Welcome.
We offer these meditations freely and your donations make a real difference,
So thank you.
If you'd like to find a comfortable seat and let yourself settle for a moment.
We're going to do a breath meditation this morning exploring the inner realms of the body with our awareness of our breath.
Focusing a little bit on the root,
The pelvis of the body.
You might want to have a drink to your side,
You want to be nice and warm and comfortable.
Ideally your hips are higher than your knees,
Often mine aren't,
And then I get up at the end of the practice and stagger around like I'm 112 years old.
It does help if your hips are higher.
But either way,
As long as your spine is free to be as tall and straight as possible,
You can always lie down on your back.
That's often a better option.
Take a little moment to be sure that you're settled and then you might just drop your gaze down towards the floor,
You might close your eyelids.
Either way,
There's a softness in the eyes.
We're gently breathing in and out through the nose.
Your tongue can come to rest on the roof of your mouth.
You might notice sensation shifting as you do that.
Chin drops gently towards the chest,
Subtle movement,
Not a big movement.
Giving you some space at the back of your neck.
Tailbone and pelvis,
Connecting with foundation with whatever it is,
The surface that you're sitting on.
Bring some gentle movement in to help us be sure that we're sitting comfortably and in a nourishing rather than punishing way.
So,
Ear drops to shoulder and then as you exhale slowly taking chin down to chest.
Here comes across to other shoulder and then up and over.
These circles will look your way,
They don't have to look a certain way.
The thing that's guiding you is sensation,
How is it feeling to move like this right now?
Right now,
Possibly switching directions.
And then coming back to centre and letting those shoulders start to gently circle.
Inhaling as they come up towards your ears and then a nice smooth and deep exhale as they go back and down.
No rush.
We have time.
And the elbow starting to circle.
And if you have space perhaps full arm extensions,
Inhaling as your arms come up and exhaling as they come down around.
And then letting your hands down in your lap or perhaps resting on your knees and slowly starting to circle the heart and again this will look the way that feels right for you.
I tend to find the bigger and slower the circles the more present I can be.
So changing direction.
Making your way back to centre and settling into a sensation of stillness.
Breathing through the nose.
You might naturally drop into Ujjayi breath as you feel the vibration moving through the throat.
It can perhaps be quite audible you can hear it as well as sense it.
We'll take our time just to establish how it is it feels this morning what sensations we notice.
And amongst the current the tidal push and pull of the inhale and the exhale.
Can you sense your own midline?
The primal streak that moves down through the very centre of your core.
So nothing's rigid nothing's concrete.
We are a column of water affecting and being affected by many vibrational influences from inside and outside.
So can you find your primal streak in the midst of all this vibration and movement and fluidity and breath.
A part of you that was the very beginning and stays with you right till the end.
And taking your awareness down to your pelvis.
The pelvis is just one word for so many territories within the pelvic bowl.
So as you drop your awareness down to your pelvis where actually is that in the pelvis?
It could be the tailbone or the pubic bone it could be the womb space it could be either side just an ovary or both of the ovaries.
It could be right down at the perineum.
Just noticing for yourself where your awareness wants to go.
And as you bring your awareness down and there are times when this is just an experience of imagination sometimes it doesn't even feel available to be aware of sensation as you sit in meditation.
So whether you're playing in the realms of imagining sensation or you're able to truly sense sensation.
Just notice what quality that brings if it's cool or warm,
Smooth or jagged.
Open or closed.
Now getting tangled in that's a good feeling or that's a bad feeling just notice.
Take your time.
So we have the structure of the primal streak within the very core of yourself and we have the pelvic bowl.
Let's bring some intentional breath by inhaling down to the very center of the pelvis.
So if you are going to find the very core the heart of the pelvic bowl that's where we're drawing the in-breath down to.
And then the exhale surrender just letting go.
So consciously choosing to draw the in-breath at the very center of the pelvis and often for me that feels like a very sort of English rose those blossom-y,
Petally,
Full English roses.
That's often what the visual that comes to me.
It's warm and it's soft and it's kind and gentle.
So what do you sense and feel?
Is there an image?
Just trust what it is that you find even if what you find is nothing at all.
Just trust what it is that you find even if what you find is nothing at all.
Completely trust that.
So so so so And then taking awareness across to the right hand side of the pelvis.
See if you can draw your in-breath right the way down and across to the right hand side.
Notice what you feel.
And now attachment to whatever you find.
We're just very curious.
What are the sensations?
Texture Temperature Imagery Often for me it's always like a fizzing bubbling like when you drop an Alka-Seltzer into a glass of water.
Very often it's that sensation.
I wonder what is yours if there is any.
Then bringing awareness back to the very center of the pelvis.
Noticing the shift.
And then taking your awareness across to the left hand side of the pelvis.
Drawing the breath all the way down and across.
It may feel different on this side.
So so and coming back to the center of the pelvis.
And see if you can hold in your awareness all three of those terrains.
The center of the pelvis,
The right hand side and the left hand side all at once.
So awareness expands.
Instead of polarizing in one direction or another you can hold it all.
And then bringing awareness to breath let's see if we can start to deepen and lengthen the breath.
So we'll start by just gently encouraging the inhale right the way back down to the very center of the pelvis once more.
And then as you exhale letting that breath travel up through the spine up towards the crown of the head.
Inhaling to the heart of the pelvis.
And exhaling up to the crown of your head.
So that midline that we identified earlier becomes a channel for awareness and breath.
Moving down to the core of the pelvis on the inhale and moving up to the crown of the head on the exhale.
This is a very deliberate breath so you can add some energy some spark to it.
So so so so and then letting go of that practice.
And noticing what remains.
We can become so full of ideas and strategies and thought patterns and narratives and beliefs bubbling away inside but for a moment let's drop all of that just be with sensation.
How does it feel?
So so when I say how does it feel does that go to sensation does it go to emotion?
Where does your awareness drop?
And can you call yourself back to your midline?
And let everything else surrender.
So Namaste.
