Inner Goodness

No matter what is happening in your life right now,

I want to remind you that you are brave and good and lovable.

I want to remind you that you belong.

If you're feeling too alone right now,

I want to remind you that you belong to this present moment and that you belong to this something bigger that is here as we begin this meditation time together.

It's easy to forget these innate truths about ourselves.

We may feel doubtful or skeptical.

We may have never known our own inner goodness in a clear,

Direct,

And reliable way.

Or we may often forget about it.

Things may take place with other people in our lives that cause us to look away from our goodness and turn toward the problems and the conflicts and stay focused there.

We may believe that our good is out there,

Lost in the unhappy relationship moments.

We may believe that we need to engage with others to get our goodness back.

This all makes sense because we care about people.

We don't want to cause any harm.

We care about peace and friendship and love.

Here's a secret I want to share with you about the gift of having a human life.

Right now,

No matter what is going on outside of us,

In our relationships,

In our communities,

In the world,

There is goodness here inside of us.

There is pure potential.

There's something innocent and curious and alive that is not dependent on any external person or circumstance.

Let's take a breath and see how that lands for you.

What if that could be true,

That all of those qualities are within you?

How does it feel to connect with yourself if that might be a reality for you?

What if independent goodness exists inside of you in this moment?

This is our opportunity to explore,

To see what's actually true for us.

Let's breathe.

Let's put our hands on our hearts and see if we can visit ourselves to experience what's going on inside,

In our heart,

In our mind,

In our body.

Take a gentle breath and imagine turning toward yourself,

Connecting with yourself.

See what happens when you spend a few minutes with this innate goodness inside of you.

The truth is that it's really hard to be a human being sometimes.

Other times it's amazing and extraordinary,

But the hard moments can be really hard.

We can feel discouraged,

Disconnected,

And too alone.

Those hard moments can collect and store up inside of us.

Isn't that a mystery?

Those moments can get tucked inside of us.

We can imagine them filling up little pockets of energy in our hearts,

In our minds,

In our bodies,

In our unconscious.

We can imagine little energetic safe deposit boxes containing significant moments from our history.

They could heal one day if and when the time is right for us.

When we learn to visit ourselves,

When we practice going within,

We don't have to dive into these stored historical places inside.

Oh no,

We can have a great respect for them and give them a lot of space.

We can choose where we place our attention.

The energy of healing is a patient force.

It has perfect timing.

When we practice going within,

We can discover what's here in this fresh moment.

Something new can arise each time we visit ourselves.

A thought,

An emotion,

A sensation,

A wish,

A need,

An insight,

A sense of quiet,

An energized inspiration.

This is a great adventure into the wonders of life.

We can be inner travelers voyaging into the infinite questions about how life is arriving in this personal spot on the planet.

Each one of us is an original spot in time and space where the life force can flow.

We can make ourselves more available to that experience.

It might seem like a miracle or grace,

But it is actually how we are created.

It can even become our new normal.

This is our opportunity to explore,

To see what's actually true for us.

Let's breathe.

Let's put our hands on our hearts and see if we can visit ourselves to experience what's going on inside,

In our heart,

In our mind,

In our body.

Take a gentle breath and imagine turning toward yourself,

Connecting with yourself.

See what happens when you spend a few minutes with this innate goodness inside of you.

Spending time with ourselves in this way may feel quite foreign.

We might feel more comfortable focusing on our family,

On our friends,

On the people and creatures we love.

Those are beautiful parts of our lives.

We aren't changing any of that.

We are adding to it.

What if we could share some of the warmth and care we have for others with ourselves?

We can start slowly.

There's no rush,

No need to impose anything on ourselves.

We can have a light touch when we bring our awareness toward us.

This is an energetic invitation.

The energy of care likes to flow.

It is designed to flow in all directions.

Out of us,

Toward others and also toward ourselves.

The energy of care gets bigger the more it has permission to exist.

It is an abundant exponentially expansive energy.

It wants to multiply and care more about everyone and everything,

Including us.

Sometimes energies get blocked.

That can happen.

Today we are bringing our gentle and curious awareness toward that too.

We can notice when energy flows easily and naturally and when it doesn't.

