Opening the Heart practice.
In this practice I will be guiding us into a deeper connection with the heart,
The quality of the heart.
Part of opening the heart and coming into loving,
Kindly connection with ourselves is taking care of ourselves.
We don't have to have an expectation about this meditation.
We can trust our practice,
Trust our heart.
Let's begin by allowing ourselves to settle in and to settle down,
Arriving here in the practice.
There's no need to do anything right now,
Just allowing ourselves to be here,
Connecting with the body and the breath,
The breathing body,
Sensing the whole body breathing.
We can take care of ourselves by drawing on the support we get from the earth,
Allowing ourselves to be resourced by the earth,
By its presence,
Solidity.
Really letting ourselves feel this solid foundation.
We can really care for ourselves by relaxing into the earth.
And we can always come back to the solid foundation.
We can care for ourselves by letting our posture be open,
Upright and as balanced as possible.
We can care for our body by giving it our full attention with as much kindness,
Openness and curiosity as we can manage.
Whatever feelings,
Sensations might be here right now for us,
Can we bring kindly,
Open,
Curious and non-judgmental awareness to whatever is here?
Maybe there are painful,
Unpleasant sensations or feelings present just now,
Or pleasant and joyful sensations.
Or perhaps the felt sense of our experience feels more neutral.
And now beginning to bring awareness to our heart center,
To the deep core place at the center of our chest,
The center of our being.
Tuning into that deep place that isn't the physical place.
When we say my heart went out to them,
There's a sense of an area or location in the heart center that is ignited,
Alive and radiating out,
Bringing our awareness here.
Being a kind,
Receptive listener to our heart with no expectation.
How's our heart feeling now?
What's the quality of the heart?
Light-hearted,
Heavy-hearted,
Closed-hearted,
Open-hearted?
Just being with whatever we find,
Breathing with whatever is here right now.
And if we don't know,
Can't feel,
As though our heart was closed for repairs,
Just keep your awareness in that area,
In that space and feel what's here with a kind,
Caring attitude,
The very attitude we would bring to a loved one,
A friend or colleague who's struggling.
Patient,
Receptive,
Responsive,
Sensitive,
With no expectations,
Just listening to the heart.
When there's kindly,
Open,
Patient,
Receptive awareness,
That's our heart listening.
And now let's widen out our kindly,
Loving,
Open awareness if it feels right.
We can call to mind,
Call to heart,
One or two people in our life,
Friends,
Colleagues,
Or people we don't know so well,
But feel a connection with.
And we just send well-wishing to those people with their open or closed heart,
Heavy heart,
Light heart.
It helps to have a sense of well-wishing as warmth,
Maybe as golden light,
Whatever works for you.
These are other human beings different from us in some ways,
But who also have these wonderful and sometimes quite delicate hearts that open and close to life depending on what's happening for them in their life.
And always there's the longing somewhere,
The longing to open,
To love,
To care,
To respond,
To be alive,
To be connected to self,
Others,
And to all life.
And now relaxing,
Releasing any effort we have been making.
Sitting in awareness of the whole body,
Breathing,
Sensing the connection with the earth beneath us,
The sky above,
Other people around us,
And the world around us.
You you you
