Expanding Our Hearts

Recorded live, on Friday, May 1, 2020, this guided meditation focuses on breathing deeply into our hearts. Loosely based on Tonglen, the ancient Buddhist practice of "sending and taking," we breathe in our feelings of pain and sadness with compassion and empathy for others in the world, knowing millions of other people are experiencing the same feelings. On the exhale, we send presence, peace, feelings of surrender, and love to others; to the world.

The original music is composed by Kristen Williams.

Transcript

Expanding,

A guided meditation by Tara Herrick Brown.

Original music composed by Kristin Williams.

Begin by taking a few deep breaths in through the nose and out through the nose.

Breathing in through the nose and out through the nose,

I invite you to continue this breath through the nose tonight.

Settling into your chair or your cushion wherever you may be supported tonight,

I invite you to settle there.

And it's nice to feel what support feels like.

And so I invite you to really just tune into that point where your sits bones meet your cushion or meet your chair.

And just for a moment,

Tune in to that space.

Tune into the quality of that space.

As you breathe here in this present moment,

Feel your support.

When we meditate,

It's not important to have strong,

Tight muscles.

We simply sit erect by having our hips slightly above our knees and our spine straight,

The top of the head flat as though it's reaching off parallel to the sky.

Some people like Twin Vision that there's a hole here at the top of the head of the crown chakra and that there's a string elongating out the top of the head.

And you can imagine it flowing all the way out through the cosmos,

Maybe finding your home star.

Imagine that all the light is pouring down through the top of your head and pouring down through the spine and then allow it to sit at the base of the spine for a moment.

Just feel what it feels like to hold yourself upright without any stress or tension.

Simply the awareness of that tube of light as your support.

The chair as your support.

And I invite you to bring your awareness now to the middle of your forehead,

Slightly between and above your eyebrows.

And I just want you to breathe here,

Noticing the sensation at the third eye and breathing.

Now I want you to allow yourself to investigate the body.

We often look for a place of tension to focus on,

But tonight I want you to find a place of ease,

A place that you can breathe with utter ease where it doesn't feel painful or tight in any way.

Your body just breathes easily and comfortably,

Feeling the rise and the fall of your chest.

I want you to sit in that ease for a few silent breaths.

And as you breathe in this ease,

I'm going to ask you to notice,

To remember that place,

To remember that you always have a place to return to,

To find ease and comfort in the body.

So if things feel too difficult,

I'm first going to invite you to breathe more deeply into the discomfort.

And I'm always going to suggest you try to go deeper all the way through.

But if in this moment tonight that feels too challenging,

Return to the place of ease.

Know that you have a place of comfort in your body.

And when you feel ready,

Return to that point in your heart,

Perhaps that point of pain or discomfort.

So I'm going to invite you to settle into the heart right now,

Into the place at the center of your chest.

Really notice the rise and the fall of your chest.

And I want you to feel your heart expand.

With each breath,

Feel that heart space expand just a bit more.

Perhaps you can find the awareness in the center of your chest,

But with each breath,

Maybe it grows.

Maybe it's just behind the skin at this point.

Then you continue to breathe.

And maybe you've been able to take a breath to expand just an inch out.

Wherever you are in the place of the heart is perfect.

We have to remember that we have to find our own loving selves in order to be capable of giving and receiving love.

And that's what we're doing tonight.

We're connecting with this place of the heart so that we can give and receive.

Giving and receiving with each breath.

When we're in the place of the heart,

Sometimes we get stopped.

Sometimes we feel blocked.

We feel betrayed.

Maybe in this current situation,

We're feeling betrayed by the world.

Why is the world doing this to me?

Why is the world doing this to all these innocent people?

When those feelings of betrayal come up,

I invite you to really feel them.

So often we try to push them down or push them away or ignore them.

But I want you to feel what it really feels like.

Or maybe it's the earth.

Maybe you're feeling a deep sorrow and sadness for how devastated our earth has become over the last several decades.

And you can feel a glimpse of the earth breathing differently.

Maybe that brings you into sorrow or fear.

And how will things change once all the social distancing is through?

Are we going to go back to our old ways?

Will the earth continue to be spoiled?

Maybe there's a sense of sadness there.

Or maybe this pandemic has affected you personally.

And you're struggling with the tension that brings up between you and a loved one.

Perhaps you didn't get the closure you needed with a loved one.

Perhaps this loved one,

The relationship was complicated.

