One of the things that we can bring to mind or that we can focus on is that we're here and that something really good has brought us here,
Something good in us,
Something that longs for connection to really feel into that for you right in this moment.
I'm here,
I'm supported by the environment that I'm in in my physical surroundings and with technology,
Knowing that we're all here in a shared space.
If we've experienced safety here and a relaxation that our breathing gets calmer,
Our nervous system settles,
Then that's what our nervous system is starting to expect as we're thinking about coming and then as we sign on.
So we come together in silence,
We come together in presence.
Notice what that feels like right now in your body.
The foundation of loving kindness,
Of self-compassion is connection.
I'm here in my experience,
My body,
Breath,
Thoughts,
Energy.
We don't have compassion,
Especially self-compassion is not available to us when we're in a fight,
Flight,
Or freeze.
Self-compassion is only available to us when we're not in a survival response.
If we're able to settle our nervous system a little bit,
We're able to recognize,
Oh,
There's a certain amount of hypervigilance here,
My mind is tearing off to other things,
I'm having a hard time settling.
Some of that is present moment,
Most of it is historical.
We bring in what's from the past,
Like we bring it in through our body,
Our breath,
Our nervous system.
And our nervous system is always assessing our present moment through that lens of the past.
When we're looking at our experience of connection or disconnection through a trauma lens,
It makes sense.
In the past,
When we were a child or younger in our adult life,
It might not have been safe for us to be present.
Maybe the way that we got through things was to disconnect.
And that's true for all of us to some extent and true for some of us to a large extent.
What does that feel like right now in your body as you're tuning into that?
There's so much complexity around connecting and so much of it is dependent on and influenced by our past experiences.
Do I feel okay enough to stay?
And we could look at that historically through our lifetime and we could also look at it right now in this moment.
If you were to say,
I feel 100% connected with myself.
I know what I'm experiencing,
I'm here in the present moment.
I'm able to witness what my mind is doing if I'm going off into thoughts.
I'm able to be aware of my breath.
Of the energy.
I am present with myself.
And not to make that into something we shame ourselves for if we're not 100%.
It's rare that we're 100% present with ourselves.
And sometimes we are.
Let's sit with that a bit.
Feel into that in your body,
Your energy.
Right now in this moment,
I could go intentionally into really deep witnessing connection.
I'm here.
One of the elements of being here is that we need to be in this moment.
And we can be having memories of being here or being disconnected in the past.
We can really only be here in this moment that's happening right now.
We might like it,
We might not like it.
We might be happy with some parts of it,
Not with others.
We might be looking around,
Really feeling appreciative for the physical environment that we're in or for the fact that we can come online together.
I'm looking out at blue skies and a warm day.
Our external environment certainly affects our internal environment,
Partly through our experience of safety.
Check in now,
I am connected with myself.
And if you were to come into a cultivation or a noticing of self-compassion right now,
What comes up around that?
I feel loving towards myself.
And sometimes a statement like that will bring in the inner critic or will go off into some memory.
Maybe there's a emotion of grief of I hardly ever have felt this.
Maybe it still feels like I'm part of the way there,
But I can't really say that that's true.
Or maybe right now,
Just in this moment without any history attached,
We could sit with that.
I feel loving within.
I feel loving towards myself and within myself.
Notice what that feels like,
Whatever your experience is.
I feel compassion for myself right in this moment exactly as I am.
Maybe in the midst of an inner critic storm.
Well,
Everybody else is probably feeling that,
But you're not,
What's the matter with you?
Or some kind of fight,
Flight,
Or freeze response.
We can always focus on bringing ourselves back into regulation,
And that will help.
We can't access compassion for ourselves,
Especially if we're in a fight,
Flight,
Or freeze.
What could we do?
We could hold our own hands.
We could do some cyclic sighing or some longer out-breaths.
We could do a reset.
And you might need a little nudge,
Or you might need a big course correction.
Let's see if we could work with that for a moment.
How could I right now come into closer connection with myself,
Let myself regulate?
I feel love.
I feel compassion.
I feel connection with myself.
I am love.
I am compassion.
I am connected.
I embody loving kindness.
Continue to notice your experience with that.
I am loving kindness.
And from here,
Make a bookmark here.
Whatever you feel right now,
The connection,
The compassion,
The internal experience of this.
From this place of rounded connection with ourself,
Bring in other people,
Bring someone to mind.
And notice what this is like,
What changed,
And what's changing in your experience right now.
I feel connected with the other people.
I wish them well.
I wish for everyone that we could know the experience of compassion within ourselves,
With each other.
I wish for all of us that we all know loving kindness and compassion.
I know we all know the experience of disconnection.
We all know the experience of a practice in which we're not really here.
Our mind is off doing other things.
We all know that experience.
We might wish for ourselves that for the next few minutes,
I stay connected.
I could nurture that connection within myself.
May I know compassion for myself.
May I feel compassion for everyone here.
The people I know,
The people I don't know,
People I might be irritated with at times,
The people I love to see.
May I feel compassion,
And may they know that in themselves.
I am compassion.
I am love.
I am connection.
And may all of this spread from here out into our life for the rest of the day ahead and the rest of our life and to the people we know and the people we don't know.
May we all connect with our own basic goodness,
Our heart of compassion.
And may we remember this so that when we find ourselves disconnected,
We can find our way home again,
Back into our heart.
Take a moment before we finish to feel in our body what's here.
What does this feel like in the body?
Sensations,
Energy,
What's going on with your breath?
I feel so much compassion for everybody and for myself and so much connection.
May we all be connected and compassionate with ourselves and others.
