Tara Brach - Meditation: Inner Refuge of Calm

Episode Date: April 18, 2024

In times of stress, it's crucial that we have pathways to quiet our minds, relax our bodies and rest in a calm, steady presence. This meditation guides us in using the breath, body scan, and a home base of presence to find that inner refuge that can carry us through difficult times.

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock. To access more of my meditations or join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com. Take some moments, if you will, to find a sitting posture that's comfortable, that's relaxed, also alert, let yourself settle, turning the attention inward and just noticing the life of the moment. closing your eyes. And taking these first few moments will be breathing together, a long deep breath, inhaling slowly and deeply, filling the lungs. And that slow out breath, where you actually

feel a letting go or releasing. And again, a nice, full deep in-breath, filling the chest and the lungs. a slow out breath, letting go, letting go. And again, inhaling deeply. With the out breath, sense that you can release tension, softening down the length of your body, letting go, letting go. And again, inhaling deeply, slow, even out breath, releasing, letting go. And now as the breath resumes in its natural rhythm, just sense that you can observe the breath, observe the body, and sense a growing presence that's right here.

And bringing that presence right here in this body as a way of deepening, letting go. You might bring the attention to the brow and let the brow be smooth, softening the eyes, sensing with the out breath that you can let go of any tightness or tension, you might be holding, letting the jaw be unhinged, slight smile at the lips, and feeling all the little micro-muscles around the face softening so that with each out-breath now, there's a sense of releasing tension in the face, allowing the shoulders to fall away from the neck. letting the awareness fill the shoulders so that with each out breath you continue to sense a kind of letting go, a softening, a loosening, a dissolving.

Let the hands rest in a very easy and effortless way. And now softening the hands, softening again, and feeling from the inside out, whatever's there, vibrating, tingling. continuing to release tension with the out breath. Let there be an openness to the chest and as you continue to feel and breathe with what's here, sense that with the out breath you can release any tightness or tension in the area of the heart.

Aware of the upper back with the exhale, loosening, softening, relaxing. Feeling the midsection of the heart, of the body, letting this next breath be received in a softening belly, and this one again and again, so that as you breathe you can feel the belly, softening, relaxing, opening, aware of the mid-back, and again with the out-breath releasing tightness or tension, and the lower back, in the pelvic region, and relaxing down through the legs, relaxing the feet. And so that if you widen the attention now, you can feel this whole body simultaneously

as a field of sensation. And still sensing with the out breath that there can be a releasing on the most subtle levels, resting in a relaxed, open presence, feeling the movement and change of sensations, sounds, listening to and feeling the moment with a deeply relaxed presence. You might find that this presence is more steady and stable if you let the attention rest in the foreground with the movement of the breath. No need to control the breath. just simply resting in the arising, the passing of the breath, like a raft in the waves, resting.

And when the attention naturally drifts off into thoughts of the future or the past, some mental commentary, when you notice that, gently open the attention back so that you're right here. listening to the sounds, feeling the sensations of the moment, resting with the gentle movement of the breath, noticing from this inner refuge of calm that as something disturbing arises, perhaps physical discomfort, some strong emotion arises, that you can simply name that, Name what arises, and you might sense energetically that you can say yes to whatever wave is here. Yes, meaning acknowledging that this moment, this wave, is here. Letting it come, letting it go, still in the deepest way sensing that inner refuge of calm,

like resting and being the whole ocean with its depth and vastness. that can include the surface ripples. Each time you notice that the mind has drifted, that you've been lost, and gently arrive back here, you're deepening the pathway home. Sense the possibility of re-relaxing back home. Re-relaxing through the body wherever there may be holding. You might sense what wants to look. go right now, re-relaxing the heart, resting again in the gentle movement of the breath.

And for these last moments, explore what happens if you let go of any controlling and simply have the intention to relax with what's right here. And from this presence that's right here, this inner refuge of calm. Sense whatever prayer or blessing you'd like to offer to yourself, to your own life, and with kindness and care, just whisper that blessing to yourself and feeling the shared heart space that includes our world,

offering whatever prayer resonates to you in these moments.