What's up legend?
The famous writer and meditation teacher Jack Kornfeld says,
If your compassion does not include yourself,
It's incomplete.
For a lot of us,
It's always easier to show love to others than it is to show love to ourselves.
When others shine,
It is easier for us to point out their strengths and celebrate them being complete savages and crushing it at life.
When they make mistakes,
We are quick to uplift them and remind them of their greatness.
When it comes to ourselves,
Well,
It's a different story.
We criticize,
We minimize,
We shrink ourselves instead of taking up space.
This meditation is to remind you that you are deserving of this same compassion.
We are human,
So we exist in multitudes and every ounce of you deserves all the celebration,
All the patience,
And all of the forgiveness.
You are great.
Today we are playing around with a technique called loving kindness.
It's a great tool to help cultivate more empathy and positive feelings towards ourselves,
Others and the world around us.
Let's kick this thing off by getting into a comfortable yet engaged meditation position.
This is your moment for self-exploration.
So you could do it sitting,
Standing,
Laying down,
With your eyes open,
Eyes closed,
Whatever feels best.
Let's begin this meditation with three collective breaths together.
Keeping your mouth closed,
We're going to inhale for a count of five,
Hold to the top for a count of five,
And then exhale for a count of five.
Let's kick this thing off with a deep breath in.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Hold,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Exhale,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five.
Last breath,
Inhale,
Hold,
Exhale.
Last breath,
Inhale,
Hold,
Exhale.
Now I want you to release this technique and just breathe with the natural cadence of your breath.
We're going to do a little visualizing here.
I want you to imagine that you're in a room and you're sitting on a nice,
Big,
Comfortable couch,
Maybe even has a drink holder to the side there.
Suddenly the same door that you walked into opens again,
And a small figure enters the room and sits across from you.
It's you as a five-year-old child.
I want you to visualize.
How did your face look?
How did your voice sound?
Where did you shine in life at this time?
I want you to repeat these words after me silently and to yourself,
And don't just repeat them.
I really want you to try and embrace the full meaning of these words.
May I be happy.
May the music of my life be filled with laughter.
May I feel strong and stay healthy.
May I steer clear of danger and negative vibes.
May my bank account stay full and the positive energy circulating around me stay in abundance.
May I be free to create the life of my dreams.
The five-year-old gets up,
Walks over to you for a quick fist bump and then exits the room.
In comes another older figure.
They sit down across from you.
It's the 16-year-old version of yourself.
I want you to visualize.
How did your face look?
How did your voice sound?
Where did you shine in life at this time?
I want you to repeat these words after me silently and to yourself,
And once again,
Mean them.
May I be happy.
May the music of my life be filled with laughter.
May I feel strong and stay healthy.
May I steer clear of danger and negative vibes.
May my bank account stay full and the positive energy circulating around me stay in abundance.
May I be free to create the life of my dreams.
The 16-year-old gets up,
Walks over to you for a quick fist bump,
But then they regret it and they think about how cool they are,
So they just give you a head nod and exit the room.
Through that same door enters another older figure,
And they sit down across from you.
It's the current version of yourself.
How do you look?
How does your voice sound?
Where do you shine in life right now?
Where are you struggling?
Or could you use some forgiveness,
Support,
Or words of inspiration?
I want you to repeat these words after me silently and to yourself,
And make them count.
May I be happy.
May the music of my life be filled with laughter.
May I feel strong and stay healthy.
May I steer clear of danger and negative vibes.
May my bank account stay full and the positive energy circulating around me stay in abundance.
May I be free to create the life of my dreams.
The current version of you gets out from the chair and gives you a massive hug just because they know everything you've been through,
Everything you've overcome,
And they're ready to stick it out with you on this journey to continue crushing it.
We're going to leave this imaginary room,
And we're going to finish today as we began with three collective breaths.
Let's start with a deep inhale for a count of one,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Hold,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Exhale,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five.
Let's go two more breaths.
Inhale,
Hold,
Exhale.
Last breath,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Hold,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Exhale,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five.
Morgan Freeman says,
How do we change the world?
One random act of kindness at a time.
What better way to start this change than to direct this kindness to ourselves?
Life is hard enough without you piling onto you.
As you leave here today,
Remember how we love ourselves is how we teach others how to love us.
Go out into the world and be great today.
I love you.
