Settling down to enjoy your own company.
This is time to be alone in the best of all possible ways.
Time to appreciate yourself,
All that you are.
You're giving yourself time to enjoy quiet and stillness.
Not silence and stoniness,
But just gentleness.
Not making any more sound or movement than you need to and enjoying all the things that come up.
Bird sounds,
Fidgets in your body,
Muscle twitches,
Distant cars.
Slowing down so you notice what's inside and outside.
Isn't that glorious?
A treat.
And you're kind to be kind to yourself.
To be gentle on yourself.
It's a good step.
Notice how you're breathing,
Not changing yet,
Just noticing where you start.
When you breathe,
You might notice a tightness in your chest or shoulders,
Stiffness in your hips.
Isn't that fascinating?
Not a problem,
Just a curiosity.
Where does it all come from?
Breathing a little deeper now and a little slower out.
And using your breath to release,
To open any place that's tight,
Clenched,
Held.
Breath being a thing you can control in a world of many things you cannot.
Breath,
A gift that you can give to yourself.
A good point for focus when you get distracted,
As you will during any meditation and at any part of your life with your mind going in a healthy way,
Brain firing.
Stretch or yawn,
If that's appropriate.
If that's appropriate.
When you'd like to or need to,
You can exhale on the ancient Hebrew word of sela.
Sela.
I'm just enjoying the quiet,
Settling down,
Getting heavy,
Sitting deeper into your seat,
Or heavier into your space of lying down.
Closing your eyes if they're not already.
Every curse has a potential blessing,
And even every blessing has a potential curse.
We're going to gently and delicately explore those possibilities.
Places where we might be so excited about our capacities that we ignore any potential drawbacks.
Places that we get lost in a difficulty and can't see the potential blessing and lesson therein.
This won't be easy.
So if your mind starts to clench,
You can step back from the work and just breathe gently.
Listen,
Let it sink in,
But don't do the work yet.
That's fine.
For now,
Just breathe.
Letting yourself relax,
Settle,
Feel your weight and your volume.
Dig into something great about yourself.
Your smile,
Your diligence,
Your aptitudes for cooking or sports.
The depth with which you read things,
Whatever it could be.
Draw up something special about yourself.
As you breathe,
Bring it to consciousness.
Could take an image,
Could take a feeling,
A sound.
Just a word.
Make it bigger,
More impressive.
The thing you really like,
Even love about yourself,
That you're proud of,
Dig into that.
How does it make you feel?
Physically,
Spiritually,
What comes up for you when you consider this positive trait,
This capacity,
This aptitude?
How does it make you unique,
Distinctly yourself?
Breathe into that.
Enjoy it in your body.
In your spirit,
Take it in.
Notice where you feel it the most.
Let's get tricky.
Let's make it problematic.
What pitfalls or problems are you dealing with in your life?
Let's make it problematic.
What pitfalls or blind spots might that give you?
When you're in this place of pride and strength,
What might you be missing,
Ignoring?
We're not judging or criticizing.
We're just becoming more aware and alert to possibility.
In every blessing,
There's potential curse,
Just challenge.
Let that come up to you,
Not in an unkind way,
But just a careful,
Fascinating way.
What do you notice?
What do you think about or feel?
You think about those potential blind spots.
It's still nice to be you,
Just need to be alert.
Breathing.
When you get distracted or irritable,
That's fine.
Just come back.
Be noticing.
Be generous with yourself.
Extend your breath.
Stretch,
Reinvigorate.
Breathing deeper in and slower out.
Settling down,
Filling up.
What's a challenge in your life right now?
What's driving you?
What's egging you on?
What's some grit or irritability under the skin?
Something external,
Perhaps,
That causes you anxiety,
Makes you want to run.
In this case,
Don't go too deep into the feeling.
Keeping it at arm's length so you can observe it neutrally,
With a bit of clarity.
Okay,
There's a problem out there,
In here,
Wherever you find it.
Problems are part of life.
They're not fun.
They're not to be dismissed.
They are frequent and common,
Normal.
So let it come up.
Breathe into it.
Start to open up.
Let it come up.
Breathe into it.
Start to open up the problem.
Maybe it'll unfold a little.
Deeper,
Slower breath.
Expanding into the challenge.
Somewhere within that is a solution.
Is a solution or something you need to learn,
Maybe even a blessing?
Poke around with a generous and open spirit.
You might start to find it,
A workaround to the problem,
Something it could teach you,
A good side.
See what comes up.
Let me start to get nervous,
Anxious,
Annoyed.
Take a deeper breath.
Slow it down.
Step back as you need to.
Is there a germ,
A seed,
A pearl of a blessing that's coming up?
Maybe distantly on the horizon.
Take note.
Challenges are chances to grow.
Not always fun.
But a finite life spent without growing wouldn't be a well-spent life.
Breathe in.
Go a little deeper to the blessing.
Perhaps the capacity you found in the earlier part of this meditation could help you find resolution to this challenge.
You never know.
You've solved problems before.
You can certainly do it again.
And we'll conclude with a few deep breaths just to settle,
To fall into all of these blessings.
Thank you.
