Bell Bell Bell Bell Bell Bell Welcome.
I'm Bex and I'll be guiding you through a meditation with a focus on planting the seeds of self-compassion as a form of love.
So find a comfortable seat or recline,
Remembering that in order to reclaim self-compassion,
To settle in,
It's essential to establish comfort.
Choose to either sit or recline in a way that inspires the breath and allows you to arrive in this moment.
So you seal your eyelids,
Taking in that gaze inside to the cave of the heart,
To the inner landscape.
Allow this gaze to bring you into each breath and each moment.
As you feel the points of contact from the floor,
Note that you are seated or reclined in your meditation now.
The mind likes to travel forward or backward in time and yet each breath will be there to provide you with a platform for stillness.
So setting an intention for this practice to be about planting inner seeds of self-compassion as love.
As always,
If you find a mantra works best for you,
You can work with,
I am love.
I embody love.
Love is everything.
So you would state those simple mantras over and over again,
Or you may choose to focus the breath on sensation and observe what's coming up for you.
And as you do this,
Tune in deeper to what feeds you,
Where your breath arrives,
Where it departs,
And how each breath is really an invitation into a new space within yourself.
Planting seeds of compassion inside are simply a way of asking yourself to update your inner contract and agree that your birthright is happiness.
So with each inhale,
Breathe in deeper and with each exhale,
Breathe out more fully.
When you watch the mind,
You will notice you have preferences.
And so as you observe all of this,
You see if you can settle into this inner world where you know the way that you feel and you follow the trail of the breath as the source of your being.
If a thought appears,
Notice it,
Watch it.
See if you can watch it so clearly that ultimately it disappears,
Maybe because a new thought arrives or possibly to provide you with more space.
You don't need to fill the space.
You can allow yourself to tend to your breath and to feel nourished in the spaciousness.
Often if you do delve into the quiet,
The questions arrive.
And again the mind begins to chat with you,
The inner voice saying,
Where is the guidance for planting the seeds of compassion?
How do I do it?
And really all of you,
Your essence just wants you to be breathed and to recognize that at your pure core,
Your illuminated self,
You are compassion.
Compassion is kindness.
Compassion allows us to feel and yet to not take on others pain.
So when you sit,
It's really a platform for being absorbed in an ocean,
An ocean of breath,
Of vibrancy.
So if the inner voice is loud,
Breathe deeper.
If there's a lot of quiet,
Watch how maybe the mind even celebrates that.
So you see if you can have as much deep compassion when there's big gaps of spaciousness and silence.
And if you can maintain the compassion when you're being hypercritical of what's going on in your mind.
As if to watch everything so keenly,
So purely,
That each breath fills you up and gives you more room for everything.
So be in the sea of yourself.
So be in the sea of yourself.
Be swept in the tide of the breath.
And in the words of Rumi,
See that you are not a drop in the ocean.
You are the ocean in a drop.
So the seed of compassion is really seeing that we are one.
We are one with those that we resonate with easily.
We are one with those that challenge us.
We are one with those that bring us celebration.
And we are one with those who frustrate us.
And the real practice is to continue to be in a state,
A mindset,
A heart set that allows you to have deep compassion for the most difficult moments as well as the moments where you feel gratitude and joy.
Feel free to continue to sit.
I'll ring the bell now honoring this time you've taken for yourself.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
