The Compassionate Acceptance Meditation.
Choosing whatever posture is most comfortable.
Again you can sit on a chair with the feet flat on the ground or perhaps on a book or yoga block if that's more comfortable.
You can also do this meditation lying down but I'm going to guide it as if we're sitting.
Again it's fine to move a little during the practice if you need to.
I invite you to take up your position where the pelvis is in neutral and the back is a little away from the chair.
So that the spine can rise with dignity and the weight of the body can settle into gravity.
Beginning to feel the contact with the ground through the feet and with the seat through the chair.
With each out breath allowing the weight to settle down into the pelvis.
And with each in breath perhaps the spine can grow a little taller so that the body becomes still and dignified.
Moving only with the sensation of the breath.
Are you aware of the breath in the whole body?
Can you allow yourself to be rocked and cradled by the breath as it flows in and out?
Noticing the breath in the front of the body,
In the back of the body and in the sides of the body.
Can you feel the breath deeply inside?
Resting your awareness inside the breath as it gently moves and rocks the body.
And with great tenderness now gently opening your awareness to include any pain,
Discomfort,
Fatigue or whatever difficulty you are experiencing.
Bring a gentle kindly attitude of awareness with the breath.
What you would naturally feel for a loved one who was hurting or injured.
Softly breathing with this tender gentle awareness for a few moments.
If you feel resistance or fear,
Breathing with gentle kindly awareness with that resistance or fear.
Coming back to the breath in the body again and again.
Gently with the breath accompanying your discomfort,
Surrounding it with breath and kindness.
Until any resistance or tension or pain becomes more yielding,
More fluid,
More pliable than you realised.
All the time the body rocked by a tender breath.
Can you investigate sensations as they are changing and flowing?
With this gentle breath you may discover that your pain or discomfort is not as widespread as you thought.
Perhaps you discover some sensations have aspects that are pleasant such as tingling.
Perhaps you feel relief with the breath that you are finally turning towards your difficulty and meeting it with kindness and curiosity rather than being locked in a battle with it.
Are any thoughts and emotions about your pain or difficulty arising?
Notice how they too are continually changing and flowing.
Can you let them come and go as the breath comes and goes,
Neither suppressing them nor over-identifying with them?
Everything held in a kindly breath,
Changing moment by moment.
The breath cultivating an attitude that is patient and gentle and tender.
If at any point you are feeling overwhelmed you can broaden your awareness to bring in sounds or smells.
If you are feeling a little blocked or numb towards your difficult experience,
Perhaps turning towards it with a little more focus.
Be curious about the actual sensations,
Thoughts or emotions you are having and soften around them.
Use the breath to soften resistance,
To soften tension.
Imagine that the breath is soothing,
Allowing it to naturally dissolve away resistance,
Hardness or tension even if just a little bit.
And we saturate the breath with self-compassion.
As we breathe in,
Kindliness flowing into the body.
And as we breathe out,
Kindness seeping ever deeper,
Saturating the body with warmth and compassion.
And in this way we breathe in and out with kindliness,
Care,
Tenderness and compassion towards ourselves.
Allowing the whole body,
Including any pain or discomfort that may be present,
To be rocked and cradled by the breath.
And if your experience is still dominated by resistance,
Allowing that to be saturated by the kindly gentle breath.
Accepting all of your experience with great tenderness.
And now coming back to the sense of the body sitting,
The weight of the body on the chair.
The contact with the ground and the sounds around you.
And whenever you're ready,
In your own time,
Opening your eyes.
