Guided Meditation

Rachel H Author

04/06/2020 Added

22 Plays

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About a 13 minute guided meditation that will help you unwind from your day at any time!

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[00:00:00.024](soft oriental music)
[00:00:12.792]Hi, hello, good morning, good afternoon, good evening.
[00:00:17.191]I don't know what time you're watching this,
[00:00:19.660]but I'm Rachel, Rachel H.
[00:00:23.570]And you're joining me at my home studio,
[00:00:27.970]outside of Lincoln, so welcome.
[00:00:30.585]Some day you'll have to come in person
[00:00:33.680]and give you a little tour, you could pet a cat
[00:00:36.190]or catch a goat, that's up to you.
[00:00:39.150]But, I am here to share a guided meditation
[00:00:43.400]so you can take a little break from your busy day
[00:00:48.040]and maybe everything that you've got going on.
[00:00:52.170]So
[00:00:54.060]this might feel like a long shavasana.
[00:00:57.770]So if you are familiar with yoga and yoga practice,
[00:01:01.230]shavasana is that good part at the end,
[00:01:04.337]where you get to take a little rest.
[00:01:06.550]So I thought it would be nice if I came to you,
[00:01:11.040]wherever you are and read a little story,
[00:01:15.310]did a little relaxation and then
[00:01:19.000]you can get to go on from there.
[00:01:21.450]So what you'll need to do is figure out your setting.
[00:01:25.750]So for this, your bed could work,
[00:01:29.300]your yoga mat, on the carpet would be great.
[00:01:32.900]You can lie in your recliner,
[00:01:35.720]you could have all your cats, dogs and plants near by.
[00:01:39.030]Some people might be comfortable with a pillow
[00:01:41.960]or a super soft blanket.
[00:01:43.410]So that all is up to you.
[00:01:46.350]I've got my little battery operated candles here,
[00:01:49.940]you can't really tell with the lighting.
[00:01:52.510]Another thing some folks like might be essential oils,
[00:01:57.090]so you could do your aroma therapy.
[00:02:01.560]I don't have music playing,
[00:02:03.320]so if there is something that helps you feel relaxed,
[00:02:08.370]you could pause me at any time
[00:02:11.330]and get yourself all situated.
[00:02:13.790]Maybe grab your cozy socks and your sweatshirt and all that.
[00:02:17.720]And then when you're ready, I will share a story
[00:02:21.900]from the book "Myths of the Asanas",
[00:02:27.490]authored by Alanna Kaivalya and Arjuna van der Kooij.
[00:02:33.310]So lots of tricky words in here so bear with me,
[00:02:37.180]but hopefully it's just a nice, happy distraction.
[00:02:42.630]And help take your mind off what may or may not be going on
[00:02:46.770]for you right now.
[00:02:49.450]So
[00:02:51.120]you can get yourself cozy.
[00:02:56.090]And I
[00:03:00.644]will start the story for you.
[00:03:09.760]So once your body is situated,
[00:03:12.790]you might find a symmetrical way to lie.
[00:03:19.340]You could close your eyes,
[00:03:23.840]maybe you have one of those eye masks
[00:03:27.130]or eye pillows that you can place on the face
[00:03:30.170]if that is comfortable and relaxing for you, go for it.
[00:03:34.640]So starting at the eyes,
[00:03:38.660]then you might go ahead and relax your jaw.
[00:03:46.180]Soften the forehead.
[00:03:52.970]Remove the tongue from the roof of the mouth.
[00:04:09.021]You might notice if you're breathing, hopefully you are,
[00:04:15.170]you can do a nice easy inhale through the nose,
[00:04:20.990]a nice easy exhale through the nose.
[00:04:33.200]And be aware of the shoulders,
[00:04:34.310]just make their down at the back.
[00:04:42.840]Maybe you just wiggle out some of the tension
[00:04:45.340]you might be holding in the body.
[00:04:49.030]Let whatever props you might have support you.
[00:04:55.470]Relax the fingers, the toes
[00:04:59.040]and everything in between.
[00:05:06.340]And I'd like to share with you the story
[00:05:09.360]of Ganesh and the moon.
[00:05:12.020]So maybe the story, something you're interested in,
[00:05:15.210]you listen really carefully,
[00:05:16.900]maybe it's not as much and you just kind of doze off,
[00:05:19.760]either way that's fine because you're at home, right.
[00:05:25.440]Or a home-like place.
[00:05:28.460]All right, so Ganesh.
[00:05:32.509]Ganesh, the charming elephant headed god,
[00:05:35.500]adored by so many for his generous ways and clever antics,
[00:05:40.440]is also known for his wild infatuation
[00:05:43.260]with all things sweet.
[00:05:46.640]He is often depicted with a ball of prasad,
[00:05:50.800]a sweet blessed food in his palm,
[00:05:53.570]which he is never far from ingesting.
[00:05:57.490]Despite his love of sugary foods,
[00:06:00.270]he is a master of yoga, taking after his father, Shiva.
[00:06:06.120]Ganesh knows how to balance indulgences and austerities,
[00:06:12.180]leaving him with a flexible, albeit pudgy, figure.
[00:06:18.300]On one of his exploits, Ganesh actually consumed
[00:06:22.050]so many sweet cakes that his belly was full to bursting.
[00:06:27.320]He decided it was time to head home
[00:06:29.400]and relax his stuffed belly,
[00:06:31.530]so he hopped on his trusty steed, a tiny mouse
[00:06:38.730]because the mouse is such a small vehicle
[00:06:41.430]Ganesh has to practice extraordinary balance
