Hey there and thanks for joining this short talk slash meditation.
I'm your host Kayleigh and what we're gonna do today is I'm gonna share with you a little story first about a horse farmer and then after that I'm gonna guide you into a gentle meditation that will allow you to release expectation for your life.
It will also help you see that not all things are either good or bad.
There is this unique polarity that exists in the world and being too quick to assign something with the label good or bad can actually be detrimental because we don't know and we can't see what ends up happening in the long run.
So in order to prepare I'd like you first to just find a comfortable seat,
Just sit down,
You don't have to close the eyes,
Maybe just look out into nature and first listen to this short little story.
So a long time ago there was a poor Chinese farmer and he lost a horse.
All the neighbors came around and said well that's too bad and the farmer replied yeah maybe.
Shortly after the horse returned bringing another horse with him and all the neighbors came around and said well that's a good fortune and the farmer replied yeah maybe.
The next day the farmer's son was trying to tame the new horse and fell and he broke his leg and all the neighbors came around and said well that's too bad and the farmer replied maybe.
Shortly after the emperor declared war on a neighboring nation and ordered all able-bodied men to come fight.
Many died or were badly maimed but the farmer's son was unable to fight and spared due to his injury and all the neighbors came around and said well that's good fortune to which the farmer replied maybe.
And so the story goes we never know what is good or is bad until later and even then can we really say good and bad is all just verbiage.
It's just words that we decided to assign to things that we deem to be positive or negative in that very moment.
But don't be so quick to assign meaning to something,
Especially not to your life.
And if you're in a moment or in a space where you feel like things could be going really badly maybe you want to be quick to assign the terminology bad to your life.
Maybe you want to riddle it with words like hard and difficult and this is terrible but maybe it's actually a lot better than you think it is.
So what I would like to invite you to do is go ahead and in your comfortable position close your eyes down begin to breathe in through the nose and breathe out.
Settling in here breathe in through the nose and breathe out.
Allow the shoulders to melt down.
Feel your body really sinking into the surface that supports you.
Breathe in and breathe out and allow the breath to find a gentle rhythm.
You don't need to force it just allow it to flow in and flow out.
I'd like you to consider this.
What if things were better than you thought they were?
What if you were being divinely prepared for everything that rests in your future?
What if by some stroke of luck or by some chance that everything was exactly the way it's supposed to be?
What if those bad things or these bad days actually weren't that bad at all?
What if the thing that had broken was actually preparing you to bring in something better into your life?
What if that relationship that has faltered has actually made space for a more genuine and fulfilling connection?
What if you needed to slow down and take some time off so you could get to really know yourself on the deepest and truest level?
Just go ahead and consider what if it's better than you thought?
Take a moment here and contemplate.
I know that pain can be difficult to deal with.
None of us like to suffer but consider for a moment that the pain will pass and what you'll be left with is treasures to take with you.
You're doing yourself a great service right now by taking time to contemplate that this could be actually a good thing.
How would you feel if you tried to remove the words good and bad from your vocabulary altogether?
How do you think that might change things for you?
What if we just sat in the seat of the observer and watched things come in and out and weren't so quick to say oh that's bad?
Or oh that's great?
We just observed and we just watched and we just waited.
We oftentimes like to assign beautiful things good such as a flower blooming oh that's so good and then if that flower dies we think such a shame but there is beauty in the death and there is a little bit of sadness in the beauty because when it's in bloom inevitably it will die it will not be this bloomed beautiful flower forever and then we can get to this topic of yin and yang and how um there's a little bit of good and the bad and a little bit of bad and the good and it's just the beauty in all of it continue to breathe in and out as you move back into your day i'd like you to take these lessons with you i'd like you to remember to observe before you react to take everything as it comes not to be so quick to judge and i know that you can do it and i'd like you to pass this on to somebody who might like to hear it who might need to hear it somebody who might be a little quick to assign things with a bad label because they have to know too that there is goodness in every seemingly bad thing thank you for joining me today when you're ready you can begin to wiggle the fingers and toes you can gently move the shoulders begin to wake up the body and return to your day with a pair of fresh eyes have a lovely day
