Hello, beautiful soul, and welcome to Meditate with Mandy. I’m Mandy, and it is my absolute honor to be sharing space and presence with you today.
So wherever you are in time and space, go ahead and get cozy and comfy. Our objective is a simple one: feel safe and supported in your space. No wild meditation postures. Something that feels like love to your body. Something that feels like ease. As a friendly reminder to those who may not be aware, my favorite meditation posture is shavasana in my bed. That means lying down horizontal, body at ease.
So with full permission, my sweet friend, flutter those beautiful eyelids closed, relax, and take a nice deep breath in through your nose and release it through your mouth. Another one in through your nose, nice and long, and a slightly longer exhale through your mouth. Deep breath in through your nose, and a little bit of a longer exhale through your mouth. And another deep breath in through your nose, and sigh it all out easy through your mouth.
Perfection.
And now breathe in easy through your nose. No regulation, no stringent rhythm. Just let your body decide how the breaths feel, in and out through the nose. Let the body balance. Trust the moment.
One of the great paradoxes of the human experience is as follows: things are not always as they seem. And simultaneously, things are exactly as they seem, always.
When it comes to realizing the truth of the paradoxical nature of the universe, it’s not about or. It’s about and.
Things are not always what they seem, and they’re always exactly what they seem.
But how can the mind reconcile this? How much energy would it take to explain or comprehend all of the paradoxes of this human experience? That all is shadow and light. That all is east and west, north and south, correct and incorrect, whole and fragmented.
If we use the mind to try to get there, to peace, we can spin our wheels for a long, long time. And there’s a lot of value in the wheel spinning, so if you ever find yourself doing it, smile. Give yourself grace.
When you find that you’re ready for peace, allow yourself to let go of the need to understand now.
Bring your awareness to the center of your chest, my sweet friend. And if you’ve never done this before, simply take your awareness, your ability to settle on a point of focus, and settle your focus right in the middle of your chest, between the pectoral muscles, center of the sternum.
Witness your chest rise and fall with your breath.
Up and down.
Easy.
And I invite you today to say either to yourself silently or out loud as you breathe:
I release the need to understand right now.
I release the need to understand right now.
I release the need to understand right now.
Breathe into the center of your chest.
Breathe out.
Imagine, feel, or perceive the center of your chest filling with white platinum light on your inhales, and that light anchoring and making a home there on your exhales.
I invite you to contemplate, my sweet friend, that intellectual understanding is not required for peace.
Intellectual understanding is not required for peace.
When this moment ends, you may seek intellectual understanding for fun, if curiosity feels nourishing and comes from a place of joy and lightness.
But we’ll take the wound, the pattern of seeking understanding to try to feel okay, to try to feel worthy, like our actions matter or our purpose is justified. Seeking intellectual understanding to figure out how we can behave or act or move to be good, to predict the future, to promise safety or surety.
We will not return to that pattern unconsciously when this moment ends.
Instead, we give it a kiss, the kiss of awareness.
And we let it go on our breath.
On the exhales, we release the need to understand.
And on our inhales, we embrace trust in the moment.
[Silent interlude]
Sweet friend.
Beautiful.
Take a nice deep breath in through your nose as you release the grip of awareness and relax, and let everything go through your mouth.
Inhale deeply through your nose:
Pure trust.
And release the grip of control through your mouth.
Inhale ease.
Exhale effort.
Gorgeous.
Breathe easy, in and out through your nose. Drop your shoulders. Unclench jaw. Relax face. Release hands. Let your stomach now rise and fall with your easy breath.
And contemplate that you are met in the moment.
It is not by brightness, intellect, force, or determination that we come to relate to the truth, or to the vision, or to one another.
It’s through grace.
It’s through openness.
It’s through gratitude.
It’s through surrender.
Trust the intelligence of nature, of the moment, my sweet friend, and know that you will be met by what you need to know when you need to know it.
It is already searching you out in the perfect time.
Your only job?
Smile.
It is safe to be at ease.
When you’re ready, my dear friend, flutter those beautiful eyelids open to take a look at your magnificent world.
It’s dancing for you.
Until we meet again, I am sending you all of the love that I’ve got. It’s always more, and it’s never less, because you, beautiful soul, you are so very worthy of it.
Even the pup agrees.
Bye for now, my sweet friend.