Allow yourself to close your eyes,
Soften your gaze,
Begin to take a few deep breaths as you settle into your being,
Settle into the seat that you're on.
Letting your muscles let go of tension,
Allowing your attention to rest on the simple,
Easy inhale and exhale.
From this open state of awareness,
Is it possible to notice all the different roles that we play in our day to day life?
The friend,
The partner,
The mother,
Father,
Child,
The caretaker,
The victim,
The expert,
The novice.
Noticing the way each role we play comes with advantages and also comes with limitations.
These separate selves can help efficiency,
Productivity,
Yet they also lead to disintegration,
To exhaustion,
Switching between roles.
And we are subject to the limiting beliefs of not being good enough or having to be good enough that have been developed over years of fulfilling each role we play.
What is consistent about you even in these different roles?
What remains steady?
What is indicative of your wholeness?
When you feel the awareness that holds all these different identities,
The awareness of going into each role,
The awareness when you're not constricted by one particular role.
What are the qualities of this awareness?
The awareness that sees you through all those different roles and identities must be open,
Loving and free.
Can we step back and exist in that awareness instead of each particular role?
Perhaps not all the time,
But every so often,
Can we recenter on that awareness,
On that loving open space,
Even when we're interacting with other people,
Even when we're at work or at home or completing necessary tasks of our day.
There's a poem I love to reflect on.
It's called Be Empty,
Yet full of love by Cecilia Kinsey.
Be the love you can't see,
Touch,
Taste,
Feel or smell,
But it is everywhere.
Be effortless and free,
Like a gentle breeze discriminating against no one or no thing.
Be the air in which all life is sustained,
Available to everyone all the time.
Be the space to let others fall into your wide and open,
Endless heart.
Be the pure light of awareness that embraces everything,
Like warm sunlight emanating from the embers of your glowing heart.
Be the formless unknown which surprises and delights.
Be the stillness in the eye of the storm.
Be the silence which expresses everything.
Be empty,
Yet full of love.
Realizing the softening of our body,
The opening of our heart as we step into that awareness of who we are beyond the different identities pulling at us.
This capacity to exist in this space allows us to feel more free,
Allows us to let go and allows us to just be.
Taking a few more deep breaths in and out,
Moving your body slightly as you come back to this room,
As you come back to this moment and when you're ready,
Opening up your eyes.
Namaste.
