This is an open-hearted cave of the heart practice.
It's one of my favorites from my meditation teacher.
And it's a subtle body practice.
It's a heart chakra practice.
It will take a couple of minutes as we're getting started to notice your body,
Notice your breath and energy,
Thoughts in your mind,
Before we go into the heart center because almost always what prevents us from really deeply relaxing.
Is there some kind of nervous system response in the body,
In the mind?
All of those patterns that we bring in of fear and anxiety and stress.
And then we we tune in and we notice,
Oh my shoulders are a little bit up around my ears or I'm clenching my teeth.
Maybe I'm feeling disconnected from myself.
That's so common.
We get busy and we get really engaged with the thoughts in our mind and we get out of sync with what's going on in our hearts and in our bodies.
And notice what's happening in your body,
Head to toes,
Toes to head.
Just a slow scan down through your body from the top of your head or your face,
Your mouth and jaw,
Neck and shoulders,
Arms,
Your chest,
Your back,
Your legs,
Your feet,
And end up at your belly.
And often we hold our breath when we're stressed and we have a habit of that.
So just as we're getting into the beginning of the practice,
You might notice that your breath is already starting to soften.
And just to exhale and let your belly soften is a powerful practice to downregulate your nervous system.
And as we exhale,
Let a kind of a sighing release happen.
And notice the condition of your heart emotionally right now.
Are you feeling open-hearted?
Are you feeling distressed,
Broken-hearted,
Joyous?
There's so many emotions that we feel in our heart.
Bringing your attention into the location of your heart center in the middle of your chest.
And if you were to bring to mind somebody that you love,
Bring them into your heart center,
Bring them to mind.
Depending on the complexity of the relationship with them right now,
We might feel a softening or a grief.
And so as you're just tuning into your heart center,
The emotional felt sense in your heart center,
Notice what's here.
Notice the thoughts in your mind as well.
And as we begin the practice,
We're moving to a different level or a different layer than the physical body,
The breath,
The emotional layer.
We're moving into a deeper layer than that.
So as much as possible,
Let go of the thoughts in the mind,
The emotions that are here.
Even let go of the physical sensations in the body.
We're going to work with aligning a flow of awareness with the breath to start.
So be aware of your breath.
And as you're exhaling,
Let your whole body soften.
See if you can be aware of the continuity of the breath and ease in your breath.
And then let go of the physical quality of the breath and bring your attention in.
Working with the subtle body,
The energy body with this practice.
Bring your awareness to your eyebrow center,
Just behind your forehead above your eyebrows.
If you were to say your name silently to yourself,
It's right in that region there.
And be aware of your breath.
Imagine that you're breathing out and in through your eyebrow center.
And let all of your concentration,
Your focus,
Be on your eyebrow center.
No thoughts,
Just the awareness,
That location and awareness of your breath.
And then on an exhalation,
Let your awareness flow down now to your throat center.
And let it rest there for a moment.
And then inhale up to your eyebrow center,
Exhale down to your throat center a few times.
Just allowing your awareness to flow with your breath.
Bringing your mind in,
Letting go of all other times,
All other places.
We're just focusing on this simple flow of breath and awareness.
Eyebrow center to the throat center and now to the heart center.
Inhale from the heart center through the throat center to the eyebrow center,
Exhale back through to the heart center and let your awareness flow for a few moments.
Smooth,
Easy,
Continuous flow of breath and awareness between the eyebrow center,
The throat center to the heart center and back.
And then let your awareness come to rest in the heart center.
Just that physical location in your body,
But not really attuning to the body,
We're attuning to the space,
The space of your heart center.
And let go of your breath awareness,
Just rest your attention in your heart center.
Some people do well with visualizations,
Some people it's a bit of a struggle.
So don't struggle.
If it doesn't come naturally,
Don't worry about it,
Just keep your attention located in your heart center,
In that space that your heart center is in.
And if you are a visual person,
You can imagine that you're entering the cave of your heart.
And this is a wide open light cave,
Clean,
Smells wonderful.
And there's a light at the center that's radiating out light to the whole of the cave.
And let yourself walk towards the light and sit in front of the light for meditation.
Let your whole being fill with the light radiating out from the center of the cave of the heart,
Leaving behind any thoughts,
Leaving even behind your breath awareness,
Just resting your attention.
This beautiful light emanating from the center of the cave of the heart.
And you're sitting there in meditation.
And letting even the visual of yourself sitting in meditation move to the background.
Maintaining all of your awareness on this light right in the center of your heart.
And let yourself go deeper and deeper into this stillness.
And if you find that you're distracted by thoughts,
Bring your attention back to that flow between the eyebrow center and the heart center,
Back to your breath awareness.
Let your thoughts move way to the background.
Really focus in on that flow,
The ease,
The continuity of your breath.
And then come back to resting in the heart center,
Aware of that beautiful light radiating out from the center.
Let yourself be fully absorbed.
You On this level of awareness,
There are no thoughts.
It's just stillness.
Stillness and the light.
Maintaining Keep coming back to the stillness and to the light,
The light that radiates out from the whole cave of the heart through your whole body through that whole space.
And not to worry if your mind gets distracted.
If you get pulled into a different layer,
Just bring yourself back.
Let your attention rest in the cave of the heart.
Whole space is filled with light.
In a moment,
We're going to complete the practice.
You could see yourself standing and backing away,
Coming out of the cave of the heart and back into this flow of breath and awareness from the heart center,
Inhaling up through the throat center to the eyebrow center,
And let your awareness flow with your breath.
Smooth,
Even,
Continuous flow from the eyebrow center through the throat center to the heart center and back.
And we can keep the awareness that on one level that light is still shining in the cave of the heart.
Anytime we want to reconnect with that,
We can.
We just bring our attention to that level.
Let ourselves be absorbed in the light.
