I invite you to close your eyes.
And of course,
If it's uncomfortable to close your eyes,
Have your gaze soft and kind of unfocused.
You can kind of be looking downward and just let your eyes be unfocused so your attention starts to move inside.
Become aware of your body,
How you're holding your body,
The sensations in the body,
Any emotions present.
Feel a space between your jaw,
So excuse me,
A space between your teeth so your jaw can soften down.
And that sense of softening,
Feel it start to move into your throat,
Your beautiful heart.
Feel it expanding,
This softening,
This letting go moves into the solar plexus region.
And then the whole belly.
It's like this gentle washing away of tension,
Washing away of stress.
Feel your body softening and becoming heavier,
The weight of your body sinking down.
This washing of tension,
This ease fills your pelvis,
Your pelvis,
Your legs,
Your feet moves out from your heart into your arms and hands,
Your head,
Your whole body,
Welcoming this letting go with each breath.
Let your shoulders relax down.
Take a slow deep breath in,
Feel your torso expanding with the breath.
Exhale through the mouth,
Let it go.
Inhale the belly,
The ribs,
The chest all expand.
Exhale through the mouth.
Each exhalation we're creating a little more space to just be how we are in this moment.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Continue to breathe naturally.
And now consciously,
Give yourself permission to be just as you are right now.
Even if there's some resistance there,
If you can,
You can even say to yourself,
I give you permission to be.
I give myself permission to be just as I am.
Whatever I'm feeling,
Whatever I'm thinking,
I give myself permission.
And you can say this to yourself,
This time is for me.
This time is to welcome my whole self.
In this space,
I am safe.
I am safe.
I am loved.
I am deeply cared for.
If you ever feel during this meditation to place your hands on your heart,
Your belly,
Or just to hold your breath,
You can just say,
I give myself permission to be.
And you can say,
I give myself permission to be.
To place your hands on your heart,
Your belly,
Or just to hold yourself in a loving embrace,
Please feel free to follow that impulse.
Feel yourself relaxing even more now.
Letting go even more.
Letting go of the need to do anything to effort releasing.
Imagine you can hear the distant song of birds,
This beautiful melody,
This beautiful sound of birds.
This distant song of birds,
This beautiful melody.
You can feel the warmth of the sun on your skin.
And although your eyes are closed,
You can sense light all around you.
You find yourself now in a beautiful place in nature,
Standing on the earth.
The air is fresh.
The birds are still there.
The air is fresh.
The birds are singing.
The temperature is just right,
Like a blanket of comfort.
It's a beautiful day,
Beautiful blue sky.
And you can hear the sound of running water.
The air is fresh.
The air is fresh.
It's a beautiful day,
Beautiful blue sky.
And you can hear the sound of running water.
There is a stream,
A gently flowing stream.
You watch the way the water moves between the rocks.
And it fills you with a sense of peace to be here right now.
If you find it difficult to imagine this place in your mind,
You can just use your thoughts to feel yourself in this peaceful place.
You see the branches of the trees gently blowing in the breeze.
What kinds of trees do you see?
Notice how with each passing moment in this beautiful place,
You feel more relaxed and more at home.
You feel safe here in this sacred place in your mind and your heart.
You feel curious to begin walking through the trees.
Maybe you're wearing comfortable shoes or you're barefoot walking on a soft,
Cool earth.
As you walk through the trees,
The light shines through the leaves and branches.
Radiant streams of light touching your skin from time to time and warming you all the way to the center of your heart.
It's so easy to feel grateful in this place,
This place that is just for you,
Where all is well,
Always.
You continue to walk,
Feeling deeply relaxed.
And you notice ahead of you,
There is a clearing in the trees.
You step out of the trees,
The forest or the jungle where you are into a beautiful,
Wide open space filled with sunlight,
An open field with wildflowers,
This place where you can feel free to be you,
To be curious.
You notice in the distance,
In this wide open space on this perfect day,
That there is a tree and it must be a very large tree because you can see it from where you are.
So you start walking toward this tree.
As you get closer and closer to this tree,
There is a feeling that fills you.
It's almost hard to put your finger on.
But then you realize it's a feeling of awe,
Of reverence.
There is something very special about this tree,
Very sacred.
There is something that reminds you of home,
Of a peaceful home that you may not even know in your conscious mind,
A home in your heart,
In your soul.
