Heart-Centered Meditation

Connect to the innate wisdom of your Heart through the breath and cultivating love and appreciation.

Transcript

Heart-centered meditation.

Begin by finding a comfortable position,

One in which you can be relaxed but not so relaxed that you fall asleep.

Remove yourself from any potential distractions such as cell phones,

Computers,

Or devices that might interrupt this process for the next 10 to 15 minutes or so.

Taking a deep breath,

And as you exhale,

Allow your eyes to gently close.

The first part of this heart-centered meditation involves scanning your body,

Feeling into your body.

So we are going to scan the body without judgment.

Starting at your feet,

Notice and attend to the sensations you are experiencing in your feet.

Notice the sensations here.

There might be heaviness,

Tension,

Temperature.

Without judging,

And without trying to change anything,

Simply enter into the experience of the feet and observe it.

Noticing the ankles,

The calves,

And the shins.

Moving up to the knees,

Perhaps you can feel the straightness or the bend of the knees.

Noticing the thighs,

The hamstrings.

What are you feeling in the hips,

In the groin,

And the pelvis?

Notice the desire to adjust or to change,

But simply be present to what is arising now.

Allow your attention to move toward your back,

The low back,

The mid back,

The upper back.

What are you feeling in the spine,

The shoulder blades?

Moving your awareness now to the front of your body and turning your attention to the belly.

Perhaps you can notice as it rises and falls with the breath.

What about the chest,

The torso,

The rib cage?

See even the sides of the waist from the hips all the way up to the armpits.

Noticing the shoulders,

The upper arms,

The bend of the elbow.

What are you feeling in the forearms and the wrists and the entire hand?

What are you experiencing now?

Allowing your attention to drift to the neck,

The throat,

Internal and external.

Notice what you're feeling in the jaw,

The lips,

The tongue.

How are the muscles of the face,

The muscles around the ears and the back of the head?

What about the eyes?

You can feel them resting in the sockets.

What about the forehead,

The space between the eyebrows,

The scalp?

Can you notice the sensations of the entire head all at the same time?

And how about noticing the sensations of the entire body all at once?

Then observe sensations without judgment,

Without any need to adjust,

Alter or change.

I invite you now to narrow the focus of your attention and draw your awareness to the chest or heart area.

See if you can allow your attention and awareness to settle here.

Perhaps you feel the rib cage expanding with the breath.

Maybe you feel the lungs fill with air.

And if you can,

Sense the area around the heart or the heart itself.

Maybe you can feel the heart beat.

Or maybe you can feel the energy emitting from the heart.

Simply rest your awareness in the heart and heart field.

There's nothing you need to do.

Simply be present to the heart beat,

The heart field,

Or maybe simply the movements of the torso and rib cage.

And now we're going to move into the process of breathing into the heart.

Imagine if you can that the breath moves in and out through the heart.

While you know the breath enters the body through the nose or mouth,

Imagine if you can that the breath enters and exits the body through the heart itself.

As the breath comes in through the heart,

Front,

Back,

Top and bottom,

Imagine it traveling throughout the entire body and mind.

You can imagine the breath as a wave,

A healing wave that enters the heart and this wave washes over any tension in the body and mind.

It picks up the tension and carries it away.

Imagine if you can this healing wave just like a wave on the shore.

The shore can be riddled with footprints,

With seaweed,

With sticks and twigs and seashells.

This healing wave washes over the shore and smooths it out,

Carrying any debris out into the ocean.

So breathing in this healing wave,

Allowing it to caress away any tension,

Distress,

Or dis-ease,

Washing the mind and body clean like that wave and taking any of that debris back out into that universal sea on your exhale.

The inhale brings in that healing wave and with each exhale you find yourself more and more relaxed,

More and more at peace.

Allow yourself to focus on this process of the healing wave entering through the heart for another minute or two.

Breath comes in through the heart,

Travels throughout the entire body,

Picking up any distress,

Tension,

Or dis-ease,

Leaving the mind-body more relaxed and more at peace.

Now that the mind and body are more and more relaxed,

We're going to cultivate love and appreciation.

For this step,

Take a moment and call to mind someone or something that you love and appreciate without question.

This could be a friend,

A family member,

It could be a place in nature,

An animal or a place,

Or it could even be a quality you possess in yourself that you appreciate or love deeply.

As you call this to mind,

Imagine dropping the image of this person,

Place,

Or thing into your heart.

Connect with the image and allow that feeling,

Sensation of love and or appreciation to expand and grow.

Once you connect with the feeling of love and appreciation,

Allow the image to dissolve and simply let yourself ride the waves of love and appreciation.

You can even allow the breath to continue to move in and out through the heart,

And every time it enters through your heart,

It carries that feeling of love or appreciation to all parts of the body and mind.

The breath comes into the body,

It catches the wave of love and appreciation,

It travels throughout the body,

Increasing it,

Making it grow.

Simply allow yourself to focus on this process for at least a minute.

In this final step,

We connect with heart-mind wisdom,

And we ask the heart for guidance.

If you like,

You can skip this step,

Or if there is a question for which you wish to receive guidance and insight,

You can follow along.

Once again cultivating the sensation and feeling of love and appreciation.

And now,

It's time to ask the heart-mind for insight.

Examples of questions could be,

What do I need to be well?

What are my symptoms trying to tell me?

What does my higher self wish me to know?

What is necessary for me to be at peace now?

What must I believe?

What must I know to find peace in this moment?

Simply ask one question of your heart-mind.

Drop the question into your heart and wait for the answer.

Answers can take any form,

A word,

A phrase,

A sound,

An image,

A body sensation.

Insight can arrive in a moment,

In a flash,

Or within several minutes or days.

Simply be patient and gentle with yourself and your heart-mind.

Simply ask the question,

Step back,

And allow.

Before we end this session,

Take a moment to offer gratitude and appreciation to yourself and your heart-mind.

Again,

Breathe in and out through the heart,

Sending it love and appreciation for itself.

And then,

When you're ready,

Take one or two breaths deeply,

Consciously,

And intentionally.

Then slowly open your eyes as you come back into the present,

Awake,

Alert,

And ready to continue your day.

Reviews

Very beautiful! Thank you.

Wonderful exciting way to start your day

I need more time to process each step. I Loved the mediation, though. Exactly what my doctor literally ordered for healing physical pain.

Beautiful meditation.

Perfect to start my day! Thanks.

Amazing! I will be coming back to this practice often.

Great guided meditation.

Thank you Brad! Great way to start my day.

Very relaxing. Thank you, Brad .

Liked this meditation. Will definitely do it again.

Thank you for the peace this has given me. I needed to get out of my mind and this did it. Peace