What to do when you don't know what to do

A simple powerful practice of opening to the choices that lie before us and working with energy to discern the highest, most light-filled path forward. Using our breath practice, we create a field of clear energy. We imagine 2 choices before us on something we care about, that we are stuck on, or if we are simply hitting a wall. We use our energy senses to perceive what is there in each choice A or B. We follow the energy of whichever choice felt more movement, life and energy. We add frequencies of harmony and beauty, feeling the clarity as we hold our focus and listen deeply. We ask for assistance from our higher self or guide, knowing we have what we need to be supported in any endeavor.

'The Blessed One' music by Sanaya Roman (orindaben.com)
Podcast production by iRonick Media (ironickmedia.com)

Disclaimer:
Breath exercises are not intended to diagnose or treat illness. Anyone undertaking to practice breath awareness and exercises should be mindful of their health and consult their health care practitioner if they have any questions about their fitness for this practice. 

Transcript

Miriam: 0:03

Blessings, and welcome to marry him Smith cetaceans. Thank you so much for joining, and good for you for being in your practice. And sitting down for a few moments to be quiet and breathe. And I would like to do some basic breathing things, we're going to do some stuff that we've done before, just kind of as a refresher to make sure that we all know the steps and are able to do our practice with ease. I'm calling today's practice, what to do when you don't know what to do. And not just because I didn't know what to do today, I did have a few ideas. But this is a process that I've developed over time when I feel really stuck. And I have been feeling stuck. And so I thought, well, this is a good time to try this. And see if we can get the energy to move or even to just discern where the energy might be ready to move. So what to do, when you don't know what to do. So it's more than just hanging out waiting. But that's part of it. All right, so let's just close your eyes and come into awareness of the breath. And as you're coming into an awareness of your breath, let the outside world drop away. And come into your center, the center of your body, the center of your being your heart center, wherever you find your center in this moment. And as you are recognizing your breath. One of the things that happens when we first turn our attention to the breath is we try to take in a big breath. And I find that usually doesn't work very well because I haven't emptied. So the first thing I like to do is really empty of the breath. Squeeze your belly in. You can even blow up from your mouth. But really empty your body have as much breath as possible. And pause in the empty space. And then allow the breath to flow in. Let it be easy, perhaps not the biggest widest breath you've ever taken but just an easy, peaceful breath. Then again, exhaling as completely as you can. So when they're doing this, we're slowing the breath down. And we're also coming into recognition of the autonomic nervous system, which is our quieter nervous system. Sometimes known as the rest and digest nervous system different from the fight or flight. This is a calming, soothing breath. So as you're practicing, just a relaxed, easy, peaceful breath you can let your breath come into balance so that the in breath and the out breath are relatively the same length of time. Maybe count how long it takes for you to breathe in. And then breathe out more or less the same. Let your face soften let your jaw soften and your tongue drop to the bottom of your mouth. You might open and close your jaw a few times feeling the relaxed tongue at the bottom of the mouth and let your jaw muscles soften. Our jaw muscles are some of the most powerful muscles in the body. And if we're feeling a lot of tension or stress in our lives, sometimes it manifests here. So do a personal inventory. Notice your jaw muscles. If your jaw is feeling particularly tight, you can stick your tongue out. Open your mouth wide. Stick your tongue out. feel silly to do it but we're being quiet. We'll have our eyes closed LinkedIn the back of your neck. I feel the crown of your head draw toward the stars. Drop your shoulders away from your ears. So your spine is long and tall. And just for a couple of cycles of breath, see if you can draw the breath in your third eye. Imagine it going all the way down your spine to your tailbone and then up the spine and at the crown of your head as you exhale. This is a kind of cleansing breath, just drawing the breath and at the third eye, following its progress down the spinal cord all the way to the tailbone. And then up and out the crown of the head as you exhale. And do one more breath just like that. And just notice if there are any parts of the spinal cord that seem to not be present, that you can't really imagine it. You're breathing in, you're breathing in your ribs. What's there I don't know, tailbone. Huh. This is a little bit of practice that you could do. It's a nice breath to do laying down. And it also using your mind to follow the breath through the body a creates a conduit of energy. It supports the conduit of energy that's already there in your etheric body. So that's something you can practice on your own. So let's do our pranayama. Practice. Now bring you the first two fingers of the right hand and touch the third eye. And before we begin our spirals, drawing our spirals on the third eye area, let's breathe in at the third eye. And imagine the breath spiraling into the head as you inhale. And then spiraling out. As you exhale, clearing the pineal gland, the pituitary gland, third eye, all of those systems, they're in the forehead, right behind the bony part of your head. All right, now that spiraling breath as we draw our circles to 36 on the forehead, see if you can continue to breathe in and out at the forehead in that spiraling pattern. And begin drawing your spirals 1-234-567-8911 1213 1415 1617 1819 2021 2220 320-425-2620 720-829-3031 30 230-334-3536. Pause, inhale that spiral breath is sir I and exhale out the third eye. Right hand remain stationary, left hand comes up to place upon your heart. Breathe in now at your third eye. And allow the breath to drop down into the heart. Breathe in again, your third eye. Draw the breath deep into your head collecting the energy there. And then as you drop down to the heart, allow that collective breath to release to the wisdom of the heart. We're surrendering our mind to our heart. And now once more, drawing the breath that third eye and exhale down into your heart began to see an energy pathway there. Draw your breath in your heart. Allow the breath to lift and rise into the third eye and exhale that blended energy back down into the heart. Breathe in again at the heart. The breath lifts, blends and exhale back down into the heart. Once more breathing in at the heart. Allow the breath to rise, illuminating the mind and exhaling that blended energy back down into the sweetness of the heart. Heart and Mind are wedded in a spiritual union. Right hand remains stationary left hand drops to your lap. If your right arm is becoming tired You can use your left hand to sort of prop your arm up. Now we'll do alternate nostril breathing. Inhale through both sides of the nose. Exhale through both sides of the nose. Now close off with your thumb and breathe in the left side only close off with your fingers lift up your thumb breathe out breathe in same clothes off out other insane out other insane out other insane and other insane let your hand drop to your lap and breathe out both sides of the nose. Noticing the right and the left sides of the brain have come into harmony and balance. All right, now let's open our eyes and begin tapping on the breathing space. Just gently tapping fingertips, something on the chest, maybe tap in your upper back or anywhere you can reach lower ribs. Anywhere you can reach with your fingertips. You're right, let's pause now. exhale all the air in your lungs to prepare. Now inhale, tapping, tapping. Tapping padding is retained the breath