Good morning everybody.
Welcome to morning meditation.
I hope everybody slept well,
Had a good night,
And is just ready to get the day started and meditate and start things out on a positive note.
So yesterday was one of my classes with Krishna Das who I just really love.
He works really hard at spreading love and understanding that love emanates from within,
Blah blah blah,
All of that stuff.
He is so amazing.
Yesterday he said something and I was so struck.
I thought,
Oh my gosh,
I got to share this with all you guys.
It's like you know this.
This is all stuff that you just know,
But when it comes in,
It gets called into your awareness and your attention.
A light bulb sometimes goes off.
Basically what he said was that we are all connected.
He was like,
You know,
We're all connected in some way or another.
He didn't say it like this because he spoke much more eloquently than I am right now,
But basically what he was talking about was that what would it be like if we just accepted each other,
Warts and all.
We all are connected to each other in the way that like,
If you remember the movie It's a Wonderful Life where the angels showed Jimmy Stewart's character,
Who I can't think of right now,
George Bailey,
What life would be like if he hadn't been in it.
So all these things happened in George Bailey's life and he didn't think he made a difference,
But he actually did.
We all are so connected with each other.
Like,
You know,
Certain children weren't born.
His children weren't born.
You know,
I mean things happened or didn't happen.
So what if we walked around today,
What if we walked around today just accepting every single other person for their faults,
For their gifts,
For everything.
I mean in a sense it's kind of like non-judgment,
You know,
For a day,
But it's it's not.
It's even more than that.
It's the idea that we are all connected on this earth.
The guy in front of you in line getting coffee,
We're all connected.
And I just love that thought.
You know,
One,
Think of it this way too,
One small act of kindness.
It can have such a lasting effect.
One small act of kindness.
Maybe that's what we were supposed to do that day and this is a little deep for the morning,
But you know,
You know,
What if,
You know,
We were supposed to run into somebody and tell them how good they looked and they were actually getting ready to have a job interview and they weren't feeling so good about themselves but because you complimented them they kicked butt on the job interview.
I mean it's just an example obviously,
But you know,
What if everything you did affected everybody else that you ran into that day?
Wow,
That is big.
I get that.
So what I that's what I wanted to talk about today and just kind of bring to our attention that maybe just for one day,
Just for today,
Whenever you look at somebody on the street or if you look at somebody on Zoom or you see somebody in the car that's driving crazy,
Just look at them with love instead of and accepting them instead of calling them out or causing,
You know,
An issue,
You know,
With them.
So I don't know,
I love that and what goes with that for me is and this is one of the things that that Krishna Das was talking about,
You know,
Love emanates from within obviously and if we can sort of clean the mirror of our heart and of our soul then it becomes we emanate that from from ourselves.
We emanate that from ourselves.
So today,
I loved when he said that yesterday,
He said,
Cleaning the mirror of your soul,
Of your heart,
Can change the world,
My world and your world.
I love that,
Right?
So today we are going to meditate on peace and I'm so excited about that.
So let's get ourselves comfortable.
I'm getting old.
If you hear creaks,
Those are my bones.
So let's get ourselves comfortable and let our eyes gently flow closed.
Let's take a beautiful,
Really long,
Slow,
Peaceful breath in allowing all the air to go to every single cell in your body.
So let's breathe in really slow.
You can feel the air going into your lungs and breathe out.
Perfect.
And just doing that can really help you relax your body.
Let's do another long,
Deep breath in.
Go really slow and go really deep and release.
Perfect.
So for today,
Let's relax our bodies,
Get our bodies in a state of peace and relaxation,
Starting with our head and starting with our head and our neck.
Relax our bodies,
Relax our neck and our shoulders.
When I say relaxing,
It's really just placing attention on them.
Your arms,
Your hands,
Your chest,
And your abdomen,
And your legs,
Your hips,
And thighs,
All the way down to your feet and toes.
And as we get relaxed,
We're relaxing our bodies,
Let's consider our gratitude for today.
What are you grateful for today?
What are three things that you are absolutely grateful for today?
Could it be the beautiful sleep that you had last night?
Or that your car is running well?
What are you grateful for?
And our mantra for the day is shanti.
Shanti is one of my favorite mantras.
It means peace.
And as I say it while you're meditating,
Say it together.
You can do it in like a sing-songy way.
You can do it out loud,
You can do it in your brain,
In your mind.
Shanti,
Shanti,
Shanti,
Shanti,
Shanti,
Shanti.
As we begin our meditation,
If you find yourself wandering,
Know that that's okay.
Just bring yourself back to shanti.
I will keep the time and we can begin.
Shanti,
Shanti,
Shanti.
Shanti,
Shanti,
Shanti,
Shanti.
Shanti,
Shanti,
Shanti,
Shanti.
Shanti,
Shanti,
Shanti,
Shanti.
Shanti,
Shanti,
Shanti,
Shanti.
Shanti,
Shanti,
Shanti,
Shanti.
Shanti,
Shanti,
Shanti,
Shanti.
Shanti,
Shanti,
Shanti,
Shanti.
Shanti,
Shanti,
Shanti,
Shanti.
Shanti,
Shanti,
Shanti,
Shanti.
Shanti,
Shanti,
Shanti,
Shanti.
Shanti,
Shanti,
Shanti,
Shanti.
Shanti,
Shanti,
Shanti.
Let's start bringing our awareness back to our bodies.
Start bringing yourself back to the room where you're sitting.
And always know that you can take this peace with you wherever you go throughout the day.
You can sing shanti with you to yourself throughout the day,
Just as a reminder that peace is available in our hearts anytime we choose for it to be.
Let's take a nice long slow deep breath in.
And hold it and release.
Beautiful.
Whenever you feel comfortable you can open your eyes.
Thank you so much for joining me today on this peaceful meditation day.
It's so amazing that the idea that we do all affect each other on a daily basis,
On a minute by minute basis.
So take that with you today and enjoy the rest of your day.
Namaste everybody.
Thank you for joining me and have a great day.
Bye bye.
