Hello,
My name is Fleur Chambers and as always it's my pleasure to spend this time with you.
This practice offers you the opportunity to feel closer to the people in your life.
You can use it anytime you want to feel closer to family,
Friends or colleagues.
Enjoy.
Closing down your eyes and settling in to your preferred position today.
Comfort is key and allowing your awareness to rest on your breath.
The steady rise and fall of your chest,
The soft expansion and contraction of your belly.
With each breath coming down from your mind into your body and this moment.
This is your time.
If your mind is busy that's okay.
We just come back time and time again to our breath,
To our body and to our commitment to ourselves.
Now together let's use our breath to encourage a sense of groundedness within our bodies and minds.
As you breathe in,
Feel your belly fill with oxygen and life force.
As you breathe out,
Imagining that the air is traveling down your legs,
Out the soles of your feet and into the earth below.
Breathing in,
Belly swirling with life force.
Breathing out,
Air traveling down your legs deep into the earth beneath you.
Breathing in this way on your own now.
With each exhale,
Your hips,
Pelvis,
Legs,
Feet and toes all feel heavy,
Grounded into the earth.
Lower body really surrendering into this feeling of deep groundedness,
Like the trunk of an old and wise tree.
Really imagining your breath,
Creating these energetic roots into the earth beneath you,
Tethering you.
Calm,
Wise,
Grounded.
Grounded,
Awareness landing now on your in-breath and really feeling into the fresh oxygen fill your lungs.
Noticing how your chest expands in all directions,
Front,
Back and sides as you breathe in.
With each in-breath lifting a little,
Sensing into a lightness,
An experience of spaciousness in the top half of your body.
Using the tree metaphor once more,
Imagining that the top half of your body are the branches,
Leaves,
The buds and the flowers,
Even the birds perched on the branches.
With each spacious inhale,
Feeling into the sense of freedom and lightness held within your chest,
Heart,
Shoulders,
Arms,
Hands,
All the way to your ten fingers.
Here in this moment,
Connecting with your inherent groundedness and your lightness.
Noticing how you can embody both these qualities at once.
Now imagining that a breeze arrives,
Weaving its way through your branches,
Sweeping across your leaves,
Caressing your flowers.
You know that this breeze is here to help you release all that no longer serves you.
Here in this moment,
Allowing the wind to carry away the old ways of being,
The self-criticism and doubt,
The fears about what others think of you.
Allowing this wind to take with it all the thoughts that you aren't enough,
The feelings of unworthiness,
The breeze stripping away old identities and labels that no longer fit,
Until all that's left is your deeper nature.
The inner dimensions that feel both grounded and light,
Breathing deep into your essential nature,
Breathing deep into your heart.
And located in your heart is one or two of your truest values.
The aspects of you that reside deep in your heart and in your own way,
Really connecting with these values now.
You might like to repeat them as words silently in your mind.
Maybe you feel drawn to placing your hand on your heart for a few breaths.
Perhaps these values feel more energetic or emotional,
Really connecting with one or two of your values,
Waking them up within you.
Now calling to mind someone you love,
Like or admire,
And imagining this person sitting beside you,
To your left,
And offering them this gift of feeling both grounded and light.
Sensing into the strength of their lower body,
Noticing how they too are connected to the earth,
Becoming aware also of how the top of their body can feel spacious,
Light and free.
And as you observe this person in this new way,
You see them not as a collection of labels,
Identities or stories,
As something much deeper.
Here in this moment,
Their core values rise to the surface.
What values do you see?
Smooth inhale,
Smooth exhale,
Really connecting to this person's inherent values,
To their deeper nature.
Trusting in this moment of connection.
And now calling to mind someone who shares different opinions to you,
Someone who you often judge or criticize,
Or who you would like to feel closer to.
Imagining that this person is sitting to your right,
And sensing once more that there is a breeze.
And as it blows over this person,
It takes with it all the stories,
Judgments,
The labels that you or society has placed upon this person.
With each long,
Smooth exhale,
All these identities and narratives are being blown away by the breeze.
What's left?
This person sitting next to you,
Their lower body grounded into the earth,
Their upper body light and free.
As you focus on these aspects of this person,
Their stability and their spaciousness,
You notice one or two of their core values coming forward.
These values may be different to yours,
But they reveal your shared humanity.
And now for the next few breaths,
Really imagining the three of you sitting side by side,
All gazing at the horizon line as the sun rises.
Hues of violet,
Candy pink and dusty orange fill the sky.
The three of you three of you sitting,
Observing,
Breathing together,
Chests rising and falling,
Hearts beating,
All enjoying the warmth of the sun that offers light and life to all humans,
Plants and animals.
This sun that doesn't discriminate,
That gifts each of us hope,
Possibility and beginnings.
And here in this moment,
You can sense into the possibility of your shared humanity,
Common desire to be safe,
To be loved,
To live in peace.
And so you repeat silently in your mind,
I am willing to see beyond our differences to our shared humanity.
I am open to connecting more deeply with others,
Noticing how you feel.
And you might like to set yourself an intention in relation to one person,
To how you want to show up,
Communicate,
Relate to others and breathing this intention deep into your heart,
Planting it like a seed so that it may guide your actions and support you to feel closer to others.
Awareness returning to your body sitting here in meditation,
Opening your eyes when you're ready.
Well done.
This practice practice took courage.
May you move through your days deeply aware of your ability to feel both grounded and light.
Be well.
