Radical Self-Love

Lou shares a guided visualization practice from a live workshop he and his beloved gave on Radical Self-Love. Lou will start off by offering context to the meditation before you are guided by Lou & Kelly through a series of heart opening practices. Expect to be moved and have a heart full of love.

Note: This is a live recording.

Transcript

I need to give a little context to this practice before we get into it.

I shared on Insight Timer a while ago a practice called Manifest Intentions which was the first meditation workshop that I ever hosted and the first time that I had a group of people that I guided through a meditation.

This is another live recording from a future workshop and I want to note how I started teaching meditation.

I didn't go get a certification or something that would allow me technically to do it.

I actually started a meetup group and I had people come and I guided them through meditation and I started doing that and more people kept coming and people kept coming back and that's really how I grew as a teacher in the beginning of my teaching.

So this workshop is from one of those events.

This was I believe September 2017 when this was recorded and when this was given and there's a few things I need to note here is that I'm actually not the only one in this workshop that is guiding the meditation.

I would sometimes host this with my girlfriend,

My future wife,

My fiance and we do this work together and she's a yoga teacher.

We actually run retreats together so it's beautiful to be in a relationship with a significant other that is into these sorts of things and teaching these sorts of things to others.

So we did this workshop together on radical self-love and the workshop,

This is just the meditation portion so you don't actually hear the talk that we discuss so just be clear that there will be a voice change.

It starts with me,

It will go to Kelly and then it will come back to me and I will finish the guided practice.

One other thing to note is that there is music in this,

However it was picked up on a lavalier mic so it's not going to be very high so you will hear this background music so it might not be the full experience of if you were being there and you might feel like well I wish it was louder and I totally understand that so know that this recording is live,

It's not perfect,

I know it's a longer practice,

It's going to be longer after this introduction but I do,

Especially if you have practiced with me a lot on Insight Timer,

I think you may appreciate this and it's a little different than my normal week to week practices so with that we'll just go into the practice.

Actually I lied,

Before we get into the practice I want to make a note that if you want to do something,

My suggestion,

My advice is to just make it real as fast as possible so whatever real means to you,

Maybe that is going and doing a training that makes it real definitely,

Maybe it is having people,

Inviting them over and leading them through meditation if you want to teach these sorts of things or whatever your spirit is calling you to do,

Make it real as fast as possible and then that will be your greatest learning and that will lead you to the next step.

Alright,

For real this time,

Let's get into the practice.

Start to find your comfortable meditation space,

Sitting in a chair,

Feeling,

Start to bring awareness into your chair,

Feeling your sit bones,

Touching either the plastic,

The cushion,

The metal,

Wherever you find yourself here tonight,

If your eyes aren't closed bring them to a soft gaze and begin to bring a deep breath in,

Feeling your stomach expand,

Feeling the breath move up through the ribs,

Through the chest and just allowing it to fall out of the mouth,

Getting to come aware of your feet on the ground,

Aware of where your shoulders are on your back,

See if you can feel with each inhale any tension in your shoulders,

Come up and then with each exhale just allow your shoulders to melt down the back,

Falling a little more rooted,

A little more grounded in your chair tonight,

Starting to set the intention that just by taking these few breaths,

Just by showing up here tonight,

You are making an act of self love.

So begin by simply acknowledging yourself,

Doesn't have to be this big love,

It just could be,

Hey you're here,

Good job,

This is a good place to be.

As we move through tonight's meditation,

If you're newer to sitting meditation and you feel like your mind begins to wander,

Begins to either maybe think about tomorrow or worry or think about what you're going to eat after this,

This time if you can simply acknowledge it silently in your head,

Maybe say thinking,

Thinking,

Planning,

Fantasizing,

Whatever thought that might come from,

Wherever thoughts come from,

The goal in meditation is not to release all of our thoughts,

It's simply to become aware that we are having the thought and the practice is coming back,

Could be coming back to what we're saying,

Could be just coming back to your breath and today maybe we have the intention to come back to your heart,

Back to your root,

Feeling that root in the depths,

The center of your chest and almost as if there's a weight that continues to pull your torso down to the chair as we take our root,

As we find our center and as we make the journey to remember the love that we all know we are.

Take a few breaths,

Just notice any emotions that are coming up in your body,

Notice the silence in the room,

Working to find the silence in our hearts.

