Good morning and welcome to the artist morning.
My name's Darius and I'm so grateful that you and I get this time together.
Today's meditation practice will be on the theme of self-acceptance and self-forgiveness.
There are many different approaches and philosophies around meditation.
And there,
In my opinion,
Is truly no right or wrong way.
All of it is an exploration of who we are,
Who we truly are.
Sometimes people go to meditations with the hopes of feeling better.
And that's okay if you do that.
I do that too sometimes.
Today's meditation practice will,
Instead of focusing on feeling better,
Will be an invitation to practice getting better at feeling.
It's a concept I first heard from author Michael Brown,
Who wrote The Presence Experience.
Feeling better versus getting better at feeling.
It's a powerful distinction.
That's enough of me talking.
Let's begin our meditation now.
Your eyes are open,
I'd like to invite you to gently close them now.
As we begin to go inwards together.
Give yourself a moment to land here,
Wherever here is.
It may feel familiar to you,
Whatever's happening inside.
You and I have never been here before.
In this moment.
This morning.
Let's take a deep breath together here and bring our attention to our heart.
Breathing into your heart now.
How is your heart this morning?
How is your heart?
Gentle reminder that all answers are welcome.
All feelings are welcome here.
All thoughts are welcome here.
All genders are welcome here.
All ethnicities are welcome here.
All of you is welcome here.
Take a moment to feel into those last statements.
Maybe there are parts of you that receive what I shared and open up and lean into this experience.
Those parts are so welcome here.
If those parts are willing to open just a little bit more and step into this experience just a little bit more,
I'd like to invite them to do exactly that.
Gently open and step in.
And maybe there are parts that contracted and closed and receded when I said those previous statements and they are so welcome here.
Those parts are allowed to step back.
Those parts are allowed to put up walls.
Your resistance is welcome here.
Take a moment to feel what it's like for your resistance to be accepted and welcome.
This space of radical acceptance.
This space of true unconditional love.
This space where I want nothing from you,
There's no judgment,
There's no demand to change anything or be any way.
This space lives inside you.
Each and every one of us has access to this space.
It's at your core.
Can you find that center space inside you that is deeply grounded,
Open and accepting of all of your parts,
Of all of you.
Taking a few deep breaths,
Deep breaths will bring you into the core.
Deep breaths will help you access your center.
Allowing a softness to fall upon your head,
Your face,
A gentle warm softness.
It's like a hug.
It works its way down your shoulders,
Your back,
Your pelvic region,
Your legs,
All the way down to your feet.
This soft warm grounded energy is deeply empathetic and accepting.
If you are open to it,
I'd like to invite you to place one hand on your heart,
One hand just above your belly button and just feel your own embrace.
It's almost like a hug.
You have got you.
You can support you.
You can love you.
You can keep your hands here or move them anywhere you'd like.
Taking a moment to really feel what's alive inside you,
Which energy is moving,
Is growing.
Notice it.
Feel it.
You're open to it.
Just accept it.
Don't try to change it.
And know that you can always come back to your center.
YouYi,
Right there.
Bravo,
Dear artist.
Bravo,
Dear creator.
It takes courage.
It takes patience.
It takes discipline to acknowledge and truly feel what's alive inside us.
It is a practice.
It requires practice because it's very easy to bypass,
To ignore,
To shame,
To judge,
To deny parts of us.
And often by doing so,
We cut off from our life,
From our life force energy.
We have one song left in today's meditation.
And I want to invite you in to allowing as much of what's real and alive inside you to just be the loving parts,
The angry parts,
The ambitious parts,
The shy parts,
The child parts,
All your parts.
They are welcome here.
They are needed here.
I'm going to stay quiet for the rest of this meditation and you get to decide how much of what's real and alive inside you,
You have capacity for today.
You don't need to push too far.
You can always come back to this meditation.
Trust your heart.
You can always come back to this meditation.
You can always come back to this meditation.
You can always come back to this meditation.
You can always come back to this meditation.
You can always come back to this meditation.
Bravo,
Dear artist.
Wherever you went,
However far you traveled,
However much capacity you happened to have this morning for your feelings,
For your parts,
For your aliveness,
I honor you,
I respect you,
And I'm so grateful for you and for this time together.
For those of us joining live at the artist's morning,
I'm going to put 20 minutes on the clock and allow us to do some private personal journaling.
Maybe there are parts of us that would like to share something with us and they can do so through our morning pages.
If you're joining on a replay,
Perhaps on insight timer,
Of course you could do the same,
Put some time on your clock and see what's here.
Thank you for meditating with me.
My name is Darius and I'll see you next time.
