Meditations for a Powerful You (eBook)

A note for practicing Lion’s Breath

In this meditation you will practice Lion’s Breath. Take a large breath in through the nose and then exhale powerfully, sticking the tongue right out of the mouth all the way to the chin, make the sound of a lion’s roar, and feel your entire face stretch! If this feels too silly or if you feel too self-conscious, then just breathe deeply instead.

MEDITATION (FOR AUDIO VERSION SEE PAGE 140)

1. Begin in a seated position and start by taking three Lion’s Breaths to cleanse and release out any frustration, anger, stress, and tension in the face. Allow this breath to wake you up and bring you to right where you need to be and right where you are, right now.

2. Be comfortable, close your eyes, and allow your attention to focus between the eyebrows. Breathe into that space. Just be the observer of your thoughts, witnessing any fluctuations of the mind, and notice these without any judgment. Spend a few minutes here.

3. Now draw your attention to your body and focus your mind on the space just in front of the base of your spine. See the color red as a red wheel of energy spinning in this space. Breathe into this rich color. Allow this energy to ground you.

4. Now imagine a smile appearing inside the red light. The smile travels down through the whole of your pelvis, into your legs, feet, and toes and into the earth.

5. The smile travels to the organs and muscles within the abdomen. The red light is glowing and smiling.

6. The smile moves into the upper torso, up into the chest, the heart, and lungs.

7. Feel the smile moving down from your shoulders through your arms, into your hands, fingers, and thumbs. And moving upward into your neck, your skull, and all the features of your face.

8. Have an awareness that you are in this meditation right now. Feel grounded and alive with this warm red glow of smiling energy. Enjoy it and let it allow you to arrive today, however you wish. Cultivate feeling poised and strong, a sense of ease and purpose, freedom, and flow. Can you imagine what that feels like?

9. Contemplate other ways you could show up today and the feelings you wish to generate as you do. Then mindfully glide your way into the rest of your day.

Be receptive—Namaste.

FIRST ENERGY CENTER/RED WHEEL OF LIGHT ENERGY Associations: Grounding, passion, life force

MEDITATION (FOR AUDIO VERSION SEE PAGE 140)

1. Arrive in your meditation space, either out in your garden, in a local park, or in a forest. Somewhere you can feel safe and be uninterrupted. If the weather is bad outside and you’re at home, let your imagination take you to whatever beautiful scene of the natural world that you wish to go to.

2. With your eyes open, look around and allow yourself to take in the landscape of your surroundings. Notice the different shades of colors. What can you see? Take in the pages of this book and whatever else is beyond it, in front of you, behind you, and all around you. Explore your environment or imagine the vista around you. Then gently close your eyes and take a moment to look deeply within at your inner landscape.

3. If your body needs to move a little to release, take your arms out to the side or up over your head into a big stretch. Give your body what it needs right now… and once you’ve done that, bring yourself to stillness.

4. Now bring your attention to your breath. Picture a circle. Your slow inhalation is half the circle, and your slow exhalation completes the circle. Visualize this in whatever way feels right to you. You may imagine you are drawing the circle on a page, or you could imagine seeing it on a screen. This is the cycle of your breath. Inhale and Exhale. Always connected.

5. This is a sacred pause in nature. Be present right now. Take a little time to enjoy each of the next steps.

Notice… any thoughts in the mind.

Notice… any tension, tightness, or unease in the body.

• Firstly feel the weight of your body into the ground. Let it surrender to gravity and feel the muscles relax a little deeper in the safe space you are in.

• What does the temperature feel like where you are? Move your hands around in the air, or feel the gentle breeze around your shoulders and neck.

• Can you smell anything in the air? The flowers, the earth, or vegetation?

• Now what can you hear—birdsong, planes, traffic, the wind, the sound of a gentle stream? Remember these sounds can be all within your imagination too.

• Can you taste anything in your mouth right now? Take a couple of breaths in through the mouth just to taste the air.

6. Close your eyes again and come back to your breath and your vision of the circle of your breath. Bring your breath back into equal lengths on the inhale and exhale.

7. Now allow your mind to drift off with one or more of your senses, enjoying whatever it is you choose and lingering upon it. Perhaps you’re fascinated by a particular sound or feeling within your body—relax into it and surrender to it. Continue to breathe deep breaths and enjoy the feeling of connecting to this beautiful moment.

8. As you bring your attention back, imagine it is returning to a brand new reality, a fresh sense of energy. A change for you, a reset, and the start of a brand new cycle in your life. What does it feel like to be excited for change? Is it a chance to grow, evolve, or start again?

9. Slowly blink open your eyes and take in the natural world once again. Perhaps everything feels more vivid, as if in high definition as all your senses are heightened to this new moment. Spend a few minutes basking...