- [John] Hey, I'm John.
And in this session,
we're going to focus on healing.
To begin,
let's get into a position that you can hold for a while
but isn't one you'd get sleepy.
Try to have an active posture so your spine is tall
and your head is resting gently on your spine.
Close your eyes.
Or if you're not comfortable closing them,
just let them gaze gently downward
in a neutral state.
And begin to take slow, deep breaths,
deeper than you've taken all day so far,
feeling your lungs and your rib cage expand out
as you breathe in,
holding it for a bit.
And as you exhale out,
allow everything to contract back in.
Allowing the next breath to be even deeper
than the one before it.
And each exhale lasting just a bit longer than your inhale.
Continue breathing in this slower, purposeful way.
And as you do,
feel the connectedness of your body
to the surface you're sitting or resting on.
Just let yourself settle into this groundedness,
feeling it begin to expand through your whole body.
Using this feeling and your breath
as your anchor during this meditation
to return you back to the present moment
if you get distracted or your mind wanders off.
What is it you'd like to begin to heal?
As you continue breathing slowly,
scan your body,
noticing any areas that might be calling out
for your attention.
Areas that may feel tight, sore, or unsettled.
And with gentleness and compassion,
breathe into those areas,
allowing the breath to gently ease them.
Now begin to breathe into the areas surrounding your heart
focusing all of your attention here.
You can even place your hands over your heart if you wish.
And as you breathe, listen deeply,
and with curiosity, gentleness, and compassion
to what your heart is trying to tell you.
Oftentimes we look at the pieces of ourselves
that need healing as broken, less than,
or not good enough.
We may avoid dealing with them at all
and over time, can even come to resent them.
And by holding this judgment,
we hold these parts of ourselves separate from us.
But when we do this, we are not complete.
We are not loving ourselves totally,
which only adds to the dis-ease we feel in the separation.
Healing can only begin
when we look at those parts of ourselves
that we've held separate
and in judgment, and we start to forgive them.
And we hold compassion toward ourselves and others
for the choices made,
actions taken,
and words spoken that may not have been in alignment
with the type of person we want it to be.
We look at those places.
We see the gift in them instead of the broken.
So as we move into the silent part of the meditation,
see if you can begin to open yourself up
to this acknowledgement and acceptance.
Allow yourself to gently begin to heal the separation
and embrace all parts of yourself with love.
(gentle music)
Continue breathing with your eyes closed.
Begin to allow your attention to drift back
to the room that you're in.
Healing is a process.
It doesn't happen all at once.
We carry around our wounds like urges
until we understand that we don't need them anymore.
They served us at one point,
but now we can let them go
bit by bit,
piece by piece.
That is the healing and the freedom
we so deeply want.
Now let's take three final deep breaths together
taking a deep inhale in,
holding it for a bit,
and exhaling it out.
Again, an even deeper breath
than the one before
feeling it weave in and out of your muscles and cells
and exhaling it out.
Last time, your deepest breath yet
sending that oxygen through your entire body.
And when you're ready, you can open your eyes.