Welcome to part 3 in this 8 part Stay with yourself meditation series on the practice of being who you are,
Where you are.
Part 3 is about ritual and mantra.
You can listen to each part of this series on its own or you can listen to them as a series each part building off the last to help you grow,
Sustain and love your meditation practice.
Let's start by sitting in a chair.
Plant your feet firmly on the floor.
Feel your spine tall and upright and allow your heart space to soften and open.
Tuck your chin slightly.
Allow your hips and the back of your legs to relax as the chair supports you.
You can sit with your hands downward on your knees for a more internal and reflective posture or you can open your hands facing upward for a more receptive posture.
You can also bring your hands into prayer position or any other position that feels best and right for you.
As with every part of all these meditations,
Make yourself comfortable in a way that's best for you and use the suggestions in whatever way you see fit.
Bring awareness to your breath.
Take a deep breath in through your nose and out through your mouth.
With each inhale,
Breathe into a part of your body that is holding tension and with each exhale release tension and relax.
You can imagine your tummy is an empty balloon being filled with air on each inhale and on each exhale feel your tummy and your body softening.
Breathe into your neck,
Your face,
Your shoulders,
Your arms.
Breathe into your hips and thighs.
Breathe all the way down into your feet.
From this place of deep breath and relaxation,
I would like you to turn inward and locate one of your heart's deepest desires.
It can be small,
It can be grand,
Simple,
Complicated.
Take a moment and feel whatever comes up for you right now as your heart's deep desire.
And if many come up,
Just pick one and hold on for now and know you can always come back and do this practice using a different desire.
And if you're having trouble knowing what you want at all,
That's okay too.
If you are in the latter category of having trouble locating a desire,
Just rest in your beingness here I am.
What we're going to do with this desire is turn it into a ritual and a mantra.
Whatever your desire is,
I would like you to create a mantra for this desire as if it's right here already happening.
I will give you some examples of mantras you can use and then we'll spend some time getting clear on what our mantra is.
Your mantra could be,
I am loved,
I am valuable,
I belong,
I am abundant,
I am so grateful,
I am full of joy,
I am an eternal being of light,
I am kind,
I am compassionate,
I am funny,
I matter.
Once you've decided on your mantra,
Come back to your breath and with each inhale,
Breathe in your mantra and hold it for several beats in your body and in your being.
And with your exhale,
Release your mantra.
Breathe in your mantra,
Hold it,
Spread it throughout your body and exhale your mantra.
Breathe in,
Hold it inside you,
Exhale.
You are breathing your mantra,
You are absorbing it into the 50 trillion cells in your body.
You are filling yourself with desire,
With longing,
With openness to receive,
To embody and to vibrate and expand.
Fill yourself filled with desire and allow that desire to be fulfilled right now in your beingness,
In your breath.
Breathe it in,
Hold it,
Expand and release it.
And as you go about your day or your evening and whatever you're doing,
Let this mantra be like a prayer.
Each time your foot touches the earth,
Your mantra,
Your desire,
Each step,
With every slice of the onion you are cutting up for dinner,
Your mantra,
Your desire,
Your prayer,
With each action,
With each word,
May your desire surround it,
Hold it,
Be infused into it.
Your desire is your prayer and mantra,
What we say,
What we breathe in,
What we carry,
What we expand out.
This is who we are,
How we are.
When the soul wishes to experience something,
It casts a vision out in front of herself that she might step into it.
That is what you are doing with your mantra,
Your desire,
Your prayer.
Do not shy away from it.
Allow yourself to embody it,
To feel it,
To be overcome with desire,
To long for it.
This is life.
This is vitality.
This is the pulse of consciousness and the universe,
Desire,
Longing,
Passion.
Your heart is your greatest friend and ally.
Listen to your heart.
Allow your heart to be itself,
To desire,
To love,
To live passionately and openly.
That's what your heart desires,
To be free.
So much of our desires just point to our desire to be free and light,
To belong and to be loved.
And you are all those things and you have all those things.
And I encourage you to create a ritual around your mantra,
It can be anything.
It can be as simple as taking a shower every day or putting on some lavender oil or giving yourself five minutes to just sit with a cup of coffee,
Looking out the window,
Speaking your mantra as you walk,
As you do housework,
As you do work work,
As you relate.
This is ritual.
This is practice.
I'm going to leave you here with several minutes of soft music that you might continue to practice speaking your mantra with each breath,
Allowing yourself to be filled with desire and then releasing that desire out into the atmosphere.
Take this practice your own and do it as often as you like and know that you can take this practice out into the world with you anywhere you go,
You can speak your mantra and have it become ritual and prayer.
Thank you for sharing your meditation practice with me today.
May you stay with yourself today and always.
