Intro 0:00 [background music] This recording is an offering of Networks for Training and Development's Online University. Jeremy Duke 0:23 Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Networks' Healing Circle for March 1 of 2021. We have made it into the windy month of March here. And Spring is oncoming, regardless of how much snow you might see on the ground, we are getting there. So my name is Jeremy Duke. I'll be your host for tonight. And I have something specific that I was really looking forward to telling you towards the end of this call. So I hope you'll hang with me and I hope you'll enjoy what I have to present. And I'll be looking forward to getting to that here in just a few minutes. Jeremy Duke 1:11 So, welcome. I don't know what kind of day you might have had. But for me today, I know there were some times where I felt a little bit overstimulated, maybe even a little bit overwhelmed. Nothing that I couldn't handle, but enough that it made me sit up and take notice a few times just to recognize where I was at, to check in and notice what I was feeling, what I was thinking, and how that was presenting in my body and my posture and the way that I breathe. And it just was enough that it reminded me, okay, I have some tools and I'm going to go use them now so that I can get back to feeling comfortable, feeling safe, in my own body and in my own space so I can be productive and do the things that I want to get done. Jeremy Duke 2:16 So we're going to do a few things tonight that are some tools that you can take with you throughout the rest of this evening and maybe use in another situation where you're feeling some of that overstimulation or overwhelm. And I think having access to these tools, learning them and most importantly, using them is more important than ever, in this day and age that we find ourselves in where there's so many things, you know, beside our own internal environment that can offer reasons to feel overwhelmed and overstressed. So we definitely will benefit by feeling safe and under control with any of these tools, any of these practices that we might do. Jeremy Duke 3:19 And for me, the easiest way to get into this is using the breath. If you've been on the Healing Circle Call before and if you've been to the Muck to Mojo series that Networks' recently started, I'm guessing you might have heard some things about the breath, some practices involving the breath and there's a reason for this - so many of us that find the time and inclination, the motivation to use these tools, find the breath to be such a valuable tool. Reason being it's always with you, you're always doing it no matter what. So if you can cultivate the breath as a tool, as an ally, as a friend, as a window, or a doorway into the body and into a different space, a different mental state, a different consciousness, then that's something that you can pull up in any time that you need it no matter where you are. Jeremy Duke 4:37 So what I would like you to do right now is to sit with your feet flat on the ground, or on the floorboards or whatever the case may be. Sit in a relaxed alignment. Just observe the breath. Just take notice of the way it feels moving through your nostrils, the way the air feels moving through your sinuses, through your throat. Don't change the breath. Just see what its quality is. Jeremy Duke 5:34 Notice the air moving through your chest, feel the air moving through your chest and into your belly. If it feels stuck, or slowed down at all, or tight anywhere, that's okay. Just observe it. Just accept it for now. And finally, notice the breath throughout the entirety of the abdomen, and the torso, and the face and the head all together. The way that the breath connects those three - the areas of the body. Jeremy Duke 6:38 Okay. Very good. I already feel a little bit more embodied, just going through that quick process. So next, we're going to try a meditation that is again related to that feeling of overwhelm. And before we get into it, I'm going to tell you a little secret that applies to any kind of visualization. I don't, it doesn't matter what form, system, style of meditation, yoga, Qigong, whatever that you might be into - one of the secrets making it effective, to making it work, is to bring in your imagination. Okay, your imagination is a powerful tool that sometimes some of us as adults who aren't, you know, consider ourselves creative types don't activate the imagination anything like we did when we were younger. So, if you struggle at all with that, that's okay. That's okay. But as you practice these kinds of things, bring your intention to the fore to make it as real as possible. So if for example, you're going to visualize a tree, visualize that tree so clear, so real in front of you that you feel like you can reach out and touch the bark, feel the roughness of it, to see the color of the bark and of the leaves, to hear the wind rustling through the leaves. Like you could just reach out, grab a branch and start climbing it. So there's, there's your visualization secret for the day. And let's apply this to the meditation we're about to do. I don't