Every breath that we take is an acknowledgement of life.
We breathe in and the air nourishes ourselves,
Our blood,
Our body,
And as we breathe out,
We reinforce the connection that we have with all of the beings around us that coexist within and through that same air.
The depth of this acknowledgement is something that we can deepen whenever we choose.
That's what a meditation practice is.
It's a deepening of acknowledgement through an intentional practice.
We can choose to do that now.
We might choose to close our eyes,
To sit up tall,
Sitting up tall like a tree or a mountain rather than a flagpole.
And we might notice what it feels like to breathe in our body right now,
Here.
We can notice the aliveness within us that travels through us,
That is us.
As we turn toward our experience,
We choose life.
As we turn toward our inner world,
Acknowledging what is here,
We are expanding our capacity to live fuller.
These things that we carry,
They have a charge to them.
The things that are within our internal world that we avoid looking at,
That we run from,
That we seek to numb,
That we turn away from,
They are not benign.
We're sitting there on the shelf within our internal experience,
Taking up energy,
Draining us.
And our constant attempts at avoiding them constrict the potentiality of our life.
Choosing here,
Now,
To bring our attention to what our body feels like as we breathe,
To allow ourselves to look at this experience with curiosity.
This expands who we are.
It deepens our connection with the life force within us and in this universe.
Now if lots of thoughts are coming up,
That's okay.
It's our choice,
Though.
We can choose to deepen below the thoughts.
We can choose to root our attention into the truth of who we are,
The deep blue sea.
We can relate with these passing thoughts and stories,
Problems,
Plans,
And judgments,
As if they are the waves or the ships simply sailing along.
They are not us.
They are not us.
And so we deepen,
Connecting to what we experience here in our body,
Allowing all that is here to be turned toward,
Embraced,
Because it is here.
And we choose to be engaged with life.
You may be noticing felt sensations in the body.
You may notice sounds.
There may be tingling,
Itches,
Irritations,
Tension.
There may be spaciousness and ease.
Whatever you notice,
Can you welcome it as an experience of your life,
As evidence of the aliveness that is here in your reality right now?
Can you open a little bit more to allow in some ventilation,
Some spaciousness to your experience,
With your experience?
Can you allow your attention to wander curiously and compassionately,
Simply embracing your experience as an act of revolution,
Integrating whatever is here so that you expand who you are and what you're capable of,
So that you expand how much love you can feel and how much love you can share?
We simply open and observe.
We follow for the Flower.
If the mind begins to wander away or to get caught up in story or planning or judgment,
That's okay.
No big deal.
That's what the mind often does.
See if you can pull your attention back to rooting in compassionate awareness of your living experience now.
See if you can pull your attention back to rooting in compassionate awareness of your living experience now.
So very often when we feel something painful,
Difficult,
Or unpleasant,
We want to distance ourselves from it,
Let it go,
Or destroy it.
And as you practice,
What you may find is that though the distancing and the letting go happen,
They are not so much something that you need to make happen.
We are inherently at our core loving awareness.
And so when we direct our attention to something such as pain,
Disappointment,
Or discomfort,
What we are doing is shining the light of loving awareness on that experience.
And that in and of itself begins to alchemize the experience,
To create a felt sense of spaciousness between us and that pain by actually seeing clearly and embracing,
Allowing the unpleasantness,
The discomfort,
The pain.
We let go of the tight grip that may be keeping it in fact in place,
And instead we allow it to transform,
Which all happens naturally,
No efforting needed.
So as we're practicing,
If there is some discomfort,
Slight irritation,
Unpleasantness,
Maybe you can gently,
Tenderly,
Compassionately direct your attention at that very thing to see it clearly without a need to judge it,
Destroy it,
Dissect it,
Simply to see it clearly and maybe to even send tenderness to it.
Maybe even to welcome it in,
Even if just a little bit.
Now,
Okay now,
Turn back in place.
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Practice,
Maybe you can send some thankfulness,
Some gratitude to yourself for caring enough or committing enough to your life to spend some time connecting with your experience.
It deserves to be acknowledged too.
