Hello and welcome.
My name is Nathania and I'm here to guide you through a self-acceptance practice.
Self-acceptance,
It allows you to embrace yourself fully,
Exactly as you are.
It's not always easy and it requires a shift in how you relate to yourself,
Moving from criticism to compassion.
At its core,
Self-acceptance is about recognizing your worth and embracing both your strengths and struggles with grace.
With practice,
You can cultivate a deeper sense of self-acceptance by focusing on five key components.
Mindfulness,
Self-compassion,
Common humanity,
Self-reflection,
And gratitude.
I'll walk you through this practice now.
I invite you to find a place,
Perhaps a seated position,
Where you invite comfort as your priority.
Your feet connect with the earth,
Your sits bones rooted and grounded in place.
Your spine becomes a little taller as you sit up and your shoulders fall down away from your ears as you begin to soften,
Settling into your body just a little more.
Notice here,
If the eyes are open,
Notice your surroundings just for a moment.
Bring yourself here,
Present,
And then gently close the eyes,
Soften the gaze downwards and pull that external vision inwards.
Start to notice how you feel within.
Draw that same awareness down to the tips of the toes and use your breath to draw the awareness all the way up through the body to the crown of the head.
And as you exhale,
Allow that energy to draw all the way back down the body,
Landing at the tips of toes.
Do that again.
Breathe in and slowly breathe out.
Breathe in and breathe out.
Allow your breath to return to its natural rhythm and notice what you feel.
What are you feeling right now?
You may be tempted to label it,
But I wonder if you could linger on the physical sensations instead.
What do you feel?
Notice if any judgment,
If any judgment is present on what you feel and let that go.
Simply being mindful of how you feel.
Accepting that all feelings belong.
All feelings are meant to be felt,
Meant to be acknowledged,
And meant to be noticed.
And then in this awareness of how you feel physical sensations,
Could you shift to a place of self-compassion?
May I show myself kindness in this moment?
May I show myself kindness in this moment?
If a friend of yours was feeling this way,
Whatever the sensation,
What would you say to them?
How would you hold them?
And then can you shift now from self-compassion to common humanity?
How does your experience connect you to what others might be experiencing right now as well?
Who else might be feeling this way?
Who else might have a shared experience just like you?
How can remembering this,
Your shared humanity,
Help you feel less alone?
And moving now to my favorite part of our time together,
Self-reflection.
Will you take a moment and consider one thing or many that you did really well recently?
Allow your whole self to swell with pride.
In this reflection,
Allow yourself access to the feelings of joy and love,
Something you did really well recently.
And then can you shift to a moment in time,
A recent moment,
Where you felt tremendous amount of joy?
It could be as simple as turning your face up towards the sun and feeling the warmth on your skin or something really big that allowed your whole self to vibrate with joy.
A recent moment,
Small or big,
Where you felt joy.
And then I wonder if you could shift your awareness to a moment in time where you helped someone recently.
Maybe you held space for a friend going through a difficult time.
Maybe you held the door in a public space where everybody else was rushing through.
Maybe you made eye contact with a stranger and smiled.
When was a time you helped someone recently?
And now let's shift from self-reflection to gratitude.
Gratitude is something that allows us to shift from fear into faith.
But the shift can only occur when we allow ourselves to feel into the gratitude,
Not just think it.
So as you consider this next prompt,
Could you also feel?
Feel into your response.
What is something you are deeply grateful for?
Maybe you see it in the mind's eye.
Maybe it lingers or it flicks by and something else presents itself.
Will you give yourself an opportunity to savor,
To savor this moment of gratitude,
To extend it longer than you might have initially intended?
What is something you are deeply grateful for?
Feel into this something.
Explore it with curiosity.
Open your heart and feel into it.
And then finally,
What is something you deeply appreciate about yourself?
What is something you deeply appreciate about yourself?
And then slowly,
Slowly untether yourself from our practice and use your next breath to draw your awareness away from all of the things we just considered and felt and back into the space that you exist in right now,
The truth of this moment.
On your next breath in,
Welcome all of the sensations that exist that are unfolding for you now.
The smells of the room,
The sounds of this guided meditation,
The tastes,
The temperature of the room against your skin.
Begin to wiggle toes and fingers and maybe even your nose.
Slowly open your eyes and just as we began,
Take this moment in.
Be present with here and now.
I ask you from this place of practice self-acceptance,
Of arriving in this moment,
How do you feel?
And I wonder what's possible for you now?
Accepting our moment,
Our circumstance,
Our reality as it is.
Not as it was,
Not how it might be,
But simply surrounding ourselves in now.
What's possible now?
It's from here that I conclude our practice together and I share my deep gratitude for you.
Thank you for practicing with me today.
