Here's a short meditation to help us open the heart.
So let's start by finding a comfortable position,
Sitting upright,
Feeling your feet on the ground or your connection to the earth,
However you're sitting.
Start by feeling that contact with the ground beneath you.
And then pay attention to your upper body and feel a sense of alignment,
Uprightness in the spine.
Feel the center line of your body from the crown of your head down to your tailbone.
So no effort,
Just letting the alignment of the body hold you in this upright position,
Embodying a posture of ease and uprightness.
And now let your attention become aware of the body,
Awareness of the whole body sitting upright,
Connected to the earth.
Meditation is a time to shift the awareness from thinking,
Doing,
To just being with the connection to the body that we're usually a little bit distant from.
So now that we've taken this time to adjust the body and shift awareness,
Let's now direct our awareness to our breathing.
Watch the breath.
Watch the movement of the body as you breathe in and as you breathe out.
And let your attention rest on the belly.
Watch the expansion of your belly as you breathe in,
And the fall of your belly as you breathe out.
Become aware of the natural rhythm,
The natural pace of your breath.
And just follow it from one moment to the next,
Letting the mind,
Busy mind,
Slow down.
And feel into the ease of the breath,
The feeling of ease as you let the breath just happen.
And now I invite you to bring your attention into the heart center.
Feel into your heart.
What image comes into your mind when you think of the heart?
If you imagine your own heart in your heart center.
And how much space is there around the heart?
Does the heart feel locked?
Does it feel locked in?
Does it feel small?
Does it feel big?
Expansive?
Is there room around the heart?
So take the time to just check in with your own heart and ask these questions of yourself.
How does the heart feel?
And for most of us,
When we're struggling,
Going through some difficulty,
We can notice that the heart feels constrained or blocked in some way.
This can be physically or energetically or whatever image comes to your mind might reflect some kind of constraint.
So in this meditation,
I invite you to imagine that there's space around the heart and in the heart.
And notice what it's like to breathe with this kind of awareness of ease and expansion within the heart and around the heart.
And just see what feels comfortable.
We still want to work with this principle of ease.
If there's too much expansion,
Too much room,
It might feel overwhelming.
So it might be more like just loosening the belt a little bit,
Creating a little bit more space,
A little bit more ease.
And just see what it's like to breathe like this.
With awareness of the heart,
Opening of the heart.
So let's breathe like this for a minute or so.
Giving yourself time and space to explore this meditation around the heart.
And just checking in once again.
Checking in with the whole body.
The whole body breathing,
Sitting in meditation.
Notice what shifted in your body,
In your mind.
Notice your heart.
Notice if there's a little bit more spaciousness and ease in the heart and the whole body.
And now as we transition out of this meditation,
See if you can set an intention to keep an awareness of the heart,
Ease of the heart as you move through your day.
And thank yourself for giving yourself this time to sit in meditation.
