Guided Meditation: May I Give Myself a Moment to Be (Season 7, Episode 15)

When I asked on Instagram recently what our listeners would like to hear this week, the majority chose a guided meditation. So that’s what you’ve got! The guided meditation portion is about 12 minutes long, and you can do it from anywhere you like. It’s all about giving yourself a moment to be — exactly as you are, no expectations, nothing to change or do. I hope it is of benefit!

Listen In

Click here to listen — or subscribe to “Love, Curvy Yoga” wherever you listen to podcasts to make sure you never miss an episode!

Links for you

Transcript

(00:04):
Welcome to Love, Curvy Yoga, the podcast where we just want to remind you that we love you. Now let’s get into it.

(00:16):
Hi, Anna here.

(00:18):
How are you? I know that’s kind of a doozy and I just wanted you to know that I’ve been thinking about you a lot and really hoping, I’m not sure what the right word is, definitely hoping that you and yours are doing well, staying safe. We are doing pretty well over here: doing our best to check in with each other and stay grounded, which you know, isn’t always our best. But we’re working on it. We are getting out for lots of walks in our neighborhood, nowhere crowded, and shouting hellos to our neighbors when we see them from six plus feet away.

(01:03):
So I asked on Instagram the other day what people would like from this podcast right now. Uh, and the choices were a guided meditation or a discussion on a topic and the vast majority chose guided meditation. So here we are! The guided meditation today is May I Give Myself a Moment to Be. I just, when I was coming up with this, checked in with myself and thought really more than thought I tried to feel into what seemed like it was needed both in my own body and then just kind of in our collective experience and this just Moment to Be came to me.

(01:45):
So I’m going to do the reminders that I usually do at the end of the episode right now so that when we get to the guided meditation, it can just end and you can do whatever you want after that if you want to sit a little bit longer or go to sleep or whatever. So here are the quick reminders. Uh, number one we have daily practice recommendations on the site. So if you are a curvy yoga studio member, which is our online yoga studio, then you can go and check those out. And our April theme is Claiming, so that’s going to be coming up pretty soon. And you know, this is a time when so much is unknown and uncertain that I thought it would be good to remember what we have and claim it. So the weekly explorations are going to be claiming voice, space, knowing power and yourself. So if you are not currently a member and you want to join us, you can use the code curvy C U R V Y to take 50% off of your first month. So you can check out the link in the show notes for that. And if you have ideas for what would be helpful for you on the podcast right now, please do send me an email. I would love to hear that. So you can email me at podcast@curvyyoga.com. And I’m always open to your suggestions, but I’m especially so right now because I know that there are lots of good resources out there these days and I want to make sure that what we’re offering is useful for you. Okay, so up next is our guided meditation

(03:24):
[MUSIC]

(03:31):
Come into a comfortable position sitting or lying down. You don’t need to do or change anything. You exactly as you are in this moment are enough.

(03:54):
Let’s just settle into that knowing for a moment. You are enough. You’re doing enough. You’re taking care of others enough. We are all doing our very best in circumstances that none of us have experienced before. You are enough. Notice what arises as I speak those words: any protestations, any tightening or softening in the body, any sense of relief. It’s all welcome. You are welcome. All of you. Every doubt, joy, worry, tenderness, concern, delight. In yoga and meditation we practice being with it all. This is what we’ve been doing together all along and it’s what we’re going to continue to do, including now.

(05:10):
So let’s start to land here in this moment. Notice what you’re in contact with, what you’re sitting or lying on. You might notice what parts of your body are in contact with it. Maybe you get a sense of the texture of the material, anything that presents itself for your awareness.

(05:53):
Now shifting your attention a little bit to temperature, so noticing any sensations on your body of warmth or cool. It’s likely you’ll have different experiences in different parts of your body and we’re not noticing any of this because there’s something to change. Or to find a way to do it better. We’re noticing simply for the act of noticing for how noticing brings us into this very moment because it’s the only thing that’s available for us to notice.

(06:52):
So now shifting to any sensations you encounter of movement within your body. So you might feel the rise and fall of your breath in the belly or chest. You might notice sensations of energy in different parts of your body. And with any of these, if you’re not sure or you feel like you’re not noticing anything, that’s okay. That’s part of the noticing. Again, we’re not looking to label any of this experience as good or bad or anything in between. We’re doing something that’s pretty unique in our everyday lives and even in some ways radical, which is allowing ourselves to be with what is without labeling, without judgment, just as it is.

(08:20):
Shifting your attention a little bit again to just yourself in the space that you’re in. So in the room, in the car, in your office, wherever you might be doing this meditation. And keep that observation contained within this particular space just for now, trying to keep your attention with yourself. There’s a lot calling us out of ourselves right now and we definitely need that solidarity and support of others, but it’s not either/or. It’s both/and. And for this moment, allow yourself to be with yourself. Allow yourself to be.

(09:25):
Allow yourself to breathe. Let the breath be whatever it is right now. Most of us adopt different breathing patterns under times of stress. This is adaptive and not something to make a problem. Being with your own breath as it is is already such a potent form of bodily connection, such a potent form of presence.

(10:03):
If you’d like to connect in a little different way with the breath, you’re welcome to bring a hand to your heart or your belly or both. Sometimes that can help you make that connection by feeling the presence of the hand on the heart, the chest receiving the pressure of the hand. Again, just letting yourself breathe and be here. You don’t have to set an intention right now. You don’t have to send yourself or anyone else love and light. You don’t have to be in a better posture. You don’t have to stay perfectly focused on your breath. You don’t even have to listen to every word I’m saying. You don’t have to do anything.

(11:06):
Just for now, you don’t have to do anything. Let’s just be together now in some silence and non-doing.

(11:24):
[SILENT MEDITATION]

(13:32):
Gently begin to invite yourself back to your breath. Just the rhythm of your own breath as it is. Let’s do five more together at your own pace. After your fifth exhale, whenever that comes, we’re going to close here with our curvy loving kindness meditation. So it has four phrases and after each one I’ll pause and you’re welcome to repeat it to yourself silently or out loud or just let it settle in and resonate. So I’ll begin.

(14:36):
May I greet my body with gentleness.

(14:38):
May I soften when life invites me to harden.

(14:51):
May I listened to my intuition with wisdom and trust it with ease.

(14:56):
And may I appreciate my body a little more in this moment, just as it is.

(15:13):
We’ll take one breath together here to close. We’ll inhale and exhale. The light in me honors the light in you. Namaste.

(15:28):
[MUSIC]