Departures & Arrivals
Welcome to Guided Harmonies, a podcast where I put words to my therapeutic music. My name is Margaret Dahlberg. Today’s episode, Departures & Arrivals, was inspired by music for a song I wrote at the age of 14. Its lyrics, written by a classmate, was about the beauty that exists within tragic circumstances. The frequencies and vibrations of this music will connect to your body and its different vibrations & frequencies, creating a greater sense of well being. Meanwhile, my words will use somatics to take you on an introspective journey, using the mind-body connection to survey your internal self.
Let’s get started. Sit back and close your eyes. Lie down if you can. Then you may allow yourself to surrender to the Guided harmonies.
While the music surrounds you, check in with your breathing. Do not change anything for this is about discovering where you are right now. How deep or shallow are your breaths? Do you notice any holding or forcing? How deeply is your body sinking into whatever is supporting you.
Now, do a gentle inquiry and see if you can allow the muscles that support you to fully surrender? Check in with your eyes, jaw & neck to see if they are relaxed. If they are not, be gentle as you simply breathe and be curious about easing the tension. Now tune into your back & shoulders & notice if they are relaxed and heavy. As you inhale, see if you can prepare to let more of the tension go on your exhale. Notice your buttocks & your hips? Can you invite them to sink more deeply into the support? How about your feet and legs? What if you could imagine all the tightness in your body simply easing, knowing you are being supported by the floor, the ground and the earth? Sit with this a while.
Now that you have checked in with your body, take a moment to reflect upon where your active brain was prior to that check-in. Just be curious – allow your relaxed self to inquire without attachment. What did you have to depart from to be here now? Continue to invite your breathing to be deep and your body to be heavy. Be curious as you ponder What that source of your tensions may have been. Let your answers come to you instead of you searching for them. Just breathe and imagine your stresses are floating outside of your body, where you can look at them from a distance. If you feel the tension attempting to return to your body, just breathe into it while you focus on dissolving it with each breath. Think of this as a detached inquiry.
While you breathe, imagine that each inhale reaches the soles of your feet, where the skin meets the sock or slipper. Now tune in to as you breathe to the very top of your scalp, where your hair follicles meet your skin. And as you focus on these part of your body, see if you can expand all that there is between, just as air will fill an inflatable raft, gradually coaxing the vessel to expand, filling every part?
This has been a mind/body inquiry. You have connected with you. This is your arrival. No matter what you have departed from, you always have this place to come to. A gentle and loving sense of self. This is presence. This is gratitude. This is hope. This is the root of joy. This is contentment. This is happiness. This is love. And it came from just you. Just here. Just now.
Take as much time as you need to come back to the here and now. Invite your breaths to become a little more active as you plan to open your eyes and eventually move your body.