Remembering Who We Are: Knowing Our Basic Goodness

This gentle meditation is an invitation to return to the truth of who you are: wise, whole, and deeply good. By softening self-judgment and connecting with your breath and body, you’ll be guided to release pressure, welcome your full emotional experience, and rest in the stillness of your Being.

Drawing on insights from nervous system awareness and somatic presence, this practice helps you remember that even in struggle, you are already enough.

Let yourself rest, reconnect, and remember your light.

Transcript

Building a stronger mind frees us from some of the old patterns and old ways that we might have hardened our hearts and shamed ourselves perhaps.

Right now maybe I could extend some open-heartedness towards myself.

Give myself the opportunity to experience my own patience and kindness.

We tend to,

In this culture at least,

Be pretty aggressive towards ourselves.

Ways that we put pressure on ourselves.

Notice as you're coming in,

Is there anything I could do physically that would help me to be more comfortable?

Maybe give myself a hug or to warm.

If you're cool,

What might be something that would help you?

Almost always it helps to soften our body and to breathe.

I do want to be healing and becoming more kind and capable and healed.

All of those things.

Can we do that from knowing that as we are right now,

We are basically good?

We might have some patterns still that are causing trouble for us.

Maybe we tend to go into a shutdown or freeze or into a fight or flight response.

And as we're learning more about those,

We can see that's not really optimal.

And yet,

Can we do that in a way that doesn't shame us?

I find the more we know about our nervous system,

How we perceive our level of threat or safety right now,

And then how the nervous system generates these responses,

Fight,

Flight,

Freeze,

Fawn generally.

How could we just experience ourselves as this mechanism that has been greatly influenced by our environment?

Human beings,

People are a set of processes as much as anything else.

We have experiences,

We form beliefs.

Somehow we find our way to healing practices and we start to soften our hearts,

Soften our bodies,

Start to breathe.

And it can be really interesting to see when I do shut off or shut down or go into a fight response,

One of those survival responses,

How quickly I can bring myself back,

Changes over time.

So once we know what the signs are,

Then of course,

We're more able to see them earlier.

Once we know the practices,

We're more able to go into one.

You think about a wheel,

It just has this momentum,

It keeps going.

And then we slow it down a little bit by our understanding and by moments of kindness.

We bring ourselves into our heart.

We have some glimmer of understanding and of knowing that actually there's nothing wrong with me.

At my core,

I'm whole,

I'm good.

I don't need to fix that.

There's nothing there to fix.

The true nature of our mind is joy and light,

Wisdom,

Bliss,

And that's already there.

We might have to sort through some layers of clouds to get to it,

But it's already there.

We don't need to create that,

That's who we are.

We all know that to some extent,

And it's easy to forget that because the lower level of the mind,

The catastrophic thinking,

The nervous system all have a very loud voice.

If we were to act as though that were true,

I'm already free,

I'm already good and whole.

I deserve to breathe and enjoy my life.

So with that in our body and in our heart,

I'm already whole,

That's my basic nature.

Let your shoulders soften,

Your jaw,

Mouth,

Your tongue,

Your throat.

We live in a world that acts as though the opposite is true.

And a lot of what our nervous systems are doing is protecting ourselves from the kind of world we live in.

So we could notice that that's a good thing,

That we're protecting ourselves.

Unfortunately,

We often believe that conditioning,

Those stories.

So it's a good thing to notice what is going on in my mind,

In my heart.

And when I shut myself out,

When I turn against myself,

Oh,

That's so painful.

If there's an inner critic or there's somebody saying,

Well,

You know,

You're not so good,

Or things that our conditioning might tell us,

They're lies,

They're not true.

What is true is that often we act unconsciously,

Then we can tap back into our basic goodness.

What would it feel like in your body if you knew that you are light and joy and wisdom and whole?

What would that feel like in your body?

Let's tap into that.

We could visualize it.

There are some things that would be here and some things that wouldn't.

So perhaps what we wouldn't have so much of is tension in our body.

We would have a softer,

More relaxed body.

We might be resting more comfortably.

Our breath would probably have more ease.

We wouldn't be holding our breath.

If you tend to have a lot of tension in your forehead and eyebrows,

You're worrying a lot.

The more that we are in touch with our own deep internal wisdom,

The less that we worry.

Perhaps your forehead would be smoother.

You'd have less worry and anxiety in your mind.

If there was no worry at all in your mind,

Let your forehead feel that,

Let your forehead soften.

And if there are anxious thoughts in your mind,

You might let them go to the background,

Or maybe you'd want to focus on something else instead.

Perhaps I am whole,

I'm light,

I'm wise.

And the brain might have some things going on that our mind is more than the brain.

Let yourself tap into that deep wisdom and stillness of the mind itself.

We might witness thoughts in the mind.

And we could maybe even have some compassion for ourselves that,

Here we are with these thoughts in our mind that are troublesome.

There's fear,

Anxiety,

What's gonna happen?

Or we're ruminating about something.

We could allow ourselves to rest and be supported by the wisdom of the mind.

The thoughts that are going through our brain are not who we are.