And as you reach this tree,
You are filled with awe,
Wondering why you feel so drawn to it until you realize that there is someone sitting around the side of the tree.
And it is you.
It is you as a child.
You have been here waiting,
Waiting for yourself for all of these years.
See this precious child that you once were.
What do they look like?
What are they wearing?
Can you sense how they're feeling?
What's going on inside of them,
In their mind,
In their heart,
In their precious body?
Look into this precious child's eyes and see yourself.
This part of you that has been waiting for you for so long.
And this child,
This part of you may be feeling hesitant to be with you right now,
May be feeling afraid,
May be feeling angry or resistant or maybe relieved.
With kindness in your heart,
Sit now with this part of you and ask this child,
This inner child that you still are,
If there's anything that it would like to say,
To express,
Give this part of you this child permission to let it all come out,
Everything that this child has been holding inside.
Give them permission to speak,
To express themselves now.
Listen with an open mind,
An open heart.
And if your inner child isn't saying much or anything at all,
Just stay with them.
Be with them,
Show them that you're here now.
Let your heart open,
Let it crack open.
And you can thank this inner child,
Your inner child,
In whatever way feels right.
Maybe you bow to this part of you or thank this part of you,
Or maybe you just embrace this part of you if they're ready to be embraced.
And now it's your turn to speak to your inner child,
Whatever it is that you wish to express.
Speak to your inner child now.
And we can all do this work,
We can all engage in this.
Speak to your inner child from your heart.
Be free with your inner child,
Be open.
Go beyond all of the stories and the doubts.
Be honest.
And now we can all do this work,
We can all engage in this.
Feel the sacredness of this moment to be here with your own beloved self right now.
This beautiful,
Precious child that you once were that still lives inside of you,
That has been waiting for you for so long.
Maybe you put this part of you away because you were afraid of being hurt emotionally.
Or maybe you hid this part of you away because you were afraid of being hurt physically.
Or maybe you were afraid of being embarrassed or judged and so you pushed this part of you away or put it into a closet and closed the door.
And you forgot,
You forgot that this part of you was waiting for you to return,
To say it's okay to come out.
I love you,
I'm here.
So however you wish in this moment,
If you do wish,
Invite your inner child into your heart,
Into your life,
Into your mind.
And if your inner child isn't ready yet,
That's okay.
Maybe you need to revisit this space more often to become reacquainted with your inner child so that they feel safe in your life to be with you.
However you wish now in this moment,
Whatever feels right,
Welcome your inner child.
Maybe you make a sacred place in your physical heart and welcome your inner child to live in this place.
Maybe you tell your inner child that you've missed this part of you so much and you want to be together,
You want to live with the joy of your inner child,
The curiosity,
The freedom,
The playfulness.
You want to laugh with your inner child and whatever way feels right,
Welcome your inner child into your heart,
Your life.
Feel this gratitude,
This tenderness.
This homecoming.
Now you do not sound this way.
Put your hands on your heart.
And a big hug right now,
And just offer gratitude to yourself for having the courage to be in this moment right now,
To be here with yourself.
And again,
Thank your inner child.
Deep gratitude,
Deep love.
Deep gratitude,
Deep love.
Deep gratitude,
Deep love.
This sacred space at the base of this sacred tree is a place you can return to as often as you wish.
It is your sacred place.
If your inner child is ready to come with you today,
Maybe you take the hand of your inner child,
Or maybe you hold your inner child,
Or tuck your inner child into your heart.
And if your inner child is wanting to stay in this place for now,
That's okay.
You can return here again and again.
Take a deep breath and feel a sigh of relief.
Begin to walk away from this tree with this immense gratitude as you start to walk back toward the tree line,
Maybe with your inner child in your hand or your arms.
Feel the warmth of the sun all around you,
This light holding you.
Find yourself at the trees again and begin to walk through the trees and the cool earth,
The light dancing between the leaves and the branches.
Find yourself all the way back at the stream again.
Feeling held in this ocean of love,
Tenderness,
Connection with your own beloved self.
Know that when you open your eyes and you feel the warmth of the sun,
Know that when you open your eyes in a few moments,
This place remains right here within you.
You can visit it anytime you wish.
If your inner child has joined you today,
Feel this wholeness of you.
And even if your inner child is still sitting at the tree,
Feel your wholeness knowing that you are bringing all parts of you into their oneness.