Every time we notice something,

It has the chance to soften,

To relax,

To open a bit more,

To ultimately change.

Everything wants attention,

Even our energy blocks.

We can learn this together.

We can practice.

It's an internal educational process so we can gain confidence the more we practice.

We also begin to realize that we aren't disturbing anyone when we privately check in with ourselves.

We can keep loving what and who we love and we can pay attention to ourselves with a new kind of caring.

This is our opportunity to explore,

To see what's actually true for us.

Let's breathe.

Let's put our hands on our hearts and see if we can visit ourselves to experience what's going on inside.

In our heart,

In our mind,

In our body.

Take a gentle breath and imagine turning toward yourself,

Connecting with yourself.

See what happens when you spend a few minutes with this innate goodness inside of you.

Sometimes it may feel difficult to access our inner good.

Sometimes we might not be able to find it.

It may seem eclipsed by stress,

Exhaustion,

Or big emotions like fear,

Sadness,

Anger,

And hatred.

We might feel overwhelmed and not know what to do in extremely challenging moments.

Our survival energy might be in the driver's seat trying to hold us together.

These survival energy moments matter very much.

We can learn to be with them,

To allow them.

We can learn to care for them because they are so worthy of our care.

We can start where we are with whatever is showing up for our attention.

If we feel small and need comfort or safety or companionship,

That's our first job.

We can bring the energy of care to those small places inside.

This is human of us,

Normal and natural,

To need care in difficult times.

Of course we prefer harmony and ease and flow,

But all of our lives have moments of challenge and pain.

When we care for ourselves in difficult moments,

Our goodness can be here too.

There is an opening for it to arise.

Every day we have the opportunity to remember ourselves and to remember our goodness,

And then we might forget.

This is the dance of life.

We go back and forth,

Back and forth,

Like the waves of the ocean or trees blowing in the wind.

We are here with ourselves,

And then we move away from ourselves,

And then we can come back.

We grow ourselves this way,

Through the back and forth times.

We grow our inner traveling muscles.

We grow ourselves up,

No matter how old we are.

Every time we remember to come back to ourselves,

To check on ourselves,

To bring a curious and caring energy to what is inside,

We grow.

This is our opportunity to explore,

To see what's actually true for us.

Let's breathe.

Let's put our hands on our hearts and see if we can visit ourselves to experience what's going on inside,

In our heart,

In our mind,

In our body.

Take a gentle breath and imagine turning toward yourself,

Connecting with yourself.

See what happens when you spend a few minutes with this innate goodness inside of you.

Change takes time,

Especially internal change,

And learning to treat ourselves with care from the inside out is one of the biggest transformational changes we can make.

So we do this slowly and gradually,

Bit by bit,

Moment by moment.

We are changing our inner landscape,

Our default behavior with ourselves.

As we practice,

We can have more and more moments of remembering ourselves and remembering our good,

Allowing it to be in our lives,

Giving it the chance to be here with us,

No matter what is taking place.

As a result,

Our inner goodness has the chance to take up more space in our lives.

Over and over again,

We start to feel touched by this care.

It can become part of what we do each day,

Even for two simple breaths.

These are breakthrough moments,

These little appearances of care for us.

We are creating space for more abundance to operate in our lives,

An abundance of care.

What we do with ourselves,

Consciously and unconsciously,

We will energetically do with others.

If we have caring energy inside,

We automatically and spontaneously share it.

We don't have to plan this.

It is our nature,

Our true nature,

To share what we have.

Inner caring energy has that effect on us and on the flow of warmth in our hearts.

More simply stated,

That's what love naturally does.

It grows.

So let's see what occurs in your inner experience as you courageously allow little moments of care for you.

Let's see if you experience a supportive inner resource of good.

I'm excited for you and the potential changes ahead.

This is our opportunity to explore,

To see what's actually true for us.

Let's breathe.

Let's put our hands on our hearts and see if we can visit ourselves to experience what's going on inside,

In our heart,

In our mind,

In our body.

Take a gentle breath and imagine turning towards yourself,

Connecting with yourself.

See what happens when you spend a few minutes with this innate goodness inside of you.