Today's meditation is all about cultivating self-love and self-compassion.
I'd recommend that you find your way into a supported seat with a cushion or a bolster underneath you and the legs cross comfortably.
As you let the energy of the body begin to settle,
Bring your attention to the sit bones and allow the weight of the body to drop down,
Feeling the pressure of the buttocks and the root of the body making connection with the support underneath you.
The knees can drop down towards the floor,
The hips begin to soften,
There's a sense of dropping down,
Grounding,
Rooting into the earth.
It's from this place of solidity and stability that you can let the length of your spine begin to lift upwards,
Drawing the ribs away from the belly,
Lifting the heart and softening the shoulders down the back.
Closing the eyes,
Encourage that same softness into the forehead around the eyebrows,
The eye sockets and let any tension drop from the cheeks and the jaw.
And lifting the crown of the head all the way to the sky and tucking the chin gently towards the chest so the back of the neck lengthens.
And here you're sitting prepared for meditation in a pose that is all about effortless effort.
You can turn the gaze inward and begin to notice the natural breath moving in and out of the nose.
No need to change it,
No need to manipulate it.
You're just training the mind to see how the breath rises and falls,
How the body breathes for you.
And then bring the right hand to the heart space,
Left hand can rest on the lap however it's comfortable.
Feel the warmth of your hand against your chest and the texture of your clothing against your skin.
Let yourself know that there is nowhere else to be,
Nothing to do,
Nowhere to get to.
There's no one to impress,
There's nothing to find.
Just the practice of being here now.
As you breathe I want you to feel into the heart rising up towards the hand and then airbing and dropping away your hand coming with it as you breathe out.
Every breath feeling the heart expand and rising up to meet the hand.
A wish for connection and contact.
So as you continue to breathe down into your heart space this breath begins to oxygenate,
Expand and nourish this intuitive center inside of you.
So often in life we look outside of ourselves for connection,
For love,
For compassion that we can't give to ourselves.
We seek peace and distraction grasping,
Grasping,
Grasping outside of ourselves.
And yet in this meditation the simple act of connecting hand to heart is all about reconnecting with our own innate sense of profound love and peace.
So even while there may be internal struggle,
A wish to be somewhere else,
A wish to be someone else,
To be seen,
To be loved,
To be met.
Just know that all of these desires exist in each of us and they can be met from within by each of us.
So continuing to breathe just a natural wave like breath,
The body taking care of the inhale and the exhale.
And you may turn the corners of the mouth up into a gentle smile and send that smile down to the heart.
Getting a sense with every inhalation that the heart is expanding and filling the whole chest,
The upper body,
Down to the hips,
The pelvis,
The legs,
Even down to the toes with love.
Every breath visualising that love radiating through your own physical body and beyond its limits.
Creating a golden pink kind of a light that shines beyond you.
And allowing yourself to bathe completely in that love.
Taking another three or four inhalations in this way,
Just slowly expanding from the very centre of your being.
And allowing that light to wash through you so that all of your cells can absorb it.
At the end of your next exhale,
Release the hand from the heart space and bring it back to the lap.
Open the palms to the sky so that you may receive this love,
This energy that you've created from inside.
And if you wish to close your meditation by bringing the hands back together in prayer position out front of the heart,
Soft bow of the head down towards the hands.
Namaste.
When you're ready,
You can release the hands,
Blink open the eyes and make some stretching movements to come back into the room.
I hope this nourishing love that you've created from your own heart centre continues to radiate throughout your day.
Namaste.