pounding with the palm of your hand padding all over the breathing space. And exhale, let it go. Inhale tapping, tapping tapping on the ribs. padding is you retained the breath exhale, let it go. Now let's cleanse and clear all that was released with that dynamic breath. Breathe in, palms up. Exhale, blowout three short puffs. Breathe in again. And cleanse. Eyes are open during the cleanse because some of the released energy will come out through your eyes and the palms of your hands. Now please your hands your palms of your hands on either side of your ribcage. Thumbs can be forward or back. Whatever is comfortable for your hands. Inhale a full and complete breath. As you exhale, press on your ribs. Use your hands to really move your ribcage. inhale again and exhale. Use your hands to move your ribs. Eyes open, palms up for a cleansing breath. Breathe in. Three short puffs out. Breathe in and cleanse. Eyes closed. Let's do two retained breaths and one Cleansing Breath. With your eyes closed, palms in your lap. Breathe in full and complete breath. Pause at the top and stretch and open around the breath. squeeze your shoulder blades together. Maybe round your head around. And then open your mouth and breathe out. Ah exhale all the air all the air all the air Breathing out. Breathing out breathing out. Now close your mouth and breathe in through your nose again, full and complete breath rising to the top and pause retaining the breath straight stretching and opening. Feel that fullness and richness and exhale fully exhale Eyes open, palms up for a cleansing breath. Breathe in. Three short puffs out really completely empty on those cleansing breaths. Now relax. eyes are closed. Hands are resting in your lap. Let's do one surrender breath. And as we are thinking about surrender, not the same as submission that is not what surrender is. Surrender is kind of release onto your highest wisdom and highest good. You surrendering to the very best of what can be and allowing that to come forward to your higher knowing your inner wisdom. Breathe in a full and complete breath rising to the top at the top swallow. And now inhale again into your upper chest without exhaling just a little puff into your chest. Now, breathe out from your tummy, short breath. Now feel your tummy and exhale surrendering. That one's a little complex. Let's do that again. Breathe in a full and complete breath rising to the top. Swallow. Breathe in a little extra breath in your upper chest. Release a little from your abdomen. Inhale again your abdomen. Then exhale releasing surrendering. Fully exhale. Eyes open for a cleansing breath breathe in. Three short puffs out and strapped to your lap. One minor Yogi exercise. Inhale breathing in. As you inhale, arms rise above your head, palms press above your head in a prayer pose. I am whole and perfect even as my mother father God is whole and perfect within me and exhale as your arms drop down to your lap. Now we pause notice your breath now. Recognize if you have created a finer quality to the breath as you have been doing your pranayama in new expansions or openings and let your breath here be tender and easy. Clear. As though you can breathe in beauty itself. Feeling you're being with beauty. So as we do this, we notice the place to which our property on the exercises have carried us a clear open space where the mind and emotions are quiet. So I began this practice by calling it what to do when you don't know what to do. And the very most wonderful thing you can do for yourself and perhaps the most powerful is to do a practice. Sit and breathe. sit and meditate. You were walking meditation. You were chi gong or yoga practice something that shifts the energy. Life can be very challenging and we can become discouraged. Which is why we practice day in and day out. For those times when we are discouraged or feel like we have hit the wall or we're lost. We practice we come to that quiet still quality within we're all as well. Well there's spaciousness and openness no sometimes this is plenty shift has already occurred, we are feeling cleansed, we can stand from our meditation cushion and walk back out into the day in a different place, carrying a fresh and energy and there are some times when the challenge that we are facing, we can use this beautiful open space that we have created in a mindful way to discover if there is something ready to shift or to simply feel around in the energies to see how things feel for us. So let's imagine that you have a challenge or a problem a relationship a project that is not going swimmingly, it may be stuck, it may be just causing you frustration. And you don't know exactly what to do. But perhaps and maybe you have a situation like this in this very moment. Perhaps there can be two paths, or opportunities or choices. Perhaps there are many choices, but let's just do this with two at the moment. So think of your challenge. If you have one, or just practice along with us, so you'll know how to do it later. Breathe in and breathe out. We'll call our choices A and B. So, think about choice imagine this is a choice one could make in this situation. And now see if you can notice how it feels when you think about this choice following this path or making this decision. How does it feel? This is there an energy signature you can discern a pattern of some kind perhaps you can follow your choice and decision out into time just briefly not with step by step more of an a flow of energy does the energy flow here or is it just as stuck as it was before? Is there anything here that can shift even a small shift is significant? Now let's look for a moment at choice B hmm this energy feels different. Perhaps it's more open perhaps there is more fluidity here or maybe you are getting that with choice A either way, what we are looking for some kind of clarity a generalized notion of how to proceed perhaps neither of these choices did very much at all. You may not have enough information it may not be the right time. And now that you have investigated these two paths or flows of energy, you know that one feels better than the other one's more ready to shift one has more flow or you sad or not. You recognize it may not be time or you may not have enough information. This is a powerful piece of information all by itself. Very important to know. Let's imagine that one of your choices felt better than the other let's go there. Even if it was slow ugly better, slightly more flow slightly shifting. Let's sit with that for a moment and see if it expands. Imagine your higher self or inner being or your guide is providing you with some kind of inner information here. Perhaps you can turn this over to your guide your inner being or your higher self and release it to the deeper wisdom that you know is you sometimes we try to figure these things out with our externalized functions of our brain or our emotions. We ask other people we make charts we make lists, but perhaps that is not where the information lies at all. There is this path of inner being working on things as energy from within. So let's look for that signature. Now. What is the energy feel like in this flow? And can we add harmony we worked with harmony last week extensively. Let's cultivate a feeling of harmony here imagine all of the pieces coming together harmoniously. All of the personalities coming into harmony doing their part all of the resources arriving in a harmonious fashion feeling clearer and opening and now we are further alone. Things have shifted even a little further open now to receive messages from your inner being or higher self guidance knowingness perhaps infusing this with solar light notice if the pattern is beginning to change become brighter recognize that which needs to fall away and allow your past to lift into a higher octave of light to this brilliant light all around infusing your path his choice your entire project relationship or whatever this is that you care very much about. Imagine a growing radiance all around and interpenetrating all of this energy here that you are softly focusing upon now breathe into it. Imagined its life vitality increasing harmony increasing vital order and organization

