3M Meditation - Integrating your inner Mother - 5-13-2024

Good morning, everybody. It is May 13th, 2024. And welcome to our magic Monday morning meditation. It is here in the US anyways, the day after Mother's Day. And I hope that everybody had a lovely Mother's Day. Some of us I recognize may have had a really tough one. Sometimes it's not even something we would like to be reminded of or have having to go through. I recognize all of that as well, if I'm saying that. So in regards to that, I figured we could do a meditation on the energy around Mothers and Mother's Day and our inner mother today, just to release a little bit and to tap into our own inner healing. So with that being said, I would invite you to go ahead and close your eyes and just find your face, turning inward and focusing on your breath for a moment. And you can, if that feels right for you, breathe in through your nose. Close a little and breathe out through your mouth. Very much in general, if breathing in through your nose is not something that makes you feel comfortable, please just go ahead and do what feels best for you. There is no right or wrong way of doing that. It doesn't make your practice any less powerful. And just notice how your space starts to settle down as soon as you're focusing on your breath for a moment. You may notice that your body settles more into your chair. Certain parts of your body start to relax more. And if you've been doing that for a few months, years, days, weeks, what have you, if you've been meditating for a while, your body may know the cues of what you're doing and automatically start to settle down a little bit more. And if you notice any places that are tender, tense, where you hold some energy, hold your shoulders up a little bit, maybe you clench your jaw. Maybe it's this overall feeling of being a little tense, like holding it all together. Just become aware. There's nothing you have to do about it. If it feels right for you, you can breathe into those places a little bit. Breathe just by saying hello and becoming aware. Tension already starts to release. And to settle into your space even more, I would invite you to round. Round your body and round your energetic system. Say hello to Mother Earth. Right on target for the theme today. Notice that all-encompassing energy of the Earth that welcomes you with open arms, allows your body to connect with the vibrations of Earth, of nature. Maybe you'll notice if you're here, or if you're in a part where there is spring, part of the world where there is spring, you may notice this buzzing of energy, starting things back up again. Creation. You may sit quietly for just a moment to notice any and all of it. Maybe it was a really, really busy weekend. It could have been very busy inside of you. It could have been really busy with all the things around you. And just notice how when you put your attention to it, and you put your intention on it to release any and all of that, how you gain more space within you. You may be noticing your mind is going all, I can't let this go. We need to hold on to that. We haven't thought that through yet. We need to problem solve. We need to analyze it. We need to figure it out. And you can just kindly tell your mind, not for the next 15 minutes. We can come back to that. For now, our body takes a rest. Our nervous system needs a break. You can create a nice place for your mind outside of your body. And just give it a picture of where it could go. If your mind would be one of your favorite people, and you would say, well, why don't you have a seat in this meadow outside? And you watch the flowers and the blue sky. Listen to the wind. Go through all the leaves. While I'm over here, just taking a break from my to-do list, from my thoughts, from all the analyzing and trying to figure it out. And enjoy that feeling of quietness and calm. And you know the system then starts to slow down, coming more and more into present time. I wanted to say hello today to the energy of Mother's Day and what this means for us. And maybe all the energy that gets heated up around it when we go through that. And it doesn't really matter if you're in another part of the world and Mother's Day is either not a thing or it's on a different day. It doesn't really matter. As we all have Mother's. So there is no way around it. So we have a set of energy that goes along with that. And it might be all different kinds of energies, kinds of thoughts, feelings that we have towards that kind of energy. So I would invite you to try to stay as present as you can within your space. And if you need a break, then you can just focus on your grounding or your breath. Your grounding will be very helpful in leading you to release energies around that. So you can just go ahead and notice all the energy around Mother's Day, your own mother, what maybe happened in that space. Maybe it was very nurturing and a lot of fun. And you are able to enjoy your mother physically. Maybe you were only able to enjoy her from afar. Maybe you're not enjoying that space at all. But just become aware of where you're at and recognize that feeling. And at the same time, some of us may be mothers. So we're not only looking in one direction with that. We're also looking in the other direction with that. And just give yourself permission to recognize anything that you notice in that space. Allow those feelings and ideas and all of it that comes with it just to come and bubble up to the surface. And you may notice that if you had a very enjoyable moment with your mother or with your children, that you have maybe a lot of energy bound up in there. And just the same as it goes if you have a difficult relationship in either direction. Just allow that to be there too. You can start to round out anything that feels difficult, where you notice you have tension that builds up in your body. And just let this go. There's nothing that needs to be figured out right now. There's no help in going back into the past and thinking all sorts of ways we could have had a different conversation. We should have said that, or we shouldn't have said that. And the same goes for staying in present time and not going forward into the future. I will never do this again. I will always say it like that, almost stomping our foot on our food. There we go, amusement always there, especially in a topic that can be tense as this one. So allow yourself to recognize anything and everything, and there could be so much on the entire spectrum. There could be grief, there could be anger, there could be joy, happiness, sadness. If you feel like going a little deeper and investigating some of those feelings that you have towards your own mother, or towards your own inner mother, by being the mother to your children, I would invite you to just gently look into all the directions and see what happens, how you feel the thoughts that come up, the feelings that come up, where in your body your nervous system tenses up. And if within all of that you notice you're leaving your window of tolerance, as we speak about that in terms of trauma-sensitive mindfulness, just come back to that place where you're focusing on your breath, where you're becoming aware of having left your comfort zone and starts to become overwhelming, just come back to your breath. Allow yourself to experience the beauty and the joys with your mother. So, recognize at the same time that it is a very special relationship and it may hold not only joy and happiness, but it can be very co-existent at the same time. You may notice within yourself that you have said, oh, I'm going to do this with my own children, just like my mother did. Things that you've cherished within yourself when you grew up with your mother. Holding it really near and dear to your heart and being ready and waiting for it to pass this on to your children. Allow yourself that feeling in your heart where it makes you happy, to connect to that. At the same time, you may notice some of the things within you that say, I will never do it like my mother did it. That drove me nuts when I grew up. I will not ever pass this on. I will break the generational energy that came through. Just notice where that sits in your space as well. You may notice some of the restrictions. You may notice these restrictions within you. If you're looking into the other direction towards your children. Always being aware that you are being grounded. You do have a way to release energy. Through your breath, you can stay in present time while releasing tension out of your body. While you're releasing thoughts, feelings. Just letting them go. Postulating that it is effortless. Then I would invite you to go ahead and coming back into your heart space. With all the knowledge and awareness that you have, focusing on your very inner heart space. Your soul essence in your heart. Coming back to just you. You're starting to nurture the essence of mothering. Mothering within yourself. Starting to recognize and allowing yourself to be your own mother. Nurture yourself in everything that you need. Giving yourself the love and attention that you need. Giving yourself the space and the awareness and the choice. Maybe it weren't given to you so freely or in the way that you needed it. Allow yourself to give it to yourself. You can see a color to that. What it means. This can be a warm feeling in your heart. It can be just a nice breath. It goes a little deeper where you settle into your space. Just take a moment to nurture yourself with that feeling of taking care of your heart. Take a moment to nurture yourself with that feeling of taking care, loving yourself. Connecting with yourself. This may be a place for you to come back to and investigate what you really need. Where you need to mother yourself. Where you are missing things that are important to you. And start to build that little by little into your everyday life. Allow your heart to speak its truth. Feel free to journal throughout this coming week. You may feel compelled to write it down. What you would like to give to yourself. So slowly but surely come back into present time ready for your week. You can roll your shoulders a little bit. You can move your head from side to side. Slowly but surely come out of meditation. I hope you all have a wonderful week.