Welcome,
Sweet beings.
We are here to practice a little gratitude for the body.
And if you've been practicing with me for a while,
You know there is something that I absolutely love about metta meditation as well as heart-mind coherence.
And it's this practice of connecting to the heart,
Both of them.
And so we will do that today together,
But just in a little bit different way.
And so I invite you,
As we often do,
To come into a comfortable position.
Relax your body against the floor or lean your back against a wall.
You might prop yourself up with pillows or come into a seat.
Relax the shoulders,
Soften the jaw,
Maybe close the eyes.
And as you come into this more restorative position,
I just want you to take a moment to place a hand or maybe both hands to your heart space.
When we do that,
We automatically start to shift the attention to the heart.
This is the place that we most often associate with love and compassion and gratitude and kindness.
In our day-to-day,
It's very easy to look into the mirror and criticize ourselves.
As a matter of fact,
Our culture has done a really great job of programming us to believe that we are not enough.
Our bodies become too small or too big or too weak or too strong.
We carry too much pain or too much joy.
And before you know it,
Our days are filled with that criticism,
Filled with fighting the natural state of our body.
But this practice together today,
With your hand to your heart,
I want you to find reverence for your body.
I want you to begin to cultivate a little bit of gratitude for all that your body does,
For the digesting of food,
For the carrying of weight.
Perhaps you yourself have carried a baby in your womb.
Think your body for walking the miles that it's walked,
For dancing,
For lifting,
For swaying in a breeze and laying on the ground,
The way it's leaned in and helped other beautiful beings,
For the way that it's given you permission to rest,
For the way that it's grown as you have grown.
Pay reverence to all of these beautiful things that your body can do.
Fill your heart with gratitude and love.
Imagine that it can radiate out through your entire body,
From the tip of your toes to the very top of your head.
Thank you for holding this pain.
Thank you for holding so much joy.
Thank you for expressing kindness.
Thank you for holding me in the times of chaos.
Thank you for honoring the times I've needed to be strong.
Thank you for taking rest when the body has felt weak.
Keep cultivating,
Keep finding that gratitude deep within yourself.
We do this even when it's challenging.
We do this even when it's the most foreign thing that we know.
We do this even if we've done it a million times before.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
And it might be that you rest here in this place of reverence for quite a while.
And it might be that you're ready to move on with your day,
Your morning,
Or your night.
I will leave you here in this space of gratitude,
Of compassion,
Of love,
Of kindness.
And say,
From my heart to yours,
Namaste.
