We often spend so much of our time on this planet,
So much of our precious energy giving and offering love and acceptance to others,
Making them feel more comfortable,
Soothing and mending their wounds.
What about you?
When is the last time that you paused,
That you just got still?
When is the last time that you reveled in the wonderment of you?
There is no denying that this is one of the most challenging things that we will come up against in this life,
To offer love and acceptance to ourselves fully.
And yet in offering this unconditional love and sweetness to our own hearts,
To our own bodies,
To our own spirits,
We begin to unlock unimaginable freedom.
We begin to afford ourselves innumerable blessings,
Because this self-love,
It is the key to every door that we've ever searched behind for happiness,
Tenderness,
For gratitude.
This is a practice to love yourself.
Please come to find any comfortable seat,
Either sitting on a chair or the floor.
Just allow yourself to settle and wherever you are at,
Encourage your back body tall and strong and straight.
When you arrive in the seat,
Let the eyelids close down,
Let the body become still.
In the quiet of this very moment,
Begin to notice your breath.
Without changing your breath in any way,
Without altering it,
Just let your awareness center on your inhale and your exhales.
And then begin to shift your attention,
Shift your focus to the center of your chest,
The place where your heart resides.
Begin to visualize behind your closed eyes that there is a balloon,
Cradles that holds,
That wraps around your own precious heart.
And as you breathe in,
This balloon inflates and you feel this expansiveness through your chest.
And as you breathe out,
This balloon deflates and you feel yourself return back to source.
Just continue to watch and feel behind your closed eyes,
This breathing in as the balloon inflates and this breathing out,
Watching and feeling the balloon,
The space deflate.
All awareness on your chest,
Marrying your focus with your breath and your heart.
And with your breath now sweetly moving in and out from your chest,
Begin to invite in this silent mantra.
Every time you breathe in,
You say to yourself silently,
I am worthy.
And every time you breathe out,
You say to yourself silently,
I am enough.
Breathing in,
I am worthy.
Breathing out,
I am enough.
I am worthy.
I am enough.
Just continue to recite these words,
These statements silently in your own mind's eye.
Breathing in and breathing out from your heart balloon and then release the mantra,
Release the words from your mind's eye and shift your awareness from your chest into the spaciousness of the room that is around you.
Keeping your eyes closed and your body still,
Just begin to visualize the space in which you now sit.
Remembering with as much detail as you can muster the walls that surround you,
The floor that holds you,
The ceiling above you.
And then begin to look down on yourself from this bird's eye perspective and notice how you see yourself.
Look with as much love and admiration and appreciation as you can find.
Quiet the noises of self-doubt and self-judgment,
Of criticism.
See yourself for everything that you already are in this moment.
Looking down on yourself still from this bird's eye perspective,
Allow these words to silently and mentally become your own.
I love you.
I admire you.
I forgive you.
I will always be here for you.
And let these words just be received into this being,
Into this vessel,
Allowing them to flood and swell within you.
This you deserve.
Slowly,
Slowly begin to draw your hand onto your chest,
Allowing palms to make contact with clothing or skin over top of your own heart and feel your own heart beating.
Within just a few moments of feeling and noticing your heartbeat,
You begin to settle into this enoughness,
Enoughness without trying,
Without accomplishing,
Without achieving,
The enoughness of simply being.
Just bowing your forehead down in reverence of this heartbeat,
Allowing this to be your reminder for today that you are enough.
You are 1000 times enough.
Taking a very deep breath in and a long exhale out.
Namaste.