And so you're feeling sad for yourself that you never got to make that right.

Or you feel guilty that those feelings of betrayal are inside because you didn't find a point of forgiveness.

And if you feel a tear rolling down your cheek,

Let it roll.

We need to grieve.

We need to feel the pain in our hearts and the sadness in our hearts.

So often our hearts get blocked.

We protect them.

We put up walls.

We try to stay safe.

We push people away.

We feel like others haven't earned our love.

So we withhold.

And this is the time to feel into that feeling of withholding.

This is not the time for withholding.

This is the time to expand.

But you can feel what that feels like to withhold,

To deny,

To reject.

There's so much in the collective conscious right now.

We can feel others' pain,

Confusion,

Isolation.

We are a collective one.

My pain is your pain.

And this is the practice of really feeling it.

Allow yourself to really breathe in and fill yourself with that feeling of pain or sadness or rejection or isolation.

As you exhale,

If at all possible,

You're able to connect with the feeling of expansion,

Of love,

Of forgiveness,

Of understanding,

I invite you to send that.

And maybe first send it to the person who's closest in proximity to you,

Perhaps in your house or in the apartment next door.

When you return to that feeling of depth,

Notice the quality as you breathe in,

The quality of these deep feelings,

These dense feelings.

And settle into that understanding that we are one,

That one mind,

That one heart,

That one pulse.

It's all here.

And breathe.

We are love,

We are made of love.

It's our purpose in this world to give and receive love.

As you exhale,

Connect with that quality of love.

You have an infinite supply of it.

You are the infinite supply of it.

Trust this.

Trust this and settle into the heart.

Settle into the one heart.

Sometimes it feels as though I'm settling into arms of support,

As though Mother Earth has her arms holding me.

The universe has its arms holding me.

We are always supported.

And we must move into the trust of that.

So from this place of the trust,

The one heart,

The one mind,

The idea that we are love,

Connect with that breath.

Connect with the breath.

As you breathe in,

Connect with those feelings again,

Those feelings of fear.

Sadness.

As you breathe out,

Sending that love,

Start small.

Tune into your immediate surroundings and then expand out.

Maybe as you breathe in,

There's a fear of death.

Maybe you're an essential worker and you've been on the front lines.

Know that there are millions of others that feel this same fear.

Practice tonight for them.

Feel it in your heart and send that love that you know you are to them as you exhale.

Breathe in and breathe out.

And going to be quiet for a few moments.

And on your own,

Breathing in the sadness,

The fear,

The darkness,

The hopelessness,

The isolation,

Your loved ones for your community,

For the world.

Start small and expand as you go.

Settling into the one mind as you do.

Settling into the one heart.

The pain that I feel,

I know you feel.

The love that I am is the love that you are.

Breathing,

Expanding,

Trusting,

Loving.

Your mind begins to wander.

Connect with your breath.

As I'm breathing in,

I know I'm breathing in.

And as I breathe out,

I know I'm breathing out.

And as you move through the expansion,

I invite you now to really sink in to that one mind and one heart and move your awareness as though you're visualizing the Earth.

Perhaps you're sitting upon your favorite star or a nearby planet and you see Mother Earth and all the people here.

All the people here experiencing these feelings and you send your love.

You expand and you radiate all that you are.

And you pour and pour your love to them.

Allow this to radiate through every pore in your body.

This love,

This expansiveness.

The key for opening the heart is I forgive all betrayals.

So if it feels like there's a wall of resistance,

Move into this place of forgiveness so that you can send that love forward.

Love.

Expansive love.

And send it out bigger.

You are infinite.

Your heart is infinite.

Deeply connect with this quality of the heart.

Sometimes when you're in the deep expansive state,

You get a deeper feeling like an inkling from the hip.

And it's nudging you to return to the feeling of sorrow.

Maybe it was a deeper pain,

Deep and buried in the unconscious.

Or perhaps a thought came to the mind of a loved one and you want to return to the pain in order to move through it to find peace.

This is your personal journey.

Being guided to go exactly where you need to go.

Being guided to feel exactly what you need to feel.

Breathing in the pain,

The confusion.

Breathing out the peace and the love.

And continue until you are yet again expansive,

Just radiating that pure golden white light.

And as you radiate,

I invite you to envision a smile inside your mouth.

Inside your mind.

Inside your heart.

Perhaps even the corners of the lips turn up as you do.

And make that smile.

Smile of peace and presence.

And oneness and knowing and love.

Namaste.