Thank you

Namaste and metta to all

Love that it's guided with moments of silence. Nice balance !

Absolutely perfect for me right now. Looking forward to sitting with this again soon. Thank you 🙏🏼❤️