Joanna Mountain

Aptos, CA, USA

English

A grounding practice to help you stay positive without shutting down. You’ll reconnect with your heart, release built-up tension, and gently work with the part of you that feels negative, heavy, or stuck — so your energy can flow freely again.

Staying Positive & Keeping Your Heart Open

Hello, welcome. My name is Lew Redman. Thank you for practicing with me. There's one thing I'd like you to take away from today. It's to bring more awareness around whether you are being an uplifter or a deflator. When you are around other people, when you are going into work, when you are doing whatever it is that you do in your daily life, is your energy bringing an uplifting, positive quality? Or is it detracting? Is it deflating other people or the energy in the room? So much of our spiritual development is keeping our hearts open. And naturally, as we grow, this just kind of happens, that there's more energy that's moving through our body. There's a sense of well-being. And that well-being uplifts everyone that we come across. But it can be easy to seep into the negativity, to have our hearts closed. And we might not even realize it that we fall into being a deflator, pulling others down, or simply deflating the energy of a situation. And I'm guilty of this. I'll share a personal story with someone whom you may know. Charles Freely is another teacher on this app. And I've been fortunate to become good friends with Charles over the past few years. And we have a little group chat with a few other teachers. And Charles had been part of Insight Timer's recent challenge. And he had his day moved from a Thursday to a Saturday. And when his day came, I sent a text message to him saying, celebrating your day, but bummer that they moved it from a Thursday to a Saturday because there would likely be less people on the app on a Saturday. And as I sent it, something awoken me. I realized, Lou, why are you putting negativity into this amazing situation that Charles should be celebrating? You are putting, you are deflating the energy by saying, oh, bummer that this happened. When Charles responded and he said, oh, I didn't even realize that. He wasn't even thinking about that. I put the negative energy into the space. And as soon as I realized what I did, I apologized and owned my negativity. And that's another thing that we can do when we notice ourselves being negative, to speak it. Because often people are so used to it that they don't even realize that you were negative. And it could be a teaching moment for other people that you are being negative to as well. So I shared it with Charles, I apologized, and this opened me to really look and ask, how can I be more of that uplifting energy? Because misery loves company. Charles could have easily went down the road of, oh, something negative happened. Yeah, you know what, Lou, I didn't think about that, but you're right. And screw them for, you could go down this road. I'm sure you have people in your life that one person says something negative and all of a sudden that just comes this avalanche of negativity and this connection, right? Connection comes in what's challenging. And this is not to say that we bypass any negative in our life, that we are equal parts positive and negative, but we have to understand just as that classic fable of good wolf, bad wolf in the Cherokee lineage, there is a positive wolf and a negative wolf in each of us. And we have to know which one we feed and whatever we feed is the one that is gonna grow. Today's practice is really about helping you both feed the positive wolf, but also work with the negative that shows up. And there's a way that we're gonna work with this in our practice so that it's not about pushing it away, that it's actually about conscious awareness and transforming when these things do show up. And so let's move into our meditation and practice for today, closing your eyes, finding an upright, supportive posture, letting the energy move down into the earth or your chair, your cushion, stacking one vertebra on top of each other, letting your shoulders relax, jaw relax. And taking a full breath to settle you. And to start to align our energy today, I'm gonna offer a sense of breathing up and down your spine. And so as you slow down, as you settle, imagine that with each inhale, the energy moves from the crown of your head down to your root, to your seat. And with each exhale, the energy moves from the root back up the spine through the crown of your head. And so taking a few moments to notice what that's like, inhale, energy moves down. Exhale, it moves up. And as you feel the energy moving up and down, you might notice some part of your body where there might be like a little bit of tension or like a crank in the hose. Maybe there's a tightness, maybe it doesn't feel as vibrant. And just notice that. The staying with the inhale and exhale as you feel the energy moving or sending it up or down and up your spine. And then go ahead and almost as if you can just pause or focus the energy in your heart. So you might feel it in the back in your spine, kind of in your heart center. Keeping yourself rooted, paying attention almost as if your awareness was in your heart. And just attuning, does my heart feel open, closed, expansive, constrictive, numb? And welcoming whatever is present, whatever your heart is feeling like or not feeling like today is perfectly okay. And seeing if you can just be in your heart. And that's all our practice is asking us for. And then let's take a breath in together. And letting it go. And so from this centered space, I'll offer a little visualization. So I get to envision that you are in a room looking at a wall that has a line in the center. So it's almost like two parts of the wall. And on the left side are images, pictures, colors, whatever represents you being an uplifter. And see if you can just step forward, looking at the left side of the wall and taking in whatever you see. What represents or what evokes this energy of you bringing positive energy