Hey there everybody,
This is Kristin from Teaching Balance and I am here with you for this week's mindfulness meditation practice.
And we've been talking about self-compassion and one of the things that I believe we spoke about recently is the idea that self-compassion is really a combination of self-acceptance and self-kindness.
And so I wanted to focus on the self-kindness piece for today's practice.
It's interesting because of course it's easy to say like,
Oh we should be kind to ourselves.
But what exactly does that mean?
Is it about not believing that inner critic,
Which of course is useful.
But it could also be about being kind to ourselves when it comes to taking time to prioritize our self-care for example.
And that's the direction actually that I'd like to go in.
So what I'd like to do is have us do our meditation and then at the end just respond to a couple of questions that might help you to find some clarity about how you can be a little bit kinder to yourself at least in terms of the choices that we make.
So let's go ahead and get started.
I'm going to set my timer for 10 minutes.
Allowing yourself just to settle in,
Eyes closed or gaze lowered.
Sitting upright but not rigid.
Fingers back and down so we expand the chest to get ready for the three wonderfully deep breaths that we're about to take.
So to the best of your ability,
Go ahead and fill the lungs.
The bottom of the lungs to the top and then emptying them from the top all the way down to the bottom.
Knowing some days it's easier than others,
Just trying to do the best that you can right now in this moment.
And then after you've taken those several deep belly breaths,
Allowing your breathing to resume its natural rhythm.
Noticing where you feel the breath,
The gentle rising and falling on the inhale and the exhale.
And knowing also you can rest your awareness on sounds,
Observing from moment to moment whatever sound waves make contact with your eardrums.
And then of course you can also rest your awareness on physical sensations in the body.
One part perhaps like the hands or feet.
Or you can hold your body in its entirety in your awareness.
Whatever feels good for you.
And letting go of any expectations about this whole experience.
Not comparing it to a previous practice or thinking about what you wanted to get out of it and instead just accepting and surrendering to however it is.
Wherever you are,
Whatever you're coming to the table with,
Allowing all of it and just observing whatever is observable in relation to being present in this moment right now.
So I'm going to ask us just to sit in silence for a while and then I'll come back with the self kindness piece of our practice.
Six seconds.
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