Hi friends!
Welcome back to Your Journey Yoga.
My name is Natalia and today we have a meditation for connecting with joy.
This practice can be done seated or lying down,
Whatever is most supportive for you today.
Grab any support you'd like to have with you and we'll begin.
As you begin to arrive in your meditation shape,
You can allow the eyelids to become soft and heavy,
Bringing a sense of relaxation into your face.
Unclenching the jaw,
Letting the brow be soft and letting this sense of relaxation and ease begin to travel down through your neck,
Releasing any tension in the shoulders,
Letting your arms be heavy,
Feeling the way that the breath moves your chest and your belly,
Finding a sense of spaciousness here as you inhale and grounding all the way down through your hips and your sits bones as you exhale,
Allowing your legs to be heavy and relaxed.
Just let yourself melt into whatever shape you've arrived in,
Into whatever space you were in and just acknowledge any elements of the present moment that are with you right now,
Even if that includes some sounds in the background,
Some thoughts circulating in the mind,
Any sensations ebbing and flowing in the body.
Open up your awareness to observe all of these things happening at once in the now and just create some space around it.
Instead of perceiving these things as distractions,
Perhaps they can be seen as reminders of where you are in time and space and reminders to remain as present as possible,
Noticing the temporariness of your thoughts,
The temporariness of your sensations and the temporariness of sound,
All of it moving and ebbing and flowing in the present moment.
The breath is a great tool for presence so you can allow your awareness to float along with your inhales and your exhales,
Observing the way that your breath feels in your body,
Letting each inhale bring you expansion,
Letting each exhale deepen your presence,
Noticing if any micro tensions have began to form in the body and use your awareness to soften these spaces.
Let the body be held and supported by whatever is underneath you,
Letting the body be moved and soothed by your breath.
Take three super slow and deep rounds of breath and after your third deep round of breath you can return to whatever kind of breathing is most supportive for you.
Allow your awareness to open into a visualization of someone,
Something that brings you deep joy.
This could even be a profound joyful memory.
Whatever comes to mind first you can just follow that thread,
Visualizing whatever it is,
This thing that brings you joy.
What does joy feel like in your body?
What sensations arise when you bring this to mind?
Maybe the heartbeat quickens just slightly,
Maybe you feel tingling or pulsing,
A surge of energy moving through your spine.
Just notice what comes up for you here and really anchor into the bodily sensations that are connected to this experience of joy.
Letting this vision ignite you.
What does the breath feel like in this joy?
What does the heart feel like in this joy?
What does the mind feel like in this joy?
Let the energy of joyfulness fill your entire being.
You can allow that vision to begin to fade away.
Start to bring to mind what your most joyful self is like.
How does the most joyful version of yourself speak,
Act,
And move?
How does the most joyful version of yourself interact with others?
Is there something that this most joyful version of yourself does that you haven't been doing?
Is there something about your most joyful self that you would like to connect with more deeply?
Begin to embody this energy,
Letting it be part of your beingness now,
Even if this has felt somewhat elusive to you previously.
Acknowledge your ability to access this way of being internally as you are right now.
Stay with this energy.
Stay with the sensations that are present along with it.
I'm going to offer some affirmations and you can repeat them mentally in your mind or you can simply receive them.
Joy is a natural state that lives within me.
Joy is all around me.
I see joy in the world and amplify those moments.
Joy wants to reach me and I welcome it with open arms.
When I connect with joy,
I am connected to abundance.
May all beings experience joy in their life,
Myself included.
Just give yourself a few moments here to breathe and be with this energy.
As you're ready,
You can allow your breath to expand and awaken you even more.
Maybe inviting a little bit of movement into the body and you can start to slowly blink the eyes open,
Welcoming yourself back into the space you are in.
If you feel cold,
You can bring your hands together at heart center and take a little bow of chin to chest in reverence for your practice.
I hope that you have the most joyful unfolding of the rest of your day,
Week and month.
I'll see you in the next practice.
Namaste.
