Taking Your Compassionate Seat

Taking your compassionate seat was recorded, live as the opening meditation of a day retreat in April 2023. There's a little background noise. It’s a lovely meditation to start a day. We check into the state of our body mind and heart very gently using gravity and the breath as anchors. Inspired by MSC teacher Tina Gibson, thank you.

Transcript

So,

Just pausing for a moment and checking out what would be the most kind to your body right now in terms of a seated posture?

And there is a subtle difference between self-kindness and self-indulgence.

So,

Is there a way that you can find yourself a comfortable seated posture with a nice grounded base to your body?

But having the upper body kind of rise out of that,

Maybe even noticing that string coming out of the top of your head or pulling up from the sternum.

And if you realize that this position really isn't kind for you right now,

Then change it.

Just do so after a little pause to check out what's going on and mindfully change posture.

And you can do that through this whole meditation if necessary.

So,

Noticing sound as this sensory doorway into the present moment,

This new moment that you haven't had before and you'll never have again.

Finding a way if possible really to evoke a wakefulness.

Perhaps you might like to cultivate the attitudes of kind of warm interest and curiosity.

What's here?

How are you in this moment?

Really allowing this kind of meeting yourself to take a little time.

We've opened awareness to sounds.

Now,

Perhaps opening to the physical body.

Perhaps you might even like to do what's not common in meditation.

Actually deliberately move the feet,

Roll them a little bit,

Wriggle the toes,

Move the hands a bit.

Maybe kind of arching the back gently and mindfully.

Perhaps exploring lifting the shoulders up,

Dropping them.

Maybe your head would like to move a little bit from side to side.

So,

Either moving or still now,

Just continuing to really notice body sensations.

And if there's any kind of unease in the body right now,

In this body of yours,

Trusting that you know your own way into having a bit of a compassionate response.

Perhaps a little gentle massage or subtle movement or breathing into the area.

Perhaps noticing how grounded you are.

And perhaps there's parts of the body that feel pretty okay right now.

Maybe even a little actual or mental smile of appreciation for that.

Trying to make anything happen.

Just having this beautiful awareness of the whole body.

The ease and the unease.

And different people are going to take different time,

A different length of time to kind of really drop into the body and sense what's going on.

But at some point in that process,

It may feel right to kind of drop that anchor.

And I invite you to start with dropping anchor into the kind of felt sense of the imprint of your body,

Thanks to gravity.

That real sense of the body resting on the ground.

Resting on the ground.

The weight of you firmly held downwards.

Perhaps checking where you feel that kind of gravitational pull the most strongly.

And while the invitation is to have this anchor of gravity in the forefront,

Of course there'll be awareness of other experience in the background.

No need to block it out.

Perhaps sounds,

Perhaps thoughts.

Remembering these aren't barriers to meditation,

They're part of meditation.

So seeing how it is to have the anchor of gravity as your primary meditation focus.

And have all the other awareness just in the background.

Just noticing if this gravity as an anchor feels a comfortable place for your attention.

And if possible,

Perhaps it might even evoke a felt sense of groundedness.

Perhaps even some steadiness here in this body of yours.

And if you're doing this meditation at home,

You might like to pause the recording here and stay with this anchor for as long as you need.

When you're feeling ready and grounded and perhaps a little more steady,

Taking some time to expand your awareness to your body as a whole.

Perhaps feeling your way into feeling a sense of the height of you,

The kind of room that you're taking,

The space you're taking up in the room.

Maybe the breadth of you from side to side.

And the depth of you from front to back.

The substance of this human being sitting or lying here in this moment of time.

Feeling free to even experiment with giving yourself a physical gesture of love or care.

Perhaps you might like to take one or both hands and just gently feeling them over your heart or somewhere else on the body.

If it feels kind of odd,

Just perhaps moving the hands around a little.

You could try cupping the cheeks or hugging yourself with one hand on each shoulder.

Or just holding the hands gently,

Rubbing one with the other.

Just a moment to focus awareness on this point of touch,

This moment of care from you to you.

And then letting the hands come to rest wherever is comfortable for you.

