How To Hug The World

This meditation is all about generating love and expanding it to yourself, to your family, your friends, your country and finally the world. Inspired by the ancient teachings of Stoic Philosopher Hierocles. This mediation is sure to make you feel more connected than ever.

Transcript

Hey,

It's Doug.

Welcome to another meditation.

This one is designed to make you feel more connected to the world around you and everyone in it.

Grab a seat,

Get comfortable,

And let's meditate together.

So from a nice comfortable seat,

Just find yourself breathing in and out through the nostrils,

Opening the eyes to close.

As with so many of my meditations,

This one starts with a little story.

The Stoic concept of oikiosis refers to what we let into our lives.

Now this starts with self-preservation,

Something all animals have.

We all want to stay alive,

And one way we do that is by being careful about what we let in.

What foods,

What germs,

Even what thoughts.

But oikiosis also refers to who we let in.

The root word of oikos from oikiosis means household.

So a good way to think about this is how we let things into our house and who we let into our house.

The Stoic philosopher Heracles put forward this concept of the expanding circle of concern.

In this theory,

He puts forward that we all start by looking after ourselves first,

As a self-preservation.

But as we mature,

It's important that we start to concern ourselves with the needs of others.

We then start to think about our family,

Then our friends,

Then our fellow countrymen,

Maybe people in our continent,

And then the entire world.

We expand the circle of concern further out from us continually.

After we do this,

We then collapse that circle and we bring the concerns of all those people closer to us,

So that we recognize the similarities between our needs and the needs of society as whole.

By doing this,

We become a citizen of the world,

As opposed to just an atomized individual in the world.

Sounds a little bit confusing.

You'll get the idea.

The point is,

We're going to expand our circle of concern with this meditation.

So let's do that together now.

Begin by simply placing your right hand on your heart.

Breathe in and out through the nostrils if you can,

And then bring those eyes to close if they're not already.

Begin just by watching your inhales and exhales,

Making them calm,

Making them relaxed,

Making them smooth.

I want you to start by checking in with yourself.

Ask yourself,

How are you doing?

No right or wrongs here,

Just putting forward that question to yourself with a genuine interest.

You can rest your mind on thinking about your breath until you get an answer.

There's no rush here.

As that answer begins to materialize,

I want you to honor it.

And you can do that by leaning in to the feeling,

Exploring it.

If you're tired,

Where do you feel this tiredness?

If you're excited,

Where in your body do you feel excited?

Is this feeling constant?

Or does it come and go?

You can use these lines of inquiry or anything else that comes up for you.

Just lean in to the experience.

Alright,

Great.

Now next I want you to extend some love towards yourself.

Imagine your level of self-compassion as a recently extinguished fire in your heart center,

That place just underneath your left hand.

You can feel the residual heat on the palm of your left hand,

But imagine breathing in and out of that heart center.

And with each breath,

You stoke that recently outed fire.

Imagine with each breath,

The coals of that fire get a little bit brighter.

Maybe the ash comes off a bit more.

Each breath,

They get brighter and brighter,

And warmer and warmer.

And now you can feel that fire bursting into flames.

You can feel the warmth and you can feel the light coming off it.

Extend some self-compassion towards yourself now.

You can do this just by generally feeling this feeling of appreciation and love towards yourself.

Or you can use a mantra.

I'll give you an example of some words I use,

But you can use your own too.

You can imagine saying the words to yourself,

I deserve love.

I have love.

I deserve respect.

I have respect.

I deserve acceptance.

I am accepted.

I'll do that again.

I deserve love.

I have love.

I deserve respect.

I have respect.

I deserve acceptance.

I am accepted.

However you chose to extend the self-compassion to yourself,

Just feel like each breath,

Each word of the mantra you chose is like a log being placed on that small self-compassion fire you just started.

Each extension of love is like fuel to that fire.

It's getting bigger and bigger the more you love yourself.

Okay,

Great.

That fire is burning nice and bright,

Nice and warm,

Nice and strong.

Imagine that warmth and light from your heart center now traveling through your right hand and filling your entire body,

Traveling up towards your head and then down towards your feet.

Now imagine that warm,

Bright love energy is just flowing out of you.

Each breath,

The light and the warmth extend further.

It now is totally engulfing you.

You're like that human torch.

Keep breathing and imagine that light and that warmth is getting bigger and bigger until it encompasses your entire house,

Wherever you reside.

Now begin to imagine all those that have lived in your house with you,

Your family from when you were young and your family now.

Imagine each of them,

Their faces,

Their smiles,

Their smells,

Their mannerisms,

Their needs and their desires.

Imagine them receiving everything they need.

Imagine them bathing in this love that you have generated.

See how it impacts them to have this love,

This consideration from you.

You can slowly pick out the faces from the family one by one,

Just acknowledging their happiness.

Great work.

Now do the same for your friends.

Imagine them in that house,

That warm,

Bright house.

Imagine the glow that comes from it.

Imagine how it lights your friends' faces and then imagine them too being bathed in your love.

The joy of seeing each other,

Hugging,

Laughing,

Playing,

Maybe even crying.

Again,

Pick out those faces.

Make this vivid.

Great work.

Now I want you to imagine that all this love has generated even more fuel to that fire and that self-compassion combustion is expanding even further out until it encompasses your entire village or town.

That warm,

Bright light of yours is like a sphere over your town or village.

Imagine the people you see from day to day,

The people in your neighborhood.

You may or may not You may or may not know their names.

You see them walking their dogs.

You see them commuting to work.

You see them walking their kids on the way to school.

Maybe you see them delivering the mail.

Whoever it is,

Just imagine them being enveloped by this love.

Imagine them happy and content and grateful for life,

Hopeful for the future.

Okay,

Imagine this bright light now growing even bigger,

Stretching over the entire country you live.

Imagine this love and joy spreading to each person in your land,

All the different types of people,

Young and old,

All the different animals,

All the creatures.

Imagine how each of them may act if they receive this love,

How they might conduct themselves.

How do you feel seeing them so joyful?

This warm,

Bright light is getting even bigger still,

Covering your continent and then the entire earth,

All the nations near and far,

All living beings from every corner of the earth,

Every landscape,

From the deserts to the jungles,

To the sea and to the sky.

All covered by your love,

Your care and your respect.

Imagine all of these creatures,

All of these people,

Touched by your love,

Your care and your respect.

Now slowly begin to draw this warm light back towards you,

Covering now only your continent,

Then just your country,

Now only your village,

Coming back only into your household,

Covering just your friends and family,

And now just you.

Let that warmth and light recede now from your body,

Down back into your heart space.

As you do so,

Can you recognize the need for your love,

Care and respect?

Can you recognize the ways in which you need it,

The ways in which your home needs it,

The ways in which your country needs it,

The ways in which the world needs it?

Can you also appreciate your capacity to provide it?

Now can you open your eyes and go make it a reality?

Namaste.

Reviews

What a great way to start the day!
Thank you for your guidance.

Perfect, especially so on this Christmas day. Thank you. 🙏☮

I absolutely loved this meditation. By the time it was finished I was so full of warmth and love and just connection. What a great way to have a midday break. Thank you so much Namaste 🙏

How wonderful! I haven't thought of oiyokos in years! What a perfect time for this refresher and time to explore it again. Thank you🙏