Slowing down to connect intentionally with ourselves is always a good idea, however there are times of the year when it is particularly beneficial to do so. For me, seasonal changes (Solstice and equinoxes), birthdays, before big events, and New Year’s Eve are all times when I spend more intentional time in slowing down to meditate on what I would like to shift in my life.
It can be powerful to connect with what we are willing to release, what we are opening to receive, and perhaps what we would like to deepen into. Doing so may reveal opportunities and possibilities that had previously been just out of our attention. Tapping into the Wisdom that is ready for us to hear and remember allows us to be to be conscious empowered participants on this planet.
In this rest meditation I guide our nervous systems into a state of somatic receptivity and self connection. From this place of co-created readiness, I bring pieces from Octavia Raheem and Joy Harjo and we contemplate questions and open ourselves to receiving wisdom: *what we might be willing to release? *what we might be willing to receive? *what light do we have to share?
There will be time to journal if you’d like, and if you need more time I invite you to pause the recording to allow your system to have the space needed for the deepening calling.
May we gift ourselves with some quiet time- alone or with others who support your journey- to become conscious of what our heart is calling out for.
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Transcript Below:
[00:00:00.890] – Speaker 1Yeah. So, being. Being comfortable and knowing that I will be bringing in a couple people’s writings, and those writings will invite us to dream a little bit, dream into, contemplate into where we are right now in our journey. So I will pose some questions, and when those questions arise, I. Those questions will not be questions for our mental minds to answer.[00:00:31.850] – Speaker 1
They will be questions for our beings to listen to. And just like when we’re watching a show or a movie and we’re leaned back in our chair and we’re watching to see what comes next when questions are asked, eventually, when I ask them questions of us, we’ll invite ourselves to lean back and just listen to see what comes. Silence may come, nothing may come, and that is a response in and of itself. But we will invite a different part of our beings to connect to the questions asked and to just hear and notice what comes. And of course, there is no right or wrong, good or bad here.[00:01:20.970] – Speaker 1
This is an exercise in connecting to the mystery and to maybe unrevealed spaces or spaces that you are quite intimate with and are opening back up to. So without saying anything more, we’ll go ahead and continue to settle in. And all that means is to find spaces that your body’s comfortable with and feeling the support of your location.[00:02:06.710] – Speaker 1
So if you’re sitting upright, perhaps the support behind you, if you’re laying down, you’ll feel the space under you.[00:02:23.620] – Speaker 1
And the invitation right now is to let your attention identify, in the simplest of ways, what is behind you, what is under you that’s holding your body.[00:02:37.080] – Speaker 1
This isn’t an esoteric question. This is a literal question. Is it a cushion?[00:02:44.140] – Speaker 1
Is it hardwood?[00:02:47.820] – Speaker 1
Is it a mattress? And so forth? And just letting your body find that substance, so to speak, that object that is holding your body.[00:03:02.800] – Speaker 1
M and if it is useful for you, as you are noting or acknowledging this solid object that’s supporting you, you can also gently have the eyes look around your space to notice that you are in a literal, safe space.[00:03:33.610] – Speaker 1
You may not feel that emotionally or psychologically or internally, but letting your brain and your eyes to see. The walls are solid, the ground is supportive, the ceiling is safe, even looking behind you or to the windows or doors that you might see just for your cognitive brain and that prefrontal cortex of our brain to really acknowledge that we are in safe spaces here on this practical level, just breathing and acknowledging that.[00:04:35.330] – Speaker 1
And then again, we may also then let our eyes gently close and let our bodies find the safe spaces under us, behind us. Again, that cushion or chair floor with every exhalation, letting the nervous system receive that very practical level of support.[00:05:28.030] – Speaker 1
And from here, letting your attention connect to what is simple for you in this moment. You’re just letting your attention meander in your experience right now as you’re sitting or laying and breathing what is very simple and easy.[00:05:52.330] – Speaker 1
Maybe it’s the air in and out of the nostrils, or maybe it’s the cushion behind your back in that space there.[00:06:08.360] – Speaker 1
Maybe it’s your hands on your lap. So doesn’t matter what it is, it’s unique for you. And letting your attention just really meander through your experience to cognitively and consciously acknowledge what is simple and easy in this moment for your attention to include and anchor into.[00:06:52.840] – Speaker 1
And we’re all so unique in this way. So what might be simple and easy for me may not be for somebody else, and so forth and so on. So there is no right answer to this question. There is just what is true for you and honoring whatever is true for you.[00:07:26.050] – Speaker 1