And allowing yourself to feel this body of yours as a body of care in this moment.

And can you notice this body is breathing also?

Is it possible to find some location either within the body,

Perhaps the nostrils or the chest or belly rising and falling?

Perhaps even the subtle movement of the body as a whole with the breath.

Can you incline your awareness just ever so gently,

Lightly,

Like a butterfly landing on a leaf,

Finding a way into being with this rhythm of the body breathing.

No need to manipulate the breath or fix it or control it.

No need to analyse it or imagine it or visualise it.

Your body was breathing before I gave this instruction.

Just gently inclining towards the breath,

Simply resting into feeling how your body is breathing you.

Just checking in now,

Have you touched into a sense of groundedness?

Feeling into the substance of your body,

Perhaps connecting with the rhythm of the body breathing.

And having connected with the quality of that supportive touch of your own caring hands.

Connecting with this body,

Perhaps connecting with this body of yours.

Moving awareness now to your face,

Noticing your forehead,

Your eyes and your eyelids.

Is there any tension there?

Often associated with lots of thoughts.

Checking out your nose and your cheeks,

Your jaws.

The jaws often be a little tension,

Tightness in the jaw joints.

Sometimes it's a bit behind the times.

We may not actually need it anymore.

So with a little bit of playfulness,

Perhaps just experimenting with bringing a bit of softness to the face,

Maybe even a little smile to the corners of the lips.

Or you may even like to place a gentle caring hand on your forehead or over the jaw joints,

Gently massaging them.

Whatever helps to invite a kind of softening,

A melting.

How have you,

If you come upon a friend that you really like that you haven't seen for a while,

And there's this kind of natural sparkle to the eyes and smile to the lips.

Is there any way you can bring a bit of that towards yourself,

Your body?

That friendliness we can be so willing to offer others.

Can we offer a little to ourselves?

Letting awareness of the face go and finding a way to shift your awareness ever so gently down to the heart area.

So noticing any sensations here,

Perhaps the actual heart beating,

Perhaps a warmth,

A softness,

An openness.

Or perhaps there's a real contraction,

A closing,

A hollow.

No need to force your experience to be any different than it is.

If you're feeling kind of open-hearted at the moment,

Can you enjoy and appreciate that feeling?

And if perhaps the heart's a little closed at the moment,

It may have really good reasons for doing that.

Is there a way you can welcome that closed heart?

Can you have a metaphorical warm blanket around it,

Soft cupped hands?

Just this message of it's okay,

It's okay.

You might even like to put a hand actually gently on the heart.

No matter how still a meditation is,

Putting your hand on your heart is always acceptable.

Finding a way to shift your awareness now down to your belly.

And again,

You might like to place one hand or both hands on this belly.

Perhaps offering a sense of cradling your belly with your hands and forearms.

Perhaps that point of touch can really invite the belly to soften.

Very common to hold a lot of tightness in the belly muscles.

Perhaps your soft hands or your intention can let that belly know there's nothing to do here.

We're not busy today.

It's okay to relax a bit.

It's okay to soften and melt a bit.

Allowing the breathing to be met in a soft belly.

Tensions not releasing.

Can we just send that a little bit of kindness and compassion?

That's how it is right now.

Part of us still needs to be tight and contracted.

And then once again,

As we did near the start of the meditation,

In a kind of warm,

Friendly,

Authentic tone.

Using your inner voice,

Dropping the question into your system.

How am I?

What is here?

What do I need?

So can you validate in that same warm,

Friendly tone whatever is here right now and give yourself a little reassurance,

A little support,

A commitment to really check in with yourself,

Perhaps for the rest of the day if you can.

Continuing to give yourself that beautiful,

Warm,

Friendly care.

And then when you're ready,

Finding a way to slowly move the body,

Have a little bit of a stretch,

Bit of a wiggle and a jiggle,

And gently externalizing the awareness.

Reviews

Wow,so good!
Your meditations always help me be more compassionate towards myself and allow me to be ok with what is happening in the moment. Thanks so much 😊🙏🏻