Hello and welcome.
My name is Lou Redman and I thank you for practicing with me today.
This meditation is inspired by a friend and soulful musician,
Aaron Wolf.
I was watching on his Instagram him going around to people and getting their attention and then just telling them,
Hey,
Have a great day.
God bless you.
And giving them a big smile.
And he would go around to all these people doing this on video and it was so amazing to see these people's faces just light up.
And you can just tell that they were pleasantly surprised and it probably made their day.
And I just love this because I love the ripple effect that this can cause when you go out to people and you make their day like this.
Maybe they go home and they have a positive impact on their family and whatever it might be.
There's this connection that we make.
So I did this after I saw it as well.
I went out the next morning and the first person I saw,
I said,
Hey,
Have a great day,
Sir.
God bless you.
And sure enough,
His face lit up and it was a beautiful connection.
And I understand that we don't have to get down on ourselves if we don't always do this.
I live in New Jersey where we're just walking around with our heads down and I'm guilty of that just as much as anyone.
But we're all craving connection and we're craving someone to go first.
So by doing this,
It gives us that opportunity to go first.
And if you're looking for some sort of mood enhancer,
This definitely is it.
And so we'll try to embody this practice within our own meditation practice this morning.
And I just want to note before we get into it that I'll be offering both God bless you and may you be blessed.
So using which phrase feels true for you or maybe using both if they feel good for you.
And so go ahead and close down the eyes,
Allow your body to settle and finding a few rounds of your own breath,
Feeling that gentle expansion of your body as the breath moves in and allowing yourself to root and to be held by the ground as your breath moves out.
We're going to ground today with a very centering and presencing word.
And that is the word one.
And so I invite you to bring your awareness to the center of your forehead,
The space in between your eyebrows.
And we're going to repeat the word one,
Holding the awareness that we may only get this one day and we only get this one moment.
Centering here,
Repeat that word silently like a mantra.
One,
One,
One.
And then letting go of the word.
And since this is a meditation about spreading joy,
Allowing a soft smile to come to your lips and just noticing if that small gesture changes any of the energy or your awareness in your body.
And then let's take a breath in together and breath out.
We're first going to see if we can wish ourselves well for this day.
Because if you can really embody this gesture for ourselves,
We have more energy and more light and love to give to others.
So I'd like you to imagine that you are standing in your bathroom and you're looking at your mirror,
Or maybe it's a mirror in your bedroom if that's more appropriate for you.
So imagining that you're looking at yourself in the mirror and first just connecting and noticing what does it feel like to look at yourself?
How often do we slow down and do this?
And then as you look right in your eyes,
I'd like you to smile to yourself and say,
Have a great day.
May God bless you.
Or have a great day.
May you be blessed.
Have a great day.
May God bless you.
Have a great day.
May you be blessed.
And then picking which one of those feels right for you,
Smiling at yourself and giving the energy that feels appropriate.
Really have a great day.
May God bless you.
Sending that love to yourself.
And then thank yourself for these warm thoughts and intentions,
Just as you would a stranger who did this for you on the street.
And letting that go,
And I'd like you to now imagine someone that you care about in your life.
A friend,
A family member,
A loved one.
Imagining that you were with them right now,
Seeing their face.
Maybe you see yourself in a room with them.
And bring back that joyful smile that you'd like to share with them.
And then look them in the eye and say,
Have a great day.
May God bless you.
Have a great day.
May you be blessed.
And then again,
Picking whichever one feels good for you,
Wishing your friend or your loved one an amazing day,
Sending them those well wishes.
And then letting that go.
And lastly,
I'd like you to see yourself out in the world.
Maybe it's today.
Maybe it'll be on a walk this weekend.
See yourself walking and notice a stranger that's walking by.
Maybe they have their head down.
Maybe they're walking a dog.
I'd like you to imagine that you're getting their attention.
And look them in the eyes,
Give them a smile,
And tell them,
Have a great day.
May God bless you.
Have a great day.
May you be blessed.
And maybe you go,
Have a freaking awesome day,
Ma'am or miss.
May God bless you.
Bringing whatever energy to this you want to imagine,
Sending that to this person,
Seeing their face just light up as you do this and spread that positivity and spread those kind wishes with them.
And as you do,
Maybe you see yourself continuing to walk and doing this to more people,
Spreading that joy,
Spreading that smile,
Creating that ripple effect in this world.
And then slowly starting to come back into your body,
Letting go of image,
Letting go of whatever you were working with.
And when you feel complete,
Go ahead and open your eyes.
If you'd like to really embody this,
There's a few ways.
I'd encourage you to first,
Maybe you do walk into your bathroom when you look yourself in the mirror and notice what it feels like to actually do this in person and just really work to embody that in that way.
And then of course,
If you are seeing people outside today,
Please,
I encourage you to try this with just one and see the difference it makes their day,
See the difference it makes in the way that you feel.
Also,
I might encourage you to get on your phone if you're not going outside and text someone,
Text a friend,
Text someone you haven't talked to in a while,
Say,
Thinking of you,
Have a great day,
Bless you,
Whatever it is that feels true for you.
Just again,
Spreading a little bit of that ripple effect that I promise goes far beyond what we can see.
So wishing you so much love and wishing you a great day.
May you be blessed and Namaste.
