Welcome to this guided compassion meditation.
So starting by finding a comfortable place for yourself.
Sitting upright,
Relaxed.
Focusing the attention in the body.
And noticing where you are right now with your attention.
And is it possible to gently bring it to the contact points of the hands and the feet.
Sensing the sitting bones.
And feeling yourself sitting here right now.
Moving the attention along the centre line of the body.
The axis from the top of the head down into the deep abdominal area.
From the back of the head down the spine into the sitting bone.
Noticing the whole lower part of the body from the hips all the way down into the feet.
Releasing,
Relaxing down.
Noticing the upper body from the lower back all the way along the spine up towards the shoulders into the head.
Leaving the arms relaxed.
Hands relaxed.
Now see if you can bring a gentle focus to the fact that you are breathing.
Perhaps putting a hand on your chest and on your belly and just noticing the gentle movement within the body.
The gentle rising and falling with each in and each out breath.
No need to change anything just being with the breath exactly the way it is right now.
Using the breath as a focal point to rest the attention.
Whenever the attention wanders we can gently bring it back into an alignment with the breath and so on the body.
When the attention is focused we can also open up to a wider awareness that includes the senses around us.
Noticing what we can hear right now.
The sounds that are present.
Not analyzing just receiving their comings and goings.
Volume,
The rhythm,
The layers of the sound.
Keeping the awareness relaxed with what we hear.
No need to get involved.
Just sitting here and observing whatever is happening in each moment.
Being as open and receptive as possible.
Noticing the comings and goings of sound.
But still connected to the body and the breath.
Including everything that we are experiencing.
Fully being with it without getting caught into it.
Whenever you feel the attention being pulled away by the mind just bring the focus back into the breath,
Into the body.
And then see if it is possible to allow everything the way it is right now in this moment.
The way the mind is,
The body and everything we perceive outside of ourself.
We can use some compassionate wishes that allow ourselves to be exactly where we are right now.
May I allow my mind to be as it is.
May I allow my body to feel as it feels.
May I allow myself to be just as I am right now.
May I allow everything around me to be the way it is.
See how these wishes resonate with you.
There can be an act of kindness and self compassion.
And if you notice a certain resistance towards the wishes,
Just noticing the resistance and see if it is possible to allow the resistance to be present.
A paradoxical wish can also be used.
May I allow myself to feel the resistance.
May I allow myself to be really tired.
May I allow myself to be bored or annoyed.
So using these self compassionate wishes for yourself or any wishes that you would like to add.
And also maybe playing with the paradoxical wishes and see what happens if we are allowing ourselves to be with everything.
Without judging the experience,
Just noticing this is what's happening right now and that's okay.
Creating space by saying yes to whatever it is we perceive.
There's no right or wrong way of being.
With compassion we're allowing ourselves to be as we are without trying to get rid of anything.
Or thinking we should be different.
Learning the capacity to be with ourselves in this intimate and kind way can lead to an acceptance of ourselves and a deeper knowledge that we're not defined by our mind states.
Rather that they are as fleeting as sound,
Thoughts and everything else.
Who does experts speak to keeping the mind steady andstrom into reality?
