Sometimes meditation may be considered a balance between two tensions.
When both sides of a measuring device are of equal weight,
They're balanced.
When both sides of a seesaw have equal weight,
It comes into a stillness of balance.
If there are two tensions,
One could be hot,
The other cold.
When they come together into lukewarm,
There's a balance of temperature.
Many things can be thought of as being in balance.
A helium balloon tends to rise up unless it's held down by just the exact weight,
So it's in balance and it can actually float,
Not going up or down.
The body has a sense of meditation and the mind has a sense of meditation.
And those two can also come into a balance from one side to the other when the two are of equal weight,
Equal calmness,
Equal stillness.
So let's begin by extending or pushing out just a little bit of awareness,
Stretching the belly forward,
Outward,
So that you can feel that push of the belly going forward as though you were going to extend it.
Relax.
Extend the belly again,
Hold it out,
And this time as your belly is held out,
Breathe in fully and then relax,
Allowing the belly to drop and the air to slowly come out.
Push the belly out again,
Breathe in,
And slowly let the air flow out,
Pausing at the end of the out-breath just for a moment.
And then breathing in,
Pushing the belly all the way out,
And as you allow the air to slowly flow out,
Let all of your concerns,
Thoughts,
Worries,
Flow out with the air.
And then holding the breath out,
Pause for a moment,
And then on your own,
Breathing in,
Pushing the belly out,
Really making sure you extend the belly out.
You want to get that full feeling of the belly,
Really kind of pushing out.
It actually relaxes the muscles because very often we hold tension,
We hold the belly in.
And you want to give it an opportunity to let those muscles,
The muscles that are pulling in,
To give those a chance to relax by actually extending the belly out and just letting it push itself out using those muscles,
And that actually for a moment relaxes the holding in muscles.
So just one or two more,
Extending the belly out as you breathe in,
Really getting the body sensation into that,
Feeling the belly,
And then relaxing,
Letting the air out,
And allowing all of the thoughts,
Worries,
Concerns,
Fears,
Dropping out as the air comes out slowly.
So that's part of the body component.
The balance of the mind component is to recall a moment of being the benefactor,
The recipient of a loving experience.
Of a time you can remember,
Just a moment,
Of really having somebody care for you,
Creating a space for you to be safe within,
Or a field of love to include you and wrap their arms virtually around you,
Or even literally wrap their arms around you.
But a moment of that intense sensation of being cared for,
Being loved,
Somebody having compassion for you.
It could be last week,
Could be years ago,
Could be when you were a child,
Possibly a relative,
Or a friend of your parents,
A friend of yours,
A teacher,
A camp counselor.
Actually,
It could even be a pet,
Where you had that interaction,
That feeling of connection.
And it's just a moment of that sensation,
Not the person that was creating that.
That person may have done it once,
Could have been just a stranger even,
Or it could be somebody that did this very,
Very often.
But the key is the experience,
The moment that that connection was there,
Not the person itself.
Of course,
Very few people,
If any,
Would be always that person would be doing that,
And that could interfere.
So just the moment itself,
And just take a few breaths as you're doing that,
And recall that experience.
And it could shift,
It doesn't have to be the best,
Most wonderful experience,
It could be whatever comes to mind,
Use that experience,
If it changes to another moment of that connection,
That's fine.
Now taking in that moment of connection,
Intensify that,
Bring that moment,
The memory of it,
The visualization of it into the present,
As if it were happening right now.
Relive,
Refill the moment,
The sensations that are there,
Bring that fully present into your mind.
And locate the body sensation,
Where in your body do you feel the memory,
The visualization,
The current body sensation going along with that memory visualization.
And intensify that,
Make that every cell of your body is experiencing,
Is feeling that.
And if at any time the visualization lessens,
And you become distracted by something,
An itch,
A sound,
A memory,
Something that you thought you wanted to be doing now,
Allow that thought to be there.
And then return to the breath of pushing the belly out,
Then breathing in deeply,
Relaxing the body,
Letting the air slowly come out,
Allowing any thoughts of discomfort or concerns or worries to come out with the breath.
And take one,
Two,
Three breaths to bring the body back into its side of balance.
And then go back and bring in that moment of intense love,
Caring,
Compassion,
Back into the mind visualization.
.
On one side,
You have these sensations from the mind visualization of the compassionate moment,
Intensifying that awareness,
Bringing that into the current moment,
The time that's happening right now.
Bringing that through your entire body up and down,
The spread of that compassion,
Extending outward from the visualization.
Throughout the entire body,
Down the torso,
Down the legs to the toes,
From the torso outward,
From the arms to the fingertips.
Letting that sense of love energy spread out so there's a field of loving energy completely surrounding you and filling you on the inside at the same time.
And holding that visualization of the field of love outside and inside,
Feeling the breath coming in,
Deepening as the belly extends outward,
Feeling the body sensation of the belly pressing forward and then relaxing,
Allowing the air to slowly come out.
And then another breath coming in.
And riding the wave of the breath as it comes in and flows out.
Bringing to mind again that moment of love and compassion,
Feeling that spreading through the entire sense of your body,
Through every cell.
Even the air coming in,
Extending not just the body in the lungs but movement of that.
Every cell of the body is part of the in-breath and part of the out-breath.
Each cell connected to the next one and the next one and the one next to that.
And in unison,
Breathing in and feeling the field of love surrounding and incorporating,
Dissolving into the field of love.
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