Letting Go

A gently guided meditation practice to encourage letting go of tensions or tightness. Letting go is a process and the intent of this practice is to help facilitate you letting go of what no longer serves your at the same time as embracing a connection with all that is.

Transcript

Hello there,

This is Moira.

This guided meditation is intended to help you let go of what is no longer serving you.

And so to begin,

Make sure your body is as comfortable as it can be,

As comfortable as possible,

Either sitting,

Sitting in a chair or on the floor,

Or lying down.

And just allow your breathing to go deep and soft as you allow the weight of your body to settle down toward the earth.

Taking a few deep breaths and letting go just a wee bit more on each out-breath.

Breathing deeply.

And then just allow your breathing to settle and find its own natural rhythm.

Letting your breath breathe itself.

Just notice how your body moves in response to your breath.

Your chest expanding and relaxing.

Your belly rising and falling.

If your breath is affected in any way by any tightness or tension,

Just notice this with a kind,

Gentle awareness.

Try to let go of any ideas about how you think it should be and just rest here.

Rest here with an awareness of how things actually are for you in each moment.

I invite you to imagine a wave flowing up the beach,

Turning and then flowing gently back out to the sea again.

Noticing how the movement of the breath has a rhythm very much like this.

Or you might conjure up another image that you find calming and soothing.

Use your imagination in your own way to help your mind and your body settle around the breath.

Notice how each breath is unique.

How no two breaths are the same.

Notice the texture,

The quality and the duration of each breath.

If you notice your body or your mind tensing up around your experience,

In that noticing you can gently let go again without judgement.

Do this over and over again if needed with a loving,

Gentle awareness.

Need any pain or discomfort in your body within your broad feel of awareness.

Often times we resist feelings of pain or discomfort.

This just leads to more tension,

More tightness,

More pain and more discomfort.

Use your breath to help soften the hard edges around the discomfort.

And invite in a tender,

Gentle awareness to permeate the in and the out breaths.

As you use the breath to soften resistance to the tension or discomfort,

You may notice how the experience of discomfort is in fact a constantly changing mass of different sensations.

This experience comes into being and passes away moment by moment.

Now you can broaden out your experience even more,

Just inviting in the pleasurable dimensions of your feel of awareness.

May be very subtle,

May be something like a slight tingling in your fingers,

Some sort of pleasing sensation around your breath,

May be the sun shining through the window onto your skin.

Just in your own way scanning through your whole experience and noticing the little moments of pleasure,

The little moments of bliss.

No matter how fleeting,

Just arising and falling with each moment.

You may notice that each moment of life contains elements that are uncomfortable and elements which are pleasurable.

This is the way things are in this world for everyone.

Notice the tendency to harden against discomfort and to grasp towards pleasure and in that noticing relax back into the broad field of awareness.

Help yourself.

Now broaden out your awareness still,

Even more,

To include an awareness of others.

Become aware that all humanity experiences a mixture of pain and pleasure,

Moment by moment,

In much of the way you do.

The stories of our lives are unique,

But the range of basic human experience and emotions will be very similar.

We all have hopes and dreams,

Fears and regrets,

No matter where we live,

How old we are,

The colour of our skin or our wealth.

In this way we can allow our own experience of pain,

Discomfort or illness to become a moment of empathy for others who may be in pain or who are ill,

Rather than a moment of isolation.

All life suffers in one way or another.

All life experiences pleasure in one way or another.

In the same way that you infused your breath with a kindly awareness toward your own experience,

You can now allow a kindly loving awareness to permeate the in and the out breaths as you think of others.

Maybe you can get a sense of the whole world breathing,

All of life breathing like waves on the ocean,

Rising and falling.

Allowing a sense of the hard edges of separation to soften.

Letting go into a sense of all that we share and a feeling of connection with all life as you sit or lie here,

Resting quietly with your breath,

Moment by moment.

Just rest and be with this quality of awareness for as long as it feels best for you at this point.

Thank you.

And now in your own time,

Bringing this meditation to a close.

Gently coming back to a full awareness of your body lying on your bed or on the floor or sitting on a chair.

Feel in firm contact with the earth.

Tune into the movement of your breath in your body and gradually bringing your awareness back to where you are.

Maybe you can wiggle your fingers and toes a little,

Grounding yourself into this present moment.

When you're ready,

Gently opening your eyes,

Taking in your surroundings,

Re-engaging with your day.

And see if you can take the quality of awareness that you generated in this meditation practice with you into your life as it unfolds moment by moment.

Reviews

Absolutely beautiful. I loved the analogy of the waves. So soothing.

Loved it! Loved it! Loved it!
Thanks a ton Moira :).

I’m so pleased I found you
I’m really enjoying and benefiting from your meditations
Thank you ❤️

I like the image of a wave coming to the shore and rolling out—over and over like my breath. Thank You for accompanying me on this awareness of letting go moment by moment. 🌸🌺

Another lovely meditation, Moira. And all the better for having no soundtrack 😁 Thank you 🌿

Amazing! I created a different view of the breath: for me, it was the wind in the trees, each leaf shining in the sun. I could hear the clatter as the wind (my breath) moved through. I could smell the loamy scent of the life of the earth. I felt the joy of that, and I was grateful to also include and relax into the pains of my body, as well as the connection to all others. Thank you

It has been a long time since I have felt so calm and at peace. I love the metaphors throughout, and the long pauses that allow me to absorb the feelings. Your voice is so calm and natural with an asmr quality. Thank you so much! My new favorite!

I really enjoy Moira’s gentle guidance and quiet wisdom. She is one of my favourite teachers.

This was a beautiful grounding practice ❤️ thank you so much for this 🙏🏻❤️

Nice imagery of the rhythmic ebb and flow of breath and waves, also like heart-beats. It helps visualizing and feeling letting go as we breathe out (and as we see the waves flow back out. Thank you Moira

Beautiful - thank you

A beautiful meditation. Thank you so much. Such a calming, voice to help guide me. Had some chatter but overall I really got to relax and be calm. 🙏🏻🙏🏻❤️

I LOVE this meditation! So many beautiful and important insights. Thank you!

beautiful, thank you.

Very helpful, soothing, and grounding, thank you!! 🙏🏻😊

Thank. Your voice is calming.

Thank you! It was really relaxing and helping me to let go things that no longer serve me ☺️ I really like your soothing voice as well I can feel my body and mind relaxing

Just what I needed

Beautiful simple meditation on transforming our view of the pain and suffering vs joy and blessing! 🙏🙏

Thank you Moira 🙏