Gently close your eyes if they are open and let us begin by taking three deep breaths.
Inhaling through the nose and exhaling through the mouth,
Releasing any thoughts,
Any energy from the night and allowing yourself to settle into your body.
Being here now in community,
Gently notice your breath return to its natural rhythm.
Become present to the rise and fall of your chest,
The air entering your nostrils.
Notice the quality of your breath.
Is it warm or cool,
Moist or dry?
Perhaps it is shallow or deep.
Notice the breath without judgment to become attuned to where you feel the breath most strongly in your body.
Let us rest there for a few minutes,
Becoming curious to the nature of the breath.
As thoughts arise,
Return to the breath.
Return to the sensations in your belly and in your chest.
Relax any areas of tension that you might feel by breathing into those areas,
Perhaps in your shoulders or in your jaw.
Now begin to scan your life.
Scan your life for situations or relationships where you've turned on yourself.
It might be for how you are behaving as a partner or as a colleague,
A friend or a parent,
A situation where you're down on yourself,
Perhaps at work,
Where you're judging yourself.
Scan your life for a situation where you're telling a story that you're unworthy or not okay.
And allow your attention to go there,
To go to that place.
Get close to this situation and feel the sense of living within the mindset that you should be different,
That something's wrong or that you're not okay.
We begin the reign of self compassion by recognizing that this is a story that you're telling,
A trance where you're against yourself,
The thoughts and the feelings,
And allowing these to all be here right now.
As we recognize that we're in this trance,
In this state,
We bring ourselves to be closer to it so that we can investigate with curiosity and gentleness what it's like when we're telling ourselves this story,
The story that I should be different,
That it's my fault,
That I'll always fail,
What core belief is underlying this situation or this story.
And now feel the experience in your body of this core belief.
Notice the feeling in your throat or your belly,
Perhaps in your chest or your eyes.
Connect to the embodied experience of being in this state,
In this story,
In this trance of being at war with yourself.
Notice if it appears as a tightening of the chest,
Maybe a sharpness in the throat,
And be gentle,
Allowing your attention to go there.
What feelings arise for you when you place yourself in this situation?
Allow yourself to get close in,
And then when you're in that space,
To be able to let go,
Which brings us to the end of RAIN,
The nurturing and the nourishing,
Perhaps the most difficult part for some of us,
To offer ourselves some compassion.
Notice what your body needs right now,
That most vulnerable part of yourself,
To allow yourself to rest and feel that place that needs understanding,
That is seeking compassion and love.
What is it that you're seeking?
Perhaps it's gentle words,
Offering yourself phrases,
Reassurance,
I'm sorry,
I'm okay.
Perhaps it's a hand on the chest or the heart.
You may choose to imagine light and warmth surrounding you,
Entering you,
Comforting you.
Let this be a creative exploration of what really allows you to feel love flowing into you.
We tend to be so hard on ourselves,
The expectations that we have as friends,
Parents,
Children.
Just being in the intention of offering self-care and compassion to ourselves begins to decondition our tendency to be hard on ourselves.
If you find that you have trouble offering love to yourself,
You can also imagine someone else you see as a spiritual guide,
Perhaps a family member or a pet,
An animal in your life that you see as a spirit guardian.
Visualize this being offering you love and compassion.
Take some deep breaths to allow this love and compassion to enter and release some of that negative energy or any unfelt or unheard feelings that you have in the story that we're telling ourselves,
Recognizing that we are okay.
We are whole and complete,
Just as we are.
Now turn yourself back to the breath.
With each breath,
Bringing warmth and love into your body,
Releasing any self-doubt in each exhalation,
Breathing into any areas of tightness that you feel,
Any sadness that you might be holding.
Notice who you are if you're not believing that anything is wrong with yourself.
Is it openness or spaciousness?
Perhaps it's the light and warmth itself.
As you breathe into that space,
Recognize it as the core of your being.
Invite this energy and light into you with each breath,
Like a warm embrace supporting you.
For the last few minutes,
Let us stay with the breath,
Stay with this light,
The phrases of being okay,
Being here now.
And then when you hear the bell,
Take a few moments to sit and be present to the experience before we return to our space together.