Taking a deep breath in here,

Going a little journey together,

I want you to imagine that you're walking down the street,

You're walking down a street in a neighborhood,

This lush neighborhood,

The streets are lined with oak trees,

Beautiful big houses lining either side of the street,

You walk along the sidewalk gazing into the empty homes amazed at their beauty,

The trees have a touch of fall colors peeking through their leaves,

The smell of fall is lingering in the air,

As you walk further down the road you see a blue house,

You recognize it but you're not sure why,

As if something from a memory that you can't remember,

You walk closer and closer until you're standing directly in front of it,

It's a charming house,

White shutters,

A chimney,

Flower beds surrounding the walkway to the front door,

The tire swing hangs from the tree on the front lawn,

You're filled with a strong sense that you need to go inside,

Your curiosity fuels you as you decide to explore,

You walk along the path to the front door stepping on the stones leading to the doorway,

Grasp the handle and you push the door open,

Walking inside you start to look around and you're taken by surprise,

The house is empty,

There's furniture but no one's around,

You see photos along the walls lined across the fireplace and as you look closer you realize that these photos are images of you,

These images not just photos but memories,

Moments that are playing from your life,

Everything that has gotten you to this place,

To this moment right now in your life,

You see it all,

From when you were little,

As you grew up,

The path that you serve to this day,

You're warmed and soothed by these moments and as you wander the first floor you decide to explore the second story,

You make your way up the creaky warm stairs,

You make your way to the landing and you see a room,

The door is closed but you have a pull,

You have this intuitive sense that you need to go inside,

You walk to the door,

Grasp the handle and push it open,

Stepping inside you peek as the door opens and so you're surprised there's a person sitting in the middle of the room,

You call out to say hello and as they hear you they turn to gaze at you and you realize that it's you,

You're taken aback at first,

A little confused,

Unsure of what to make of this as you stare at yourself not saying anything,

Your eyes adjust to the environment and you notice that the walls of the room around you are actually chalkboards,

You take a closer look and written all over these boards are the hateful,

Hurtful,

Self-limiting beliefs,

Comments,

Words that you've said to yourself,

Anything that has been the opposite of love,

Anything that you have said to put yourself down and make you feel as if you were not enough,

What does it say,

What words have you used,

You then realize that the you that you found is the version of yourself that has been reciting them to you,

Your inner bully has been found,

You stand silently in the center of the room with your other self,

You grasp their hands and look into their eyes,

You see your beauty,

You're looking at yourself and you tell them I love you,

You are beautiful,

You deserve everything in this world,

You do not need to look a certain way to be happy,

You have greatness inside of you,

You must not hide in this room any longer,

You are enough,

You are free,

We are free,

You embrace yourself hugging them so tightly knowing that you're ready to say goodbye to this version of who you were,

You reach for their hand and you guide them over to the first chalkboard,

You both reach for an eraser and you begin to wipe away the words,

The thoughts,

The energy that has placed you in this room,

This dark room,

You both walk together not needing to speak a word,

Wiping the boards clean,

When the walls are cleared you make your way back to the center,

You grasp both hands,

You look again into your own eyes,

You embrace them one last time and then begin to walk towards the doorway,

Just before stepping out you turn around and you look back at yourself,

This version that you left in the room and you whisper thank you but it's time to continue on without you,

Your other self nods and understands,

As you walk for the room you turn off the light and you close the door,

You make your way down the stairs back to the first floor and you notice that the pictures have changed,

The photos when you saw when you first arrived are no longer those moments that led you to this point but they have become your future,

You see the images of how successful and confident you are,

You realize that you've been capable of this the entire time,

That everything that you've ever wanted is in these photos,

Who are you with,

Where are you,

What are you doing,

As you watch these moments you're filled with love,

You're filled with confidence,

You take this feeling and you walk from that door back out onto the sidewalk,

Back to the street,

Keeping this sense of love,

Confidence and pure acceptance of who you are,

I want you to come back into this room,

Carry this feeling with you.

Keep your eyes closed,

Although we're back in this room,

We're still in our hearts,

We're feeling closer to our root,

We're going to bring a little lightness to our body,

A lightness to our hearts and our face,

Everyone just imagine like on your forehead that there's a smile,

Just right in the middle of your forehead is just a smile,

Just allow that to soften,

Lighten,

Moving down into your eyes,

What does it feel like to bring a smile to your eyes?

Moving down into your mouth,

Maybe you give a little smile,

Just simply lightening up,

Remembering,

Coming back from our journey and finding our root,

Finding the root of who we are.

Keep bringing the smile down your body,

Just sending as an act of love,

A smile holds with it compassion,

A smile holds with it,

Beautiful energy,

Just allow that smile to drip through your body,

Maybe giving a little attention in the places that need it most,

Continuing to find and to remember your roots.

