Beginning this period of contemplation with three of the longest and deepest,
Fullest inhalations and exhalations you've taken yet today.
Today we'll lovingly turn our attention,
I invite you to focus for a moment on an inquiry.
What is self-care?
So as you draw the attention to this question,
What is self-care,
Notice what arises.
Is it the image of specific activities,
Things like eating well or taking care of the body in a specific way,
Maybe letting go of a habit that's creating harm in some way.
There's a whole industry,
As you are likely well aware,
Tailored to selling a specific view of self-care,
The perfect bubble bath or a day at the spa,
None of these things bad or wrong,
But take a moment to notice in your own experience what it's like when self-care for you stays in the realm of content,
Specific experiences.
What happens for you when self-care is attached to things and then if you can't fit those things in your full life,
Self-care is gone.
So take a moment to just notice whatever there is to see about your relationship with self-care.
If self-care for me is relegated to getting exercise every day,
Well,
What happens when my life is such circumstances are such that I can't do that?
Do I then struggle because the self-care is gone?
So I want to underline any activity that's arisen organically in your mind in regards to this topic of self-care,
Any,
All of these activities might be extremely fruitful,
Beautiful,
Deeply worth keeping in your life,
But now I invite you to let go of any attachment that might be there to the content,
To the activity themselves.
What are we doing instead?
We're sinking the attention in the self,
The self that in some spiritual traditions is referred to self with a capital S,
The self that is unbreakable,
The self that is inherently whole.
We're letting the attention rest in the vastness of the self out of which all of those other activities arise.
So rather than identifying with a small,
Limited sense of self that's running around chasing self-care activities to feel better,
As a generous act of true self-care,
We're resting the attention in the self of being.
From here we may and likely will still feel called into those activities,
But they're not required in order for us to know the peace we long for.
This is an unshakable,
Unflappable form of care,
Freed from content,
Freed from condition standards,
An ever-present form of care.
So as you sit,
Allow the attention to sink deeper and deeper into being.
The vast being that holds the content of our lives but is not imprisoned by it.
The infinite being that is free.
Let your greatest act of self-care be to return to this unbreakable,
Infinite self,
To rest in it and as it.
And now lovingly bringing your attention to the breath again,
Releasing into this care of just breathing,
A function that requires no effort on your part,
Just life's care flowing,
Breathing life into life.
Thank you.
