Welcome to the Stay With Yourself guided meditation for standing in your power.
Start by sitting in a chair with your feet firmly planted on the floor and your hands gently resting in your lap.
You can also do this meditation while standing tall and upright.
Begin by bringing awareness to your breath,
Taking several deep breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth.
As you inhale,
Feel the air cool,
Revitalizing and fresh flowing in through your nostrils,
Down the back of your throat,
Through your chest and into your tummy.
Feel your tummy expand like an empty balloon being filled with air.
And as you exhale,
Feel your tummy softening,
Releasing tension.
Inhaling through your mouth,
Feel the air warm and soft.
Deep inhale through the nose into the belly,
Expanding and long exhale softening,
Releasing tension.
You can continue breathing this way for as long as it's comfortable.
And when you're ready,
Come back to just a relaxed,
Easy breath that feels good to your body in this moment.
Now I want you to bring awareness into the back of your spine,
Back of your body.
Feel your spine where it starts in your tailbone.
Feel your sitting bones,
Feel your tailbone.
And then very slowly,
Feel your way up your spine,
Vertebrae by vertebrae.
And with each one,
Be aware of what an amazing miracle it is how your spine is so flexible,
The way it can stack one vertebrae on top of another.
And just feel your spine stacking in this way as you scan all the way up your low back,
Mid back,
Your upper back between your shoulder blades,
Where your spine begins to reach up into your neck,
All the way up into your skull and feel your spine right there,
The base of your skull.
And tuck your chin just a little bit,
Just drop your chin a bit and pull it back and really feel the back of your neck lengthen.
Now feel the whole of your spine,
The whole back of your body,
Tall,
Strong,
Upright.
And from here with this tall,
Strong,
Upright spine,
Allow the front of your body to soften.
You can drop your shoulders down and back while keeping that slight tuck to the chin and that length in the back of your neck.
The duration of this meditation,
You will keep this length in the back of your neck and a tall spine.
Relax your heart space.
You can imagine it just melting,
Softening.
Feel your arms become soft and heavy and long.
If you're sitting,
Feel your sitting bones supported by the chair beneath you.
And then feel your feet firmly planted on the floor.
If you are standing,
Tuck your tailbone just a little bit so your hips are upright,
Straight.
Feel your legs long and tall.
And again,
Feel your feet firmly planted on the floor.
And if you forget to keep your chin tucked,
Just come back to that and lengthen your spine at the back of your neck.
Now from here,
With a tall,
Strong,
Upright spine and the rest of your body soft and relaxed,
I want you to come back to focusing on your breath and really breathing deeply into the entire front of your body,
The softness of your front body.
And you can imagine that your body is empty or hollow and you're using your breath to really fill your entire being,
Your entire body with air.
Fill yourself up.
When you exhale,
Imagine any weakness,
Fears,
Debris being exhaled,
Anything that feels unstable.
Release it on the exhale.
And when you inhale,
Fill in every corner of your body with air,
Almost like your body is becoming a taut balloon.
With your spine,
The back of your body remaining tall and upright,
A stability point,
A grounding point,
A point of strength so that the rest of you can be at ease.
And from here,
I want you to bring to mind a situation or a scenario in which you would like to show up with strength,
With courage,
And really stand in the power of your beingness.
And I want you to imagine yourself in this situation,
In this scenario,
Really in this tall,
Upright,
Strong position that you're in.
Feel the length of your spine.
Once again,
Really keep your spine tall and upright and stacked with your chin tucked really long through the back of the neck.
You can engage your core and your abdomen in order to support the strength of the back of the spine.
Kind of even tuck your tummy in a little bit.
Suck it in.
And again,
If you're standing,
Just sort of tilting your hips forward so that you're not – don't have too much of a curve in your spine.
Really,
Really keeping your spine tall and upright.
As you find yourself in this situation or scenario,
Breathe deeply in and exhale.
Breathe deeply in again,
Gathering up strength and courage and exhale.
Imagine here in this scenario,
While you're standing in your strength,
You're standing in the power,
The fullness of your being,
Just in body,
Tall and upright,
Shoulders down and back,
Heart space open,
Spine supportive.
Really feeling your backbone.
So much of our power comes from feeling our backbone,
Standing up tall and engaged,
Shoulders down and back,
Heart space open.
Breathing deeply into your full being,
You are full of lightness,
Of breath and air.
There is nothing you need to prove to anybody.
Your beingness and the power of your strength,
Of your presence is all that's really needed.
From this space,
Radiate goodwill,
Peace,
Love and boundaries.
Really using the stance of your body to communicate that you are worthy and valuable.
Just feel yourself in this scenario,
In this stance,
In the truth of your beingness.
And if you want to or need to play this scenario out further from this tall spine and this soft front body,
With shoulders pulled down and back,
Speak your truth with simplicity,
Kindness,
Courage and authority.
You belong wherever you are.
Your voice,
Your presence,
Your beingness,
Your brilliant mind is needed wherever you are and whoever you are surrounded by.
Then come back to your body in this moment.
Check in with your spine again,
Making sure it's tall and upright,
With your chin tucked and your neck elongated,
Heart open,
Body soft.
And speak these words to yourself either out loud or just to yourself silently.
I am enough.
I am enough.
I am valuable.
I am valuable.
I am worthy.
I am worthy.
And keep repeating these words,
This mantra to yourself.
I am enough.
I am valuable.
I am worthy.
I'm going to leave you with several minutes of soft music so you can continue practicing on your own.
Remember you can come back to this meditation as often as you need.
If the back of your body is feeling fatigued from holding your spine tall and upright,
Know that that is normal and with practice you will begin to feel stronger.
By keeping a strength and an uprightness to the back of your physical body,
You will begin to feel more powerful and more strong internally and in your relationships and in anything that comes your way.
Until next time,
May you stay with yourself today and always.
