Open Heart Open Hand: Why Help Others?

Just thinking about how to help others relieves stress, brings joy to our mind, and has wonderful karmic repercussions. Proudly brought to you by StressFit.

Transcript

Just thinking about how to help others relieves stress,

Brings joy to our mind,

And has wonderful karmic repercussions.

Find a quiet place for this meditation and do what you can to prevent distractions.

Let's start by deeply breathing in through the nose and out through the nose.

Rest your attention on the breathing cycle.

It will be your anchor throughout this meditation.

When thoughts arise,

Acknowledge them and let them go.

Simply return to the breath.

Give yourself permission to relax,

Unwind,

And allow the natural state of being open and positive to fill the space.

Breathe in relaxation,

Breathe out tension,

Breathe in love,

And breathe out courage.

I'd like to start with a quote from Shantideva,

One of the great Indian teachers.

The discomfort of contemplating the welfare of others is small compared with the benefit we get from it.

When our attitude is open,

We can have fun with what the world presents.

From contemplating the welfare of others,

We open our minds to include more than ourselves,

And this generates compassion.

We see that our own desire to be happy is shared with everyone we come into contact with.

We can serve humanity by enriching the world with the confidence of joy,

Which expresses itself as the ability to uplift any situation with the question,

How can I help?

Most of us spend our day in a continual contemplation about how we can help ourselves.

With discipline and delight,

We learn to flip that contemplation inside out.

There is no easy way to tell someone how to do it because every situation is different,

And it must come from our heart and be genuine.

This call for authenticity and expression leads one to learning what helping others means in their life and what they have to offer this world.

Therapists now commonly encourage depressed patients to get involved with helping others because it has been proven that extending a helping hand can help cure depression and anxiety.

The point here is to make it a central theme in your contemplation and your activity.

Contemplating how to be helpful opens our hearts and our possibilities.

Focus your attention in the area of your heart located just slightly left of the center of your chest.

Keep your attention on your heart center for the next few moments.

Keep your attention on your heart center for the next few moments.

Breathe deeply now,

Expanding your tummy out with each inhalation and allowing your belly to naturally relax on exhalation.

Softly draw in your breath down into your abdominal region,

Breathing in slowly,

Quietly,

And deeply,

And breathing out slowly,

Quietly,

And deeply.

Now visualize and feel your breath moving through your heart.

Notice how your heart swells up during inhalation and then relaxes during exhalation.

Continue breathing in and out through your heart.

Your heart has a strong electromagnetic field that radiates throughout your body and into the space that surrounds you.

Breathing in a relaxed manner shifts your frequency to one that is more receptive and in tune with your body.

Breathing in a relaxed manner shifts your frequency to one that is more receptive and in tune to receive.

Each time you exhale,

Let go of all your stresses.

Breathe in and breathe out all your stresses and worries.

Let all the tension out with each exhalation.

If you're distracted,

That's okay.

Simply acknowledge the thought,

Emotion,

Bodily sensation,

Or whatever the distraction is,

And bring your attention back to your breath,

Back to this present moment,

And try to keep your focus just on your breath.

Simply observing your breath.

See if you can keep your attention on your breath for one entire breathing cycle.

Breathe in and breathe out,

Letting all the tension out with the exhale.

When you breathe in,

Feel your body charge up with positive energy.

When you breathe out,

Feel all your fear and hesitation just melt away.

It's okay to let go.

It's okay to be unguarded.

It's okay to just be here in this present moment and feel all the positive energy come into you when you breathe in.

And breathing out,

You're letting go of all the fear or hesitation or anxiety you may be feeling or have felt.

You are releasing all the tension and liberating yourself.

Allow my words to move through you as if they were your own.

May my heart be open.

May my hand be open.

May I be happy.

May you be happy.

May we all be happy.

May I be disciplined and delighted in helping others.

May I attract others who also take care of me.

We are all deserving of love.

May we all help one another.

By doing this mantra,

You are reminding yourself of heaven,

The view on which you are going to base all your decisions you need to make.

This mantra strengthens and deepens your commitment to being a good person to yourself and others no matter what the day offers.

By contemplating our position,

We learn to bring joyful confidence into our heart and mind.

This confidence will take us far beyond the fear and hesitation that keep us stuck on ourselves.

I will repeat the mantra one last time.

May my heart be open.

May my hand be open.

May I be happy.

May you be happy.

May we all be happy.

May we all be happy.

May I be happy.

Care of me.

We are all deserving of love.

May we all help one another.

We are all deserving of love.

May we all help one another.

May we all help one another.

We are all deserving of love.

We are all deserving of love.

And when you're ready,

You can gently open your eyes and start to move your body around your body,

Stretching,

Getting the blood back into your legs.

Gently allow yourself to come back to this physical realm and open your senses to the world around you,

Starting with the room that you're in.

I give thanks to you for listening and being a part of this meditation with me,

And I hope that this meditation will allow you to live a more rich and healthy and positive life by extending your heart and your hand to help others.

Namaste.

Reviews

Thank you Elliott🙏
When we give with love, we serve peace.
What we share becomes light in the world✨

This is such a lovely meditation. When I'm exhausted and don't know how I can help any more, I come to this for rejuvenation, and for remembering that helping others can be joyful. I don't have to have all the answers. Rather, I need to ask, "How can I help?" Thank you for being a shining light.

Thank you for this! I can't tell you how perfectly timed it was for me. I feel loving and helping others is the baseline of everything, but sometimes it's helpful to spend the time to reaffirm the path. Again, thank you very much!

Thank you ,thank you for your lovely meditation.

Always so grateful to have Elliot’s guided meditations to experience. This touched me deep and moved me to tears as I feel the need to always help others and meet those who allow me to receive the help as well. Thank you Elliot for your unconditional love and generosity for the work you bring to all of us. Namaste 🙏🏻

Very beautiful meditation! Thanks Elliott!
You’re gem!

As always absolutely beautiful, you just hit the spot every time Elliott. I wish you nothing but happiness and success in all you do. Carry on the good work,beautiful soul. Namaste 🙏

Another fantastic meditation with Elliott. The opening breathing techniques helped get me focused and the overall spirit of this practice kept me engaged throughout. The ending mantra gave me something meaningful and practical to take away from this practice. Great background music and high quality narration.

Great meditation, inspiring. Perfectly paced, thank you! 🙏

Wonderful meditation, very helpful.
Thank you.
In my opinion could be spoken a bit faster...

Great meditation for self love and extending that love to others.

I work with individuals with special needs, and this was an awesome meditation to start my day with. Thank you so much!

Thank you for sharing this wonderful meditation of healing, light and love! Namaste 🙏

Wow what a beautiful meditation, soothing comforting soft voice, and kind mantra, thank you so much x