Unknown: 28:59

listen

Miriam: 29:21

imagine that you know exactly what to do. And all the resources are at hand all of the helpers are coming your way and you are magnetic to your highest good and that is all that can be out working in your life is your highest good feel how that smooths everything out I recognize you as wise, capable, brilliant, joyful you got this alright, we'll come back now to our breathing body that's very clarifying is it to do that sort of inner active work it is very important to remember that our sphere of true action and power is within us and from that flows the external activities. So, if your external activities are not productive you are not spending enough time in the inner realms, finding the energy, augmenting the flows adding the qualities that you wish to have in these avenues of human expression that you care about this is where the highest answers are to whatever questions we have and I breathe in beauty directly into your heart. And let that beauty circulate throughout all of your body and cells throughout your emotional body, your mental body your body of light all of these layers of your being coming into oneness through your practice your care and love for yourself I bring my hands together at my heart in recognition to all of you who are listening and sharing this practice. I'm deeply grateful for your presence and your light. Let us recognize that place in the light where we are all one Namaste. Mahalo for listening, follow rate and review Miriam's meditations on Apple podcast, Spotify, Google podcasts, or wherever you're getting your podcasts. We share a new meditation each week. The breath work presented here is cumulative. So if you're new to breath work, please start at the beginning in season one, and you'll learn the fundamentals. You can find more information about my work and my blog at Miriam's. meditations.com That's M I R. I A M S meditations.com I welcome your comments. Write to me at contact at Miriam's. meditations.com Aloha, and have a beautiful day.