have a formal name for it. So I've just decided to call it a "suitcase" meditation. So just again, checking in to make sure that your feet are flat on the ground and you're sitting relaxed, then the line you can close your eyes. Focus your attention on the breath for just a few breaths. Jeremy Duke 9:31 And we'll begin. Jeremy Duke 9:34 So wherever you're seated, imagine there's plenty of room to either side of you. And sitting next to you on the floor, both to the left and to the right, is a suitcase. Make sure the suitcase is big enough for plenty of things. However it looks is completely up to you - the color, the texture, the material - visualize it. And there is no wrong answer. Whatever you're sensing, whatever you're imagining is perfect for you. Jeremy Duke 10:25 Now, let's turn our attention to the suitcase on the left. As you notice the suitcase on the left, it occurs to you that this is the suitcase of the past. We're going to specifically focus on today. Past being this day from the time we woke up this morning, until right now. So take a quick run through your day. And look for maybe some of the highlights and some of the lowlights. So if you can go back to this morning, the way you got up, maybe the way you ate breakfast, maybe an interaction that you had with a loved one, or a friend. If it's a positive thing, I want you to feel that coming in through the handle of the suitcase, with that left hand on the left suitcase, through the hand, traveling up the arm and into the heart. Any positive thing. Anything you're grateful for - an interaction with a pet, a conversation you enjoyed, a meal that delighted you - feel that traveling up the arm and being received with open arms by the heart. Maybe even let a little smile creep onto your face. Just a little knowing smile. Think Mona Lisa here. Something nice that somebody did for you. Or something nice that you did for somebody else. Jeremy Duke 13:21 Good. Now, let's turn our attention to the things that maybe weren't so good today. Nothing over the top upsetting, but maybe things that you found to be irritating. Maybe it started with that alarm that went off this morning, an interaction with somebody else that didn't go so well. Something that we did that didn't go the way we wanted. Let those things fill up the suitcase. As it enters your mind, just let it drop. Let it drop through the mind through the arm and into the suitcase. The suitcase can safely hold anything that happened to you today. Make sure the arm and the hand stay nice and relaxed even as the hand rests on the handle of the suitcase. Allowing these things that troubled us in that moment to flow through and out of us in our current relaxed state of mind. Jeremy Duke 15:15 Okay, excellent. Now that we've got a few things in the suitcase on the left, let's turn our attention to the right. Go ahead and imagine putting your right hand on the right suitcase. This case is the bag of the future. It could be tomorrow, or next week, or next month. But this bag of the future can hold any concerns that we have about what might happen. Let's just take tomorrow or the next few days. Think of one or two or three things that we're worried about, concerned about, anxious for, afraid of, nothing overwhelming, but something that will possibly give us a little bit of unease. Allow that to flow down through your shoulder, through your relaxed right arm into that imaginary suitcase that you can feel the handle in your hand. Could be something new that we've never done before. It could be a meeting that we're not looking forward to. A phone call that we don't want to make. Let it go. Let the bag have it. Jeremy Duke 17:44 Okay, now that we've got a bag of the future, and something in the bag of the past, bring your attention to your hands around those imaginary handles. Take a second to feel the weight of those suitcases. Offer a moment of gratitude to those suitcases. And to the earth that holds those suitcases that supports them just as well as it supports you. And when you're ready, let the suitcases go and as you let them go. They slowly drop away through the floor and into the earth, which has the power of transmutation. Just like in nature, just like your compost pile, where the things that we didn't want and the things that we didn't serve us can eventually be transformed to another form. Because after all, energy cannot be created or destroyed. Only changed. Jeremy Duke 19:21 Resting in that feeling of gratitude, that feeling of letting go, slowly come back to the world around you. Wiggle your toes. Wiggle your nose a little bit. Blink your eyes. Raise your eyebrows. Take a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. Jeremy Duke 19:58 Okay, great job with that meditation. Again, I can't emphasize enough how important it is to use your imagination to make it as real as you can. And if you struggled with that, that's perfectly okay. Kudos to you for making the attempt. Outro 20:30 Thank you for listening. We hope the information provided was helpful. Don't forget to stop by our website and take advantage of all we have to offer. Transcribed by https://otter.ai