Okay,
So let's get started here together.
When you're ready,
First and foremost,
Just come to a seated position.
Maybe set a block or a pillow underneath you if you need.
And we're going to find a seat that spells confidence with our body language to start with.
Yeah,
So take a moment,
Sit up tall through your spine.
Keep your back body relaxed.
Maybe engage your core,
Your abdomen a little bit here.
Maybe lift your chin ever so slightly.
Widen across your shoulders.
Don't be afraid to take up space here.
And you can relax your hands into your lap.
Maybe close your eyes.
Maybe feeling the strength in your body.
And letting that energy of your body language seep into your state of mind for just a moment here.
Feeling that strong capability of your body to hold itself up.
Now with that awareness staying in your body here and your eyes closed,
We're just going to start to breathe a little bit deeper.
Inhaling into the belly and exhaling completely.
Again,
Inhaling into your belly.
Exhaling completely.
Take a few more rounds of just settling breath just like this here at your own pace.
Maybe relaxing any tension you might be holding onto in your body or maybe in your mind.
Just giving yourself permission to land right here in your space.
Now here we're going to take a breathing practice together.
A very simple one called square breathing.
So for this,
Just use your next inhale and inhale for a count of 4,
3,
2,
1.
And then hold your breath at the top for 4,
3,
2,
1.
And we're going to exhale for 4,
3,
2,
1.
And hold at the bottom for 3,
2,
1.
Again,
Inhale for 4 and hold for 4.
Exhale for 4 and hold for 4.
Continue just like this a few more rounds at your own pace.
Evening out the breath.
Take it about 3 or 4 more times on your own.
Releasing any tension from the jaw or the forehead here.
Finding harmony and balance with the breath.
One more.
Go ahead and whatever round you're on,
Go ahead and start to finish.
Take that last hold of 4 at the bottom and then let your breath return to neutral.
You lean into that sense of spaciousness we've created with the breath.
Continuing to focus your mind more inwardly.
Moving into a sensation of openness.
Moving into the energy field of I am.
There is no doing or being in this moment.
You simply are exactly as you are.
You might even like to repeat that short simple phrase to yourself for a few breaths here.
I am.
Using the urge to finish or add on anything to that sentence.
Simply I am.
From this space of open awareness,
Detachment,
Where we simply are,
We're going to use a bit of visualization to help access our most confident self.
I want you to think with your mind's eye of one scenario,
One real life scenario that would only happen if you were feeling super confident.
Maybe if you're single,
Going up talking to somebody who you think is super cute or maybe getting up on stage to sing in front of a bunch of people,
Going out to dinner by yourself.
Just a scenario that would happen in real life but only if you were feeling super confident.
Start to form that visualization in your head.
See this scene playing out in your mind's eye,
On the back of your eyelids.
In this scene I want you to imagine,
Start to cultivate this feeling of extreme confidence.
In this scenario observe your self image,
The self image of yourself in your visualization.
Notice how you're standing,
How you're acting,
What you're saying.
Take a moment here and just make this picture come to life in your mind and see if you can evoke some of the sensations,
Emotions and feelings from this scene in your current physical body.
Just taking a brief moment here to simmer in these energies and these emotions and these feelings in this image.
Now here it's natural for maybe some negative thoughts to creep in,
Some rebuttals to your confidence.
This isn't a bad thing,
This is just showing us obstacles that are currently in the way of our self image and our confidence,
Our state of alignment.
So we can remove them.
To do this we're going to spend just a few more moments here in this visualization,
In this moment of confidence and feeling those sensations.
But as we do I want you to notice any rebuttals in your mind.
Say well I couldn't possibly do this because I don't look like that or I couldn't possibly act that way because I'm just not that kind of person.
Notice when those come up and take a moment to step aside from that thought,
That feeling.
Observe it and label it.
So as these thoughts come up I want you to say to yourself internally oh this is just a thought,
This is just a feeling.
This isn't reality,
This is just a thought,
This is just a feeling.
Just a few more moments here,
Go back to that visualization,
That moment of total confidence.
And notice if any of those doubts come in.
Step aside from them,
Realize that they are not intrinsically you and label them.
And as you're ready start to gradually call your awareness back into your physical body.
Maybe holding on to some of those residual energies of confidence,
Of vitality,
Excitement.
You can start to bring gentle movements here into the body,
Maybe wiggling the fingers and the toes,
Maybe taking a few light stretches.
And we'll close our seated meditation here with just three full deep breaths.
So when you're ready take a big inhale deep into the nose,
Exhale let it go.
Take two more just like that,
Inhale let it go.
Last one.
And if you'd like you can close with hands at heart center,
Anjali Mudra,
Bowing the chin in towards the fingertips slightly.
And so it is.
And so it is.
And so it is.
Gently release your hands,
Start to flutter open your eyes.
Welcome back guys.
So if you just joined us I'm going to give you now a little meta journal prompt.
You're more than welcome to stay here and journal for a little bit or maybe take it with you into the rest of your day.
So here in your journal I want you to from the perspective of that most confident self that we were able to cultivate,
I want you to describe maybe a typical day in your life as this most confident version of yourself.
How would you act?
How would you dress?
How would you communicate differently?
You could do this in a structured format like from the time that you wake up to the time that you go to bed.
What does this day look like for you?
And it's okay to be a little bit whimsical and dreamy with this here like you know maybe your most confident self wakes up and takes a jet somewhere.
I don't know.
It doesn't have to be feasible for your real life necessarily.
Just you know illustrate what you envision this kind of dream day to be like in your most confident self.
And I thank you guys so much for being here.
Feel free if you want to share what your scenarios were in the comments with each other.
You're more than welcome to.
In my meditation I was envisioning myself walking on a runway in a fashion show which is so outlandish.
I don't see that ever happening in my life but I thought I would need to feel very very confident to do something like that.
So you can take sort of this visualization practice with you and maybe try it for a couple of days in a row and see if this doesn't help boost your self image or confidence at all.
Thank you guys again so much for being here.
I love being able to come on this space and share some meditation practices with you guys.
Please send me a message if you have any questions and as always donations and follows and shares with your friends and loved ones are always appreciated and I hope to see you guys next time.
Namaste.
