Relax by the fire, move your body, and invite the gentle power of harmony into your present moment.

Secular

Health & Happiness

Grounded

Mindfulness Meditation

Nature

Mindfulness

English

Sitting by the fire in my childhood home, sharing one of my favorite books with you. Weaving you back into the present moment with harmony. The Book of Qualities by J. Ruth Gendler. A reminder to love yourself. 

Harmony & Fire Meditation 

 Welcome to a moment for yourself. Thank you for finding your way here. I'm in Wisconsin in my childhood home enjoying the fire that I've created. So you might hear that crickling and crackling in the background. I wanted to spend a couple moments together here to come back to myself and yourself. And I always find that it's a lot easier with a meditation. So if you need to pause this, grab a cup of tea or some water, whatever you might need, and meet me back here and press play. As you come to a comfortable seat, I want you to start to circle your spine in your hips. So thinking of your hips, your pubic region as this big bowl. I was making cookies the other day and I was scraping out the sides, getting every last drop of dough. So kind of thinking about that as you slowly move your spine in one direction and the other. And if there's a spot that starts to show tension or alert you, see if you can relax into that. Maybe hang out there for a moment, trying to relax your face, relax your jaw all while doing that. And as you're finishing up, making sure to go one last time in both directions, circle and circle. And then we'll move up the spine, find your shoulders, roll your shoulders back and forward, noticing what the upper body is holding here. And we'll roll our shoulders back, sitting up nice and tall. You can bring one hand to your heart, one to your belly. Maybe you even find palms facing up on your knees. We'll relax into our space here together. I personally gravitate towards one hand on heart, one on belly, staying really close to your heart rate, the beats, the drum within you, noticing your breath and observing how it pulls down into the deeper parts of your lungs, expanding diaphragm, belly. And in these first few moments, use this as a transition. We've all come from different energies, different spaces, interactions, experiences, and we've landed here together. So to honor the transition, to not force it, to not judge it, but to allow through your transition, you'll start to notice the space around you, your body, the sensation of your skin an inch above you, the energy field that surrounds you, observing your mind, what might be fluttering through, what clouds might be there, what thoughts, notice. And if you find that you're starting to drift off, maybe thinking about something that happened earlier today or some future event, see if you can direct or turn your attention back to your breath. So your breath can be this anchor here in the present moment, bringing you back time and time again. You may notice different emotions bubbling to the surface, revealing themselves here in the stillness we've created, the spaciousness, observing, acknowledging their presence without forcing them to change or disappear, but just allowing all of them to be here, allowing the entire experience to exist within you. I wanted to share a reading with you all, and it is from the Book of Qualities by J. Ruth Gendler. And the book talks about qualities as if they were people. And the one that stuck out to me today was harmony. Harmony doesn't seem extraordinary until you have known him for a while. He knows how to be gentle, and such gentleness is surprisingly powerful. The silence around him is lyrical. If I sit in his kitchen in the late afternoon and drink ginger tea, by the time I am ready to go home, the contradictions inside my head are no longer shouting at me and trying to tear each other apart. He gives me space to be my whole self. It may be hard to believe it now, but there was a time when harmony was afraid to leave the house. I am not sure about the whole story. In college, he was an outstanding athlete, and he won many prizes. One summer, when he was training intensively, he became dissatisfied with the whole setup. Torn apart inside, he could no longer keep his balance. He alienated many of his friends with his triads about hypocrisy and ugliness. Frustrated with people, he took long walks through the neighboring countryside. He found sanity in the geometry of the old buildings and started dreaming about how to organize spaces in which he could feel more comfortable. Thus, stumbling into the profession of architecture through a back door. He has learned how to design rooms which evoke different aspects of ourselves. Although he is a meticulous architect, he is no longer fussy and alienated. He can go anywhere now. Simply by being himself, he alters the current in the field around him. So noticing the quality of harmony here, in this space, right now. As if it were a person sitting at a large table inside your mind, allow harmony to be here with you. Notice the quality, the experience within you and around you. Remembering that at any point you can call on harmony to invite more balance back into your life, your day. And by pausing and checking in with yourself, create spaciousness. It allows your emotions to reveal themselves and reminds you to care for yourself. That you can show up for yourself, that you can commit to this space. So here, at the end of our meditation, notice your breath. Notice the spaciousness around you, within you. Notice where your mind is in the present, past, or future. And at any point, you can come back to this meditation when you need it. Have a lovely rest of your day.