New Moon Meditation (49)

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Hi, everyone, and welcome back to How the Wise One Grows. I'm really grateful for the chance to just land here with you all today, and I want to share about my first meditation retreat that I just got back from this weekend. And I am so grateful for the opportunity. I've been really paying attention. I have wanted to go on a meditation retreat for a while and been really exploring options for that.

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There's so many ways it can look. I ended up finding really what was the ideal first situation for a silent meditation for me. It was really supported. I was with all therapists, which is amazing, and I felt very safe. I was actually with my therapist and my yoga teacher, Izzy Shurte, who you heard from in episode 41.

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So I felt very safe, very helped to go on this retreat where I was focused on just really deepening. And I didn't know what to expect. It was a silent meditation retreat. I set the intention. It was a very loose form one. But for me, I made the intention to not touch my phone during that time, to not read, not write, to really just be with stillness and to be with nature.

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And as I came out of that and as I was in that, there were so many things that I learned, so many messages of wisdom that I held. And the most profound one that's just really speaking to me that I want to share with you all today is slow down or you miss it. So on this retreat, there was like over 200 acres of forest with trails that were beautifully marked and tended to for you to explore.

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So I spent a lot of time just walking on these trails, wandering around, and I saw so many things. So many flowers, little tiny flower buds popping up from the soil that I would have missed. Beautiful moss, even like tufts of animal fur. But I'm like, How did you get there? What is this story? Just so many beautiful things in nature.

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So many. I saw the best rainbow, this beautiful double rainbow of my life and saw it like a peer in the sky. And the colors get more and more vibrant. And it made me realize nature didn't just put on this show for me. Like, nature is always like this. It is always there. It is always holding us there is always so much life to it, but we often miss it.

We're often scrolling through our phones, rushing from one thing to the next. So caught up in the stories in our mind that we missed the beauty of the life around us and the life within us. So that's the message that's been sitting with me this slow down, are you miss it? And that's what I want us to focus on in our practice today.

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I also find this an interesting parallel to some timing astrologically with what's happening. So in episode 48, we heard from Christina Lyon and we talked about understanding astrology and the day that this episode is being released on April 19th. Pacific Time. But like I think it's at 913 Pacific time, but 12:13 a.m. on April 20th Eastern time. It is the new moon in Aries and it is a solar eclipse.

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And from I'm not the astrology expert. Go back and listen to episode 48, but a little bit about eclipses and Aries in particular. It can be these times an eclipse can really shake things up and they happen about twice a year and they can really shake up like what's been happening the last six months. So often advice given during these times of eclipses is again to slow down, to move slow, to listen to the lessons, to slowly sort your way through.

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And then we're upon a new moon in areas as well and new moons. They're about a little bit of darkness, a little bit of shadow. I think it's a really good time to focus on planting the seeds of maybe setting with the things that are being shaken up the more dark parts. And since this is a new moon in Aries, Aries is all about fire and passion and a solar eclipse in areas, which is what we're upon can be a good time to focus on balancing your inner fire.

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And that's something I notice. My meditation practice helps me with a lot is I have fire in me, which I like. You know, I didn't used to give voice to my fire. Then I started to and then I was like, Whoa, we got to learn how to control her a little. So I don't just snap and react. It doesn't mean we want this fire to go away, but we want to use it effectively and appropriately.

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And I find a space in meditation to be really transformative and helpful with that. So for this new moon and Aries, we're going to take time to pause together during our mindfulness meditation and let it be time to just be still, maybe set an intention to really slow down and just deal with whatever arises, whether it's something that's heavy and dark or something light and joyful.

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Can you breathe with it? Can you be still with it?

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So during our meditation today, it's going to look a little bit different. You're going to hear the ringing of a bell and that's going to cue the beginning of our practice. I'm going to loosely guide you at the beginning, but then we're going to really have some space to practice, like silence and just slow down and I invite you to just notice what arises.

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So find a space that feels safe and supportive for you and you'll hear the ding ding of the bell. And that'll cue that we're starting to take a moment to notice where your body is resting on the earth. Feel your spine, lengthen soft and your shoulders down your back and take a big breath in and a big breath out again.

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Inhale. Fill your chest. Fill your belly with air. Exhale. Open your mouth. Let it out. One more big inhale and exhale. And as we sit for the next 3 minutes, I invite you to practice stillness. So try not to move. Try not to fidget. If you notice an itch arise, Can you try to just witness it rather than reacting to it?

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Try to focus on the breath or something else that feels soothing to you. If you catch your mind wandering, that's human. Just repeat in your mind thinking and then bring it back to the breath or that point of focus. Take a moment to notice how you feel here. You can slowly open your eyes as you return to the space.

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I invite you to notice how slowing down for those 5 minutes felt for you today, and I invite you to continue to slow down as you move through this time of the eclipse, as you move through your week and as you move through your life.

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So let's keep checking in and let's keep growing together, breathing together and slowing down together so that we don't miss it.

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