With awareness, breathe in and
slowly breathe out
Relax into
comforting breath.
This is a meditation about comfort.
In the silence, bring in images of comfort.
The warm sun. The air temperature is perfect.
You are one with the air.
You define your comfort
Just as you like it, allowing your energy
to expand in the silence.
A cat purring, the warmth of a dog
leaning against you.
You are safe. Relaxed. You belong.
Soft tinkling music lifts your soul.
Comforting sounds of nature.
You are one with nature.
You are one.
Your body breathes for you
At a relaxed pace. You are relaxed.
Any tension melts like the sun warms, it releases.
Part your lips ever so slightly and let your mouth relax.
Feel a soft wind caress you.
The gentle tinkling of wind chimes.
Birds are singing off in the distance.
There’s peace, peace within.
Peace around you. comfort.
You belong in this world.
You are right where you need to be. You trust your life more with every breath
You are safe.
You have clarity in your next steps.
You are safe.
Your breath brings you peace in silence.
Your silence brings safety.
You breathe in confidence.
You breathe out peace.
When the mind engages, breathe in peace.
Breathe out release as guidance comes to you.
You have wisdom in your soul.
You trust your soul. Speak to your soul.
Ask for guidance in your breath.
Bring your awareness into
the seconds between
your inbreath and outbreath.
Your soul is with you.
Your soul is with you.
Your soul is listening.
Your soul is communicating.
Breathe in the wisdom.
Breathe out peace.
You are one with your soul.
You are one with your soul.
As you bring your attention back
to the present moment,
know your soul is aligned with you.
You are not alone.
Your soul has wisdom.
Your humanness has wisdom.
Your breath is the bridge between
You and your soul.
Trust your wisdom.
Lean into your soul.
Speak with your soul.
Your soul and you are one.
As I count to five, your trust in your soul deepens.
One, your awareness of your trust deepens;
Two, you become one with your soul
Three, as you bring your awareness to your present breath,
Four, know that your soul and you are living this parallel life together.
Five, Breathe into oneness.
I’m throwing away
All of my masks now
To wear only my
Soul.
I think it’s about time to get back home.
Participants’ Reflections:
Thank you so much. That was quite a powerful guided meditation. I really did gain awareness about connecting with my soul. At first, I just felt this weight of all the things I have to do I couldn’t let go of because they are more important than connecting. But I kept at it and I could really sense with the five-breath count at the end, that was wonderful. I connected. I have been a little depressed over the news and over the personal stuff, and it really felt good to step back from it all. I appreciate it.
I took to heart when you were talking about doing everything that your soul wants to be comfortable. This was not over my shoulders when the reflection began. I got my warm snuggly throw a friend gave me a few days ago. You were talking about imagining out in the sun and the temp is perfect but I was not out and I was chilly so I took to heart the invitation to get just as comfortable as I could. I gave myself permission to love myself. I was also thinking I love the image of you taking that care package to your daughter and family and all of you seeing and hearing one another, the joy of spoiling them with ice cream and whatever crossed your heart you gave them. The flow of that action you took in the midst of your concern, that just is washing over me. It’s going out in ripples. Thank you for sharing that with us. That was food for your soul for sure, and now it is for ours.
Granting comfort to ourselves, granting whatever it is that we are desiring that gives us comfort, joy and nurturing is a doorway into our soul. It’s a doorway. The more we practice it, the hinge isn’t so creaky. It’s more easily opened.
Thank you for the reading and sharings. It felt so good to breathe with this group and have communion that way. Going to the soul and conjuring and making space and saying I want to know you in this moment. Earlier I was on a step meeting and someone was talking about coal being pressed into a diamond. It stayed with me. I’m coming to shift how I think about coal and dark. It’s not something waiting to be brought to a better potential. It is the potential of everything and the intention of squeezing it into a diamond is one possibility. Life, hope and everything is in that coal piece and it shifted for me during the meditation to be the pauses in between which is where my soul resides. I’m busy and I don’t see it but it’s there. I thought about the music you talked about yesterday, and it’s in the pauses between notes, it’s taking the breaths between the words. That’s my soul. If I can remember to pay attention to that. Coming out of meditation I could hear the birds. The birds were insignificant to me in the winter time, they were there, but I focused my attention on those pauses, those pieces I generally leave silent. It was very rich. Thank you for that opportunity.
Thank you so much. What a beautiful meditation and reading. Thank you to all who shared. In terms of coal and diamonds, it’s the pressure. It gave me a different way to look at it when I feel pressure. I love to garden and I watched a beautiful video this morning about permaculture. Even a seed has to be almost totally destroyed in order to bloom. What I was thinking this morning, it’s the eighth year since the death of my spouse. And it’s the first Valentine’s Day where, instead of feeling the loss of that love, I just feel love. It’s so beautiful. I don’t have to be married or with a partner to be in love. When I’m connected to the soul with such a beautiful meditation, not only am I in love with myself, I am in love with you all because we are connected. And when we walk through this place like this, even in times when we feel pressure, it’s so much more beautiful and there is so much more possibility. When my spouse was dying, I was kneeling by his head and I heard my voice say ‘seven years.’ My ancestors do a year of mourning and I heard seven years. This is the eighth year and my eighth Valentine’s Day. I’m so glad I honored that voice in me. Last year at this time, we may have had a hint of what this year would be. Looking forward, we have no concept of what possibilities will be here a year from now.
I love that you shared about the care package. To see the kids so happy, it will help their immune systems. They’ll never forget it. During the meditation, I was bouncing all over the place. As others were talking, I was thinking I am connecting with my soul briefly and it resonates with me for a long time afterwards. Yesterday, on the street, I saw icicles hanging from a building glistening in the sun. I saw birds on the overhead wires and I said hello to them. Countless number of things like that. There’s such beauty in them. That’s how I connect to my soul. Thank you.
Thank you for the opportunity to actually think about and experience a connection with my soul. That’s something I’ve taken as a word. I’ve sought out the wisdom inside of me and other things, but not my soul. My experience was that it is a connection, not only with myself, but with whatever it is we live in, the universe, other unexplainable things. The moments in my life, like earlier this week, I had moments of experiencing, wow, I’ve lived such a long life and I don’t remember parts of it. What is this thing called consciousness in this world? Moments come many times in one’s lifetime. For me, today was a connection, an intersection in me, between myself, what I am consciously aware of, and what I don’t understand and what is much larger than me. I asked what’s my purpose? What evolved in the conversation is that everyone has a different purpose and I don’t have to have some great path like help humanity. What is important to me is my purpose. What is important to me is taking care of myself in a compassionate way and being with the people in my life, and people in general, with that same compassion. No agenda, no investment in what they ought to do. Those are words to live by. That exchange inside myself was very comforting.
We reach those places of silence where there is just comfort and presence. Healing happens on levels we cannot understand. When we are feeling the joy of the glistening of the icicles or listening to birds or breathing in presence or being real with ourselves, healing happens. Healing beyond our understanding. Our breath is the bridge. Our breath and bringing ourselves into the present is the bridge to that connection. Over and over, I feel it and see it with people. Thank you. You demonstrate it by sharing your words.
Thank you for your willingness to bring yourself into the present moment, to spend this time with you in community. It goes deep and it goes far. We open doorways and cross bridges. We can always find our way back home even if we feel lost. So it is in this community and other supportive communities we love ourselves. Thank you.