into your life? And just notice how it feels standing in front of this wall. See if you can also both give the energy to it, but also receive it, kind of take it in, let it wash over you. And then go ahead and step back into the center and turn and notice the right side of the wall, which of course represents situations or moments or just the energy of you being a deflator. And without judgment, see if you can just notice and step forward and just notice, just taking account. Maybe there's times when you complain or fall into complaining, gossiping, negativity, and just acknowledging that this side exists. Again, not making it wrong, just bringing awareness to it. And as you start to notice what's on the wall, we're gonna work with maybe one part of you that maybe gets a little bit more activated. So maybe you find that you go into cycles of feeling cynical at the world or maybe you're just trying to get out of it. Maybe you feel like someone or something you're taking advantage of, right? Just finding one more negative part of you to identify, maybe something that you find yourself in more often than not. And see if you can have just a curious, compassionate view as you hold this. Like, oh yeah, that's the part of me that complains a lot about this. Oh yeah, I see you. And that's the part of me that judges my partner all the time. That's the part of me that gossips and gets a lot out of talking negatively about other people. Again, doing it, seeing if you can have this posture of, oh yeah, I'm human, me too. So picking one and as if this energy was in front of you, I'm gonna do a little bit of a parts work practice with it. And just ask this part, you can do it out loud, you can do it silently. Just asking it a simple, how are you? And listening for whatever it says. Maybe it says, I'm angry, I'm scared, I'm pissed off. Whatever it says to you, see if you can just mirror it back. So it might sound like, yeah, I really hear that. You're angry. And just notice, see if you can just offer it understanding. It's not about pushing it away. It's not about getting rid of it. It's just understanding where it's coming from. And so just take a few moments and from your heart, see if you can just reflect back what it shared with you, offering it understanding. And then we're gonna ask it one more question. So ask it, what are you trying to help me with? Do it silently or out loud and just listen for what it says. Often, these negative parts really have a positive intention. What are you trying to help me with? And many times, the answer is to help you be okay in some form or fashion, to protect you, to keep you safe, to help you be okay in the world. And it thinks that complaining will help you feel okay. And so see if you can hear its positive intention. And then reflect back to it that understanding, like, yeah, I really see what you're doing. I get you're trying to keep me safe. And maybe there's even a bit of thanks for what it's doing or trying to do. And so then thanking this part for sharing with you, showing itself or just being able to work with it, noticing how it feels in your body right now to face something negative and be with it and understand it. And then step back into the center of the room where you can, again, see both sides of the wall. Again, feel the energy in your chest, in your heart. You might even place a hand over your heart if that feels okay. And the fact that you are here, the fact that you are doing this work, I know that you are here to be an uplifter. And so feel that energy almost like it's pouring from the earth up into your spine again, into your hands, into your heart. That when our energy is flowing naturally, I do believe that all human beings have this natural goodness. I do believe in an inherent goodness, a benevolence to the universe. And so just reminding yourself of the one that you will feed, which wall you would feed, not to push the negative away, but also consciously bring more energy to the uplifting wall and the uplifting side. And if your hands are still on your heart, feel this as you engage with the world. Our hands are kind of the way that we move through the world first often, whether that's in our work, whether that's shaking hands with someone. And just kind of remember almost as a symbol, right? That as you shake hands, as you move into the world, that you're moving with this heart energy. And then because I find that if nothing opens the heart, like some sort of positive loving kindness practice, I want to offer a few words here. You can keep your hands on your heart still, or you can put your hands down. But imagining that as you repeat these words silently or out loud, that repeating it to yourself, to everyone in this virtual space right here around the world, and also to our entire world. And so repeating, may we be grateful. May we offer praise and thanks for the blessing of life. May we be hopeful. May we believe that good things are coming. May we keep our hearts open. May we choose to love over and over again. May we be grateful. May we offer thanks and praise for the blessing of life. May we be hopeful. May we be grateful. May we believe good things are coming. May we keep our hearts open. May we choose to love over and over again. May we choose to love over and over again. Notice what it feels like in your heart center, maybe noticing anything shifted. It might, it might not. Thanking this room for its lessons, for what it brought, for the work that it allowed you to do, maybe a little bow. Imagining yourself coming back to your room, wherever you find yourself right now, taking one last breath together. Letting it go. And whenever you're ready, opening your eyes, coming back to our space. Thank you so much for practicing with me today. May you take this work and go out into your day and be a ripple of positivity. May you uplift and breathe life into whatever situation or person you come across. And may it all serve something beyond what we can understand. Thank you so much. Sending you lots of love. And hope to practice with you soon.