Day 16: Immerse Yourself

It's day 16 of our challenge. I'm so glad that you're still with me. We're going to stay with what we've been doing. Hope you have your mala. If not, you don't have to have it, but I am going to teach using the mala.

And we're going to go back to hamsa, just to really make it very clear in your mind, body, energy, you know, which mantra is working for you, right? So we're back and forth, back and forth. One more time, hamsa, that I am. So find your seat, establish your base, close your eyes, and again, becoming hopefully really natural to you now, just makes sense. You close your eyes, establish your base, you set yourself up for ease and comfort, so that you can do that deeper work of your meditation practice.

Anything that needs to be shifted or adjusted, you handle that. Bodies are changing all the time, so feel out what you need today. If you need more lift or less lift or to move your feet, do that. And then training in your ability to align your spine, countering modern life where we tend to sink and collapse so much. Close the front and back body, line the shoulders, the neck, chin, feel a sense of lift beyond the top of your head, and then relaxing, settling, here you are, again, you've made that commitment, pass into it, muscles softening, your nervous system begins to change.

So particularly if you've been under a lot of stress, once you start making that shift, you move from fight or flight into parasympathetic, everything calms down and slows down. So make that turn now, tell yourself it's okay to relax, breath, kind of soften and slow down, and then do your inner observation. Not needing to change anything or place yourself in a certain mood, just becoming aware of what is. Breath, watching, feeling, noticing the breath, letting it flow naturally, no control, no deep breathing, just your own natural rhythm. Picking up your set of mala beads, starting at the first bead, placing your hand comfortably on your thigh, and when you're ready to the mantra, ham sa, that I am, ham sa, full feeling tone as you begin to move, bead to bead, ham sa.

Picking up your set of mala beads, that's 10 seconds. Thank you. Thank you. Just keep sticking with the movement of the being, movement of your hand, inner sound of the mantra. If you catch yourself, you're moving in again to that kind of autopilot mode where you're moving, you're saying the mantra, but you're not fully there.

Slow it down, full attention, hamsa, hamsa. Even with the use of the beads and a mantra, still, the mind is tricky, we can go to autopilot. Keep bringing in full attention, hamsa, hamsa. If you're so often aware of your body, countering the effects of gravity or any buildup of tension, and then keep moving along your beads, hamsa, hamsa. Keep moving along your beads, hamsa, hamsa.

Keep moving along your beads, hamsa. Keep moving along your beads, hamsa. Keep moving along your beads. Keep moving along your beads. Keep moving along your beads.

Keep moving along your beads. Once again, bring back in that physical awareness, regrounding, realigning, relifting, any gripping, any tension accumulating, and that happens, consciously let it go. And then continue, even maybe now, more focused attention, really present as you move bead to bead, inner sound, hamsa. You may find that you can go to that autopilot mode, maybe you're speeding up, only partially present. Slow it down, more pause, bead to bead, really immersing yourself in the feeling quality, the energy quality of hamsa.

So you find these ways where we kind of, only half there, and really the meditative tools are to help us be all there, completely there. Hitting the refresh button, once again, full attention, hamsa. Okay. Okay. Okay.

Okay. And then just last few minutes, last time we're going to continue with hamsa. Stay with your movement along the mala, noticing, watching the particular quality you feel with hamsa. Okay. Okay.

And now go ahead and release technique. Literally you can, the mala slide out of your hand, letting go of the sound, that inner repetition, and pausing once again to notice what you're feeling with this particular meditation. So your last one was so hum, I asked you to pause and feel into that mantra. And now our final time with hamsa, feel into the results of this meditation. It's been literally a moment of compare and contrast what your experience is from one to the other, helping yourself fine-tune. And over the course of our 21 meditations, really get clear about what most is most beneficial, what tool is most helpful for you.

There are many paths to the same destination. So let's bring our time together to a close. Hands at the heart. Namaste. And we'll see you tomorrow for a new mantra. Another one to share. Thank you.