Hey there everybody,
This is Kristen from Teaching Balance and I am here with you with this week's mindfulness meditation.
And so we are now in a new month,
It is the month of February,
And because February is so often associated with romance and love and things like that,
I always like to have the February theme be somehow love related,
And of course because so much of what we explore,
Not only internally and on the cushion,
But also in our everyday lives,
Tends to be a little bit more self-focused,
I like to really take a peek at,
From a variety of angles,
The idea of self-love.
I've done certainly monthly themes that are about self-love,
We've done self-compassion,
But when I was reflecting on the specific word choice that I wanted to make and the thing I wanted to zoom in on for this month,
I have to admit the word self-acceptance felt very strong in my awareness,
And I think that self-love is fantastic,
And it's all very interwoven obviously,
I think self-compassion is really a combination of self-love and self-acceptance,
But I don't know,
I'm just kind of in this space right now where I really want to emphasize the idea of self-acceptance.
So we're going to look at it from a few different angles.
This week,
What I thought we would do is start off on a smaller scale,
So certainly we're going to expand and look at it in some slightly bigger sort of 30,
000 feet from above types of views,
But for today I'd like our exploration of self-acceptance to be very focused on our practice.
So I think the phrasing that I came up with for this week is,
Accepting the meditator that you are now.
Now what I mean by that is,
Of course,
With practice,
We all generally tend to become more skillful in whatever we do with any consistency,
Of course,
And that includes meditation.
So we're going to look at that,
And that includes meditation.
But there is also not this very linear from point A with a straight line up to point B growth that's automatic.
It is much more an up and down,
And dare I say,
Even like a loop-de-loop in all the different ways that we might be feeling more confident in our meditation practice and then something disrupts it,
Or we feel like we're kind of getting the hang of it and then there's some new tricky element to it for whatever reason.
I think that's just the way it is.
And a big part of sticking with your practice and being consistent with your practice,
In my opinion,
A really big tool for that is to not put a lot of pressure on yourself and to really make the choice to be accepting of whatever your practice is like on any given day.
So you've heard me in the past talk about let go of expectations,
Don't compare this sit to a different sit or that other time or whatever it might be,
And just to be honestly very thoughtfully and honestly present to and accepting of whatever,
However it is that day,
However you show up,
However your practice shows up,
And there's something very freeing about that.
Now you could certainly see where you could take this in another direction and talk about how freeing it would be if we truly could accept ourselves,
All of our perfect imperfections,
And we'll talk about that,
But right now let's kind of keep it focused on our practice.
So a lot of my prompts and a lot of the things that I'm going to invite you to use as guidelines if you will for our sit today are really going to be about that.
So some of the things I've already said,
Some of which I have yet to say,
But I think you'll hopefully find it to be freeing,
Like we've said.
Alright,
I'm going to get my timer all set up for 10 minutes and let's go ahead and find that posture that feels alert but also relaxed.
If you're sitting upright either on a cushion or a chair,
There's certainly going to be this quality of sitting in a way that,
I like to think of it as being rather regal,
Not tight and constricted,
Intense,
But also not too,
You know,
Smooshy,
Slouchy.
The phrasing that I hear often is sitting in a way that exemplifies your inherent dignity.
If you haven't already,
Let's take a few long slow deep breaths,
Allowing yourself just to settle in.
We talked a little bit about the various anchors that you can rest your attention on,
Like the breath or sounds or other body sensations.
So just choosing whatever feels easy.
And as I referenced before we began,
Allowing yourself,
If there's any quality of expectation or even hopefulness about this particular practice,
The sit,
I'm going to invite you to loosen that.
Just lighten it up.
If not,
Let it go completely.
Let go of any comparing,
Any striving.
If anything,
You can even think of it as taking the easier route,
Which is to just be present to how things are as they are.
So let's rest in that for a little bit.
As you continue to practice,
Continue to come back again and again.
Every time your mind wanders,
Knowing that's just a part of it and knowing there's no need to beat yourself up or be hard on yourself when you wander into thought.
And also acknowledging some sits,
It's going to feel like your mind is all over the place,
Particularly if there was something you were dealing with or doing before that's still lingering for you.
There's something that you know you're going to have to do shortly thereafter.
That's just a part of it.
You don't need to try to relax or try to focus.
All you need to do is observe and acknowledge and accept.
Perhaps you're feeling like your mind is racing,
Or your body is twitchy with nervous energy.
Maybe you're feeling very,
Very sleepy.
All of that is where you are in this moment.
The invitation for this practice is just to be aware of and accepting of for this short amount of time how things are without trying to fix it or improve it or change it in any way.
And allowing that not fixing,
Not changing to be a gift to yourself.
You're taking a rather luxurious break from that constant evaluating,
Adjusting,
Tweaking.
This is the break.
You're just letting yourself be.
So let's sit with that for a little while and I'll check back one more time.
Noticing where the mind is now.
If it's wandered into thoughts or ideas,
Plans or memories,
That's fine.
For this final minute or so,
I'm just going to invite you to come back,
Reground yourself in the present,
And just be with how things are until you hear that final bell.
All right,
That's our 10 minutes.
So welcome to the month of self-acceptance.
If you remember from last week,
We were talking about this idea of 10%.
So even if you want to explore the concept of self-acceptance and ways that you might apply that,
Even if it's only 10%,
10% more,
10% less,
That could be kind of an interesting thing to do.
So as always,
Thank you so much for taking this time for yourself and thank you for allowing me to accompany you on this journey.
I will see you next week.
Take care.
Bye.
