Compassion Meditation

This is a just over 30-minute guided practice around compassion and acceptance for your daily life. This particular meditation has some periods of silence with ambient sound but contains plenty of audio prompts to keep you returning to the focus of the practice.

Transcript

Come to a comfortable seated position,

Allow yourself to rest heavily into the ground underneath you let your spine be tall,

Perhaps slightly tucking the chin,

Allowing the back of the neck to be broad lifting the crown gently to the top of the ceiling or towards the sky when you feel comfortable,

Gently begin to relax the muscles around your eyes and allow the lids of your eyes to close gently I invite you to come into your breath,

Find a comfortable spot somewhere in your body to feel the movement of the breath with every breath let go of your day,

Know that you are here for the next 30 minutes feel into being here and just being present try to be present and know that when we become aware of mindfulness,

Our moments are not mindful anymore allow yourself kindness and compassion and return to just noticing what is around you the feeling of your breath moving the feeling of your body seated comfortably into the ground underneath you the space in your torso as the spine is lifted noticing the sensation of temperature or movement on the skin or perhaps the texture of fabric or other materials against the skin lose yourself in noticing moment by moment the experience of being here and let go of any awareness of the practice or mindfulness be gentle with yourself,

Remembering that even mindfulness is impermanent remembering the impermanence of mindfulness,

How sobering this is for all of us our humanness is in the forgetfulness,

In the mistakes,

Or the perceived mistakes the more we see how fleeting our awareness is,

The deeper we can get in touch with it understanding awareness is fleeting is the beginning to seeing reality as reality let your full awareness of the breath move into the belly noticing how soft the movement of the belly breath can be this softness is within the structure of the body,

The strength and fortitude of our skeleton system be with the movement of the belly as it expands and contracts with every breath let yourself find a steadiness in this belly breath awareness it can become the anchor point that you return to whenever you become aware that you are being aware or if your mind drifts the practice of returning to a moment by moment awareness of your experience is the practice let go of some higher goal and be with what is,

As it is happening as you move deeper into the awareness of your breath and its movements see if you can distance yourself even more from the day dropping the shoulds,

The coulds,

The woulds can you be with how it is right now?

Can we be with how it is,

In this moment,

With this situation,

With these people in our lives?

If not,

How should it be and why?

Is the problem the situation or the reaction to the situation?

Can you remind yourself that everything is moving at the speed that it should?

And take solace in that choice and having choices is the most profound freedom and remembering there is always enough time in nature and it won't always be like this whatever you're experiencing now,

It can change,

It will change but can we be open to noticing what it's like to be unsure and perhaps be open to being surprised at whatever may occur next remember to keep coming back to your belly breath whenever your mind drifts or your awareness becomes about awareness can we shift our focus from our weaknesses into our goodness?

While we might always be growing and learning,

We're fundamentally whole and complete right now bring yourself into your mind and view yourself with kindness allow your eyes and your mind to soften as you view yourself if possible,

Look at yourself from your heart knowing the connection between the eyes and the heart and Ayurveda the spacious,

Soft and open heart is often indicated by soft and spacious open eyes when there is tension in the eyes,

There is often tension in the heart so as we look upon ourselves,

Can we really be open to that kindness?

Can you notice two things about your physical appearance and find ways that they improve your quality of life maybe it's noticing how the lines on your face tell the stories of the life that you've lived or perhaps there's softness in your body from all the time you've spent cultivating and nourished and cared for life maybe there is a firmness in your hands from the strength that you've cultivated in living your life to this moment maybe your feet are worn and tired,

But they've carried you this far into life persistently walking,

Running,

Moving every day to get you where you wanted to go,

Where you needed to go really be open to noticing something new and different that you haven't seen on yourself and connecting it with a positive quality that it has brought into your life stay with your breath and try to accept the breath as it is you can meet the breath in your heart,

Noticing the movement of the breath in your chest or you can sit with it in your belly see if you can stay with this awareness of the breath for at least 20 breaths knowing you don't have to count them,

Just know you've got time to be with the breath with this kind softness that we've been cultivating towards ourselves I'd like to offer some words that we can use to speak peace,

Health,

Happiness and loving kindness into ourselves remembering that how we speak to ourselves is a yogic practice and that when we're speaking even to ourselves,

We want to speak of satya,

Truth but we always use ahimsa when we are speaking satya ahimsa,

Non-harming allowing the truthfulness to be important only when it is not causing harm remembering that lying or hiding information from someone intentionally can also cause harm so we are not wanting to lie to ourselves or pretend to ourselves instead we want to be truthful and helpful but being truthful doesn't mean we have to hurt ourselves so with kindness,

Take some time to really hold the intention of truthfulness with non-harming whatever that means and feels like for you,

Really feel the entireness of that before we begin in the words of Judith Lasseter that truth practiced with ahimsa is worth it because it frees you from the separation that lying creates and it simultaneously supports others in living and speaking their truths soften your breath and sit with the thought of ahimsa before satya be with that in your body and we begin really allow an open heart as we read these statements,

You might repeat them back in your own mind can we accept all the different parts of ourselves our feet that tread the earth our legs that carry us with their stride our knees that soften our bounce our hips that cradle biological creation and energetic creation our belly that holds all that we take in our chest that holds our hearts our arms that carry what we need to continue our necks that help us to move into different perspectives our heads that have our minds and the majority of our senses that help us experience this world we move through let's use the practice of metta with a deeply compassionate acceptance may I be happy with the choices I have made knowing they are all within my realm of control may I be peaceful with how the results of my choices unfold may I be healthy and well with the choices I make to nourish my body and mind may I be filled with loving kindness and use it to guide my choices stay with the breath allow the softness of compassion and loving kindness to be with you in your body just notice whatever sensations start to arise maybe within the heart space,

The belly breath sometimes in the crown of your head when you are ready,

Bring your awareness into the breath where it meets the nose let your breath become a little deeper when you are ready,

Begin rubbing the palms together keep the eyes closed and then bring the palms over the eyes gently blink the eyes open and slowly remove the palms when you are ready as we come towards the close of the practice you might choose to sit here and really dwell within this feeling of kindness,

Compassion,

Peacefulness,

Happiness and health remembering that every practice of compassion,

Kindness,

Acceptance that we sit through and really open ourselves up to allows us to be a helpful,

Supportive and nourishing person to our loved ones and the people around us take your time you are welcome to stay as long as you need,

Even past when this recording stops be kind and gentle with anything you have planned after this practice remembering that integration of the practice into our daily lives means we give ourselves some space between the practice and resuming our regular tasks and duties thank you so much for joining me in the practice of compassion I hope the rest of your day and evening is spacious and nourishing thank you