Get in a comfortable seated position.
Gently relax your eyes.
You can even close them.
You can let your hands rest on your thighs with your palms facing up.
See if you can release any unnecessary holding in your thighs,
Hips,
And belly as you notice your contact with the seat.
Feel your body supported by the seat beneath you.
The premise of today's meditation is that you are courage and to honor the goodness in yourself.
You are the ability to look at difficulty,
Pain,
Discomfort without looking away and also without being consumed by what you see.
Take a few easy breaths in your nose and out your mouth,
Letting your jaw relax and soften.
Continue to allow your breath in and out.
Begin to notice your chest and abdomen expand with an inhale and contract with an exhale.
Notice if your breaths are long or short.
You don't need to control or judge them.
Just become aware.
If your mind wanders at any point,
Just notice it and bring it back to your breath,
Thinking of your breath as your natural centerpiece of awareness.
Now,
I'd like to invite you to bring awareness to the center of your chest.
Notice how this area feels as you breathe in.
You don't need to name the quality of the breath,
Just becoming sensitive to what you feel at the center of your chest.
Let your awareness shift upward from your chest towards your head and now just a little beyond the crown of your head,
Letting your awareness stay one,
Two,
Three inches above the crown of your head.
Take a few breaths with your awareness here,
Elevated above your head.
This space is the space of consciousness,
A space that's universal,
The body of the universe.
You can think of it even as the heart of the universe or also think of it as the sky of consciousness.
You can connect the space of your own heart at the center of your chest with this space of this universal body just above your head,
Like a rainbow,
From your heart to this space above your head.
Focusing again on the center of your chest,
Begin to feel your breath moving as if it could come directly in towards your heart and leave directly out from this space,
Moving up above the crown of your head to the sky of consciousness.
Inviting your breath to enter through the center of your chest and then as you exhale,
Let your breath leave,
Slowly rising up through the crown of your head.
Prepare for the space just beyond your head.
Taking in what's in front of you as you breathe in,
Pausing to feel it at the center of your chest and offering it up,
Letting it go as you breathe out.
Taking it in,
Pausing to feel it in your chest and offering it up,
Letting it go as you breathe out.
This breathing pattern will be the bulk of our practice.
In through your heart,
Resonate at your heart and out of your head,
Resonate with the body of the universe.
As with any breathing practice,
If at any point you find yourself breathless or it becomes difficult,
Pause and return to your normal breath.
You can pick the practice back up at a pace that works for you.
Having practiced this technique of breathing,
Let's journey a bit deeper.
Now take a moment and contemplate the goodness within you.
Maybe it's a time you demonstrated care or compassion for yourself or for others or perhaps it's a time when you let go of something holding you back.
Just be open to the truth of your own experience.
Feel a love for yourself that loves as is.
You don't need to pretend things are other than they are.
Offer friendship to yourself.
Now with this thought of goodness,
I'd like for you to breathe it in,
Feel this loving kindness in your chest and heart,
Holding it and releasing it up,
Offering it to the universe.
Repeat this pattern,
Breathing in love and compassion,
Holding it and offering it up.
It's your birthright to feel love and happiness.
Any stresses or fears are an intrinsic.
Returning back to your breathing pattern now choose some suffering that you're aware of.
Maybe it's something you feel,
Some discomfort or the pain of someone you love,
The pain of a stranger whose story you heard on the news.
Whatever the suffering,
I invite you to take it in,
Hold it at the center of your chest and when you breathe it out,
Offer it up.
Take it in,
Hold it at the center of your chest and let it go,
Offer it up.
This suffering or difficulty as you offer it up,
Know that it is being transformed.
Just allowing it to come in,
Holding it with care at the center of your chest and then releasing it with compassion,
It will not consume you.
You can be open to everything with the healing force of love and compassion.
Now let your awareness stay just above the crown of your head,
Continuing to take breaths in and out,
Aware of the universal space elevated from your head,
The body of the universe,
The space just above your head.
Take this next breath in deep at the center of your chest,
Hold it,
Suspending it as you feel energy build.
Exhale and allow this breath to expand in your chest and radiate out.
Let's continue to spend a few moments exploring this flow of breath in and out of your body.
Taking it in,
Holding it at the center of your chest.
As you feel energy build,
Exhale and radiate it out.
We're going to begin to return back to the room.
I'm going to count backwards from three.
Three.
Begin to move your toes and fingers.
Two.
See if you can savor the feelings of your meditation practice,
Knowing whenever you experience difficulty,
Pain or suffering,
You are courage.
You can take it in and you can transform what you feel.
One.
Gently at your pace,
Open your eyes.
