The following practice is led by Sonia Lockyer,
Host of the Wellbeing Ritual Club.
We're going to start by getting comfortable.
So our practice this morning is a very simple chakra meditation which really is a sort of new age way of saying that we're going to explore the subtle energy of the body because we have these incredible maps inside of us and our brains,
Our minds can be so very dominant can't they?
They kind of want to take over the show but when we do meditation practice we start to recognize where the mind is in priority or rather just let it allow it as time and space to take a step back so that we can listen to what else is going on.
So far from it being about emptying the mind it's more about witnessing,
Well at least my understanding is,
It's more about witnessing.
So we're going to witness our subtle energetic body this morning.
So start by getting yourself comfortable,
You can be sitting in a chair down on the floor,
You can even be lying down,
Try and have your spine straight if you can.
And then you get to choose if you keep your eyes open or closed but either way let the gaze soften.
It's an exercise in softening,
We're less interested in forward focused sharp focus,
We're more interested in that sort of sideways panoramic softness that's available to us.
The breath is gently in and out through the nose,
Gentle but deep.
So again nothing forced,
Just bringing your awareness to your breath is usually enough to begin the process of it,
Lengthening,
Deepening.
So it moves from being like a choppy shoreline wave to a big ocean wave,
Smooth and long.
It can be comfortable to just rest the tongue up on the roof of the mouth and that sometimes brings with it a softness around the jaw,
The gums,
The teeth.
And as you take your awareness to your ears you might feel or hear a sense of the sounds of your body,
Particularly the sound of the in-breath and the out-breath.
Maybe you can expand your sense of hearing to notice the sounds of the building that you're in.
Maybe you can expand outside to notice the sounds surrounding you.
There may be some birdsong or other people or traffic.
There might just be the sound of silence.
And then bring your hearing back to noticing the sound of your body,
The in-breath,
The out-breath.
And some days you can even hear your heart.
And as always we offer our practice up so that the fruits of our practice can be shared with all.
As you sit here or lie here,
Notice where in your body feels good right now,
If there's anywhere that feels more pleasant,
More gentle,
More easy than anywhere else.
And notice for yourself what words would you use to describe that feeling.
So it's not uncommon for words such as warm or light or spacious or kind to come up,
But you find your word.
So bringing all of your awareness to that part of your body and letting that feeling expand with your awareness,
What you look at grows.
So just shining the light of your awareness onto that feeling allows it to grow.
And our whole practice is fluid,
It's an experiment,
A curiosity.
So nothing needs to be forced,
We're just exploring.
Let's explore how it feels right at the tip of the tailbone,
The very deepest part of the pelvis.
We might do that by taking the in-breath right the way down to the tip of the tailbone and allowing the exhale to flush through the body from the tailbone all the way up through the torso and out through the crown of your head.
So the in-breath draws all the way down to the tailbone and the out-breath moves from tailbone up through and out.
And then moving awareness up into the very center of the pelvic bowl to finding the heart of your pelvic bowl.
So maybe taking your awareness over to the right hand side of the pelvic bowl and then across to the left hand side.
So your awareness can move in an infinity loop from side to side within the pelvic bowl.
And each in-breath is moving down into this infinity loop and the out-breath is moving from the infinity loop up through the spine and out through the crown of the head.
At the point where this infinity loop crosses is right in the heart of the pelvis.
So you might become aware of textures or temperatures.
You might feel weight or you may feel light.
So it may be less that you feel and more that you visualize.
And then letting your awareness travel up to the navel.
So just beneath the belly button deep within the navel.
And it's not unusual for parts of the body to be um inaccessible to your senses there.
It can be a strange thing to not be able to feel.
But that doesn't mean that you're not practicing.
So just allow whatever is maybe you can feel and sense.
Maybe you just visualize.
Drawing the in-breath down to the very heart of the navel.
And allowing the exhale to flush through the torso all the way up to the crown of your head.
So so even if the thing that you notice is that you're drifting off your attention is going elsewhere.
Then you're still practicing.
Smile and bring yourself back.
Then moving the air the awareness up to the space of the sternum.
So down at the lower ribs.
Home to the diaphragm.
Drawing the in-breath to that space.
Trusting the place that you locate.
Nobody's body is the same.
So I make suggestions but you find the place your awareness goes to naturally.
And exhaling from that space up and out through the crown of your head.
So so noticing what you feel here.
So and then bringing awareness up to the space of your heart.
This immense energetic space of your heart.
Let the in-breath come directly into the very center of your heart.
Your heart of hearts.
And let the out-breath travel from the heart up through the crown of your head.
Flushing through.
So without condition or agenda just noticing doesn't have to feel a certain way.
So allowing what is.
So allowing your awareness to move up into your throat.
Notice what you can feel.
Being okay with whatever it is you can or can't feel.
Breathing awareness to your throat.
And exhaling from the throat up through the crown of the head.
So and then bringing awareness to the tip of your nose.
And allowing that breath this time to move from tip of nose up to third eye and back again.
So in-breath taking awareness to the tip of your nose.
Out-breath to the space of the third eye.
So so and then awareness moving from the space of the third eye up to a place above the crown of the head.
About 12 inches above the head.
And as you inhale bring your awareness to the space of the third eye and as you exhale let the breath travel up to that place that you may feel you may not feel.
We're just curious we're just explorers.
Notice.
Notice what you feel.
So bringing awareness back to the third eye.
To the throat to the heart the sternum the navel the pelvis and the tailbone.
And allowing the feeling of the unity of all of that to be felt.
Basking in it sensing it and allowing it.
And as you inhale inhale acceptance for what is whatever shape or form or texture that takes.
And as you exhale allow the exhale to be a release of any resistance towards what is.
Inhaling acceptance of what is and we're exhaling resistance towards what is.
So so so so and scanning through the body.
Notice where feels most comfortable.
And allow the word that describes that feeling to come to mind.
And let that word be an anchor through your day.
The memory of the feeling in your body will exist through all the nuances of your day.
So call it back anytime and let it expand within your body.
And bringing your hands together dropping forehead to fingertips offering the fruits of our practice always to all beings so that as we practice our personal well-being it becomes inevitably collective well-being.
Namaste.
