Hello and welcome.
My name is Trista Davis and I have a little more than a meditation for you today.
I have a little bit of yoga philosophy and then a practice to help you stop spiraling after a charged moment.
It's really this practice of reconnecting to your breath,
Your body,
Your sense of self,
And helping your system to begin to respond more often from clarity instead of reaction.
So we might as well go into this relaxed,
Open,
And ready to receive.
So let's start by getting comfortable.
Find a position that feels supportive.
Begin to let the surface beneath you do some of the work.
Let the weight of your body be held.
Soften your jaw.
Let the shoulders drop just a little.
Let your breath be natural for a few moments.
No fixing,
Just noticing your natural breath.
And now as you are ready,
Begin to lengthen your breath.
Like you're giving your body a little more permission to settle.
A slower inhale,
A longer exhale.
Like you're telling your entire system,
You can release now.
You can let go of the grip.
Inhale slow,
Exhale long.
Now before we move into practice,
I want to give you a little context because these words can feel abstract if you are new to yoga philosophy.
In the yoga tradition,
There's this idea that can be deeply supportive when life feels charged.
And it's the idea of Atman and the Brahman.
So the Atman is often described as your true self.
This is not your personality,
Your roles.
It's not the version of yourself that's trying to perform or get it all right.
The Atman is the steady awareness that's underneath all that.
The part of you that can witness what you're experiencing without becoming it,
Without identifying with it.
And the second is the Brahman.
And the Brahman is described as universal consciousness,
The larger field of life itself.
It's really,
It's vast,
It's steady,
And it's inclusive enough to hold everything.
The waves and the calm,
The storms,
And the stillness.
And in the yoga tradition,
Different schools do explain this different ways.
But the most basic,
Helpful way to understand it,
In my opinion,
Is that the Atman is the vast reality that all of life is made of.
This practice uses that understanding to help you unhook from stories and come back to yourself.
One way to picture it is the ocean and a wave.
The Brahman is the ocean.
The Atman is the part of you that remembers you are made of ocean,
Even while you're moving as a wave.
So when life feels personal,
When something hooks you,
When your mind gets loud,
This practice is an invitation to remember,
I can be a wave and still belong to the water.
Now return to the body.
Feel the support underneath you again.
Feel your breath moving.
We'll begin here with finding steadiness.
Bringing your awareness to the center of your physical self.
And then to your spine.
Noticing the steadiness here.
Not forced,
Not tense,
Just present.
Feel the quiet strength here.
Feel you can just be here.
Can you feel that you are held from the inside?
And rest your attention here in this steadiness for a few breaths.
Now imagine the ocean.
Vast,
Quiet,
Steady.
The kind of steadiness that does not need anything to be different in order to remain itself.
And now imagine yourself as a wave of that ocean.
A real wave with real shape,
A real life,
And real tenderness.
A wave that rises and falls.
A wave that moves through the weather.
The weather of life.
And yet you are still made of that same water.
Let yourself remember gently and truthfully,
I am water.
Now I invite you to bring something to mind that is simple and neutral.
Maybe a moment from today that was just ordinary.
Maybe you poured a drink or washed your hands.
Maybe you looked out a window.
Put on your shoes.
Just let it be small.
Let it be easy.
Notice how the mind can describe a moment without needing it to mean anything about you.
It's just a moment.
It passes through.
Now,
Very gently and mindfully,
Bring to mind a recent moment that carried a little bit of charge.
Not the biggest thing,
Not the deepest wound.
Just an interaction with someone else that created activation.
Something where you notice your system tighten or your mind speed up.
Or maybe you start to spiral a little bit.
Instead of stepping into that spiral and into that story,
We're going to do something different.
Do not get into the story.
Instead,
Pause and meet the sensation in the body,
Not the meaning.
Notice sensation.
Where do you feel this interaction?
In the body.
Is it your chest,
Your throat,
Your belly,
Jaw,
Shoulders,
Spine?
Just notice.
No fixing.
No judging.
No analyzing.
No story.
Name the location like you're meeting a place you haven't visited in a while.
What is here?
Tingling,
Buzzing,
Heaviness,
Lightness.
Just meet it.
Breathe with it.
Now return to your center,
Your spine,
That steadiness of being.
And that strength.
Feel that the wave can rise and the water can still remain itself.
Now offer yourself one sentence.
Something that feels true in this moment.
Try one of these and notice what feels right enough.
This is here and I am too.
I can stay with myself.
I can return to love and to truth.
This is a wave,
Not my whole ocean.
I do not have to chase the story.
Just repeat one that resonates or make up your own and let the breath move slowly.
Steady your inhale,
Longer exhale,
Like you're creating room,
Room in the body,
Room in the mind,
Room in the heart.
Now widen your awareness again.
Let this go deeper and imagine that everyone you know is also a wave.
Each person moving through their own weather,
Each person carrying their own perspectives and stories,
Their own hopes and fears,
Their own tenderness,
Their own pain,
Their own joy,
Their own sadness.
And some people move fast and some people move guarded.
Some people,
They move messy and some are just carrying a lot.
And most of the time they're not thinking about you as much as your nervous system thinks they are.
They're just going through life,
Managing their own inner world,
Reacting to their own stress,
Their own timing,
Their own bandwidth,
And their own history.
And this is where we take things personally without even realizing it.
Someone is short because they are overwhelmed and we decide it means we're unwanted.
Somebody forgets and we decide it means we do not matter.
Someone has a different opinion and we decide it means we're wrong.
Someone sets a boundary and we decide it means we're too much.
We take their wave and we turn it into a story about our water.
We take their weather and we make it about our worth.
This is not to excuse harm.
Discernment still matters.
Boundaries still matter.
Repair still matters.
This is a way to remember their tone,
Their timing,
Their reaction might be about their day,
But it's not about your worth.
You can let someone have their experience without turning it into your identity.
We can be connected without absorbing what is not ours.
Now in your own words,
Let a simple truth land in the body and feel it and notice it.
You can repeat one of these or let your own come through.
I belong to myself.
I can stay in my lane.
I can love without self-abandoning.
I can be a wave and still remember I am water.
Easy long breaths in,
Steady longer exhales out.
I belong to myself.
I can stay in my lane.
I can love without self-abandoning.
I can be a wave and still remember I am water.
Breathing here,
Being here,
Noticing the sensation and steadiness in the body.
Take one more full breath in and sigh it out.
And when you're ready,
Gently coming back,
Feel your feet,
Your hands,
Notice the air on your skin.
And before you open your eyes,
Take a moment to notice what feels different,
Even if it's subtle,
Even if it's just one percent more space.
This is a practice.
This is a practice.
This is staying.
This is being a wave and remembering that you are water,
Not attaching to everybody else's stories or reactions.
Just remembering that you belong to yourself.
And nobody else.
And you can always come back to that steadiness that lives inside.
