As and when you're ready,
Just gently closing your eyes.
And we're just going to start by bringing our awareness to that breath in the belly.
And we're not trying to change the breath in any way.
Just getting curious with what's the breath doing in this moment.
Is it fast or slow,
Steady or a little bit all over the place?
And remembering we're not attaching any labels of good or bad to any of these.
All of it is welcome.
Is that breath smooth?
Is it moved through the body?
Or is there more of an energy,
A jitteriness?
And if at any point you find that you get distracted,
Whether by the mind or the body,
No,
That's absolutely fine.
Just gently bring your awareness back to that breath in the belly.
And seeing if you can just allow your body to relax a little bit more into this moment.
Maybe softening across the brow,
Around the eyes,
Loosening the jaw.
Allowing those shoulders to just melt away from the ears.
Letting go of any tightness in the chest,
The belly or hips.
And just give yourself a moment to just become really present.
Nothing to do,
Nothing to achieve here.
Enjoy a moment to be.
And sometimes that being includes flickers or sensations of physical pain in the body or emotional pain in the body.
And those things are welcome too.
There's no need to push them away or fight them.
Just a sensation that reminds you you're alive in this moment.
And it's amazing how challenging it can be to just be.
So if you find yourself getting pulled into doing or controlling or judging,
That's fine.
See if you can just be with that.
And we're going to come up to that heart space now.
So you may want to place your hands on there if that helps you to connect into this part of the body.
And just get curious with the sensations that are living in your heart space.
Does it feel vibrant?
Is there lots of sensation?
Or is it a little bit more quiet here today?
Just take a moment to explore that area and the sensations that are living here in this moment.
Remember if you start to get pulled into judging or trying to change or fix those sensations,
See if you can just loosen your grip on that.
And come back to exploring,
Being curious.
What's living here in this moment?
And where you do find sensation or lack of sensation,
Allow your imagination to come in.
What shape does that have?
What colour would it be?
What texture?
Do they change or do they stay static?
Is there a movement to them?
Often our emotional sensations just want to be seen.
And the more we try and hide them or suppress them,
The louder they become,
The more overwhelming,
Consuming.
And like a little toddler fighting for our attention.
And we just have to give them that space,
That witnessing.
And notice if anything changes within you as you do this.
And no problem if not,
You're not doing anything wrong.
Now we're going to take a moment now to just breathe some vitality into this area of the body.
So breathing in a beautiful healing light into this area of the body.
And letting go of anything that doesn't need to be there anymore.
You can do that with a bit of a sigh or an audible breath.
Again,
Breathing in that beautiful healing light.
Bringing that loving,
Nurturing energy into this heart space.
And letting go of anything that's ready to be released.
You may find there's some emotion that comes through with that.
You may want to cry,
Shout,
Scream,
Do whatever you need to do.
It's just energy in motion.
It's breathing in another healing breath into this area of the body.
And again,
Letting go of anything that needs to be released.
And continuing that at your own pace.
And allowing anything that needs to to move through you.
Emotions,
Nothing to be worried about.
Nothing to be scared of.
And I invite you now to imagine that in this heart space is the most beautiful diamond.
But over the years that diamond might have got a little bit mucky.
It got covered in dirt,
A bit of grime.
From a very practical sense,
These are our experiences.
The things that we believed we had to close ourselves off from.
The things that we believed were too scary to open up to.
Those times we closed down our heart for fear of getting hurt.
And I invite you to imagine now,
If it feels good to you,
That you're going to start releasing some of this grime.
You're going to start letting it go in whatever way feels good to you.
And for those of you that are very visual,
You might imagine this as taking a cloth or a brush and polishing up that diamond.
For those of you that don't visualize in that kind of sense,
It may just be a knowing or an energetic feeling of that weight being let go of.
So I invite you to do that in any way that feels right for you,
At whatever pace feels right for you.
Right now,
You get to clean up that dirt.
You get to release the weight of that dirt.
You get to allow that diamond to shine again.
And you begin to notice that as that dirt and grime falls away,
There's a stronger energy coming from this.
This jewel within of love for those around you,
Those in your world,
Those sharing this meditation with you today.
And for the world that you live in,
The sunrises,
Stars that twinkle in the nighttime,
The fact that we're moving through the universe,
While spinning round and rotating round the sun,
You begin to feel that compassion on a deeper level for everyone on this planet who's all struggled with something,
Whether that's their self-worth or grief or difficult traumas and experiences.
Just the one thing that connects us all.
We've all experienced pain and suffering.
The more you clean this diamond,
The more you can feel this energy of love.
Allow it to build now in your chest.
Allow that energy to get stronger and stronger.
You may find a smile creeping on your face.
As this energy starts to move into every cell of your being,
You just feel like you're radiating love as you uncover the Buddha heart.
And if you find it difficult to connect into that energy,
That's fine.
Just bring to mind everything that you're grateful for,
Everything you love in this world.
Allow that to build within you.
And I invite you now to see if you can send that love out.
Can you imagine little strings of energy going into every single person that's joining you for this meditation?
And those of them that will be watching at a later date,
Little strings of energy of love going into their heart from yours to them.
Notice how good that feels to just send someone else love.
And in turn,
Know that you're receiving it.
Those strings are coming back into your heart.
So that love is being sent from them to you as well.
Notice how that feels in the body.
You may even find some emotion comes up.
You may feel a bit teary.
Know that's absolutely okay.
It's a wonderful feeling to give and receive love.
I invite you now to just see if you can just be this.
Can you just be love just for a few moments?
Nothing else to do.
Nothing to worry or control about.
Just be and allow that love to radiate from you.
And then allowing that love to just settle into the body now.
Enjoy that feeling of being full-hearted.
This might be a lovely opportunity to set any intentions you have around love,
Your ability to give or receive love,
Using this energy you've generated to power that intention.
And starting to notice now that feeling of the chair or ground,
Seat,
Bed,
Cushion beneath you.
That feeling of contact.
That support of the earth.
That feeling of groundedness,
Of safety,
Connectedness.
That feeling of gravity that allows your feet to stay on the ground.
Noticing the feeling of the air and temperature of the room on your skin.
And as and when you're ready,
Slowly opening your eyes,
Coming back into the outside world.
