Welcome to this meditation.
The focus of today's meditation is self-advocacy.
The ability to be able to stand with yourself for yourself and negotiate for what you need.
So as you arrive in this meditation,
Take a moment to just look after your needs here.
Any shuffles or moves,
Anything you need to do for your body or your being to become more comfortable or less uncomfortable.
Whatever is going on for you in this moment.
It can be helpful to just soften the focus of your eyes or ease your jaw,
Shuffle your shoulders,
And then shuffle your sitting bones.
Just to get a sense of that,
Yeah,
Yeah that's better.
All the way down to the tips of your toes,
Just to remind your brain of the other end of your body.
Yeah,
Breathing in and breathing out.
Yeah,
In Buddhism we talk about the seeds in our store consciousness and how we can water and nurture those seeds to strengthen those qualities or aspirations that we have.
Self-advocacy is an important component of our relationship with ourselves.
So let's get curious about how that feels for you in this moment.
I want to honour and recognise the courage that it may take for you to be able to do this.
And that's also another seed or other aspects that you can nurture and cultivate.
And as you care for those seeds in the garden of your being,
Watering those and not others.
You are in a way advocating for a stronger and sturdier relationship with yourself.
Because the first place of self-advocacy is actually advocating for ourselves with ourselves.
Yeah.
Our relationship with ourselves is the only one that is with us from our first breath to our last.
Every single breath of the way.
No other relationship is with us to this extent.
So caring for that relationship,
Recognising our own worth,
Cultivating our self-love,
Along with self-advocacy are the key components that help us to strengthen this relationship.
So self-advocacy builds on self-care in terms of recognising our needs and then being able to advocate to have them met.
To be able to ask and negotiate for whatever input or support we need in order to be able to care for ourselves well.
It may be negotiating with a loved one or a family member.
It may be in a work context or a social situation.
Or it may be with health professionals or government,
Civil servants.
Whatever aspect of life we show up in is likely to require some level of being able to advocate for ourselves.
To be able to state,
This is what I need.
And then negotiate to have that need met.
It can take a lot of courage to advocate on our own behalf.
And when our seeds are still quite small or the plant of our self-advocacy isn't quite strong and steady yet,
It can be helpful to seek support and get help from somebody who can advocate on our behalf.
That in itself is also self-advocacy.
To ask somebody for help to help you do this.
Yeah.
Advocacy is also about boundaries.
The boundaries of your time,
Your energy and your focus.
And asserting and negotiating.
How you want to use that time and energy and focus.
Yeah.
Your time,
Your energy and your focus.
These are really important aspects of what you have to take with you into your day.
With a breath and possibly leaning into compassion for yourself.
Have a little look.
How confident are you feeling that you can advocate for your needs?
How confident are you feeling about advocating for your time,
Your energy and focus?
Notice the areas where you are able to do this.
There will be some.
Yeah.
Recognizing that it's likely that you would like to be able to do this more.
That's okay.
That's what you're doing here.
Watering the seeds of your ability to advocate on your own behalf.
Connecting with the part of you that knows what you need to do and how you need to do it.
Even if that means getting in help from somebody who can then clarify that for you further.
We don't always need to have all the answers all the time.
Yeah.
And as you recognize the advocacy that you're already able to do.
And recognize that it may not yet be as strong and sturdy as you would like it to be.
My invitation to you is to recognize and acknowledge all the same that it is there.
And that you have those seeds within you.
And that by nurturing and watering the seeds of self-advocacy,
Getting a sense of how it might feel.
When more and more of the time you are able to come from a place of self-advocacy.
And it becomes more effortless.
Yeah.
Until that is how you spend most of your time.
Yeah.
As we come to the end of this meditation,
Give yourself a moment to absorb and observe.
What you are thinking and feeling,
What you are learning about yourself,
With yourself and for yourself.
Remember,
Feelings are information and that it is more helpful to be curious than critical.
