Healing The Heart

Take a moment to find your meditation posture,

Perhaps sitting up straight,

Relaxing your shoulders,

Allowing the back of your neck to be nice and long,

And the vision to be completely soft.

Maybe you want to open your eyes or close them.

It doesn't make a difference here.

But whichever you choose,

Simply relax your vision.

Take a moment to connect to your breath,

The natural rhythm of your breathing,

In and out through the nose.

Don't try to change anything.

As you observe your own natural rhythm of breathing,

Allow your mind to soften.

It's not so much that the mind becomes empty,

But rather that the mind becomes less sticky.

So thoughts may come just as much as before.

But you simply allow the mind to relax from its grasping and clinging nature.

Then begin to put a little effort into the breath.

As you inhale,

Touching down with the mind on the nose,

The heart,

The belly button as the breath draws in.

And as you exhale,

Touching the mind to the belly button,

The heart,

And the nose as the breath goes out.

For a few moments in silence,

Keeping this gentle rhythm with slow,

Smooth,

Elongated inhalations and exhalations.

Touching the mind to these areas of the body,

The nose,

The heart,

The belly,

The belly,

The heart,

The nose,

In this back-and-forth way.

As the mind becomes more and more rested,

Perhaps there's no longer any need for the tool of touching the mind to the heart,

The belly,

And the nose.

So you can drop the technique and just simply feel the smoothness of the breath as it moves in a very relaxed way in and out through the body.

And come into contact with the beat of your heart.

Perhaps you can sense the beat of your heart in your chest,

Or maybe you can sense the beat of your heart some other place in your body.

Let yourself play around a little bit for these first moments,

Looking for the beat of the heart on a very general sense,

Coming from the heart in the body,

Connecting to that,

And then moving the mind around,

Looking perhaps for the beat of the heart in the right foot.

Can you find the beat of the heart in the left foot?

Try to sense the beat of the heart in the back of the right knee,

In the back of the left knee.

If you can't sense the beat of the heart in these other areas of your body,

Just simply sticking with it wherever you can find it,

Just feeling this rhythmic pulse.

Even if you were able to connect with the beat of the heart,

In other areas of the body,

Again reconnecting with this general heartbeat at the center of the body,

Take a moment in silence to simply listen in.

Although at first the breath may come very,

Very still,

So that you can tune into the beat of the heart.

After you tune in for a moment or so,

Then the breath subtly begins to come back,

But in a much more gentle way.

So now for a few moments,

Just simply observe the beat of the heart in combination with the gentle movement of the breath.

In this practice,

We're going to use the breath to clear out any blockage in the heart,

Any leftover trauma,

Residue,

Pain,

And grief.

We're simply working to unstick that from the heart center today.

I'll guide you through the practice.

It's a breathing practice.

Maybe as I guide,

My breath aligns with yours,

And maybe it doesn't.

Don't worry about that.

Find your own unique rhythm and just apply the instructions in a way that works best for you.

Keeping the mind tuned to the heart,

Tuned to the gentle rhythm of the breath,

Just listen.

On the beat of a heart,

I want you to imagine that using the inhalation,

You gather up any pain,

You bring it all the way to the head,

And you exhale it out.

Perhaps you can visualize it in the form of light,

Black,

Dark,

But light and luminous energy moving up from the heart with the inhalation and out through the nose with the exhalation.

Just try it a few times now.

That's it.

You've got it.

You feel the heart beat,

And as soon as you feel it beat,

You inhale.

Gathering this dark yet luminous energy up,

All the energy of pain and grief you've experienced in your life,

And as that dark light energy comes up,

You exhale and empty it out through the nose.

Synchronizing this action with the beat of the heart,

The movement of the breath,

You may feel a very visceral response with the inhalation and the gathering up of the energy,

And that's perfectly normal.

You simply inhale with that beat,

And bring that energy up,

Feel it rise,

And exhale and release it out.

A few more times,

Imagining here that you're truly clearing the heart out,

Any pain,

Sadness,

Grief,

Or trauma.

The experience is almost like digging a hole.

You put the shovel in,

You scoop up a full shovel filled with dirt,

And then you move it to the side and dump it out.

Inhaling all the way up to the nose and exhaling and releasing that dark light energy.

After your next cycle,

Stop.

Stop the practice.

Bringing the mind back to the heart.

The subtle rhythm of the breath,

But without any more effort.

Keeping your mind connected with this heartbeat,

This breath rhythm.

I'm going to reverse the practice now.

Now as you inhale,

I want you to imagine that you're taking in a rainbow of light.

The entire rainbow of light enters through the nose and moves right into the heart.

With the exhalation,

I want you to imagine that this rainbow of light from the heart center spreads and widens throughout the entire body so that the exhalation saturates the whole body with this fresh,

New,

Vibrant rainbow energy.

On the next inhalation,

Inhale,

Bring this rainbow energy in all the way through the nose right into the heart center.

And on the exhalation,

Spread that light all throughout the body.

Take a few more breaths like this.

And then after the next exhalation,

Release the effort.

Release the effort of focusing on the heartbeat or the breath.

Release the effort of the practice and simply relax the mind in an open way.

Don't worry to observe how you feel here.

Rather than observing how you feel,

Let yourself be in the feeling,

Directly inside the feeling.

As you rest in this way,

Can you connect to a basic sense of okayness?

That essentially,

Even if there are many other things in your life going wrong at this time,

This particular moment,

Everything is basically okay.

And keeping the mind connected to this experience of basic okayness,

Let's take a moment to wish for ourselves freedom from suffering.

In any way that feels right for you,

In any way that resonates with you,

Wish for yourself to be free from suffering.

Rather than saying,

I wish to be free from suffering,

Use your own name.

And then release that and just listen.

Will you be free from suffering?

Will your pain transform into wisdom?

Will you connect with this basic okayness anytime and anywhere you need to?

May you recognize that the beat of your heart is an expression of basic love.

May you recognize that the movement of your breath is similarly an expression of basic love.

Tap into that now.

Notice here,

The heart beats,

It beats.

Why does it beat?

It beats to keep going.

And this is love.

Why does the breath move?

It moves to keep going.

This is also love.

And these two things,

They come together to support you.

And this is love.

And when you apply the mind of wisdom,

The imaginative mind,

The dreaming mind,

To these precious qualities of the human experience,

You are completely aligned with love.

Whenever you need to feel love,

Tap into the beat of your heart.

Tap into the movement of your breath.

And remember,

This is love.

Notice it again.

Notice the beat of your heart.

Thank you,

Heart,

For beating for me.

Thank you,

Breath,

For breathing.

Thank you,

Mind,

For knowing.

Drop any effort.

Rather than observe,

Experience.

Take a few breaths here.

And when you feel ready,

Let your eyes blink open and go about your day.