Hello and welcome to this meditation practice.
My name is Tiffany and I'll be your guide.
And I want to start this session off with the passage from the Bible that I felt was fitting for today's theme of hope.
Hebrew 11 1.
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for,
The conviction of the things not yet seen.
So in many meditations we're practicing so that we can cultivate a present awareness throughout the day.
And the key to cultivating hope is through trust.
Believing that when we are going through challenging times that there is a higher purpose and a higher plan.
And all will unfold for the better even if we don't feel it in the moment.
And in this meditation we're going to do this by imagining that we're watching our life unfold through a movie.
And we know at the end of this movie there's going to be a resolution.
But before settling into this practice we're going to work with a little bit of breath work.
And so today for this practice we're going to do a four part breath.
Some people might also know this as a box breath.
So if you are familiar with box breath you can proceed at your own count.
However if you're new to box breathing then just follow me.
But just know that if you need to adjust your count to maybe three or five or six depending on your comfort level please feel free to do so.
So for this practice we're going to do this with a count of four.
So how we do this with the four part breath is there are four parts to a breath.
There's the inhale,
The exhale,
And then the pauses in between.
The length of the pauses will vary depending on your state.
So if you're running a marathon the pauses in between your inhale and exhale get really small.
However when we're intentionally working with where we are today we're going to hold those pauses for up to four seconds.
So for the first two cycles I'm going to guide you through it.
And then for the remaining three you can proceed at your own pace.
And if you happen to get done before I get done just sit quietly and we'll all catch up together.
All right so this is how this is how it goes.
So inhale with the count of four breath with the count of four.
Inhale one two three four.
Hold for the count of four.
One two three four.
Exhale all the way out.
One two three four.
Hold at the bottom.
One two three four.
Cycle again.
Inhale up.
One two three four.
Hold.
One two three four.
Exhale all the way out.
One two three four.
Hold at the bottom.
One two three four.
Cycle two.
Go ahead and proceed for three more cycles at your own pace.
And now moving on into our meditation for today.
Go ahead and find yourself in a seated position and making sure that you're nice and tall.
Maybe even tucking the chin creating that length in the back of the neck.
Maybe closing the eyes,
Maybe casting a gaze down.
And then allow the body just to relax for just a few moments.
Noticing how the body feels after that breath practice.
How does the mind feel?
Does it feel a little bit more relaxed?
And if you answered no,
Then maybe you leave this breath practice out the next time you come back to this practice.
Now let's find a moment to commit to stillness.
Take a moment to get centered with yourself,
Bringing your awareness to the front of the forehead right here in between the eyes.
And then allowing all thoughts to drop away to the background.
And then just taking a moment just to soften the face and the eyes,
The jaw,
Relaxing the shoulders down through the elbows and the fingers.
Letting the breath move deep and into the belly.
As it begins to become longer and slower in the rhythm.
Letting the mind just bring in intentional and allow the mind to project the story of your life onto the screen of your awareness.
It wants to unfold however it wants to unfold,
No restrictions.
Now there might be a natural unfolding of a challenging time in your life.
That might be this moment of your life or that might be replaying a scene from the past that needs to find a little resolution.
Now at this moment,
You might still be watching and observing,
Or you may have fallen into the heart of the movie and become the lead character.
We forget that this is only part of,
This is only one part of the movie.
One scene.
This scene is based off of your perspective only.
We forget that there are many other people involved in creating our movie.
So when we are practicing bringing more hope into our life or circumstance,
It's important to zoom out.
Bring a more wider perspective.
Stepping out of the main character and becoming the witness to your life.
We're watching the level of detachment from this space of awareness.
We're watching the level of awareness.
Excited for what's to come the next part of the story.
We begin to allow the best part of the movie to play across our screen.
What would this movie look like?
What would this scene look like?
Notice any details,
Such as colors,
Smells,
Maybe sounds,
Faces of people,
Locations,
Maybe a time of the year.
Allow all that makes this movie amazing come forth and penetrate their awareness.
Watching with joy and hopefulness whatever amazing and fantastical scene unfolds.
The movie is now coming to an end.
It abodes just as you had hoped,
All is well and just as it should be.
You begin to smile with satisfaction.
Breathing into the heart feeling contentment.
Softness in the body,
A relaxing feeling in the mind.
You begin to become aware of the space that you're in.
Bringing in any sounds and smells.
You might even notice the texture of your clothes.
When you're ready to proceed with this meditation.
Know when you're looking to practice hope,
You can always return back to your movie and it's that inspires joy and hope and contentment.
Thank you for sharing your practice with me.
Namaste.