There is nothing missing.
There is nothing wrong with you.
Take a deep breath into the heart.
Inhale,
Exhale.
Relax your body,
Your belly,
Your heart center.
Very slowly begin to move the body with the eyes closed,
Become aware of the space around you and sense your body supported by the seat,
The earth.
Take as much time as you need.
And when you're ready,
Open the eyes.
If you can,
Then place your hands over your heart and speak with eyes open to your inner child and just say,
Thank you.
Thank you.
I love you.
I love you.
You're so precious to me.
I welcome you into my life.
I need you in my life.
I want you in my life.
I love you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I'm so glad you're here,
Tom.
I'm so glad to be together again.
Thank you.
Thank you for all for being part of this tender moment together.
Oh yeah,
Nke.
Yeah,
So many tears can come during this technique,
This meditation.
And you can return to it again and again,
And you may find the tears just keep coming until one day maybe there aren't tears.
The tears are good though.
Connection,
Release.
Thank you all so much.
I was having an experience recently,
You know,
The name of our circle is called Love Heals All.
The basis of most of what I teach is all about love healing all.
The heart of the teachings of my beloved teacher for over 20 years,
Or that,
You know,
Love is this core thing that is really here to help transform our planet,
Not here too,
But can transform our lives and our planet and everything.
And yet at the same time,
At least for me,
We all have different makeups,
Right?
We're all different constitutions and different personalities and the combination of all of those things.
And sometimes for me,
Even though I have this loving way that I am,
That I function,
Sometimes I don't feel those qualities of love.
At least in my own experience,
It's hard to speak on what it really is because it's all relative.
But like sometimes there just won't be that depth of tenderness or that depth of feelings of love or that I associate with love.
Of course,
What I'm speaking to are emotions,
But you know,
There's that love and that freedom of the heart.
And I had this experience where my heart really got opened.
For anyone who hasn't heard me speak on it before,
That's surely the reason that I started studying with Ma and really what drew me back to Ma again and again and again,
Is I would have profound experiences of my heart opening.
Even though I was already a very loving person and I grew up in a very loving family and all of these things,
There was something about being in Ma's presence that would crack my heart open.
And still to this day,
It's kind of like the,
I think for like just the sake of understanding something that's very profound and can't probably put in explanation,
It's kind of like this experience of where the heart gets covered,
Covered by protection,
Covered by judgments,
Covered by safety or I guess coming back to protection.
And whenever I am in the space with Ma,
It's like those walls fall away and there's just this beauty and this effortlessness and this grace and this tenderness and this vulnerability of the heart that just expands out into all of creation.
But there are usually layers of stuff that kind of need to be released and that's how much of the work we do together.
It's peeling those layers that we've built around our precious hearts so we can experience that glory of life.
To bring it full circle,
What I was speaking to is how there are times where I'm not really feeling those qualities of the heart and there's a tension that comes with that.
Maybe you could say,
I feel more stressed or I feel more agitated or I feel less of a sense of trust in life.
And then there's an experience that will come.
Like I had an experience recently where my heart just melted,
Not because I was trying,
But it just melted and I just felt free.
I felt in the flow of life.
I felt ease,
I felt greater trust.
I felt this warmth and this juiciness and this just enjoyment of the heart.
So it's a dance.
And what I'm really wanting to say and all of that that I just shared is that I really do believe love transforms all,
Absolutely heals all and transforms all.
When we truly move into the grace of the heart,
It transforms our lives.
Even if all of the things that we think we want don't change physically,
There's an inner transformation that makes all of life just so much more beautiful and enriched and something to just hold so close with gratitude and reverence and tenderness.
So I'm wishing that for each of us right now.
I'm wishing the grace of love to permeate our hearts and our minds and our bodies to completely engulf our entire beings so that we may remember.
We may remember how loved we are,
How supported we are,
How deeply cared for we are in each and every moment.
Every moment.
And it doesn't matter what you've done in your life,
What mistakes you've made,
It doesn't matter that you judge yourself or judge other people,
None of that matters.
None of that takes away how loved you are.
It doesn't take away how lovable you are.
It doesn't take away how worthy you are.
Being human is messy.
It doesn't take it away.
You are so loved and so precious and so beautiful.
There's nothing you could ever do to change that.
No matter how horrible of a mistake you could make,
It wouldn't change that.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you so.