They might be a worry,

They might be a memory,

Maybe a visual representation of an idea of ourselves,

But that's not all of who we are.

It's one of our processes,

Thoughts in the mind.

Now as we come down to the mouth and jaw,

If we lived in a world where we could speak our truth,

Never managing what we say in order to keep the peace or to keep our safety,

Perhaps our jaw would not be as tight.

When we are not speaking,

Our jaw would be relaxed,

Our tongue would be not in action.

We would have some stillness in our tongue,

Our throat,

Our vocal cords.

Bring that to life in your mouth,

Your tongue.

I can speak freely.

And of course,

That's not true historically for us,

And it might not be completely true right now in our life.

Our mind might be warning us about that.

Our nervous system's always gonna be overly cautious.

It's trying to protect us.

But we could imagine,

I am free to speak my mind.

I'm free to be authentic,

Speak what's in my heart.

I could let my jaw,

My mouth,

My vocal cords be at rest.

And notice if there's something you're carrying on your neck and shoulders,

Your upper back that you could release.

You might move a little,

Bring your awareness into those muscles,

Exhale,

Let them soften or move around.

If I really knew down to my gut that I can handle my life,

Might not be what I want,

I might not do it perfectly or gracefully,

But I don't have to carry this worry,

This burden on my shoulders.

When I need help,

I know that I can reach out and it will be there.

What are the burdens that you might be carrying on your shoulders right now?

And if it were completely true that you are strong and resilient and good,

Could you let some of that release?

And as we soften the muscles of our back and we stop bracing ourselves for trouble,

It feels different.

Notice the energy of the area in between your shoulder blades behind your heart center.

Notice the energy in the large muscles of the front of your chest,

The front of your heart center.

If I didn't need to defend my heart at all,

I could be open-hearted,

Compassionate,

Loving.

Emotions flow in and they flow through.

All emotion is fine,

It's acceptable.

If I have a mean thought or if I have a self-deprecating thought or if I have an emotion of jealousy or whatever it is,

It doesn't mean that I'm bad,

It just means that that's part of the process of being human.

We have these things flow through.

If I wasn't shaming myself,

If I was completely acceptable to myself as myself,

If we were completely confident that it's okay to feel,

It's okay to let in the grief or the anger or the despair.

And it's also okay to let in the joy and the giggles and the happiness.

This is part of being human as well,

We have emotion.

We have a variety of experiences.

And we don't have to judge ourselves for those.

We could let them be as they are,

But that's a practice that takes awareness and time and willingness.

If I was completely okay with who I am,

Confident that I can handle my life,

The support that I need will be here for me,

I'll be able to accept what it is that's happening in my life,

Then I could let my heart be open.

At least open to me.

I put your hand on your heart,

I'm open hearted,

I'm kind.

I love myself.

I welcome all of me.

And even if it feels like there's some barriers there,

I could practice feeling like that.

Practice acting as though that's true.

I could take the pressure off.

Love myself exactly as I am right now.

Now,

What would that feel like to move about in the world loving myself?

Notice your whole body,

Thoughts in your mind,

And also your felt sense of who you are,

Your being.

Being who is whole,

Filled with joy,

Knows the stillness of the mind.

This is also who we are.

In addition to the person who likes to swim,

Or who gets in arguments,

Or is frustrated in traffic,

Or loves to play cards,

Or all those things that we do,

Rest on a deeper level for a moment,

The level of your being.

As I deepen into knowing this is true,

I'm already free,

I'm already whole.

I am free.

I am love,

And joy,

And peace.

When we find that we're pressuring ourselves,

Or judging ourselves,

We could remember this.

Come back to this wise adult self.

Watching ourselves as we go through these troubles,

Or difficult situations,

Or compulsive thinking.

And then we could remember,

We could remind ourselves,

I'm actually okay.

I'm also all of this other wonder.

And I could move through the world as if that's true.

Because it is.

We could use a practice like this as inspiration.

Sometimes we look at,

Well,

You know,

I'm not those things most of the time,

Or I'm really frustrated that this or that.

But we could also just give ourselves a break.

That we're human,

That we have these things going on.

And that we could always touch back into this.

I love that we could always touch back into this.

We do know that this is true,

And that we can remind ourselves of that.

Reviews

Really interesting approach that weaves ideas, suggestions and self awareness into a gently winding path. Will be returning to this again, there is a lot packed in here.

Thank you Lynn, I appreciate your gifts of inspirational practices. It’s a good reminder that we are both the depth of the quiet ocean and the waves. Both are true when we can observe it from a distance and it makes all of life’s moments more accessible. 🙏🏽

Hello Lynn, I'm so grateful for your wise and beautiful offering.. I didn't know how much I needed this practise. Your guidance was a healing balm, to how depleted I am in so many places. Your words, compassion and somatic guidance eased my suffering. Showing me these gentle steps, helped me access light and hope. Grateful love and thanks is sent your way. Jackie x

This was completely beautiful. Practicing to see my wholeness feels both tender and foundational. So much shifts in me when I can see that there is nothing that I need to fix. Thank you Lynn! ❤️