Beginning to feel connected not only to yourself,

But feeling connected to everyone else that is in this room,

Feeling this beautiful energy that we're creating with our intentions,

Feeling this smile come out from your heart and just start to radiate out of your body.

To quote Rumi again,

Beyond the ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field,

I'll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass,

The world is too full to talk about,

Ideas,

Language,

Even the phrase each other doesn't make any sense.

Let's all take ourselves to this field.

I'd like everyone to open up their hands in a receiving gesture and feel all of your acceptance,

All of your forgiveness,

All of your love start to generate this beautiful healing green light that is starting to fill both of your hands,

Feeling this beautiful ball of energy,

Of beautiful green electric,

It just continues to your hands,

You can feel it opening and just breathe from your heart to your hands and just finding we're remembering our roots,

Feeling our connection with everyone in this room.

We can even,

If we look outside of ourselves right now,

We see everyone that's,

Everyone is holding these beautiful balls of blue light in their hands,

It just looks incredible.

And we're feeling,

We're all going on this journey together to really where we came from,

The truth of who we are.

And the fuel for this journey,

I'd like you to continue,

Feel the intention that you're bringing the light into your hands is this radical self-love.

It's not just regular self-love,

It's the roots of who you are,

Continue to breathe in that energy into your hands.

Whenever the energy feels ready,

I'd like you to give yourself the biggest hug,

Pouring it on top of your heart,

Pouring the hands come on top of your heart and then that's going to give us the energy to lift up and out of this room again into this beautiful field.

Feeling our connection to not only everyone in this room,

But we can look back and look down and look around and just feel the connection to everything that we see.

Thoughts and memories of loved ones,

Of friends start to pop in our minds and we just,

We don't even understand it,

We just feel this compassion,

We just feel this connection,

We just feel this understanding that we remember and they remember.

And it's just this beautiful,

Loving energy that we are all sharing that is coming out from all of us.

Feel free to keep your hands where they are or you can rest them down if you feel ready.

But just allow yourself to take in this connectedness in this field that Rumi so beautifully spoke about beyond our comprehension,

Beyond our ideas of right and wrong,

Into the field of radical and truthful and all knowing and all encompassing love.

Let the energy around you just nourish every pore of your body.

It's like we're floating in a cloud of just beautiful,

Healing,

Loving energy.

And if there's anything else that might be coming up where it's saying that you might be still blocked here or something still wants to show its little head,

Maybe it will come not tonight in our field but maybe it's tomorrow,

Maybe it's next week.

So use this moment in this connectedness and just focus on one word and that word is surrender.

Surrender to the truth of who you are.

When you don't know what to do,

Just surrender.

Because that's all you have to do is be.

Your worth,

Your value does not depend on anything that is not inside of you at this moment.

So just surrender.

Surrender to the truth.

Painting.

Just allow yourself to just be.

When the meditation is over,

You will hear the sound of a bell.

Reviews

Idk what it was about your fiancés voice that evoked something so significant in me. When I visualized holding her hand, I just started crying. It felt so safe and gentle. Her words around the chalkboard fit perfectly to what I need to hear. Thank you for this offering.

This is the second time that I’ve done this meditation, and both times, it has been soul-level healing. Even goes back to my ancestors (both times). Thank you thank you 🙏 💕❤️‍🩹❤️

Absolutely amazing experience thank
love you thank thank you

That took me to memories and feelings I haven't felt for a long time, feels like this totally helps me with getting my dreams of change come true

Stunning and great visualisations . Many thanks

The version of myself who I met in the blue house has been waiting for me for a long time , great to be united . Very powerful visualisation, makes me feel more as a whole ♥️.
Thank you !

Thanks very much for sharing this practice:)

It lifted my spirit and left me feeling much loved and more confident. Thank you!

Wow that was an amazing experience. Thank you kindly, namaste ❤🙏

This was exactly what I was looking for....the release of tension that I felt was amazing.

Absolutely amazing. Life changing. Thank you so much.

That’s was wonderful. I woke up feeling down, disconnected and anxious. After this I feel connected with a sense of confidence and optimism for the day ahead. Thank you!

Really enjoyed this visualisation thank you so nuch. Its just what I needed

This is the most powerful guided meditation I have done in a long time. Extremely emotional and healing. Thank you, thank you. Lots of love

Emotional for me. Thank you, I believe I needed that.

Sooo healing and heart opening. ❤️ really incredible and powerful wow. I was crying, a lot of sadness moving within me. And a feeling of unconditional love 🙏 thank you dearly.