Gently closing the eyes,
Settling into stillness.
And on your own,
Taking a few deep settling breaths.
Drawing your attention to arrive here.
Gently landing on the present moment.
Allowing to your practice,
Kindly,
Slowly,
Gently arriving here.
So allowing your awareness to rest in the heart,
The emotional heart that holds on to so much.
And so we can begin to look deeply at the heart,
Noticing the tender parts of the heart.
The parts of the heart that have been holding on to any difficulties or suffering.
And so we can imagine the heart gently turning towards itself and caring for what's there.
Caring for what's calling for our attention.
So noticing the tender parts of your heart.
What's there right now?
What could use some love,
Some care,
Some attention?
Perhaps feelings of sadness,
Anger,
Fear,
Frustration.
Caring for whatever needs your attention.
I'm here suffering,
What do you need?
I'm listening.
We care for our difficulties as a mother cares for a crying child.
I'm here.
I'm listening.
What do you need?
So practicing on your own for a couple of minutes.
Practicing deep listening.
Looking deeply at the tender parts of your heart.
I'm here,
I'm listening.
I see you suffering,
I'm here to care.
What do you need?
What do you need?
Soothing our difficulties.
Offering our presence,
Our kindness,
Our love.
Less concerned with why these difficulties are here.
Instead just being present with our suffering and caring,
Loving.
Offering our kindness and understanding.
I'm here suffering,
I'm here.
What do you need?
Holding our difficulties in a warm embrace as a mother holds a child.
You see when love touches pain,
It turns into compassion.
Our suffering is transformed.
And so we look deeply at the tender parts of our heart and we care.
And so we can tell our suffering we'll be back to care for it later.
We'll be back.
Beginning to deepen the breath.
Gently wiggling the body solid and whole.
Noticing sound.
Gently wiggling the fingers and toes coming back to the body.
And gently coming out of practice and opening the eyes when you're ready.
