As an act of self-compassion.
Come into your most comfortable seat.
Closing your eyes gently with care.
And just imagine sitting here with care.
Part of resilience is that care you bring.
To experience,
To every experience.
And to make space for the practice that follows,
Let's do breath-focused practice,
Which is a practice in and of itself.
So let the body settle.
Find a point of stillness in you.
And in that stillness,
Find the movement in you.
Which is the movement of the breath.
Moving through your body.
And feeling this breath with great gratitude.
Another moment to be alive.
Another moment to be resolved.
Another moment to enjoy,
Another moment to feel.
Another moment to love and be loved.
All of that stems from the breath.
Just feeling that rhythm.
With as much gentleness as you have.
Observing that coming and going of the breath.
And knowing you're breathing in community.
And now imagine that you are sitting here breathing.
So you are sitting here as the most compassionate,
Most wise version of yourself.
And imagine yourself.
Giving yourself all those qualities.
That you would have as the most resilient version.
Of you.
Sitting here.
As your most resilient self.
What would that feel like?
Imagine you already have all these qualities.
Imagine that you are in this moment a person with these qualities you've been thinking about,
Whether it's No judgment of anyone.
Or the ability to really honor yourself.
The most broad perspective.
Joy,
Ease.
Openness,
Patience.
Deep equanimity.
Giving yourself whatever these qualities are for you.
And feeling into the version of yourself that's already there,
That's already inside you.
Seeing the face of this person.
Maybe a relaxed face,
Maybe a luminous face.
Sitting calmly in meditation just as you are now.
Your most resilient self.
And as this resilient being,
You have wisdom.
You have endless wisdom to see things as they are,
To see through things.
You understand what's not under your control.
You understand why things happen.
You have this spacious view of yourself.
You have this spacious view of any situation.
Like at any moment you're standing at the very top of a mountain.
You have that wisdom to look at the realities of life.
And another quality you have as your resilient self.
Is inner strength.
You have an unshakable inner anchor.
Just feel the strength of your physical body as you sit here.
Becoming aware of the body as it's in the chair.
Feel how upright you are.
Feel the dignity of your straight spine.
And imagine a version of yourself.
With endless inner strength.
Events come and go.
Circumstances come and go.
You see their deeper meaning.
You stay connected.
You stay with a relaxed face,
With openness,
You ride the waves.
And you have your intention.
You know who you are.
You know what you want to do.
And the third quality of your resilient self is complete self-compassion.
If you had total self-compassion.
What would that be like?
You are committed to being as helpful,
As supportive.
As encouraging to yourself as you possibly can in the face of suffering.
You are gentle with yourself in all moments.
You are gentle with yourself,
Whatever you do as your most resilient self.
And to every circumstance,
To every moment you bring this wisdom.
You bring this strength.
And you bring this commitment to being kind and supportive to yourself.
Gentle to yourself in all situations.
And you bring this commitment to non-harm,
To being gentle,
To non-harm toward all creatures.
As part of your great compassion.
You have these qualities.
And again,
Asking yourself,
What other quality would I give myself?
Me and my journey to my resilience.
What other quality would I give myself?
And now feel that you already have that quality.
Sitting here for a last couple moments as your resilient self,
Getting to know that self.
And go ahead and bring that compassionate smile to your lips of just that Buddha have smile of compassion.
Feeling into your body.
You will hear the sound of a bell,
Listen to its sound,
And then as you open your eyes for that first moment,
See if you can see the room from the perspective.
Your most resilient,
Compassionate,
Wise self.
Just look at your surroundings from that point of view.
