A warm welcome to this meditation designed to help you face a challenge in your life,
Big or small,
With perspective so that you can feel less weighed down.
Try this practice anytime you want some insight about an aspect of your life that feels tricky.
So beginning as always by closing down your eyes and settling in.
Breath rolling in and rolling out like the vast seas that populate planet Earth.
And now creating a sense of balance with this ebb and flow of breath as you breathe in for the count of four and breathe out for the count of four.
Continuing to breathe in this balanced way for three more rounds of breath.
In for four,
Out for four.
And allowing this sense of equilibrium to land on your body as you imagine a sense of balance between the left and right hemispheres of your brain.
Balance between left and right shoulders.
Left and right lungs and ribcage.
With each breath,
Balance is landing on your left and right hip and pelvis.
This energy of balance and equilibrium moving all the way down your legs,
Knees,
Ankles,
Feet.
Great work.
And now from this place of balance,
Imagining,
Seeing,
Feeling that you are sitting on the beach.
You gaze out to the water and notice how rough it is.
Sets of waves roll in.
They are messy,
Uneven,
Unpredictable.
White foam rushes onto the sandy shore.
The sky is dark,
Holding the promise of rain or maybe even a thunderstorm.
And you sit on the sand,
Noticing it all with a sense of peace and ease.
You don't feel concerned or like you have to leave.
In fact,
There's something strangely beautiful about this tumultuous sea and heavy sky.
And in this moment,
You realize that just as you can feel at ease here,
You can also feel this same sense of balance and ease when you experience the darker,
Messier moments of your own life.
And so you sit,
Feeling your feet in the sand,
Tasting the salt water as it ever so slightly sprays on your lips.
You breathe into your heart.
This place of inner refuge.
And here in this moment,
A challenge that you are facing,
A part of your life that feels uncomfortable,
Unresolved or messy,
Appears in your mind's eye.
And without getting into the story or the judgment,
Without needing to change it in any way,
You instead offer it your compassion.
Breathing in compassion.
Breathing out compassion.
For yourself.
For anyone else in the story.
For life itself.
And noticing if through this commitment to compassion,
Something has shifted within you.
Have the internal waves of worry,
Blame,
Regret or resistance softened?
Has something shifted in your physical body?
Awareness returning to you sitting on the beach.
With each long,
Smooth inhale,
You notice the sea becoming more calm.
With each long,
Smooth exhale,
The clouds part,
And you once again see the blue sky.
Inhaling calm seas.
Exhaling blue sky.
Feeling this change,
This smoothing out of the waters,
This illumination of the sky in your body.
Your feet in the sand.
The sun on your face.
You see,
Sense or feel the horizon line.
Scanning your eyes all the way from left to right.
Taking in the entire horizon line.
Calm,
Clean ocean meets the blue sky.
Breathing deep into this feeling of space and possibility.
Awareness expansive like the horizon line.
And from here,
Can you allow all your challenges to feel smaller?
This doesn't mean that you push your challenges aside or downplay how you feel.
It simply means that you extend your awareness to hold it all.
Resting here as you remember,
You are the horizon.
You are the sea.
You are the sky.
This is your deeper nature.
Great work.
Enjoying a deep breath.
Becoming aware of the sounds in your environment.
Opening your eyes.
I hope you enjoyed this opportunity to offer your challenges space and compassion.
Remember,
This guided practice is available for you anytime life feels heavy or hard.
