Today's meditation is building on our loving kindness meditation,
But this time using a nature inspiration.
So go and get yourself somewhere comfortable and we'll begin.
So some of you might be familiar with the love and kindness meditations that we use,
Where we start by thinking about ourselves and then bringing to mind people in our lives that we love or who love us,
Or we are connected to in some way.
So using a natural inspiration of a constellation of stars,
We will use this to guide us in a similar way of connection to others.
So let's start by getting ourselves very comfortable wherever we might be and just taking a moment to place the feet firmly on the ground,
Drawing up through the spine,
Finding our seat,
Giving the shoulders a little roll around,
Taking a moment of stretch for the neck and then closing the eyes or softening the gaze and taking the hands down onto the lap or to the knees.
And just allowing these first few moments for our body and our mind to settle and to arrive here,
Giving ourself permission to stop.
And just trying to feel the full benefits of our practice both in our physical body,
But also in our emotional and mental well-being too.
Just allow the body to sit a little heavier in this space and start to lengthen your breath,
Taking a few moments to really feel the nourishment of your breath as you breathe in and that release of any tension that you're holding onto as we breathe out.
And let's take three deep breaths together,
Breathing in through the nose and breathing out through your mouth.
Really taking time to breathe deeply and mindfully.
And then we close the mouth and start to breathe in and out through the nose.
And this is our yuzhai breath,
Very simple,
Calming,
Pure breath,
Cleansing the body and the mind.
Take a few more moments just to settle.
So I'd like you to picture in your mind's eye a star,
A star in a dark night sky.
And that star is your star.
Allow it to flicker and glow and shine brightly.
Try and feel a connection with this star.
As we know,
The night sky is filled with stars,
Some of which are linked and connected through constellations and others seemingly shine alone.
So over to your right hand side,
I'd like you to have another star which has appeared in the sky.
And this star belongs to someone that you love.
And draw a line from your star to their star in connection.
And allow the light,
The love,
The energy to transfer from your star to their star on your right hand side,
Someone that you love.
And now over to your left hand side,
Allow another star to appear and this star belongs to someone who loves or has loved you.
So give this star to that person that's come to mind and allow a line to form between their star and your star.
Allowing a flow of light,
Love,
Connection to go between those two stars.
Now over on the top right hand corner,
Allow a star to appear to represent someone in a professional sense,
Someone in your life,
Perhaps someone you work with or work for,
Work alongside,
Or is just there in a professional sense in your life.
And allow a line of connection to be drawn between their star and your star.
And on your top left hand side,
I'd like you to create a star which is someone that you do not know well,
Perhaps you do not even know their name,
But you see them around and they've just come into your mind now.
And allow a line of light and connection to be drawn between their star and your star.
And just for the next few moments allow any other stars to pop up and appear and allow lines of connection to come back to you and perhaps any of the other stars will be connected to.
Just take a few moments here to breathe and to see these stars shining bright in the night sky,
All belonging to people you know or know of,
Connected through light,
Love,
Time and space.
So take some deep breaths and consider the constellations in your life,
Connections to others,
All coming back to your star shining bright.
Look how much brighter your sky is with these other people in your life.
Slowly one by one allow each star in turn to fade.
Until eventually you're just left with your own star shining bright.
And take some nice long deep breaths watching how your star flickers and shines in the sky.
Let's take three deep breaths together breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth.
And then slowly allowing the breath to return to a comfortable rhythm and flow.
Begin to make any tiny movements and then bringing the hands together when you choose to give the hands a little rub before hovering the hands over your eyes and blinking your eyes open inside your hands and bringing your hands down away from your face and I'm here.
And I hope you enjoyed that little twist on the love and kindness meditation using a constellation of stars for inspiration.
Shine bright and I will see you again very soon.
Bye for now.
