Hello my friend.
Thank you for joining me today for this contemplative meditation.
Wherever you are,
Find yourself a comfortable seat.
If you are listening on your phone,
Set your phone down.
Maybe you're sitting on a cushion,
Maybe a chair,
Maybe you're standing.
It doesn't matter too much.
Just find yourself a relaxed position.
Contemplative meditations,
In case you're not familiar,
Is when you allow yourself to invoke a sensation through either repeating the word or remembering or recalling that invoked sensation.
So the word and the concept,
The spiritual feeling that I suggest that we use for this meditation is tenderness.
Take a moment to close your eyes.
Let's inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth.
And then just notice your attention first.
What is your attention engaged with?
It doesn't matter what it is.
But let's go ahead and invoke the sensation to allow yourself tenderness.
You can do that by reminding yourself of an experience.
Maybe something that happened that was tender.
Maybe with a person or an animal,
A place or nature.
Or if you want,
You can allow the word to repeat inside yourself.
Tender,
Tender,
Tender.
Start to really have that sensation in your center.
That sensation of tenderness.
Now allow the concept to fall away and allow this sensation to remain.
If you find yourself drifting into thought,
Just notice without judgment.
No big deal.
It's part of the process.
Use tenderness to bring your attention back.
Back to this experience of your own tenderness.
Now,
See if you can allow that sensation of tenderness to start to spread.
Move through you.
Allow it to spread beyond your body.
Allow your attention to fully engage,
Fully engage with your sense of tenderness.
Keeping your eyes closed,
Let's go ahead and let go of the meditation.
Allowing that sensation of tenderness to remain,
But starting to let your attention shift.
Maybe starting to notice the connection of your seat to your cushion.
Or maybe it's the connection your feet have with the floor.
Noticing the presence of your body wherever you may be.
And then gently allow your eyes to open,
Maybe just about halfway.
And when you're ready,
Allow your eyes to open all the way.
Take a moment and bring your hands to heart center.
Acknowledge the work that you did here today and thank yourself for your meditation practice.
It has been my honor to guide you.
Have a wonderful day my friend,
Or a beautiful evening.
Namaste.