SUMMER MEDITATION
Summer solstice is the moment when spring ends and summer begins. This transition is latent with possibilities, and provides an opportunity for us to connect with nature – both inner and outer – and to come to appreciate the ever-changing nature of nature, the beauty being with every moment.
For me the earth takes one full breath every year:
Spring, the inhalation, brings life, uninhibited and unbridled vitality, the explosion of all possibilities;
Summer, the suspension of the inhalation, brings the stillness of long days of warmth and light, an opportunity for that which survived the unfettered enthusiasm of spring to mature through adolescence and grow into the fullness of its potential;
Fall is the exhalation;
Winter is the suspension of the exhalation.
This solstice, notice the experience of the transitional moment – the moment when the planet ceases its inhalation and begins its gentle suspension of breath. Be with the quiet almost imperceptible subtlety of the transition, and allow yourself to notice the same transition within your breath.
A SUMMER MEDITATION
For approximately five minutes:
1. Take a few minutes to notice that breath is as innate to the body as the seasons are innate to the planet – no thought or effort is required
2. As you inhale, acknowledge the movement and the expansion of the nostrils, lungs and rib cage.
3. If you have previous experience with breathing techniques, feel the lungs fill from the bottom all the way up to the top. Feel the physical expansion to the front, the sides, and the back of the torso, and allow breath to be gently, briefly suspended in this expansion. In those seconds relate to the fullness of the possibilities latent within yourself.
4. If you have no previous experience with breathing techniques, allow the body its natural rhythm of breath without alteration, simply be aware of the expansion on the inhalation and while the body exhales, hold the understanding of expansion in your awareness
5. Feel the expansion of your Being beyond the physical body.
6. After a few breaths, allow yourself to sit for a few minutes enveloped in this expanded, calm experience of yourself.
7. In these moments of stillness, get a sense of what the body would like from you through the heat of the long summer days – feel and accept what will best hold the stasis of summer, most honour the expanded suspension of breath - a sense of the pace at which the body would like to move; activities it would appreciate engaging in or relaxing into, the food it would prefer to digest, and accept any awareness that comes to you.
8. Feel and respect your connection with breath, breath’s connections with body, and body’s connection with Mother Earth. Be with this time of quiet consolidation.
This meditation can be done in stillness, while walking, or can be incorporated into a daily yoga practice, allowing the body and breath to calmly and gently move together as one unit.
*suspended breath is the cessation of movement of the diaphragm allowing the body and throat to remain relaxed and free of tension or a sense of restriction and breath is to remain suspended only as long as the body is comfortable
** at no time is there to be any strain on the body – if you have any heart issues, be very gentle with the inhalation, and rather than suspend the breath simply mentally and emotionally feel the experience of suspension
Sham Rang
For me the earth takes one full breath every year:
Spring, the inhalation, brings life, uninhibited and unbridled vitality, the explosion of all possibilities;
Summer, the suspension of the inhalation, brings the stillness of long days of warmth and light, an opportunity for that which survived the unfettered enthusiasm of spring to mature through adolescence and grow into the fullness of its potential;
Fall is the exhalation;
Winter is the suspension of the exhalation.
This solstice, notice the experience of the transitional moment – the moment when the planet ceases its inhalation and begins its gentle suspension of breath. Be with the quiet almost imperceptible subtlety of the transition, and allow yourself to notice the same transition within your breath.
A SUMMER MEDITATION
For approximately five minutes:
1. Take a few minutes to notice that breath is as innate to the body as the seasons are innate to the planet – no thought or effort is required
2. As you inhale, acknowledge the movement and the expansion of the nostrils, lungs and rib cage.
3. If you have previous experience with breathing techniques, feel the lungs fill from the bottom all the way up to the top. Feel the physical expansion to the front, the sides, and the back of the torso, and allow breath to be gently, briefly suspended in this expansion. In those seconds relate to the fullness of the possibilities latent within yourself.
4. If you have no previous experience with breathing techniques, allow the body its natural rhythm of breath without alteration, simply be aware of the expansion on the inhalation and while the body exhales, hold the understanding of expansion in your awareness
5. Feel the expansion of your Being beyond the physical body.
6. After a few breaths, allow yourself to sit for a few minutes enveloped in this expanded, calm experience of yourself.
7. In these moments of stillness, get a sense of what the body would like from you through the heat of the long summer days – feel and accept what will best hold the stasis of summer, most honour the expanded suspension of breath - a sense of the pace at which the body would like to move; activities it would appreciate engaging in or relaxing into, the food it would prefer to digest, and accept any awareness that comes to you.
8. Feel and respect your connection with breath, breath’s connections with body, and body’s connection with Mother Earth. Be with this time of quiet consolidation.
This meditation can be done in stillness, while walking, or can be incorporated into a daily yoga practice, allowing the body and breath to calmly and gently move together as one unit.
*suspended breath is the cessation of movement of the diaphragm allowing the body and throat to remain relaxed and free of tension or a sense of restriction and breath is to remain suspended only as long as the body is comfortable
** at no time is there to be any strain on the body – if you have any heart issues, be very gentle with the inhalation, and rather than suspend the breath simply mentally and emotionally feel the experience of suspension
Sham Rang