Welcome.
We offer these meditations freely and your donations make a real difference.
So thank you.
Let's start our practice for today.
We're going to be using the rain practice from Tara Bragg.
So I'm referencing her book Radical Compassion and we're using rain as a means to explore connect because our theme for the month is connect.
So let's investigate the things that maybe prevent us from feeling connected and really when you think about connection for me there's kind of four main realms of connection.
There's connection to self,
Connection to this inner landscape and what's going on inside.
There's connection to other,
So collective and that could be the broad collective of our culture or it could be the one-on-one being to being connection of another.
There's connection to our planet earth and then there's connection to something bigger that is possibly without a name but that we feel in our bones something bigger that might be the cosmos,
It might be a deity or something some energy that is timeless,
Nameless,
Formless and those for me are the four realms of connection that are available to us.
So you might want to choose one of those connections to work with today.
You might have a recent experience of feeling a severance from connection.
This is easy for me because in June I was so completely crazy with so much fun stuff happening that I totally felt severance from my inner connection and I'm so grateful for July where it's a bit calmer and I am able to reconnect again.
So for that for me it's a very simple practice today but you'll have your own understanding of where disconnect might be happening where you would like it to return.
So it takes a few moments to get comfortable sitting while you choose a memory or a scenario or an experience that helps you to explore you and your relationship with connection this morning.
I mean you want to be sitting in a comfortable place,
You can be on a chair,
You don't have to be on the floor,
You can even be lying down.
And I like to practice with my eyelids down but that's entirely optional.
If you prefer your eyes open just look down at the floor look down at the ground in front of you and let the gaze soften.
Even if the eyelids are down beneath the eyelids let the gaze soften.
This practice is one of curiosity we're just explorers learning about ourselves.
Learning about ourselves,
Making space to learn about ourselves.
You might become aware of your sitting bones,
The weight of your pelvis.
Do you feel the connection between your physical body and that on which you are sitting standing lying?
You feel the relationship.
It gives us this foundation of okay we're okay we're held.
Finding the spine and allowing the space for the spine to grow tall from the pelvis just tucking the chin gently under.
Breathing in and out through the nose.
Tucking the chin gently under.
Breathing in and out through the nose.
Allowing an openness,
A spaciousness to be felt around the back of the head,
The top of the neck and the crown of the head.
Just noticing and listening to the inward current and the outward current of your breath.
As you breathe through your nose your tongue gently resting up on the roof of your mouth.
There's nothing need be forced at all.
There's a place away from getting it right or getting it wrong where everything just is.
We're going to go to that place.
Even though we are sincere in our practice,
It doesn't mean it has to be serious.
So there can be a slight smile quality to your face and your whole demeanor.
You might find a little smile deep within the belly.
If you want some movement maybe bring some circling into the head.
Just moving slowly,
Giving the neck an opportunity to communicate.
And avoiding dropping the head back,
Just come up and over.
Makes it easier to keep the space.
And then switching directions.
We're inviting all parts of ourselves to our practice.
All parts from all times and all places.
And circling shoulders.
Staying in that curious space about what it is you find as you move.
Maybe the elbows circle.
If you have the space,
Maybe you take full arm extensions.
Just breathing in as the arms come high and breathing out as they lower.
And then resting hands on knees,
Circling the heart if you're lying down you can't do this.
If you're sitting up or standing then you can.
And switching directions.
Are you able to move in a way that feels deeply nourishing?
So coming back to centre.
Taking a full few full breaths.
Allowing a moment to connect to a situation where you felt disconnected maybe emotionally or in any way.
Take a few moments to really enter the experience.
Bringing back a visual on the scene perhaps.
Words that were said.
Sensing the distressing moment.
We're exploring to find the moment of charged energy.
The essence of the story that we're perhaps telling ourselves.
And as you reflect on this situation ask yourself what is happening inside me now?
What sensations are you most aware of?
What emotions are you feeling?
Taking our time to become aware of whatever is predominant.
The kind of overall emotional state of the situation.
So we're recognizing what is happening in this scenario.
What's happening in the inner world.
And then we start to wonder can we allow it?
Can we let it be without trying to change it or judging it as wrong?
Tuning into that space where rather than criticizing ourselves or desperately trying to engineer a different experience can we let it be?
And send a message to your heart.
To just say okay I allow it.
What is is.
Maybe the word yes.
Maybe we can just say yes.
And oftentimes the only thing we can say yes to is the huge resistance that we feel around the feelings.
It's almost as if we're saying yes to the screaming no that we feel towards the experience.
You might just be saying yes to the part of you that absolutely hates this.
All of that's okay.
We're just noticing.
Doing our best not to judge.
Trying not to push away or distract or stifle.
So whatever is happening just say yes to that.
So so so in that curious gentle space and start to investigate.
So without any judgment almost as if we have a torch and we're just shining it on the experiences.
You can ask yourself what's the worst part of this?
Which part is asking for attention?
What is the most painful story that you're believing here?
Can I feel the feelings in my body?
And where where are they?
What's the geographical location of the strongest feeling?
So if it were a terrain or a weather system what would it look like?
And if you were to take a facial expression or a body position to to express that feeling to reflect that feeling what would it be?
How would how would you act it in your body?
If you want go ahead and do that.
So sometimes the expressing through movement helps us to connect even more with the truth of an experience.
And are these feelings familiar?
Do you recognize them from other situations?
If the part of you that is least comfortable with this the most vulnerable part could communicate what would it say?
What would it express?
What would it ask for?
What does this part need?
And as you sense what is needed notice the response.
Perhaps calling on the most wise compassionate part of yourself.
You might offer some words,
Some kindness,
Some words,
Some kindness,
A tender embrace inwards.
Often I find myself placing my hand on my heart.
You might picture yourself surrounded in warm luminous light.
You might visualize the earth mother nature holding you or an archetype deity,
A person that you know holding you.
Trust what comes up as you meet yourself with nurture.
Allowing yourself to receive and be received.
So you're not alone.
Then allowing the process of rain to drop away and just be with what is.
Relax,
Let go of the practice and just be with the experience of what has emerged.
Noticing how you feel now,
Has it changed from the beginning of the practice?
Do you have an idea of what is needed?
And bringing your hands together,
Dropping forehead to fingertips.
As always offering the fruits of our practice to all beings so our personal practice becomes collective.
Namaste.
