Allow Yourself to Take Up Space in This World…Unconditionally
This is one of the meditations that I’ve been incorporating into my yoga classes lately. It’s amazing how the presence in a room changes as soon as I say these words. There is a silence that arises, a sense of peace, and a feeling of deep connection with each other.
Often, I say them when the students are resting at the end of the class or during a restorative yoga class. I’ve said it in a class of 7 students and I’ve said it in a class of 27. The intensity is stronger in a larger group but the shift in energy is the same. These classes have women and men, of all different ages, different backgrounds, yet each person can relate. The little spark in the eyes as they leave the room is the same.
Because of all of our cultural programming, we just don’t allow ourselves to be – without conditions. There always has to be some justification for us to take up space in this world. Some of us are waiting to be successful or happy before allowing ourselves to be here, and might spend the rest of our lives waiting.
Chasing goals, we lose ourselves in the rat race trying to build our worth. As if we could actually ever be worthless. We’ve been doing this for so long that most of us don’t even know that we are doing it. We size each other up as soon as we enter a room to figure out where we stand in the rank.
When we allow ourselves to be without conditions, our presence relaxes and allows others to be without conditions. When we stop looking for justification and feel welcome unconditionally in this world, the chatter in the mind dies down for just long enough to catch a glimpse of our own presence. It’s like seeing a shooting star- you know you saw something amazing but you couldn’t quite put a finger on it. Abd I think that that’s the shift in energy that we experience during this meditation.
Beyond the Anxious Mind 