Welcome to our 15 minute guided meditation called Deep Acceptance including five minutes of silence toward the end.
So let's get started.
So by now you're already sitting down either on a cushion on the floor or on the couch or in a chair.
And if you're in a chair or on the couch take a moment to scoot all the way back so that your back is supported and you're neither leaning forward or slouching back.
And sit up nice and straight.
And if your legs are crossed,
Uncross them and place both feet flat on the floor.
And simply let your hands fall and rest in your lap however they fall.
And one final adjustment to posture.
Take a moment to lift the crown of your head slightly toward the ceiling without stretching or straining.
Just a slight lift of the top of your head while at the same time allowing both of your shoulders to go soft and sink down as low as they can go.
So again the crown of the head lifted slightly and the shoulders dropped.
This is an active yet restful posture ideal for meditation.
And now simply breathe deeply with me three times.
Take a deep inhalation into the belly.
Let's inhale now.
And out.
And again in.
And out.
And one last very deep inward breath.
And release.
And allow your breathing now to resume its natural rhythm.
And now let's take a moment to honor our mind-body by allowing it to consciously move into a more restful state.
Bring your attention to the muscles of your face,
Your eyes,
And your jaw,
And your mouth.
And simply allow them to relax and release whatever tension and tiredness they are holding.
Let it all drain away and vanish like water draining into sand.
Leaving your face relaxed,
Rested,
Open,
And free.
And moving lower,
Bring your attention now into the area of your neck and shoulders.
And here there is so much strain and tension.
Sometimes grief and pain.
As we did with our face,
Simply allow the tissues of your neck and shoulders to relax and open and warm and release all of the emotion and tension and tiredness and grief.
That we often hold there.
Feel them opening and resting as we release everything that does not serve our highest good.
And now we move our mind's eye,
Our attention into the area of our chest.
And here too we hold so much grief and anxiety and worry.
Lovingly release all of that tension and let it sink away like water draining into sand.
Feel it sliding lower and lower into your body.
Moving over your thighs,
Across your knees,
Down your calves,
Through your ankles,
And into your feet and out of the bottom of the soles of your feet into the floor and into the earth beneath the floor.
Let it all go.
Release everything that is not contributing to our stillness,
Our illumination,
And our restful awareness.
And now notice that the mind body has moved into a more restful,
Peaceful state.
Finally,
Let's return our attention to our thoughts.
Bring your focus now to the mind,
To the steady stream of thoughts that flow naturally and simply over the field of awareness of our deeper self.
And many of us are feeling particularly heavy and aggrieved and pained by all of the woundedness of the world and by our own wounds and griefs and our relationships and our families,
Maybe around issues of finance or in our loneliness and in our longing.
And in so many ways,
Many of us rush around in an attempt to mask this woundedness.
But right now,
Let's look right at it and feel it and notice it and not look away.
And as we move into a deeper awareness of our woundedness and sorrow and depression and anxiety,
Let us for the next few minutes promise to keep vigil with these important messages that rise up out of our psyche to tell us that all is not well,
That we are hurting.
And in the stillness and patience with which we bring this loving eye to this woundedness within,
We notice that all of our thoughts and feelings and judgments and longings and aversions are thoughts.
They are concepts and feelings that arise on the screen of our deep awareness and we view them and we identify with them.
But for the next few minutes,
As we prepare to move into the silence,
Let's practice releasing our attachment to our thoughts.
Let's watch them from a deep place of peace and stillness.
Let's shift into what Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita calls the inner witness.
And as we prepare now to move into a time of silence,
Simply practice witnessing your sadness and your grief as if they were clouds blowing across the sky and feel what that feels like to not identify with them but to witness them as we now move into a time of silence.
I invite you now to move up out of the silence and the stillness.
Open your eyes,
Look around the space,
Feel free to move and stretch.
And as we prepare to bring this guided meditation to a close,
Reflect on the experience we just had of deep acceptance.
That as we shift into the inner witness and observe our woundedness,
A certain calm begins to arise out of our own depths,
A certain stillness that we do not create,
That we are.
And that ground of being,
That stillness is the source of our solace and our comfort in the face of the difficulties of our lives.
And that we always take this deep acceptance with us wherever we are.
Namaste.
