The compassionate acceptance meditation.
Just settling into a comfortable meditation posture.
Noticing the points of contact with the floor,
The chair,
And having a sense of alertness,
Being upright.
Just letting the weight of gravity do its thing.
Being held by the floor beneath.
Directing our attention to where we can feel our breath.
This might be the rise and fall of the abdomen,
The chest,
Or perhaps the coolness in the nostril.
Not trying to change or control the breath.
Just noticing go at the appropriate rate.
So today we're just working with some discomfort or difficulty.
Starting with something small.
Perhaps some tension or a little bit of discomfort.
But not the biggest things that we're working with.
We're just developing the skill.
Scanning the body perhaps for any areas of tightness,
Tension,
And just bringing that into our awareness.
What's that like?
Just bringing also a sense of kindly awareness to ourselves.
That sense of compassion that we would have to a loved one who is hurting or in pain as we so naturally do.
Just seeing if we can use that same compassion to ourselves.
Bathing ourselves in that well intention with each breath.
And just opening our awareness again to any pain,
Discomfort.
Noticing if there's any resistance,
An aversion,
Or a want to push it away.
That's okay,
That's just what we do.
But in this practice we're just going to see if we can lean ever so slightly towards it.
Just curious and interested.
Perhaps just as we bring it ever so carefully into our awareness.
What's it like just to be and breathe with it?
Allowing it.
Noticing the direct felt sensation of that area.
Perhaps noticing the quality of it.
Any temperature sensation.
That's the part of the body where you can feel it.
Tracing out the boundaries and comparing to somewhere else in the body.
Seeing how with the flow of meditation it might have changed somewhat.
This curiosity,
This flow is something we can always take refuge in as surely as we are always breathing.
And perhaps if we're becoming overwhelmed with this experience it's too intense.
Broadening our awareness to include the whole body,
The room,
The outside.
Any sounds we might hear in the external environment.
Skillfully expanding the container of our awareness in this way.
The feet on the floor.
Any sounds.
Or perhaps if there's not much to feel at all and we're feeling blocked or numb.
Can we invite the mind's eye to zoom in to that area?
And if there's not much there,
Then just noticing that as the object of our awareness.
Broadening our kindly awareness breath alongside any discomfort or any other bodily sensations.
Just sitting with our container of awareness.
Breathing in that sense of self-compassion.
The oxygen that nourishes our bodies so naturally.
And on the out breath,
Just seeing if we can release any tension or holding.
The forehead,
The temples.
The shoulders,
The jaw.
Just allowing our bodies to be breathed.
Any guiding ourselves back to our breath if we wondered.
And with that return,
Remembering also to bring that self-compassion.
And as we come to the end of the practice,
Just taking stock of how we feel.
Is it possible to take some part of how we feel now,
That self-compassion,
Into the rest of our lives?
