Heart Chakra

This meditation begins with gentle grounding, encouraging participants to find comfort and physical balance, whether seated or lying down. It invites awareness of the breath and body through a calming scan, helping to release tension without judgment. The heart of the practice is a Loving-Kindness (Metta) meditation, gradually extending compassion from self to others — including loved ones, neutral individuals, and even those who have irritated. A mountain visualization follows, promoting inner stillness and strength amidst change. The session closes by returning to the heart space, offering messages of love and gratitude, fostering deep connection and self-acceptance.

Transcript

So as we first begin to start our meditation,

Whenever you feel comfortable,

You can begin to close your eyes.

If you are uncomfortable closing your eyes,

You can always bring your eyes to a soft gaze or maybe gently looking down at something.

We don't want to be overstimulated though,

So if you do look at something on the ground,

Making sure it's really simple.

And whether you are seated or lying down,

Can you bring symmetrical symmetry to the sides of your body?

So if you are seated,

Noticing if maybe perhaps you are weighted on one side more than the other.

Same thing as you're lying down,

Making sure your arms are nicely extended,

Your feet are wide,

So you feel really equal on both sides of the body.

And then making any last-minute adjustments to get really extra cozy,

So you can sit here for 30 minutes.

Of course,

Giving yourself permission at any point if you feel terribly uncomfortable,

Move around.

It's okay,

You don't feel like you need to get stuck at all.

Meditation is to be enjoyed,

And so if something is bothering us,

It's going to distract our minds.

If you want to move,

You want to do anything,

Feel free to do so.

But at this moment,

As much as you possibly can,

Letting the fissioning of whether the mind or the body to gently begin to release down.

And we're beginning today with three breaths,

And these breaths will be letting go breaths.

So gently beginning to inhale whenever you're ready.

You don't necessarily have to do it when I say,

So follow your breath.

And then as you exhale,

Release out with an audible sigh.

We'll do it two more times,

Inhaling whenever you're ready,

Releasing out anything not serving you.

One more time.

And as we sit here,

We're accepting all parts of ourselves,

Releasing any expectation.

And now let's start to bring our attention into our bodies.

This will be our focal point as we begin.

So the first thing I want you to do as you're focusing on the physical body,

Just internally scan and notice how you're physically feeling.

You can notice how your shoulders are feeling,

Whether there's one that is tighter than the other.

Notice if you're gripping your jaw or if it feels unhinged and open.

And at this point,

We're just gathering information about ourselves,

So don't feel like you need to scold yourself or even change how you're feeling.

We're just noticing how we're feeling this Thursday evening.

Continuing to mentally scan around the body and using this,

Like I said,

As our focal point.

And as you're scanning around the body,

If there's any point that you want to stop and maybe explore a little more,

Feel free to do so.

Ways that we could explore could be if you have a tight area,

Do you know how far or how big the tightness is?

Does the tightness have edges around it?

Are they smooth edges,

Kind of like a circle?

Or is it more like a blob with smoky edges?

And if you don't know these answers,

Then just stick with what you do know.

You will know whether you feel relaxed in a certain area and open or tight,

So maybe just staying with that if that's all you want to do right now.

And also noticing when you're scanning around the body,

If your attention is to maybe perhaps your shoulder and all of a sudden your hand just opens,

Let it do that.

And if you have not explored your breath,

Maybe taking this opportunity to do so now.

So gently noticing the inhale as it travels down the body and then as you exhale,

The breath floats back up through the torso and then out again.

Noticing if the breath gets stopped in any part of the body or if it fluidly moves.

And again,

Just like the physical sensations,

We're not critiquing ourselves or even trying to change it.

We're not exaggerating the breath now.

We're just noticing how we're breathing.

You're now beginning to bring your attention to your heart center,

So that's the center of your chest.

Your heart chakra is located here.

We will be doing a loving kindness guided meditation.

So it's just like it sounds,

We'll be sending love to ourselves and other people.

So with your attention in your heart space,

The center of your chest,

I want you to think about or call to mind someone or something that you have great love,

That you deeply care about.

It could be a person,

It could be a new toy you just got that you really love.

So something that deeply brings you joy.

And as you call to mind that something or someone,

Noticing how it changed the body.

Maybe you felt some warmth in your heart,

Maybe you gently began to smile,

Maybe your shoulders just dropped a little bit lower or your breath became a little bit longer.

And it may not be a big change,

It might have been something really subtle.

But from this space,

From this loving place,

We will begin and as I say these words,

Letting these words wash over you as you silently repeat them to yourself.

May I be well,

Healthy,

And strong.

May I be happy.

May I abide in peace.

May I feel secure and safe.

May I feel loved and cared for.

