More Love - A Guided Meditation

Some of the most profound words ever recorded about love are attributed to the poet Rumi,

Who said,

Your task is not to seek for love,

But merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.

This statement teaches us two very important things.

First of all,

Love is within us,

And that the experience of love,

Of feeling loved,

Of expressing love,

Of deepening the feelings of loving,

And most importantly,

Of attracting someone who loves us for who we are,

All become available when we do the work to remove the barriers within us.

This meditation is a guide to doing just that,

To pulling back the veils on your natural state of being,

Which is love.

So close your eyes,

Take a nice deep breath in,

All the way down to your belly on the inhale,

Filling up your lungs,

And then just letting it go.

And indulge in the release of any tension as you exhale.

Move into another in-breath,

Taking it in,

Filling up your lungs,

And letting it go.

And just noticing all the delicious benefits there can be in one breath.

Perhaps you can feel the energy riding in on each breath.

Maybe you can feel it moving throughout your body.

Continuing to breathe,

Imagining the spaciousness within your body expanding,

The feeling that you're becoming lighter,

Weightless,

Breathing,

Floating,

Free.

See if you can settle into a pattern of breathing.

And I'd like you to imagine that you're standing outdoors somewhere,

And you're facing two huge gates.

You push on them.

They swing out and open up to reveal this beautiful field with flowers and tall,

Swaying grass,

The sounds of nature,

Wonderful fragrances.

And as you stand there taking in the natural splendor,

I'd like you to invite any form of resistance you might be hanging on to,

To romp off into that field and have a good time to take a break.

Every self-doubt,

Every feeling of hopelessness and despair,

All negativity,

Just invite them to go play.

Bring your attention back to your breath.

And if you're interrupted by a thought,

If you find yourself suddenly drifting off into an imagined future or a past regret,

You can let them join the others in the field and just come back to your breath.

Now on this next inhale,

I would like you to bring your attention down to your heart.

To truly love,

We must love ourself first and foremost.

And the barriers to loving ourself are made up of thoughts,

Conscious and unconscious.

And in these thoughts,

We are critical and judgmental of who we are.

I am not good enough.

I am a failure.

I am unlovable.

These are thoughts that turn into stories that turn into beliefs,

And we create most of them in childhood.

So as you reflect on times in your life when you have treated yourself unlovingly,

I would like you to imagine that in your heart space,

There is a version of you,

A tender,

Vulnerable,

Childlike version of you,

That continues to believe these stories of unworthiness,

Of unlovability.

And now imagine taking this child into your arms and simply loving her or him.

And you say to this little child,

I'm here now.

You're perfect just the way you are.

And I'm sorry I let you believe otherwise for so long.

I love you.

I'm here to listen.

I love you.

I'm sorry I let you believe those stories for so long.

I love you.

As you clear away misunderstandings with this beautiful little child aspect of yourself,

I want you to imagine a vibration is taking shape,

Originating in your heart,

Radiates outward,

And moves throughout your body.

Now choose another time in your life,

A challenging time when you suffered.

When you were a teenager or a young adult,

It could even be a recent occasion.

And invite the self you thought you were then to join you right now in this loving energy.

And you can say,

I'm here now.

You're perfect just the way you are.

And I'm sorry I let you believe otherwise for so long.

I love you.

I love you.

I'm here to listen.

So now I would like you to allow that loving energy that radiates from your heart space to expand outward and include the people who are closest to you in your life.

Now it might be challenging to extend your love to one or more of the people closest to you.

If this is the case,

I invite you to bring back that beautiful inner child and let this little one know that you see his or her pain.

And this little one,

Just how perfect he or she is.

And tell this little one,

I'm sorry I let you believe for so long the stories that this person helped you to make up about yourself.

And then having applied loving to that pain within you to the degree that you can forgive this person who hurt you.

Hanging on to resentments and the thoughts that feed resentments builds tremendous barriers within us.

Even if you fake it,

Even if you pretend to forgive,

It will be better than nothing.

Forgiveness is the highest form of loving and brings the highest form of transformation in ourselves and others.

So as the power of forgiveness works its healing,

I want you to turn your attention to the people in your life who have cared for you and loved you and inspired you,

Influenced you and taught you.

And let your love radiate out and envelop them in gratitude.

Keep breathing.

Your love vibration beginning in your heart now extends out even further.

And I want you to imagine all the people in your neighborhood,

Your town or city,

And in this moment right now your love passes through them like a cleansing wave.

Gives them a greater capacity for dealing with the challenges in their life.

Now I want you to imagine everyone in your country,

Even the ones you disagree with,

And experience your radiant loving starting in your heart and extending out to them,

Passing through,

And you see it taking away their fear and helping them to see their highest self.

And as the energy of your loving moves out even further,

Picture those people who are putting their lives on the line,

Serving the greater good in crisis situations.

And as the energy of your loving moves through them,

It brings each of them a moment of relief and the strength to care for themselves so they might continue.

And there is so much gratitude in your loving.

And as your love continues to radiate outward in an ever widening circle,

It passes through decision makers in your country and around the world.

Yes,

Even the ones you disagree with.

And you can picture your love energy bringing clarity and a call for leadership to come from their highest self.

Breathe and release into the image of your radiant love energy,

Starting your heart and projecting out over the entire surface of the earth.

And now you are looking back from a point out in space where you see the entire planet.

And you watch your loving vibration extending out and covering the entire globe and triggering more and more love energy in people everywhere.

And as these circles of loving energy intersect,

They create an exquisite dance of light and movement.

You continue to gain distance from earth and you are aware that this divine dance of love energy and light on earth is also taking place throughout the universe.

It's like a repeating fractal pattern of love attracting love,

Creating love attracting love.

Wow.

I want to acknowledge your courage for being vulnerable,

Allowing yourself to feel,

For exercising the healing power of self-forgiveness.

And as you come back to this other reality,

I'd like you to express your gratitude for those barriers that have begun to fall away.

They were created to help you negotiate challenging times.

They have outlived their usefulness.

But here is one more place where you can apply the power of love by saying thank you for protecting me.

Thank you for doing what you felt was necessary.

And it is with this deep love and appreciation that I set you free.

Thank you.

I can handle it now.

Thank you.

Thank you.