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The Joy of Self-Compassion

Allow yourself to feel the joy of resting in the sensations of your body and the flow of your breath.

Let's start by finding a comfortable posture for this practice, whether in the traditional seated position or in some other position that feels comfortable for you right now. May be lying down or otherwise. This practice will support you in cultivating joy and exploring how self-compassion practices can help you sustain joy in your own life. So let's begin by becoming aware of the sensations of the body in the posture you've chosen. And inviting the mind to rest on the sensations of the body, as it rests in contact with the seat or other structure.

And through all of that, the ground below. And letting the mind rest on the sensations, perhaps gently noticing the sensations of the in-breath as you breathe in. And the out-breath as you breathe out. And perhaps taking one or two deeper than normal breaths for you to support you and allowing the mind to just come home to the sensations of breathing and sitting. And resting on the sway of the flow of the in-breath or the out-breath.

Wherever you happen to find yourself in this moment, and then continuing to follow along gently. Allowing attention to rest in breathing in and breathing out. And as you breathe in and out, and notice the way in which impact of breathing can be known. Or just sensing into the breath itself and what it feels like for you in this moment. Noticing as you breathe in and out, perhaps one subtle way in which the breathing in and affects the sense of the body and the mind in this moment.

Seeing if you can become aware of the impact of a cleansing breath in. Perhaps lightening, brightening the mind. And the impact of a full breath out. Allowing yourself to feel the joy of just letting go of thought in this moment, of any plans, any judgment. Just allowing yourself to really be here now.

Inviting awareness of what it feels like to gently allow yourself to be present to the sensations of simply breathing and sitting. Noticing any thoughts that arise in these few moments. And for this practice, allowing the thoughts to really be the least. Perhaps imagining releasing them into the earth, letting them fall away, or if it helps, perhaps imagine each thought dropping onto a leaf and that leaf falling into the stream of water, rolling on by, and just floating away. Or it might help to have the image of a thought rising, floating up and drifting off, as you might imagine, reflecting and seeing a cloud drifting off against a peerless blue sky.

And so the invitation then is to, again and again, as often as is necessary, smilingly and lovingly bring the attention back from thoughts, planning, any subtle judgment that may have come up, any stories. Realizing that the moment that you notice that the mind has wandered off and gotten engaged in one of these ways, noticing that, and gently bringing the attention back. That is a moment of mindfulness. And indeed, it's a moment of self-compassionate mindfulness. We are cultivating the will and then the action of alleviating our own suffering by meeting the movement of our mind, the engagement with thought when we've chosen to sit and meditate.

Meeting that movement with kindness, with love, with understanding. Yes, this is what the mind does. It's like this. Smiling, and letting go of any judgment or narrative about how bad you are at meditation, anything else that could be coming up. And just gently as you would, perhaps with kindness, offer a kind of support for a young child to come back, to sit.

Or maybe a puppy you're trying to train and potty train. You might just imagine bringing that puppy back gently right here. A wandering mind, somewhat, as many have called it, like a monkey mind, kind of moving to and fro, grasping on this and that. The invitation is to meet that movement with love. Bringing the attention right back home to the sensations in this moment of breathing in and breathing out.

And resting, relaxing, lovingly allowing yourself to come home to the present moment. With each momentary focus on the sensations of breathing and sitting. And now, if you're willing, the invitation is to allow the sense of the attention to focus it more broadly now on awareness of the body as a whole as you sit. Breathing in and breathing out, perhaps allowing the focus on the sensations of breathing to fall a little bit into the background and bringing to the fore a sense of the body as a whole. Perhaps noting it, noticing again the points of contact between the body and the seat beneath you or the bed or cushion.

And the floor beneath that and the ground beneath that. Or you might be noticing the skin and the sensations at the level of skin. Maybe a breeze at the cheeks or the hands. The feeling of clothing or cloth resting on the elbows or around the waist. The sensation of tightness somewhere in the body.

The invitation is to perhaps in the next in breath, noticing all of these subtle ways in which we are just fully spaciously resting in this moment. And allowing again as we breathe out, to let go of any particular narrow focus. Expanding the sense of the awareness to take in the body as a whole, breathing and sitting. And feeling again the joy. Just allowing yourself to rest in this way of the sensations of your life in this moment.

And as we begin to bring this meditation to a close, just gently noticing the way in which allowing yourself these few moments of gentle awareness of sitting and breathing. Also, it may deliver a sense of the pleasantness. Just resting, letting go of thoughts for just a few minutes and coming home to the present moment right here, right now, with a deepening commitment to allow in yourself the ease of resting in awareness. Keep practicing like this with love for your own experience in these moments. Thank you for your practice.

Be well, until we meet again.

