Hello there,
Bridget here.
I really hope you enjoy this befriending and opening to life meditation.
It kind of explores and moves around the two sides or the two wings of mindfulness.
The first one,
First wing brings awareness to what's happening.
It's when we're recognizing exactly what's here in this moment.
When we're listening with not just our ears,
But with our whole awareness.
The second side or the second wing is compassion or love,
Or simply finding a friendly and less critical way of relating to whatever's happening to it for us.
When practicing mindfulness,
It's important that we keep both of these two wings,
Two sides in balance.
Awareness without compassion can be cold and a bit brutal.
Equally,
Compassion on its own could stray into kind of self-indulgence,
Sentimentality,
Mushiness.
So the two together is a much more powerful mix that can spark change.
Change in ourselves,
But also beyond and in our relationships with others on a personal level and then in a much broader sense.
Thanks ever so much for listening with your ears and also with the rest of you.
Finding somewhere that you're going to be really,
Really comfortable for the next,
For the next few minutes.
So just gathering whatever you need around you.
So you can really let go.
If you're laying down,
Having the legs stretched out,
Or if that's not comfortable,
Bending up the knees or placing something underneath the knee so that you can take the pressure off your lower back,
But just however you find comfortable.
So settling,
Having as much of a fidget as you need to,
In order to find the best position today.
Seeing what will kind of naturally without any effort,
What will naturally let go and soften.
What can you find that could be kind of accessible to make a little bit easier.
And as you come into stillness,
Maybe let the attention,
The focus move to the heart area.
Feeling the breath in the chest,
Feeling the energy in any kind of,
Any sense of kind of your emotional landscape at the heart,
Just feeling whatever's there.
Maybe asking the simple question of what is it that brings you here today,
Now?
What is it that matters?
What's your intention?
Whatever question pops up or whatever helps you to land and to focus.
Bearing in mind those kind of two wings of mindfulness,
The one wing,
Which is bringing awareness,
Recognising what's here,
Seeing in the moment exactly what's here.
But then we also need the other wing,
That wing of compassion,
Of love,
Of just finding a friendly way of relating to whatever's happening.
Kind of setting up this inner atmosphere of friendliness.
And you can imagine those two wings needing to be balanced.
Awareness on one side,
Compassion on the other.
Maybe if you like having that idea,
That image,
That sense of a smile,
A smile at the eyes,
A smile inside the mouth,
A smile at the heart.
And as we kind of stay around that area,
Filling the shoulders,
Letting that awareness from shoulder to shoulder across the heart,
Fill the shoulders with awareness.
Imagining that flowing around the body,
Filling the arms,
The whole of the arms filled with awareness.
Taking space with you,
So filling the arms from the inside out with this awake,
Alive presence,
Right into the hands.
Almost getting a sense of,
Once it starts to flow,
You can't even stop that flow of awareness,
Compassion,
Filling the hands,
Consciously softening the hands,
Feeling the hands from the inside out.
Maybe getting a sense of aliveness inside the hands.
Kind of subtle sensations of vibrating,
Pulsing,
Tingling,
Whatever you find.
What's it like to feel and notice everything,
Every sensation?
Flowing back from the fingers,
The thumbs,
The hands,
Back up and into the chest,
Feeling an openness at the chest.
Keep coming back to that sense of the heart being filled,
Filled with awareness.
Aware of the flow of sensations,
The space that's here.
And with that awareness,
That sense of befriending whatever's here as well,
A friendly,
Present attention.
As that flows on down into the torso,
Relaxing the tummy,
Relaxing the belly,
Seeing if you can allow the breath to really softly flow all the way down through the body,
Into the belly,
Into the tummy,
Softening with each breath.
Letting the belly be filled with awareness.
Feeling from the inside out,
All of life that's here,
Right here.
Scanning on through the whole of the pelvis,
The whole pelvic region,
Feeling the space,
The aliveness,
The flow of sensations,
The front,
Sides,
The back of the pelvis.
Before letting that pour all the way up the spine,
So to fill the whole of the back of the body,
Aware of the contact points,
Where your body was in contact with the mat,
The bed,
The chair.
The whole of the back of the body has a really tiny movement of shifting with each breath,
Being interested about that.
All sensations in the back and letting that flow pour down again,
Down through the body,
All the way into the legs,
The thighs,
The fronts,
The sides,
The back of the thighs,
On the surface of the skin and deep,
Deep down through all the different layers,
Right the way into the bones.
So the thighs and the knees,
The shins and the calves,
The ankles,
All the sensations.
Tiny spotlight of attention,
Awareness.
And how can you make that awareness a little bit friendlier,
A little bit warmer,
So it's not just a cold spotlight.
It's a warm,
Loving glow as that moves all the way down through the feet into the toes,
Feeling that play of sensations right the way down to the tip of the toes.
When you have a sense of that sharp focus of awareness,
You can broaden out to include and feel the whole of the body,
Whole body filled with awareness,
Warmth,
Energy.
Sense this body as a field of sensations.
And if you've got distracted over and over again,
You can just keep coming back to that sense of the body,
Filled with energy,
Filled with awareness,
Filled with sensations.
Seeing if there's anywhere,
As you come back to awareness,
Is there anywhere that you can let go of a little bit more?
As if you're kind of letting go into that,
Into that dance of sensations.
You can include sounds if there are sounds nearby.
You can include a sense of the space around you,
Even without seeing it.
But listening not just with your ears,
We're kind of listening with our whole awareness.
Maybe having a sense of that curve of the smile spreading through this kind of vast field of awareness.
You might imagine it as across the whole of the sky.
Dance of sounds,
Of sensations.
Noticing how all of these different aspects of our experience spring into awareness.
So thoughts,
Sensations,
Sounds,
Emotions,
They kind of spring into the middle and the focus,
And then dissolving back out of awareness.
Particularly thoughts,
As the mind contracts into thinking,
Can you let it,
Let your awareness open,
Soften,
Release?
And really dialing down any judgment.
We can come back to the breath,
If it's difficult to focus.
Maybe noticing how present you are,
How here you are,
How distracted you are.
And there's no problem,
That's just in the noticing,
That's the practice.
And whatever's happening,
Just pausing,
Relaxing back again and again and again.
Letting your senses bring you back into a full sense of presence.
Re-relaxing over and over again.
Loosening with this flow of warm awareness.
Just giving yourself the gift of re-relaxing,
Of releasing wherever you notice contracting.
Whether it's in the mind or the body.
Just letting everything be just as it is.
Relaxing and befriending whatever arises,
Moment to moment.
And before we finish,
I'll just read a short poem to hear the deeper life.
To hear the deeper life within you,
You must learn to slow things down.
To follow the exhale completely and place an ear to the ground of your being.
It makes no sense to keep busying your days,
Dragging your weary feet along the path laid by their good intentions.
Learn to live again from your own interior.
The deeper mystery awaits you there.
The skies are widening.
The stars are calling you home by your first name.
So letting go of any focus,
Any effort.
And just beginning to be aware again of just the fact that you're lying,
Resting here.
Feeling the weight of the body and the sport of the ground.
Letting the body relax,
Release into the ground.
Finding the connection,
Feeling where you end and the rest of the world begins.
So connection with the ground,
Connection with the space around you.
Sensations of clothes on the skin,
Air on the skin.
Having a sense of the temperature in the room,
The space around you.
So that you can then start to move into the space.
So taking it very gently,
Moving,
Tiny movements to start with.
Fingers,
Toes,
The breath,
Whatever helps you make that transition.
If you're laying on your back,
Taking a bit of time on your side and deciding when's best for you to gently open the eyes to finish the meditation.
