Let's take a few moments to find a comfortable seated position.
Feel free to sit in a chair with your back straight,
To sit on a cushion on the ground,
Or perhaps you're in a mood just to lie down on your bed.
Whatever you end up choosing,
Just see if you can find comfort and stillness,
And see if you could find your breath.
Sometimes it's useful to choose your mouth or your nose and see if you can continue to inhale and exhale purely from just one.
As you inhale,
Know that you're inhaling.
And as you exhale,
Know that you're exhaling.
Check in with yourself physically.
Do a body scan starting at your feet.
If you notice any tension,
Simply let go,
Not necessarily of the tension itself,
But just of your resistance to it.
Bring your attention up through your knees.
Continue all the way to your hips.
And again,
If you notice any tension,
Just like you would wave at a stranger from your car,
Just welcome that tension in and let it be there.
Continue your scan from your hips up to your shoulders.
Often times there's lower back tension or chest tension.
Maybe you're feeling nervous for something to come.
Maybe you feel too full from a previous meal.
Whatever it is,
Good or bad,
Just notice it.
Let go of any resistance or desire to change exactly how it is right now.
And continue raising your awareness from your shoulders all the way to the tip of your head.
Notice any wind brushing against your nose.
Notice your hair touching your ears.
Notice your tongue under the roof of your mouth.
Notice how your eyes feel against your eyelids.
And simply whatever comes up,
Just wave to it as if it were a friendly stranger from the inside of your car.
And take this time to just check in with your body overall.
Take this time to let how your body feels be exactly as it is.
On your next big inhale,
Redirect your attention away from your body and towards your mind.
Check in with how you're feeling today.
Check in with your stresses.
Check in with your fears.
Check in with your gratitude.
Check in with your joy.
Check in with your apathy.
Check in with your boredom.
And check in with whatever else comes up.
And just like it's a friendly stranger outside of your car,
Just wave to it.
Just notice and acknowledge it's there.
And continue to come back to your awareness of your mind overall.
Now redirect your attention away from the mind and towards the breath.
See if you could take very gentle breaths with minimal energy.
They may be really shallow and fast paced.
They may be really deep and slow.
They may be a mix of the two or some other sequence altogether.
Sit back as the audience member to your breath.
Sit back as if your only job is to minimize any effort you're putting in.
Your only job is to be the witness of what already is.
If you notice sounds in the background,
Either from the room I'm recording this or from wherever you are,
Let those sounds just be another thing that you're observing in your mind.
Let those sounds just be another source of peace in this moment right now.
And when you're feeling a bit more grounded,
Begin repeating,
May I be happy?
May I be healthy?
May I feel grateful for my life?
May I be free from suffering?
And as you repeat these words in your mind,
See if you can truly feel them.
See if you can truly receive them.
See if you can let them in beyond the walls of protection,
Beyond the walls of fear.
May I be happy?
May I be healthy?
May I be grateful for my life?
May I be free from suffering?
And continue with words like this,
Either the words I'm repeating verbatim or you can fill in whatever words you choose.
Just recite them slowly and intentionally.
And see if each time you do,
You can let them in a little bit deeper.
See if you can let them mean a little bit more.
And let's see if you can feel a little more vividly.
May I be happy?
May I be healthy?
May I be grateful for my life?
May I be free from suffering?
And as you repeat them,
As you let them in,
As you confront whatever resistance may or may not be there,
Notice how you feel as you repeat these words.
Notice if anything changes.
Notice if your heartbeat gets faster or slower.
Notice if your body temperature rises or falls.
Notice if your mouth feels a little bit drier.
Notice if sounds feel a little bit clearer.
Whatever may come up,
Just let it all in and observe.
May I be happy?
May I be healthy?
May I be grateful for my life?
May I be free from suffering?
And as you finish that breath,
Now visualize somebody you love,
Somebody who's easy to love,
Somebody who feels like an unconditional support system in your life,
Who makes you feel light and makes life feel easy when you're around them.
See if you could visualize their face.
See if you could visualize their presence.
Simply repeat the same words directly to them.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May I be grateful for your life.
May you be free from suffering.
And just sit there staring at them in the eyes,
Visualizing them right in front of you and repeat the same words again.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May I be grateful for your life.
May you be free from suffering.
And as you say it,
See if you can really mean it.
See if you can let yourself say it directly to their eyes with the most focus,
With the most intention,
Directly at them as if you're a cloud of love covering them,
As if you're being to them what they've always been for you.