Meditation

4.4

The Joy of Self-Compassion

Allow yourself to feel the joy of resting in the sensations of your body and the flow of your breath.

Duration

Your default time is based on your progress and is changed automatically as you practice.

Let's start by finding a comfortable posture for this practice, whether in the traditional seated position or in some other position that feels comfortable for you right now. May be lying down or otherwise. This practice will support you in cultivating joy and exploring how self-compassion practices can help you sustain joy in your own life. So let's begin by becoming aware of the sensations of the body in the posture you've chosen. And inviting the mind to rest on the sensations of the body, as it rests in contact with the seat or other structure.

And through all of that, the ground below. And letting the mind rest on the sensations, perhaps gently noticing the sensations of the in-breath as you breathe in. And the out-breath as you breathe out. And perhaps taking one or two deeper than normal breaths for you to support you and allowing the mind to just come home to the sensations of breathing and sitting. And resting on the sway of the flow of the in-breath or the out-breath.

Wherever you happen to find yourself in this moment, and then continuing to follow along gently. Allowing attention to rest in breathing in and breathing out. And as you breathe in and out, and notice the way in which impact of breathing can be known. Or just sensing into the breath itself and what it feels like for you in this moment. Noticing as you breathe in and out, perhaps one subtle way in which the breathing in and affects the sense of the body and the mind in this moment.

Seeing if you can become aware of the impact of a cleansing breath in. Perhaps lightening, brightening the mind. And the impact of a full breath out. Allowing yourself to feel the joy of just letting go of thought in this moment, of any plans, any judgment. Just allowing yourself to really be here now.

Inviting awareness of what it feels like to gently allow yourself to be present to the sensations of simply breathing and sitting. Noticing any thoughts that arise in these few moments. And for this practice, allowing the thoughts to really be the least. Perhaps imagining releasing them into the earth, letting them fall away, or if it helps, perhaps imagine each thought dropping onto a leaf and that leaf falling into the stream of water, rolling on by, and just floating away. Or it might help to have the image of a thought rising, floating up and drifting off, as you might imagine, reflecting and seeing a cloud drifting off against a peerless blue sky.

And so the invitation then is to, again and again, as often as is necessary, smilingly and lovingly bring the attention back from thoughts, planning, any subtle judgment that may have come up, any stories. Realizing that the moment that you notice that the mind has wandered off and gotten engaged in one of these ways, noticing that, and gently bringing the attention back. That is a moment of mindfulness. And indeed, it's a moment of self-compassionate mindfulness. We are cultivating the will and then the action of alleviating our own suffering by meeting the movement of our mind, the engagement with thought when we've chosen to sit and meditate.

Meeting that movement with kindness, with love, with understanding. Yes, this is what the mind does. It's like this. Smiling, and letting go of any judgment or narrative about how bad you are at meditation, anything else that could be coming up. And just gently as you would, perhaps with kindness, offer a kind of support for a young child to come back, to sit.

Or maybe a puppy you're trying to train and potty train. You might just imagine bringing that puppy back gently right here. A wandering mind, somewhat, as many have called it, like a monkey mind, kind of moving to and fro, grasping on this and that. The invitation is to meet that movement with love. Bringing the attention right back home to the sensations in this moment of breathing in and breathing out.

And resting, relaxing, lovingly allowing yourself to come home to the present moment. With each momentary focus on the sensations of breathing and sitting. And now, if you're willing, the invitation is to allow the sense of the attention to focus it more broadly now on awareness of the body as a whole as you sit. Breathing in and breathing out, perhaps allowing the focus on the sensations of breathing to fall a little bit into the background and bringing to the fore a sense of the body as a whole. Perhaps noting it, noticing again the points of contact between the body and the seat beneath you or the bed or cushion.

And the floor beneath that and the ground beneath that. Or you might be noticing the skin and the sensations at the level of skin. Maybe a breeze at the cheeks or the hands. The feeling of clothing or cloth resting on the elbows or around the waist. The sensation of tightness somewhere in the body.

The invitation is to perhaps in the next in breath, noticing all of these subtle ways in which we are just fully spaciously resting in this moment. And allowing again as we breathe out, to let go of any particular narrow focus. Expanding the sense of the awareness to take in the body as a whole, breathing and sitting. And feeling again the joy. Just allowing yourself to rest in this way of the sensations of your life in this moment.

And as we begin to bring this meditation to a close, just gently noticing the way in which allowing yourself these few moments of gentle awareness of sitting and breathing. Also, it may deliver a sense of the pleasantness. Just resting, letting go of thoughts for just a few minutes and coming home to the present moment right here, right now, with a deepening commitment to allow in yourself the ease of resting in awareness. Keep practicing like this with love for your own experience in these moments. Thank you for your practice.

Be well, until we meet again.

Meditation

4.4

Duration

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