Let's take one,
Four,
Seven,
Eight breath.
Inhaling for one,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Hold,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six,
Seven.
And exhale out through the mouth for two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six,
Seven,
Eight.
And welcome to this meditation of acceptance towards yourself and others.
Begin by acknowledging that anything you accept fully becomes your source of strength.
Anything in reality that you see clearly and that you can make space for in your heart becomes your absolute source of strength.
So we honor the practice by starting with breath focus.
Let's begin this acceptance meditation by observing the breath.
Let the breath flow naturally.
Let the body settle in.
And by being with the breath,
You are being with reality as it is.
So allow yourself to sit comfortably.
Allow yourself to relax all the muscles in your face.
Allow yourself to relax your shoulders and to relax your weight into the chair.
And now accepting your own rhythms,
Accepting your own beautiful cycles of the breath.
By not trying to change the breath,
We offer ourselves acceptance and we grow in resilience.
So feel both the point of stillness in you,
The still body,
And feel the breath moving in and out of the body.
From your physical stillness,
Connect to the breath in your chest,
In your belly,
In your throat,
In your nose.
Feeling every sensation of breath as it presents itself to you.
Welcoming the breath fully.
And stay with the breath for a few moments.
Feel the peace and the stillness of your body as you connect to your reality fully.
Let your forehead relax.
Let the space between your eyebrows relax.
Relax the eyes.
Relax the jaw.
Relax your cheeks.
Relax your neck and throat and your torso and your hips and your arms and your legs and your feet.
And now experience yourself as one big welcoming.
And now recite the following words for yourself and feel the strength in those words.
I accept my body just as it is.
And you might put a hand on your heart and say,
I accept the state of my heart just as it is.
With any of its heaviness or lightness or joy or pain or love.
I accept the state of my heart just as it is.
I accept myself when I'm having good days and when I'm having bad days.
And I accept my good days and my bad days.
I accept sun and I accept rain.
I accept work and I accept rest.
I accept gifts and I accept challenges.
I accept myself and my own seasons,
My own rhythms.
I accept the changes in me.
I accept my joy.
I accept my doubts.
I accept any heaviness in me.
I accept my high tides and my low tides.
In every living,
Breathing being,
There are both.
And with this heart,
I accept all other people as they are.
And all their manifestations.
I accept this beating heart and I accept all creatures as they are.
Setting the intention to look at the world and yourself through a lens of accepting.
Acknowledging again that everything you accept becomes your source of strength.
It becomes your resource.
The closer you are to reality as it is,
The stronger you are.
Accepting is like touching the earth,
Feeling the soil against your palms.
So just begin again to feel the chest under your palm.
Relax that down.
Begin to feel the air as it touches your skin.
And taking a deep breath in.
Taking a deep breath out through the mouth.
When you're ready,
Opening up your ears to the sound of the bell.
