So,
In terms of peace,
Experiences of safety,
I'm going to offer a variety of suggestions.
And you can take more time with any one of them.
You can also go more deeply and do anything you like.
And as always,
With an experiential practice,
Feel free to adapt my suggestions to what will work best for you.
Alright?
So for starters,
Notice that you're actually alright right now.
You may not have been alright in the past.
You may not be basically alright in the future.
But at least in this now and the next now,
There's enough air to breathe.
No shark is chewing on your leg.
Your heart's beating.
The organs are working.
There may be a sense of pain in the body.
There might be emotions like anxiety or anger floating around.
But fundamentally,
You're alright.
So I'll be quiet for a few moments here so that you can recognize and explore what's it like in this moment at least to be actually unthreatened in this moment.
To actually be fundamentally alright.
Yeah.
It's kind of a nice feeling.
Like,
Wow,
I'm alright.
What a relief.
Seeing there's enough air to breathe.
Nothing's attacking you in this instant.
You're not dying in this moment.
And the next moment.
You're basically alright.
Also be aware of feeling protected.
Perhaps not perfect protections,
But around you probably are walls.
You could be in a relatively safe setting.
Hopefully your neighborhood,
The building you're in.
What's it like to recognize protections?
To recognize the ways that you actually are safe.
Another resource for feeling safe is to be in touch with ways in which you're strong.
Ways in which you've endured through difficult times.
You can call up a time of memory maybe in your body when you were strong and determined.
Perhaps sticking up for other people or sticking up for yourself.
Or doing something physical that you really pushed through.
Or just a situation where doggedly you survived.
You lasted.
You lived through it.
And as you think of these things,
See if you can have more of a feeling of strength in your body.
Your body can be tired.
You can feel weak,
Old,
Ill perhaps.
But still there can be a sense of vitality.
And also in your mind.
What's it like to feel determined?
What happens if your body sits up a little straighter?
Or there's that look of determination in your face or in your eyes.
And through accessing that sense of strength,
You can also help yourself feel safer and safer because you have resources inside yourself that you can draw upon to meet threats and other challenges.
And as you help yourself recognize that you're basically all right.
And as you help yourself feel protected and stronger,
Notice that you can let go of any unnecessary anxiety.
You can release unnecessary guarding or bracing,
Defendedness.
There can be a softening and an opening legitimately,
Deservedly.
Feeling as safe as you reasonably can.
Finally there's a growing relaxation,
Opening to a growing sense of tranquility.
Breathing and opening into a growing sense of peace.
There might be a sense of some tension or some anxiety.
And yet you can also get a sense that it's contained in or rests in a larger framework,
A larger space that is fundamentally increasingly peaceful.
All right.
Letting a sense of peace,
Whatever it is,
Kind of move to the back of awareness.
And now we're going to focus increasingly on a sense of contentment,
You know,
With your needs for satisfaction.
You met at least in some ways right now.
So to begin with,
See if you can just notice,
Wow,
The fullness of this moment.
All the sights,
All the sounds,
All the thoughts.
Wow.
So much here.
So much coming into and moving through the mind.
It's almost overwhelming.
You could also think of one or more things you feel grateful for.
Perhaps concrete things like feeling grateful for a beautiful little object on a shelf that somebody gave you,
Grateful for the friends you have,
Even grateful for the gift of life itself.
And as you think of these things that you feel grateful for,
See if you can let yourself increasingly have an emotion,
An experience of gratitude and thankfulness.
Perhaps with soft thoughts in the back of your mind,
Like,
Thank you.
There could also be a sense of gladness mixed up with gratitude sometimes.
Things that you feel glad about.
Glad about no longer having to be in junior high school.
You know,
Glad about some recent events in your life.
Glad about something coming up in your life.
Glad for living in a relatively fortunate circumstance,
Particularly compared to the lives of many others or certainly the lives of many others throughout history.
Thinking of things that bring a smile to your face,
Help you feel happy,
Rewarded.
And another aspect of feeling satisfied,
Approaching rewards,
Is to bring to mind some of the things you've accomplished.