And as you recite these words,
Looking at them in the eyes,
Again,
Notice if anything changes inside of you.
Notice how it feels to say these things.
Notice any resistance you may have to saying these things.
Notice any physical sensations that arise because of it.
And one more time,
Let's look at them in the eyes.
Let's imagine giving them a huge hug,
Holding them close to our heart and repeating,
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May I be grateful for your life.
May you be free from suffering.
And just hold them for a few more breaths,
Directing this much love and compassion towards them as you can muster up in this moment.
Notice what your body feels like as you do.
And simply breathe alongside them.
Now imagine a stranger.
It may be hard to visualize a face of someone you've never met.
So perhaps you can just visualize them as a tree representing somebody you'll meet when you step outside of your house.
Maybe somebody you'll meet on the bus tomorrow or in an Uber.
Maybe somebody you'll meet in a yoga class or at a restaurant.
Maybe somebody who will be your lawyer or your doctor.
Maybe it will just be a child you see running on the school playground.
But let that tree represent a stranger you do not know.
And see if you can feel the presence of that stranger.
See if you can hug that stranger.
And see if you can really mean that hug.
Not because you know who they are or what their particular challenges may be.
But simply because they're a sentient being looking for a happy life just like you.
Imagine as you hug them repeating the same thing directly to them.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May I be grateful for your life.
May you be free from suffering.
And as you say it to them,
Listen to yourself saying it to them.
Allow yourself to mean it.
Allow yourself to put down your walls.
Allow yourself to let go of any resistance.
And let yourself just simply give whatever is inside.
And one more time,
Give them a gentle loving hug and say to them,
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May I be grateful for your life.
May you be free from suffering.
And take a few breaths to just feel what it feels like to give love to somebody you've never met.
Somebody you may never meet.
Simply because they're a human being.
Simply because they're looking for nothing more than a simple,
Happy life just like you.
Simply because you can see yourself within them,
Even without having ever met them.
And again,
Just see if you can observe how it feels to give love to a stranger.
How it feels to imagine hugging a stranger.
How it feels to let go of your resistance to love.
How it feels to treat another as if as you would want to be treated for no good reason other than it feels good.
And next,
We're going to take on a slightly more challenging task.
Visualize somebody who's hurt you.
Somebody who's trivialized your existence.
Somebody who's brushed you off.
Somebody who's made you feel less than whole.
And just visualize their face as if it were right in front of you.
If resistance comes up,
Let that resistance be there.
If fear comes up,
Let that fear be there.
If tears come,
Let them.
If love comes,
Let that come too.
And as you take perhaps deeper breaths this time,
Look at them in the eyes and recite just like you did to the stranger.
Just like you did to a loved one.
And just like you did to yourself.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May I be grateful for your life.
May you be free from suffering.
Observe what it feels like to wish somebody who's hurt you well.
To be a source of love for them that they may have not been for you.
To give what you haven't received.
To love for no reason other than it feels good.
And explore what's happening to your heartbeat.
And explore what's happening to your body temperature.
Explore what thoughts arise and pass.
Explore the sensations in your skin.
Just become an eyewitness to everything that you feel.
Let everything be just as it is.
And lastly,
We're going to look at this person in the eyes one more time.
We're going to muster up the strength and courage to give them a hug.
We're going to mean that hug.
We're going to hold their head next to ours.
We're going to feel their neck against our neck.
And as we hug them,
We're going to recite one more time.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you be free from suffering.
And may I be grateful for your life.
And simply continue noticing what goes on inside your body.
What goes on inside your mind.
And what happens to your breath.
Simply observe what it feels like to love.
Simply observe what it feels like to give.
Simply observe what it means to give the benefit of the doubt.
To open your heart for people who are closed off to you.
To be vulnerable when you could be attacked.
To love when you aren't.
And after you take a few more breaths,
Check in with yourself just like you did at the beginning.
Start at your feet.
Go all the way up to your knees and to your hips.
Take as much time as you need.
Notice if the same tension from before is still there.
And notice if your resistance to it has gone up or gone down.
Check in with yourself from your hips all the way up to your shoulders.
Check in with your back and your chest.
Check in with your stomach.
Check in with your spine.
Check in with your extremities,
Your fingers and your elbow.
Check in with your face.
Check in with your neck and your tongue inside your mouth.
Check in with your eyeballs.
Notice any tension and simply let it be exactly as it is.
And take a few more breaths and then we'll wrap this up.
Thank you so much for practicing with me.
Have a wonderful rest of your day.
Namaste.