I will from time to time reference breath. And if that is an uncomfortable or is uncomfortable for you to include in your attention, just let yourself stay with what is easy and simple. And if there is an aspect of breathing that is easy and simple, you can let yourself include that. Again, it may just be maybe the air coming in and out of the nostrils, or again, everyone’s different. It may be the sides of the body moving.[00:07:59.870] – Speaker 1
It may just be noticing that the shoulders are lifting, for example, or the body is kind of lifting and falling.[00:08:14.460] – Speaker 1
And even using that invitation of simple and easy, what is the simplest and easiest acknowledgment of breath in this moment?[00:08:50.870] – Speaker 1
So we’re inviting our attention to be curious, knowing we’re inviting a. Knowing that there is no right response or right way to be there is just the simple as it might be showing up right now for you.[00:09:33.080] – Speaker 1
Continuing to ah, notice the movement of breath as your body is fairly still. There’ll be movement of breath and stillness in this moment.[00:09:58.410] – Speaker 1
So you’ll notice what is still and you’ll notice the movement, what is moving.[00:10:16.520] – Speaker 1
Your mind may also be included in what is moving. Thoughts may be moving. Thoughts may be coming and going. Images may be coming and going. That is a kind of movement.[00:10:29.500] – Speaker 1
You can notice that movement amidst the stillness of the sitting or the laying down.[00:10:43.760] – Speaker 1
Sounds are in movement. Different sounds are coming and going. The sounds of words and other sounds in your background.[00:11:10.890] – Speaker 1
You may be noticing other senses of taste or scent.[00:11:37.020] – Speaker 1
And the invitation, if you notice your attention in thought, is to just acknowledge, oh, I’m in thought. What is here right now? What sounds are here? Or what senses of touch are here?[00:12:01.780] – Speaker 1
What is here right now could be anything. Temperatures, textures. And let your attention come back to this moment, to the simplest of this moment. Something very tangible.[00:12:32.780] – Speaker 1
I’m going to read a short paragraph from a poet named Octavia Rahim, and maybe you’ve heard me read this before.[00:12:47.360] – Speaker 1
She writes, growth requires me to take bold action, speak my truth, and give over to grace what my grit can’t push me through. It is not linear and requires me to give up my stories, my clinging to limitations, even my own comfort, in order for the seeds of my purpose to flourish into their fullest potential.[00:13:24.940] – Speaker 1
And then she invites us to connect very simply to this question and to keep it very simple.[00:13:53.210] – Speaker 1
I am willing to give up blank in order for blank to grow in my life.[00:14:06.110] – Speaker 1
And we’re invited to stay very simple. Not lofty, not fantastical, not olympic style here. Very simple. What is it that we are moved in this moment?[00:14:28.870] – Speaker 1
What are we willing to even consider? Or possibly we might possibly give up so that we may have something else grow in our life?[00:14:54.210] – Speaker 1
I’m going to say this one more time, and then I’m going to be quiet for a little bit. So just know that I will be quiet for a little bit so that you can dream into this knowing there is not a right answer. There is not something that is supposed to come and to be curious with whatever reveals. I am willing to give up blank in order for blank to grow in my life.[00:16:09.120] – Speaker 1
It[00:17:09.730] – Speaker 1
it. If your mind starts to grab hold, just acknowledge that, like, ah, thoughts, okay? And gently bring your attention back to simple or easy and this question that may not have an answer.[00:18:46.140] – Speaker 1
We’re going to let ourselves have two more minutes to just let our curiosity dream with no expectations, just to be here listening to what arises. If anything.[00:20:27.180] – Speaker 1
If nothing came, then honor and respect that there is just supposed to be silence in response and continue to sit or lay and breathe.[00:20:45.140] – Speaker 1
And if something did come in, let yourself be curious about that. What is it that you are willing to give up so that you can have something else grow in your life? And just being curious about that, like continuing to breathe and feel your laying or sitting body, just taking in that information, letting your bones and your being take that in however you already are.[00:21:47.210] – Speaker 1
And maybe there’s some resistance to that and let that be here, too.[00:21:59.250] – Speaker 1
There’s any sense of emotion, whether it’s excitement or fear or confusion or curiosity, et cetera and so forth, maybe all of those, maybe a myriad of those just letting those have their space. Here’s maybe this information that’s come to you or lack of information that’s come to you is appreciated or feels right, and maybe it’s the opposite. Maybe it’s a surprise and you’re not sure what to do with it. So on this day of the solstice, we are in between world, so to speak. We are in transition of the days.[00:23:25.100] – Speaker 1
And we let any unknowing that is not here to be acknowledged and any truths that are dropping in, we invite ourselves to receive them or hear them, not even knowing necessarily what that might mean.[00:23:51.280] – Speaker 1
And if possible, in that not knowing to be maybe just a little bit open to learning, being open to whatever discoveries might come with this.[00:24:22.830] – Speaker 1
We’re going to come to another reading in a moment. If you would like to write that down.[00:24:31.810] – Speaker 1