Especially small examples of goals attained,
Like finishing a load of laundry or getting dishes done or,
You know,
Sending an email,
Mowing the lawn,
Or more large scale accomplishments like finding a mate that you're glad about or finishing some professional training or,
You know,
Getting through high school.
Accomplishments like that.
And as you think of these accomplishments,
Let them become a feeling of success,
Accomplishment,
Full attainment.
And as you explore these experiences,
The fullness of the moment,
Gratitude,
Gladness,
Accomplishment,
Success,
As you bring to mind things that help you feel rewarded,
Things that,
You know,
Make you feel happy as you do this,
Let there be a falling away of frustration or disappointment or any sense of drivenness to get more.
Making that fall away,
Increasingly replaced with a growing sense of satisfaction and contentment.
See if you can have a growing sense of feeling full already,
That there's an enoughness already,
And you're enjoying life in some ways.
There's a contentment.
There's well-being with no wish for this moment to be other than what it is.
A growing sense of this.
There might be some things you still want to accomplish or experience or enjoy.
That's perfectly fine.
There could be some sense of frustration,
Perhaps,
About something.
But that's held in a larger space where it rests on an underlying foundation of a contentment in your core.
All right,
And letting contentment move to the back of your mind and focusing more and more now on the territory of love.
So noticing that you're already related.
Being aware of being related to your physical environment,
Certainly to nature as a living being,
You know,
Breathing essentially the exhalations of trees,
You know,
Related already to family members,
Friends,
Coworkers,
People you share loyalties with,
You know,
Existing in some sense in a network of relatedness.
Already connected.
There's a lot more to audience question than there is content.
Also bring to mind one or more beings that give you a feeling of being cared about.
Doesn't have to be a perfect relationship,
But in at least one key part of it,
You matter to these other beings.
People,
Could be pets,
Spiritual beings,
Whatever really touches you.
Bring to mind ways in which you have felt included,
Or seen,
Or appreciated,
Or liked,
Or loved.
I'll be quiet for some moments here as you think of different people,
Different beings,
Maybe groups of people,
And explore different aspects of feeling cared about,
Encouraging these feelings to arise in yourself,
Of,
As I've said,
To feel included,
Or seen,
Or appreciated,
Or liked,
Or even loved,
Or all the above.
What's it like to feel liked?
There might be other thoughts or feelings that arise,
Desires to be loved in other ways,
Or by different people.
Okay.
But in terms of what's real at least,
Authentic opportunities to feel cared about,
What could you open to right now?
And in the process of opening to feeling cared about,
There can be a falling away of hurt,
Or any kind of drivenness related to relationships,
Any kind of clinging that can fall away.
And,
Of course,
You can feel caring yourself,
Friendly toward others.
What's that feel like to be friendly?
As you feel friendly,
That meets your own needs for relatedness,
Or compassion,
Or lovingness.
What's that feel like?
Can you think of people you feel compassion for,
You feel kindly toward,
You don't need to agree with them or approve of them,
And yet your compassion and friendliness is real?
Even if you can't help them concretely,
Still,
If it's sincere,
Your compassion,
Your lovingness is real.
And as you explore your own caringness,
Here too can be a falling away of envy,
Or feelings of inadequacy,
Or longings for love.
Anything that disturbs you can be falling away as you rest more and more in a feeling of being loved and loving.
Because love is love,
Whether it's flowing in or flowing out,
Resting in love.
You can even get a sense,
As we approach an end here,
Of peace,
Contentment,
And love all sort of woven together in your mind.
Maybe with attention focusing more on one or the other in any moment,
But a global sense of,
Wow,
Needs met.
No need to resist anything unpleasant,
Peace.
No need to grasp after anything pleasant,
Contentment.
No need to cling to anything in relationships,
Love.
Find a heart at ease in your core,
Feeling that your needs are met.
Okay,
Finishing up with this practice,
Letting it sink in,
Whatever useful,
Beneficial feelings or thoughts or desires or body sensations have arisen for you,
You've cultivated here,
Great.
Let them sink in,
Weaving their way into you.
