Breath Break : Writing A Love Letter In The Mind

Have a little time to slow down? Let's meditate and visualize ourselves sending love. This meditation is a guided practice that involves writing a letter in our mind's eye. It is a way to connect to the heart, the breath, and the world. Very often we are good at letters of complaint or frustration and sometimes it takes a little practice to actually send love instead.

We can practice here, writing words that someone else might want to, or even need to, read. After you've completed this practice as a meditation maybe give it a try in real life.

P.S. One of the most difficult love letters to write is to ourselves.

Transcript

So let's drop into a comfortable position right away and that might be lying on your back or it might be seated in more of a meditative space with shoulders stacked over top of hips.

Let it feel comfortable so that you're not distracted by the body and then settle into that space.

And then just take a moment to shift your weight or shrug your shoulders or move your head or close your eyes.

This guided meditation can be certainly done with your eyes open,

But sometimes that closing of the eyes helps us to shift and turn inward.

And then we're just going to start together as you settle the body into a place of stillness where you're going to take a deep breath in.

So I want you to draw a nice breath in through the nose and then just sigh it,

Let it go out of the mouth.

Today our guided meditation or practice is going to be writing a love letter in our minds.

As a culture we often are really good at writing protest letters or we might want to call them hate letters.

That's a really strong word that sometimes we can get so wrapped up in our own frustration and anger,

Distrust and maybe even disgust toward other people that we just want to project these really hurtful letters out into the world.

But today we're going to write a love letter in the mind.

And so as you come into this place of relaxation in the body,

We're going to start by going into that place of heart-mind coherence.

You may or may not touch a hand to your heart if that feels good,

But I want you to focus on that heart space.

So if bringing your attention to the heart requires you to touch the heart,

Then do that.

Put your hand against the heart or the fingertips,

The palm,

And bring your attention right to that heart space because it's most often where we associate love coming from.

And then let your breath slow down and if it feels really fast-paced,

If it feels like it's trapped up into the chest,

Then you might need a few extra moments to slow the breath down or to feel the safety of being still in a space that feels okay to be still.

And as you bring your attention to your heart and your breath slows down a bit,

I want you to sink right into the space of cultivating love from that heart area.

And as you're working to cultivate that feeling of love,

And maybe you can call it gratitude,

Compassion or kindness,

They all have a very similar vibrational feel in that chest and the heart space.

As you do that,

I want you to bring someone to mind.

Now this someone can be someone that you deeply love or admire,

It can be someone really close to you,

A beginning part of Metta that we often do,

Choosing someone that we have really,

Really strong heart connections with.

It could be someone like that.

Or it could be someone that you're struggling to have a heart connection with,

Someone that you often send your own kind of protest letters to,

Someone that maybe disturbs you or pushes your buttons.

This could be someone that you know very well,

Or it could be a complete stranger.

I want you to bring that person to mind.

This is going to be the person that we're going to write a love letter to.

So bring them to mind as you're starting to cultivate love in that heart space.

And then using a little bit of visualization,

Using a bit of your imagination muscles,

I want you to imagine in your mind's eye that you're actually walking to a place that feels comfortable to write a letter.

And this might be you envisioning yourself walking to an office,

Or it might be walking to a cafe,

Or your favorite room in the house,

Or it might be somewhere in the past that you used to write letters.

I want you to imagine yourself moving toward that place.

And then eventually envision yourself arriving there,

And sitting down and taking a seat at a chair,

On a beanbag,

On the floor,

On a bed.

Draw this into your mind's eye as vividly as you can.

And notice that as you come into this space of writing a letter,

There's already paper there for you.

There's already a writing utensil.

It might be a crayon,

Or a marker,

Or a pen,

Or a pencil.

But everything is there.

And so as you sit down,

Or maybe you lay down,

I want you to begin to write this love letter to the person in your mind.

We'll start it off as we often do.

Dearest so-and-so to whom it may concern.

Place your own words at the top,

And then begin to write.

Write these words from that heart space.

Write them from a place of love.

Fill the page,

Or the pages,

One word at a time.

A letter of gratitude.

A letter of compassion.

A letter of kindness.

And let the words pour out from your heart.

Oh,

The love that comes from our heart is endless.

And the love that comes into our body,

Endless as well.

And we could sit here writing letters,

And filling up pages.

I want you to bring your own letter to an end.

I want you to wrap up the last few sentences,

Or the last few words.

And at the very end of this letter,

I want you to sign your name.

And as you finish writing this letter,

When you place your writing utensil down on the desk,

Or on the bed,

Or on the floor,

Or the cafe table,

I want you to imagine that you could remember how to turn this page,

Or these pages,

Into a paper airplane.

I want you to imagine that you can fold it so that it grows wings,

And can fly through the air.

And as you fold this paper,

Or these pages,

Into an airplane,

Or maybe there's a few airplanes,

I want you to hold it into your hand.

Maybe you need both hands.

And we're going to let it go.

We're going to send it out into the universe,

Into the energy that connects us all,

So that this love that you've put into this letter can make its way,

Can find its way,

To the person on the other side of this letter.

So in the count of one,

Three,

I want you to send it off into the air.

Give it a toss.

Give it a push.

Give it a shove.

And watch it make its way through the air.

It's starting to disappear,

And take the path that it's supposed to take into the heart of another person.

And as you start to bring your attention back to your own breath,

Your own heart,

I want you to see that image in your mind of where you were starting to disappear.

Begin to come fully into the space where you yourself are planted.

And feel your heartbeat in your chest.

Feel the breath moving in and out of your body.

Maybe the lingering effects of being so closely,

So intimately connected to your own heart.

And then take a big breath in with me,

And let it go.

When you're ready to enter back into the space that you're in,

You might begin to shift the body or open and close the eyes.

You're welcome to linger just a little bit longer as well.

Sending deep love and gratitude from my heart to yours.

Namaste.