Hello and welcome to this meditation.
Please make sure you find a comfortable seat,
Whether you're sitting down on the floor or on a cushion,
Or perhaps you're sitting upright in your favourite chair.
Wherever you are,
Just make sure that your spine can extend long up towards the sky,
Your hips are comfortable,
Your legs either cross-legged or kneeling,
If you're seated on the ground,
Or you're two feet flat onto the earth if you're sitting in a chair.
And settle in here,
Making any adjustments as you need.
Just give your shoulders a big beautiful roll up,
Back and down.
Feel your spine lengthen from your tail all the way up to the crown of your head.
Just let your shoulders soften into a comfortable position.
Notice where your hands are,
Allow them to rest comfortably on your knees or in your lap.
You might fold one hand into the other.
Allow your face to soften,
Your eyes unscrunch,
Cheekbones soft,
Jaw relaxed.
And feel a softness wash over your body.
And take a few slow deep breaths here to settle into the here and now.
Eyes closed down or maintaining a soft gaze.
In today's meditation,
We will be cultivating concentration in the first part of the meditation,
Followed by a simple contemplation,
All on the most beautiful topic of love.
So to begin,
I want you to draw your awareness to the centre of your chest,
The spiritual heart,
Also known as the Anahata chakra.
In the centre of your spiritual heart,
Just notice,
Sense,
Feel a tiny little seed within,
Perhaps the size of a poppy seed or a mustard seed.
Bring your awareness to this tiny seed at the centre of your chest.
Inside this tiny little seed is love.
Love that emerges from the centre of our heart.
And hold focus here,
This tiny seed of love.
Do the best you can to just hold focus on the seed.
There's no need to contemplate the meaning of love or how love feels.
We'll get there later in the meditation.
But just for now hold your focus,
Developing concentration.
As you simply hold your awareness in this tiny seed of love.
Your mind begins to deviate,
Draw it back like you would to the breath,
Bringing your awareness to your little poppy seed of love in your heart.
Holding focus here for another few moments.
Now bring your awareness to the centre of your head,
Into your mind,
Into the third eye space,
Ajna chakra.
Now plant a second seed,
Again,
It might be a little poppy seed or mustard seed.
Planting a second seed of love into the centre of your head,
In your mind.
And hold focus here as best you can,
This tiny seed in the centre of your head.
Non-judgmentally noticing if your mind begins to drift,
Gently guide it back to little mustard seed,
Holding focus.
We take a few more moments here.
Now we draw our awareness back down to the heart.
To your little mustard seed at the centre of your chest.
And this time we add a contemplation.
We add a contemplation on our feelings in relation to love.
How does it feel to be loved?
And seeing if you can tap into these feelings,
Beautiful feeling of being loved.
And now begin to contemplate,
Sense,
Feel.
How does it feel to love another?
To love a beloved,
A child,
An adored family member.
Can you tap into this feeling of love for another?
And how does it feel to love someone?
Someone who's a little bit difficult.
Sometimes we find some people in our lives harder to love than others.
Is this love different?
Does this love feel the same as an easy love?
See if you can tap into this quality of love.
How does it feel?
Take a few more moments here.
Your mind centred on your poppy seed in the centre of your heart,
While simultaneously feeling in to the quality of love in a more general sense now.
How does love feel?
And can you notice sensations in your body?
Is it expansive?
Is it contractive?
Is it a sense of lightness or heaviness?
Just noticing.
A few more moments here with your mind centred in your spiritual heart.
And now shift your awareness back to your mind,
Little mustard seed or poppy seed in the centre of your head,
Filled with love.
Now we contemplate loving thoughts.
Do you regularly have loving thoughts to others?
And do you regularly have loving thoughts towards yourself?
If you had to take an inventory of the last 24 hours,
Were your thoughts loving,
Unloving or neutral?
We simply ask these questions to practice awareness without judgment.
We pause and take the time to see with our mind's eye into our thoughts.
Now bring your awareness simultaneously to the mustard seed within your heart and within your mind,
Both holding the potential for love.
Love being the binding force that connects humanity.
Love is about connection.
Love is not about separation.
Love connects.
And can you notice the connection between your heart and your mind?
Are these two energetic centres connected?
Is there love and harmony within yourself through an interconnection between heart and mind?
And you simply ask to draw awareness here.
Can you notice if there is perhaps a faint line that connects one mustard seed to the other?
Do you desire to build this connection between heart and mind?
The heart is our feeling centre,
Our emotional centre.
The mind is our perceiving,
Thinking,
Seeing centre.
And together when they blend,
When they merge,
When they are connected in harmony,
We have the perfect marriage of love and wisdom.
And they say the heart without the mind is blind.
And the mind without the heart is cold.
Like two wings of a bird,
They are essential for one another in cultivating love and wisdom.
Allow yourself to take some mindful breaths here.
Let this meditation land in your body,
Your heart and your mind.
And draw your hands together in Anjali Mudra,
Prayer at your heart centre.
And take a few quiet moments here to set an intention on love,
Loving connection.
Can you bring more love into your life,
In your mind and in your heart,
Working together as one?
May you find loving connection as you go about your day.
Namaste.
