So,
Let's put ourselves somewhere comfortable,
Where our arms and legs are comfortable and they can be still for a little while.
Have a little fidget.
And we'll take one or two deeper breaths,
Letting our spine expand a little bit on an inhale and relaxing into our seat a little bit on an exhale.
Muscles of our face,
Our shoulders comfortable.
See if we can find a balance between relaxed and alert.
Not so relaxed,
We go to sleep.
Not so alert,
We're gritting our teeth.
And we'll breathe.
And we'll notice how it feels to bring our attention inwards.
I always find it a great relief.
How am I today?
And the different aspects of my being.
Acknowledging.
See if we can accept ourselves as we are in this moment.
I invite you to imagine a column of light from the infinite sky above you coming into the crown of your head,
Into your heart.
The same from below,
Connecting you to the earth.
And each time you inhale,
We're drawing energy,
Light,
Prana,
However you want to frame it,
Into your heart.
So we're inhaling energy to that column,
Into the centre of our being.
Noticing how it feels to do that.
And then as we exhale,
We can imagine that energy flowing out from our heart,
Like ripples.
Firstly,
It's filling us,
Our body,
Our energy field.
It's flowing out into the world around us.
The breath is comfortable.
And the energy flows with the breath.
Inhaling energy into the heart.
Exhaling it into the world.
Releasing that practice and resting for a moment before we begin to explore this model of compassion that the Buddhists have developed.
With a breath or two.
And we'll use ourselves as the object here,
With compassion for ourself.
And although that may sound a little selfish,
It really isn't.
Because if we cannot have compassion for ourself,
We're unlikely to have it for anybody else.
And so we start with us.
Foundation,
Sympathy.
So we can imagine,
Acknowledge that we have pain,
That we have difficulty.
That can be very hard to do because we have to face our difficulty to do that.
So don't worry if it feels difficult.
It is.
But we hope to grow through the process.
So just breathe.
Acknowledge there is suffering of all kinds.
We're going to explore those painful feelings a little bit.
Sometimes we're tired,
Hopeless or angry,
Frustrated.
All of those reactions are valid.
Although most of us push them away.
Don't want to experience them.
Or even sometimes acknowledge their presence.
And that's understandable.
But we must acknowledge them to deal with them,
To allow them to be processed.
And leave,
To move past them.
So if we can allow ourselves to recognise some of that,
Then we do well.
Well done me.
No,
I didn't like that painful feeling,
But there it was.
And it might have caused me to do things that I didn't like.
Yeah,
That happened too.
Well done.
And we now start to add on some more layers or to understand this in more depth.
So our next stage is to accept that there is suffering.
How does that feel?
Hard to accept there is suffering,
Although it's unavoidable.
It happens all the time.
Can we allow it to be for a moment?
Yes,
That happened.
Then I invite you to notice the judgments that come up.
So that might be something like,
I don't want it.
It's bad because da da da da da da.
Your anxious mind may fill in a whole load of things,
Reasons why it's bad.
I'm not saying you're right and I'm not saying it's wrong.
I invite you to notice those judgments.
And we pay attention to that because it drives a lot of our behaviour.
Well,
I don't want that,
So I'll do this.
And for a moment,
We're trying to expose all those inner workings,
Taking the lid off,
Seeing all the machinations,
Creative process to try and stop the suffering,
Make it all clear,
And taking all those judgments without judging them,
Without making them right or wrong.
And we just put them down,
Put them aside.
So you might imagine chucking them in the bin,
Giving them to God,
Letting them float away in a balloon,
Or any other version of them being put aside that works for you.
Maybe you imagine throwing them in the fire,
Being transformed,
Whatever works.
I have a basket at the end of my bed where I throw things I can't deal with,
And I ask Source,
God,
Universe to look after them for me.
We notice how it feels to put them down and strongly link to those judgments.
Almost all of us will have many attachments,
And by which I mean things,
Situations,
Criteria,
Things that I think I need to be happy,
To lead a satisfying life,
Things I think I need.
And your mind might be saying,
Well,
Of course I need these things.
It's okay.
No one's saying it's right or it's wrong.
We're just noticing,
Making it all clear,
Because it drives a lot of our behavior,
A lot of action.
So we notice where we have these attachments,
And let's put those aside,
In whatever method works for you.
And once we've cleared away some of those judgments and attachments,
I hope you'll notice some peaceful quietness,
Some ease.
The last layer of our compassion for self is to hold a space for a greater outcome.
So just a word of caution here is that in doing this,
We can reactivate,
Pick up all those judgments and attachments.
So I would visualize that greater outcome as an empty space,
Empty hands,
Empty bowl,
Into which something better might flow.
If it works for you,
You might even turn your palms upright,
Uppermost,
Your hands open.
So we're embodying that just as we breathed in that light at the beginning,
Allowing that energy to fill us at the beginning.
Let's do that again now.
It's going to fill that empty space,
Filling the space we've created with light,
Love,
Prana,
Energy,
However we would like to experience it.
I'm resting there for a few breaths and we're going to start to prepare ourselves to re-enter the world.
We're going to pick up most of that baggage again,
But we can put it down again at will.
So we're trying to remember that.
Take one or two deeper breaths and imagine those breaths bringing movement into our body.
Move our fingers and toes,
Arms and legs,
Having a little stretch and returning to our regular state of consciousness.
Thank you for practicing with me.