Sometimes this stage of saying these things to ourself is a little bit hard.

I'm just accepting that if that's true for you this evening.

And now I want you to begin to call to mind someone that you love and respect and sending these feelings of warmth and caring as you wish them silently repeating this to yourself.

May you be well.

May you be happy.

May you abide in peace.

May you feel safe and secure.

May you feel loved and cared for.

And now calling to mind someone you feel neutral about.

Maybe perhaps it is someone you passed by today,

Whether you went to the grocery store,

Someone who was randomly pulled up to you next to the car.

And as you call that person to mind,

May you be well.

May you be happy.

May you abide in peace.

May you feel safe and secure.

May you feel loved and cared for.

And now calling to mind someone who has recently irritated you.

I'm probably not starting with the person who irritates you the most.

Maybe someone who just slightly irritated you this week,

Even this month,

Or even just today.

It could be someone at work or even a slow driver.

May you be well.

May you be happy.

May you abide in peace.

May you feel safe and secure.

May you feel loved and cared for.

Now calling to mind a greater community.

Whether you just want to do your immediate family,

Your town,

The nation,

Or the world,

Including all beings.

And including ourselves in this.

May we all be well.

May we all be happy.

May we all abide in peace.

May we all feel safe and secure.

May we all feel loved and cared for.

And now beginning to call to mind an image of a beautiful mountain.

It could be a mountain that you have seen before or one that you could imagine.

Observing its overall shape,

Its lofty peak high in the sky,

The large base rooted into the rock of the earth's crust,

Its steep or gentle sloping sides,

Noticing how massive it is,

How solid,

How unmoving,

How beautiful from both afar and up close.

And perhaps your mountain has snow at the top and trees on the lower slopes.

Perhaps it has one prominent peak or a series of peaks or even a high plateau.

Whatever its shape or appearance,

Just sit and breathe with the image of this mountain,

Observing it,

Noticing its qualities.

And when you feel ready,

See if you can bring this mountain into your own body so that your body sitting or lying here becomes the mountain.

You share in the massive stillness and majestic mountain qualities.

You are rooted,

Yet lifting up,

Supported by the base of your body.

When wavering your stillness,

Completely what you are,

A centered,

Rooted,

Unmoving presence.

Becoming aware that the fact that the sun travels across the sky,

The light and shadows and colors are changing virtually moment by moment.

Night follows day,

And day follows night.

A canopy of stars,

The moon,

And then the sun.

And through this,

The mountain just sits,

Experiencing change in each moment.

Constantly changing,

Yet always just being itself.

It remains still as the seasons flow from one to the next.

As the weather changes moment by moment and day by day.

Calmness abiding,

All change.

In summer,

There's no snow on the mountain except for perhaps the very peaks.

In fall,

The mountain may wear a coat of brilliant fire colors.

In winter,

A blanket of snow and ice.

The mountain's magnificent and beautiful,

And not changed by seasons or weather.

Through it all,

The mountain continues to sit unmoved by the weather,

By what happens to the surface,

By the world appearances.

And as we sit in meditation,

We learn to experience the same as the mountain.

Sometimes the mind wanders like clouds,

But we just notice and bring ourselves back into our bodies.

Sitting for a couple moments of silence.

Staying with either the visualization of the mountain or even coming back into the breath.

You can even say to yourself,

Breathing in,

I know I'm breathing in.

Breathing out,

I know I'm breathing out.

And accepting whatever might happen within the body or the mind.

And just gradually come back into your focal point.

Gently beginning to release either the imagery of the mountain or the attention to the breath.

And accepting whatever happened in those moments of silence.

Sometimes silence is easier than other times.

Noticing the physical sensations of the body one more time.

Noticing if maybe you had just slight changes from the very beginning when we first started.

And acknowledging that each day is different,

Each moment is different.

Sometimes being in silence or noticing the body is easier than others.

Sometimes we have to pull ourselves back inward a hundred times when we're feeling extra busy.

Noticing the body supported by the surface behind you or below you if you're seated or behind you as you lie.

Knowing that you are supported in all aspects of your life whether that is the solid ground below us or the support of others around us.

If you are seated bringing your hands into prayer in front of the heart center.

If you're lying down just stack one hand on top of the heart center and the other one on top.

Those hands are resting in front of or on our heart center.

The place where we began this evening.

So from this heart space I want you to send out a message to someone you love or even someone you think who might need it right now.

Saying whatever calls to mind.

And with just the same level of acknowledgement I now want you to send yourself a message of love of gratitude.

Something you might need to hear right now.

I am enough.

I am capable.

I am happy and healthy.

From my heart center to each of yours I am deeply grateful for each of you who have joined me this evening.

Namaste.