To begin,
Please close your eyes if that's comfortable for you today.
We're going to start with a few breathing exercises.
So you can breathe in for four seconds,
And hold at the top for two,
And breathe out for four seconds.
And breathe in for four seconds,
Hold at the top for two,
And breathe out for four seconds.
And breathe in for four seconds,
Hold at the top for two.
And breathe out for four seconds.
You can go back to your normal breathing now.
You can relax your face,
Your jaw,
Your shoulders.
Each exhale is an opportunity to breathe out any tension and anything that's no longer serving you from the day.
Just let this be a break for you.
There is nothing to do,
Nowhere to go.
Just be in this present moment.
And with every breath,
Let it continue to ground you.
From time to time,
Thoughts will come up.
But that's okay,
You can just let them pass.
And as they arise,
You can offer yourself compassion when your mind doesn't behave as you would like it to.
Finally just bringing your mind back to the breath in a non-judgmental way.
Relaxing with the inflow and relaxing with the outflow.
Now gently soften your attention.
And today we're going to work with compassion in our meditation practice so we can bring it out into the world.
But before we can extend compassion outwards,
We must first cultivate it within.
It is common to extend compassion to others before we offer it for ourselves.
When we support loved ones,
It can feel easy to give them compassion to ease their suffering.
But with ourselves,
Our mind tends to beat ourselves up over not having the right job,
The right relationship,
Or we may not feel good enough,
Smart enough,
Attractive enough.
Rather than breaking ourselves down as motivation,
It's much easier to use self-compassion to build ourselves up.
Dheema Shodron once said,
Having compassion starts and ends with having compassion for all those unwanted parts of ourselves,
All those imperfections we don't even want to look at.
Passion involves creating a space within ourselves that is free of judgment.
It allows us to respond to challenges and failures with kindness.
So when we're having a hard day or a hard month and our thoughts and mind are telling ourselves harsh words,
Just think of a friend or a loved one who could be going through something similar.
If they were struggling,
Would you say those words to them?
Instead,
Picture what you would say to your loved one and say it to yourself.
We all need to learn to find compassion for our limitations and challenging circumstances.
We can't change the way external challenges and people come into our lives,
But we can change how we treat ourselves in response to them.
Self-compassion is like a muscle.
The more you practice words of encouragement,
Understanding,
And kindness,
The stronger our self-compassion muscle becomes.
So when life throws us curveballs,
We can extend this compassion to both ourselves and those around us.
For today,
I'll leave you with a few affirmations.
May I be kind to myself.
May I give myself the compassion I need.
May I be strong.
And may I be patient.
Now gently come back to the room.
You can wiggle your fingers and your toes.
And when it feels right for you,
You can slowly open your eyes.
Thank you for coming.
