A Moment For Self-Compassion

This meditation focuses on a way to show ourselves compassion while taking a look at what compassion truly is. Through a visualization, we are able to give self-compassion by watering the seeds in our garden.

Transcript

Hey there and today we are going to do a meditation on self-love,

Self-compassion in another term.

I'm super excited because I did this or a similar meditation to this in an in-person meditation in a class that I guide and the people who came in something they were looking for was some way to slow down,

To calm,

To love themselves,

To connect back with themselves and throughout this meditation I think we we got there.

So I'm gonna invite you now to get a little bit uncomfortable and then find your comfortable spot.

It's a little different than how I usually guide into this where I'll guide through your body.

I'll definitely do that but first I'd like you to start by if you're going to be sitting which I invite you to challenge yourself for this meditation and sit upright today.

I invite you to maybe sway from side to side or maybe even swirl your body around almost as if you are water that is circling a drain.

So finding that that movement in your body feeling that flowing energy start moving around inside of you and then as you find that space in your spine I invite you to stretch upwards just a little bit more and then maybe do as we'll see in the Zazen practice where we see individuals sway forwards and backwards until they find that point of equilibrium and sway sideways left and right until they find that spot that feels just right for this meditation.

So getting that movement into your body finding that spot and when we find that point of stillness challenging yourself to stay still here and starting to notice how the rest of your body is connecting with whatever you're sitting on maybe you're on the floor you feel your feet on the ground your legs on a chair a cushion mat noticing how your body is connected to whatever you're grounded in slowly starting to lengthen your breath here so maybe breathe in for just a split second longer than you've been breathing in and lengthen out your breath out so it's a little bit longer than it was before.

Breath is super super powerful we know from so much science that's out there that our breath can actually impact our nervous system that breathing just this act of breathing and paying attention to our breath can push us into parasympathetic can help fight that fight-or-flight response bring us into calmness slow down our system all around bringing awareness to your breath maybe it's filling outwards maybe it's filling up wherever it is just notice it then starting to relax down your arms maybe your hands are face up or face down in your lap whatever feels right today whatever you're called to relaxing down your elbows relaxing down your upper arms your forearms each part of your body here then on your next breath in bringing your shoulders up towards your ears and letting them fall down again bringing our shoulders up towards our ears and letting them just roll down our backs continuing to breathe and softening down your face letting your cheeks soften your lips get soft intentionally unclenching your jaw we hold a lot of tension in this area so bringing extra awareness to it and then letting your eyes rest heavy your forehead every last little bit of tightness that's in your body just wash down when we think of self-love and self-compassion we often think about the things that we can do for ourselves sometimes it's almost a chore how do we love ourselves more what should I be doing that I'm not doing I hear people talk about okay if I do this and I do this I'm loving myself today I invite you to have a little bit more acceptance for where you're at right now and have a little bit of gratitude that you've taken some time to work on yourself you've taken some time to connect back to yourself right now continuing that breath and feeling how it's filling your body something very interesting that I have found as I've done some research on some of the language that we use is the definition of compassion when we define compassion it's the sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortune of others so when we apply that to ourself from a perspective of self-compassion this is our sympathetic concern for the misfortunes that we are experiencing in our own lives our own self so having sympathy for the things that are hard for us the things that are impacting all around us sympathy in those moments can be a form of self-compassion I invite you to bring to your mind maybe a moment where you have shown yourself some compassion or maybe a moment in the future that you want to show yourself some compassion almost watching it play out like a movie in front of you seeing yourself and noticing any feelings or thoughts that come up or any physical feelings that you feel in your body maybe a warm or expansiveness or maybe tightness in a certain area whatever comes up just notice I'll give you a couple moments here to notice to sit watching the scene.

Thich Nhat Hanh has this concept in one of his books where he talks about watering seeds he mentions we can practice watering the seeds in us that we want to grow and transform our mind is like a garden in which there are all kinds of seeds seeds of joy peace mindfulness understanding and love but also seeds of craving anger fear hate and forgetfulness how you act and the quality of your life depends on which seeds you water if you plant tomato seeds in your garden tomatoes will grow in the same way if you water a seed of peace in your mind peace will grow peace will grow when the seed of happiness in you is watered your happiness will bloom when the seed of anger is watered you will become angry the seeds that are watered frequently will grow strong so you need to be a mindful gardener selectively watering those seeds you would like to cultivate and not watering the seeds that you don't want to grow so take a moment to have a look around your mind garden look at all of the seeds that might be around you and decide which seeds you want to water right now take your imaginary watering can and what are the seeds that you want to focus on I'm going to give you some time to sit in your garden choosing what you want to water but also observing your garden noticing what areas have already grown and noticing which areas might need a little bit more water I'll guide you back with the sound of my voice but for now explore your garden starting to starting to come back to yourself taking one more look around your garden maybe watering any last seeds that you want to getting those last drops out of your watering can putting it down and then coming back to yourself starting to bring awareness back into your body maybe waking up parts of it and today I invite you on your stretch up with your arms as you breathe in and as you breathe out I invite you to give yourself a hug today wrapping your arms around yourself feeling that love and that compassion that you have for yourself knowing that at the end of the day you've got you you've got yourself thank you so much for taking some time and sharing it with me and taking some time for yourself today as always from my heart to yours thank you