Hey there everybody,
This is Kristen from Teaching Balance and I am here with you with this week's mindfulness meditation practice.
And as you know we are in the month of self compassion.
We're a couple weeks in and it occurred to me that it would be rather remiss of me to not have a month focused on self compassion and not actually do a self compassion practice.
Now I know some of you have done some of our kindness compassion practices in the past and maybe you've accessed them in the library which they actually have their own category.
I would highly encourage you to take a look at that.
But what I thought I would do even though kindness and compassion often has a quality of the practice itself,
Often includes self compassion and also includes compassion for others,
I thought what I would do is more of an extended remix of self compassion.
So let's play with that and see how it goes and you might find this to be very much of benefit.
If at any point you're just kind of not feeling this one,
Remember as always you can anytime just sit and meditate while we're doing our 10 minutes and then you know do your own thing as needed.
So let's go ahead and get started.
I'm gonna set the timer for 10 minutes.
If you haven't already please find your seat.
Sitting upright but not rigid,
Shoulders back,
Spine long and if you'd like to you can tilt the chin down just slightly resting the hands wherever it's comfortable in the lap and knowing at any time you're more than welcome to shift and change.
And speaking of posture,
When it comes to compassion it's very common to invite participants to put one or both of their hands over your heart center.
So you can do that if you'd like if you prefer not to you can just leave your hands in your lap and you can also start this way and if your arms get tired or it gets uncomfortable you can also just put your hands down at any time.
So as you're settling in I'm gonna encourage you as always to take those few deep luxurious belly breaths allowing you to relax at least a little bit and drop more fully into your body.
And as you allow yourself to connect with your body whether your hands are there or not I'm gonna encourage you just to notice your heart center area so that area around in the center of the chest and if you'd like you can breathe into that area so to speak.
Breathing in while keeping that part of your body in your mind and in your awareness.
And for this guided practice I'm gonna ask you to begin by thinking of an individual for whom you have great fondness and warmth.
Could be a family member,
A friend,
A child,
Even a pet.
Allow yourself to choose someone who you don't have too complicated a relationship where there's a real ease of warmth and affection.
And if you have the blessing of having many many to choose from just pick one randomly.
You can do the other ones later.
I'd like you to picture this person or this individual as though they were sitting across from you seeing them gaze at you.
And what I'd like for you to do is allow yourself to send warmth,
Kindness and compassion to that individual.
We're gonna begin with this as a way to prime our self compassion pump getting warmed up.
So as you picture this individual I'd like for you to say in your mind the following words but if you'd like to change them you can.
May you be well.
May you feel safe and be at ease.
May you be happy.
Really allowing yourself to feel that affection and warmth and kindness projecting out from you to them.
Once again may you be well saying in your mind.
May you feel safe and be at ease.
May you be happy.
Feeling what it feels like to send out that kindness and compassion to this person.
And I want you to hold this individual in your awareness and what I'd like for you to do as you see them across from you in your mind's eye.
I'd like for you to allow yourself to hear them saying these same words from them to you.
So from their mind to yours they send you the following words.
May you be well.
May you feel safe and be at ease.
May you be happy.
And allowing yourself to feel that warmth those kind wishes from this individual from them to you.
It's easy to imagine it.
Hearing it once again coming from them.
May you be well.
May you feel safe and be at ease.
May you be happy.
And next when you're ready I'd like for you to release this awareness of the other individual and I'd like for you to picture yourself whatever way feels comfortable.
Imagine what you look like as you're sitting here and knowing that we're gonna be sending compassion from ourselves to ourselves.
I want you to envision the version of you that it feels very comfortable and easy to accept that compassion from yourself.
In many cases people find that if they picture a younger version of themselves when they were a child it's that much easier for them to send and accept love,
Kindness,
And compassion for that younger version of themselves.
So saying the following from yourself to yourself.
May I be well.
May I feel safe and be at ease.
May I be happy.
And checking in with that heart center do you feel it feeling the warmth radiating outward in the same way that it did for a loved one and are you feeling yourself receiving the warmth and kindness in the way that you received it from that loved one because you are the loved one here.
Once again changing the words if you care to.
May I be well.
May I feel safe and be at ease.
May I be happy.
Feeling the warmth generating outward and inward.
And for one final time I'd like for you to change those words in whatever way makes sense.
So take a moment to send words of warmth and affection to yourself at this time.
And as you're saying these wishes of warmth and kindness from yourself to yourself not only feeling what it feels like to generate that compassion also feeling what it feels like to receive it and to accept it without any qualifiers accepting the warmth and the compassion and the kindness from yourself without any conditions allowing yourself to imagine the possibility of this true depth of kindness and compassion not only now but taking it out into the world with you.
So let's just rest in that sensation for a few moments before the final bell.
Okay so that was a compassion kindness practice somewhat of an extended remix focusing on the self compassion.
That practice I wouldn't be surprised if you haven't done it before either here with me in one of the other recordings or in some other context.
There are a few ways to go about it but I really like doing everything possible to really just create that hopefully slow warm burn if you will of the kindness and compassion.
Some traditions don't really they just go right into the self compassion and that's fine but I like to I like to like I said kind of kind of do a slow build up with some of the compassion sending it outward and then receiving it before you have that same experience with yourself.
So I hope that you found that to be a benefit and of course as always thank you so much for taking the time for yourself.
Thank you for allowing me to accompany you on this journey and I will see you next time.
Take care,
Bye.
