Rest Deep Within Yourself

(waves crashing) Hi. Thank you for joining me. This will be a meditation practice actually, so the whole episode will be on meditation. First we'll start about the seat of meditation, like how to sit comfortably, and then I'll lead you through a meditation. I believe, and I think many yoga teachers agree, that every day it's crucial to meditate at least for a couple of minutes. If you have time, 15 minutes is great.

If you don't have time, 10 minutes is great. But not too little because it's a way of settling down and being more focused. So during the filming processes, what I do also is give myself one or two minutes of just coming into my body, and this will help you throughout your day. So I would recommend doing it before you meet anyone actually, but you can do it any time of the day. So what you will need is a cushion.

You probably have one at home. If you're gonna sit on the ground, it's good if you can have a blanket underneath you, or it could be a carpet that you like sitting on. So the reason why we put our hips up is so that our legs can move down like this, and it's easier to get in front of your sit bones. So if you come to the back of your sit bones, you'll start slouching, and it will be very uncomfortable for you to stay here. You'll be constantly obsessed with the sensations of the body, and you'll get frustrated.

So if one cushion is not enough for you, take one more, or two more even, and lift yourself up higher in your room. Take the buttock flesh out just to feel your sit bones a little bit more, and let the knees relax. If one of your knees is up, you can also put another cushion underneath so that it feels supported. Everything down here, your pelvis, your legs should feel supported so that it can support the spine moving upwards. You can put your hands on your legs wherever it feels comfortable, or you can put them on top of each other in front of you.

I prefer my hands on my legs, and I prefer my elbows under my shoulders so that with time they don't pull my shoulders forward. So bring your elbows back under your shoulders and lengthen the spine. Keep your eyes open. Look around because you won't be in a bit, and see if you're comfortable enough or if you need extra cushions, or if you need to lean back to a wall, which you can also do for now, and then with time, you can move to the middle of the room. When you feel you're ready, start closing your eyes.

Give yourself time to close your eyes. Give yourself time to settle down. And start by feeling the legs and how you're touching the ground with your legs. So feeling the right leg grounding, not really pushing, but it's becoming heavy, and the left leg becoming heavy at its own pace. Feel both legs becoming heavy as much as they want to.

Feel your pelvic floor, the bottom of your pelvis, the sit bones grounding. One sit bone might be heavier than the other and that's fine. Just see if you can find a place where you're comfortable. Doesn't have to be equal. Then bring your attention along your spine, your lower back, your upper back, the curve, the natural curves of your spine, the neck, and then the back of your head.

Lift the crown of the head up as you're relaxing down through your pelvis. The sit bones. A few inhales are lifting your head up and exhales are grounding your pelvis down. As you're lifting the crown of the head up and softening the pelvis down, feel your eyes. Softening the corners of the eyes, the cheeks, the lips, the jaw.

The breath going in through your nose, out through your nose. The sensations in the nostrils. Tracking the breath all the way down to your throat. Its coolness going in. Its warmth coming out.

Feeling the movement of the breath in your upper body, and softening the belly, the pelvic floor, as if the breath is reaching the pelvic floor gently at its own pace. Staying with whatever is happening. Staying still with it. Encapsulating it. Being with it. Whatever's going on within you.

Breathing with it. Let the thoughts move freely. Breath move freely. Just being present with whatever's happening right now where you are. Feel free to stay here as long as you want to, or you can start deepening the breath gently and feeling your body, and keeping it as soft as possible as you're opening the eyes.

So take your time in opening the eyes. Give yourself time to interact with the world. When you're ready, you can do a stretch or whatever you want to do until tomorrow, the next day, doing it and coming back to a seat again. Thank you for being with me.