[00:06:44.700]to keep his hulking frame on the erratic creature.
[00:06:50.170]The pair was cruising smoothly along
[00:06:52.910]when a very long cobra slithered onto their path
[00:06:56.320]and frightened the mouse.
[00:06:58.640]The mouse started one way and Ganesh fell the other.
[00:07:03.800]When he hit the ground, his overstuffed belly exploded
[00:07:09.140]and sweet cakes rained everywhere.
[00:07:12.540]This great perturbed Ganesh who was upset,
[00:07:16.560]not only by the cobra's disruption of his ride,
[00:07:20.760]but at the loss of the sweet fullness of his tummy.
[00:07:25.410]He walked around collecting all the sweet cakes
[00:07:28.655]and stuff them one by one back into his belly.
[00:07:34.940]Then he snatched up the cobra and tied it around his waist
[00:07:39.290]to cinch it shut, all the way the moon, Chandra,
[00:07:44.460]was watching the extravaganza
[00:07:47.110]and couldn't help exploding into laughter
[00:07:49.879]at Ganesh's crazy antics.
[00:07:52.260]Who, indeed, could resist?
[00:07:56.700]Ganesh was very upset to be the object of Chandra's laughter
[00:08:01.770]and in a fit of anger, remember, he is Shiva's son,
[00:08:07.310]he broke off his right task and hurled it at the moon.
[00:08:12.020]Pierced by the task,
[00:08:14.808]Chandra's light went out.
[00:08:18.460]Ganesh cursed the moon so it would never shine again,
[00:08:22.840]leaving the earth continuously lit by the sun.
[00:08:28.320]With no night, no dawn and no dusk,
[00:08:33.630]love was lost to the world.
[00:08:37.780]There was no place for romance and man and gods alike
[00:08:42.280]became and scorched and hopeless upon the hot earth.
[00:08:46.500]Ganesh was holed up in his palace
[00:08:48.860]when a group of gods came to appeal to him
[00:08:51.670]to allow the moon to shine once more.
[00:08:55.380]Flattered by their appeals,
[00:08:57.470]Ganesh decided he could agree to a compromise.
[00:09:02.240]He would let the moon shine,
[00:09:04.540]but it would be required to wax and wane,
[00:09:09.020]shining at its full potential only once every four weeks.
[00:09:14.620]This, he decided, would be a permanent lesson for the moon,
[00:09:20.120]so it would remember never to laugh at him again.
[00:09:25.100]As for Ganesh, he always carries the broken task
[00:09:30.060]that signifies his momentary rage
[00:09:32.780]at having lost his balance.
[00:09:38.350]One of the greatest lessons the yogi can learn
[00:09:42.128]is that everything we experience
[00:09:45.250]has an internal source of energy,
[00:09:48.990]as do the sun and moon.
[00:09:52.490]Within our bodies, the sun and moon occupy opposing halves.
[00:09:59.430]The moon presides over the left energy channel,
[00:10:05.260]ida nadi,
[00:10:06.970]and the sun presides over the right one,
[00:10:11.169]pingala nadi.
[00:10:12.890]Ideally we strive to seek a balance
[00:10:16.920]between both sources of light,
[00:10:19.300]basking in the moon as much as the sun
[00:10:23.380]and learning to wield both types of energy
[00:10:26.883]as we progress upon our path to enlightenment.
[00:10:31.940]Ganesh may have taught Chandra a lesson,
[00:10:34.950]but the real lesson here is that steeped in only sunshine
[00:10:39.460]all love is lost from the world,
[00:10:42.430]there is no softness,
[00:10:43.950]no shadow to the final landscape of our heart.
[00:10:47.770]Without a dawn or dusk, there is no halfway point
[00:10:51.969]in which to steal away during those wee hours
[00:10:55.130]of perfect balance between night and day.
[00:10:58.587]Within our yoga practice we learn the truth
[00:11:02.890]of that age old wisdom,
[00:11:05.440]as above so below,
[00:11:08.820]as without so within,
[00:11:13.060]as with the sun and moon and the sky,
[00:11:15.830]so with those in our heart and we seek to find
[00:11:20.250]as much joy in the shadow and lunar places of our existence,
[00:11:25.870]as we do in the bright and solar places of our life.
[00:11:49.951]So that is the story of Ganesh and the moon.
[00:11:55.980]You're welcome to stay as you are for as long as you need.
[00:12:01.360]You're welcome to revisit this as many times as is helpful.
[00:12:08.009]But if you do find yourself needing to get back,
[00:12:12.950]back into the world, into what you were doing,
[00:12:17.040]you'll want to slowly return.
[00:12:21.630]So maybe you gently wiggle the fingers,
[00:12:23.940]maybe you gently wiggle the toes.
[00:12:31.707]If available, you might roll to one side of the body
[00:12:38.070]and (background noise drowns out speaker).
[00:12:44.271]Maybe you pause for a moment of gratitude
[00:12:49.370]'cause even if things aren't quite as you want them to be,
[00:12:52.380]there still is so much to be grateful for.
[00:13:06.460]Maybe you come to a seated position
[00:13:08.600]or you can wake up a little bit more
[00:13:11.690]and we could close out
[00:13:12.830]this little guided meditation-type story time,
[00:13:19.850]the same way that we would close out a yoga class.
[00:13:22.790]So that might be bringing the hands to heart center.
[00:13:29.340]You could bow the head.
[00:13:33.923]Thank you for joining me here
[00:13:35.467]and I hope to see you soon.
[00:13:37.824]Namaste.

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Guided Meditation

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