Welcome to this mindfulness meditation taking as its focus the oxymoron of a secular Christmas.
Christmas is traditionally seen as a season of peace and goodwill and whatever your personal association with Christmas,
Be it thoughts about consumerism,
Be it religious beliefs,
It's true to say that Christmas is a time that brings many people together and that many families celebrate in a secular manner.
This might mean having a carol sing along,
Eating a traditional Christmas meal,
Listening to the likes of Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby,
And simply enjoying the nostalgia without necessarily a focus on the religious beliefs underpinning the origins of the holiday.
So I would like to invite you to join me in this meditation which will focus firstly on a visualization and secondly on a loving kindness theme.
So get yourself into a comfortable position,
This can be seated with your back upright or it can be lying down and begin by taking one or two deep breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth.
And with each out-breath observe the muscles in your body relaxing,
Sinking and settling.
In the early 1980s Carl Sagan hosted a television series called Cosmos and on that program Sagan explained many science related topics including the history of the planet Earth,
Evolution and the origin of life and the origin of the solar system.
He famously said we are a way for the universe to know itself,
Some part of our being knows this is where we came from,
We long to return and we can because the cosmos is also within us,
We are made of star stuff.
And he's referring to the fact that carbon,
Nitrogen and oxygen atoms were created in previous generations of stars over four and a half billion years ago.
Human beings and every other animal as well as most of the content of the earth,
Most of the matter of the earth contain these elements so we are quite literally made of star stuff.
I'd like to invite you now to picture in your mind a Christmas tree.
This could be a Christmas tree that you have in your home right now or one that you remember from childhood or one that you've seen in a public space somewhere lit up and sparkling with lights.
And imagine that with each in-breath the lights on the Christmas tree burn brighter and with each out-breath they fade slightly but they never extinguish.
Breathe in and breathe out.
But they never extinguish.
Breathe in and brighten the lights.
Breathe out and dim the lights.
And now imagine yourself standing in front of this Christmas tree.
Standing with your feet apart,
Well grounded,
With your arms slightly out at your sides,
Standing tall and majestic.
And now imagine the tree moving toward you with its lights still shining more brightly with each in-breath and fading slightly with each out-breath until the tree and you become one.
So maintain an awareness of your breathing and with each breath imagine the lights now making up your body shining more brightly and with each out-breath dimming slightly.
Imagine that every cell in your body is a Christmas tree light and with each breath in it's burning more brightly as you feed it with energy and with each breath out it's relaxing and fading slightly.
At every point of every cell in your body there is a nucleus in an atom and that nucleus is a manifestation of the sun in which that atom was born,
Of the star stuff that makes up your body.
There are points of light shining throughout your body,
Shining brightly,
Sparkling with the vibrancy of life.
Breathe in and feel that life grow within you.
Breathe out,
Feel it relax and consolidate.
Breathe in,
Visualize the lights burning more brightly.
Breathe out,
Allow them to gently fade.
The English psychoanalyst John McMurray talked about people being either fear or love determined.
He said that there are two emotional attitudes,
Love and fear.
He went on to say fear determined people have no sun in themselves and go about putting out the sun in other people.
Love determined people have the sun inside them,
They have life in them,
Abundant life.
These are the people who are really alive.
Breathe in again and feel that aliveness.
Focus for a while on your in and out breaths and the light within you.
And now as you visualize yourself standing,
Filled with millions of pinpoints of light and life.
As you breathe in,
Cherish yourself.
As you breathe out,
Cherish all beings.
As you breathe out,
Cherish all beings.
Breathing in,
Cherish yourself.
Breathing out,
Cherish all beings.
Cherish yourself,
Cherish all beings.
Cherish yourself,
Cherish all beings.
Cherish yourself,
Cherish all beings.
You can continue with this practice for a few moments in silence.
And if you find that your thoughts are wandering,
Gently and kindly bring them back to this mantra of I cherish myself,
I cherish all beings.
And you can now let go of the mantra and bring your awareness back to this mantra.
Bring your awareness back to the visualization of you as the Christmas tree.
Light sparkling in infinite places throughout your body.
And allow the tree to separate from you and to move back so that it's standing in front of you.
Allow yourself to fade from that scene.
And slowly allow the tree to fade from the visualization as you focus your awareness on the place where you are.
The sensations in your body,
The feeling of your feet on the floor or the contact of your body with the surface that you're on.
And when you're ready,
You can gently open your eyes.
I wish you a peaceful and happy Christmas,
However it is that you celebrate the holiday.
Thank you.
