Peace.
Is the power.
Of Ranayama.
The art.
Of cultivating life energy.
Now with the body.
Relaxed.
The brain.
Slow down.
The breath.
Nice and deep and intentional.
Let's go into the.
.
.
Deep into the pool.
Which is the guided meditation practice today.
You have a very special topic.
Which we all deal with at some point in our lives.
Friendship.
Fractures.
How to heal betrayal.
In growing apart.
I invite you to gently Let your eyelids drift close.
The body.
Relaxed.
Settled exactly where?
It is.
That's no posture to perfect.
No need for adjustments.
Just use your breath.
To arrive.
There is a verse from the ancient Sufi poet Hafiz that has stayed with me for many,
Many years.
Ever since happiness heard your name.
It has been running through the streets,
Trying to find you.
Think about that for a moment.
Happiness.
Running through the streets.
Looking for you.
And yet,
Here you are.
Sitting with the wound.
That came not from an enemy.
Not from a stranger,
But from someone.
You loved.
Someone.
You're trusted.
Someone who once felt like home.
That's the great irony of friendship,
Isn't it?
The people closest to your heart are the ones really the only ones who can reach deep enough to break it.
So let us sit with that today.
Not to fix it.
Not to rush past it.
But to honor it.
Because anything that aches is much.
Was once something that mattered this much.
I want you to imagine right now that you are standing at the edge of a river.
It's early morning.
The light has not fully arrived.
There's a mist hovering over the water.
And the river is moving.
As rivers do.
Gently.
Moving forward without.
An apology.
And here you are standing on the bank and in your hands you are holding something.
It is not heavy,
But it feels heavy.
It is a bundle of memories.
Perhaps laughter.
Perhaps late night conversations.
Inside jokes no one else understood.
The feeling of being seen.
Fully seen by another human being.
And woven through all of that.
The moment it changed.
Maybe it was a single act.
A betrayal so sharp.
It split your world into two.
Or maybe it was slower than that.
They're drifting.
A silence that stretched too long.
Phone calls that stopped being returned.
A growing distance you could feel,
But could not name.
Whatever form it took.
It left a mark.
And here is what no one tells you about friendship wounds.
They are amongst the most invisible griefs we carry.
The world gives us rituals for romantic heartbreak.
Songs,
Movies,
Sympathy.
But when a friendship fractures.
You are often left standing alone.
Wondering why this ache has no name.
So let me give it a name right now.
It is sacred loss.
It is sacred because anything built on genuine love Even love that later fell apart was real.
It counted.
It shaped you.
Now still standing at the reverse edge,
I want you to do something quietly in the privacy of your own heart.
I want you to let yourself see that friend's face.
Not the version of them that hurt you.
Not the version you have rehearsed arguments with at two in the morning.
But the version you first loved.
The one that made you laugh until your sides ached.
The one who showed up when no one else did.
See that face.
And notice what happens in your chest.
There may be warmth.
There may be a sharp sting.
Or they may be both at the same time.
That's okay.
Love and grief have always been neighbors.
They share a wall.
When you knock on one door.
The other one often opens too.
Now I want you to ask yourself a question.
Not something that you need to answer right away.
But just to hold it.
Like a lantern.
In the dark.
The question is.
.
.
What if this fracture was not a failure.
What if this fracture was not a failure.
What if some friendships are not meant to last a lifetime?
But are meant to last exactly as long as they did.
What if the purpose was never permanence?
What is the purpose?
Was.
Transformation.
There's an ancient teaching.
That says.
.
.
We suffer not because people leave.
But because we cling to the version of reality where they were supposed to stay.
Let that land for a moment.
Now gently I want you to look down at the bundle of memories you've been holding on in your hands.
All of it.
The joy and the heartbreak.
The trust and the betrayal.
The closeness and the growing apart.
And I want you to notice something.
You may have missed.
Your hands.
Your hands are still open.
Even after everything.
Do not want to clench your fists.
It did not harden into stone.
You are here.
In a meditation.
Seeking to Heal.
That tells me something beautiful about you.
It tells me.
That your heart is still soft enough to feel.
And a heart that can still feel.
And definitely love again.
Now slowly.
Very gently.
I want you to kneel at the edge of the river.
Then I want you to place that bundle.
Into the water.
You do not have to throw it.
You don't have to be dramatic about it.
Just set it down on the surface.
And watch the river.
Receive it.
Watch it float.
Watch the current carried downstream.
You are not erasing the memories.
You are not pretending that nothing happened.
You are simply releasing your grip.
The pain.
And as it drifts away,
Say silently to yourself,
To that friend.
Wherever they are.
You were real.
We.
Were real.
And I release us both.
Now let us anchor this healing with three affirmations.
As I speak each one.
I want you to feel it directly in your heart.
I am not defined by who stayed or who left.
I am defined by the love that I am still willing to give.
Second.
I forgive not because of what happened.
And whether it was acceptable.
But because carrying this weight is no longer acceptable to my soul.
Third.
Every friendship that has touched my life,
Even the one that ended in silence,
Has carved me into who I am becoming.
Now as we.
.
.
Bring this practice to a close.
I want to leave you with a question.
Something to carry with you this week.
Like a companion.
Walking beside you.
The question is.
.
.
If the truest friendships are the ones that teach you the most about yourself.
Has this fracture been trying to teach you?
Sit with that.
There is no hurry.
The river is still flowing.
The mist is beginning to lift.
And You.
Are still here.
Whole,
Breathing.
Beautifully.
Stubbornly alive.
I want you to please bring your palms together.
To your heart center.
In a posture of gratitude and gently tuck your chin towards the heart space.
And I want you to rub your palms against each other.
The palms are an energy vortex.
And as you rub them against each other,
They activate the chi or the prana,
The life energy.
And when you feel a nice warm ball of fire.
.
.
Energy welder between your palms.
I want you to cup your eyes one with each palm and bless yourself.
I am truly blessed.
I am lucky.
I'm fortunate.
I attract wonderful people into my life.
Attract great opportunities.
Amazing ideas.
And attract love.
And attract wealth.
I'm guided by love.
I give everywhere I go,
Even if it is only a smile.
My abundance overflows to those around me.
I love my life.
I am the M in magic.
I am unstoppable.
I attract wealth into my life at the intersection of light and darkness.
And matter.
I attract wealth into my life as life-giving life and life-sustaining life.
I attract wealth into my life as a manifestation of truth,
Goodness and beauty in this world.
Now bring your palms back together at your heart center.
Let's see this practice.
Home.
Shanti.
Shanti.
Thank you for your courage to join me in this practice today,
Because healing a friendship wound in silence with no audience,
No applause,
Just you and your tender heart.
It's one of the bravest things you can do as a human being.
I want you to carry that with you.
Namaste.