Take a moment to do that.[00:24:40.580] – Speaker 1
We’ll just take a minute in case anyone wants to do that’s.[00:25:35.130] – Speaker 1
And we’ll trust that if we don’t have it all written down, what we need to remember will revisit us.[00:25:49.050] – Speaker 1
We’ll trust in the timing of what is wiser than we are. Perhaps I might say.[00:26:03.370] – Speaker 1
So we’ll come to another piece of writing. This is by Joy Harjo, and this is what she writes. She writes, once the world was perfect and we were happy in that world. Then we took it for granted. Discontent began, a small rumble in the earthly mind.[00:26:28.610] – Speaker 1
Then doubt pushed through with its spiked head. And once doubt ruptured the web, all manner of demon thoughts jumped through. We destroyed the world we had been given for inspiration, for life. Each stone of jealousy, each stone of fear, greed, envy and hatred put out the light. No one was without a stone in his or her hand.[00:26:57.850] – Speaker 1
There we were, right back where we had started. We were bumping into each other in the dark. And now we had no place to live since we didn’t know how to live with each other. Then one of the stumbling ones took pity on another and shared a blanket. A spark of kindness made a light.[00:27:26.390] – Speaker 1
The light made an opening in the darkness. Everyone worked together to make a ladder. A wind clan person climbed out first into the next world. And then the other clans. The children of those clans, their children and their children, all the way through time to now into this morning light to you.[00:27:59.790] – Speaker 1
A wind clan person climbed out first into the next world. Now follow them. Everyone is carrying a light that was given to be shared.[00:28:20.400] – Speaker 1
And my question to you is to be very curious in this moment as to what your light might be to share you may have an immediate response, and you may not. You may not know.[00:28:55.950] – Speaker 1
You may have doubt covering and take a moment to see.[00:29:13.460] – Speaker 1
Take a moment to ask something wiser than your thoughts, something wiser than your fear, something wiser than your past sufferings, and connect to what some part of you knows is your light or your gift. Maybe there’s a different word, your gift, or something that you have that maybe you have already shared before and it’s calling you to share again. Maybe it’s calling you to share it with yourself, or it could be to share it with others.[00:30:18.030] – Speaker 1
Remembering to return to what is simple and easy in this moment. Whatever that is for you.[00:30:30.510] – Speaker 1
When you’re connected to that simple and easy, ask this curious question, not expecting an answer, but being willing for one to show up. When I say that everyone is carrying a light that was given to be shared, what is your light to share?[00:31:10.010] – Speaker 1
And I’ll be quiet for a few minutes here.[00:32:48.380] – Speaker 1
If your mind is caught up in this question, just acknowledge that is very normal, that’s valid, and gently bring your attention back to what is easy and simple in this moment. Maybe it’s a long exhalation, maybe it’s the warmth behind your back or something else for you in this moment.[00:33:29.530] – Speaker 1
If you’d like to write anything down, let yourself do that.[00:33:39.520] – Speaker 1
We’ll take another couple minutes[00:34:47.980] – Speaker 1
and then maybe get curious of how these two pieces of writing and these two questions of inquiry, how they may be in relationship in some way for you. Is what you were willing to give up so something could grow? Is it related to your light? What your light has to share? It may or may not.[00:35:18.900] – Speaker 1
So I just wanted to let your attention be curious with that’s letting yourself write any of that down, that feels useful to make note of. And we’ll give another minute to sit together. To be together with this question,[00:36:57.300] – Speaker 1
returning your attention to what’s simple or easy in this moment, with your sitting or laying, breathing body as we acknowledge this time of beginnings and endings.[00:37:25.260] – Speaker 1
Of course, every. Every moment is a beginning. Every moment is an ending. And we’re acknowledging this time of solstice where it is a bigger movement of endings and beginnings in your own way. Letting your self give gratitude for you being here, for you being here to ask these curious questions, receiving whatever was given.[00:38:29.530] – Speaker 1
And we let all of that be held in the mystery in which it was received. Not knowing, not having a plan, not having the information, maybe quite yet, of what that will look like or mean or how that will show up in our life, but handing it over to the mystery to reveal it to us when it is revealed, when it does come in.[00:39:06.870] – Speaker 1
So we will slowly. You can keep the eyes closed if you’d like, slowly letting your arms and your legs move a little bit, come back into form again. You can have the eyes open or closed, still letting yourself maybe take some deeper breaths, moving around in your chair or sitting back up if you’re laying down and you’d like to sit up and taking your time to slowly open your eyes when you’re ready, just very gently letting the light come in, letting yourself look around your room, still staying connected to your sitting, breathing body.[00:39:57.240] – Speaker 1
Taking your time here and when it’s right, coming back to the screen and.
