Namaste and welcome, friends. For many, entering the new year
is really an opportunity to take a fresh look at our lives and reconnect with what most matters.
And so in that spirit I'd like to offer a short, guided meditation that can help us
listen more deeply to our hearts. It can help us become intimate with the current state of our
heart and really get in touch with our deepest longings or aspirations. I hope you enjoy.
As a way of arriving, you might just sense your posture right now
and make whatever subtle adjustments help you to feel awake and alert and at ease.
And you might close your eyes or let your gaze be downcast.
And begin with a conscious breathing,
inhaling deeply, perhaps to the count of five. So that you're filling your chest and your lungs,
and then a very slow out breath. Letting go, letting go.
Nice deep, full in-breath. Again, filling the chest and the lungs.
And with the out breath. a soft breath. a slow breath. Releasing any tension or tightness.
Again breathing in deeply,
and breathing out slowly.
Sensing the possibility of softening down the length of your body. Letting go, letting go.
Then allowing the breath to resume in its natural rhythm.
And still sensing with the breathing with the out breath that you can let go of any
unnecessary holding or tightness. Perhaps scanning gently through your body and sensing
what wants to let go right now. Bringing your attention to the heart.
Sensing that you can breathe in and out of the heart.
Contacting in an intimate way the experience of your heart right now
that physical felt sense of the heart.
Now I'd like to invite you to imagine that you're walking down a path.
It could be in the woods or by this by a stream in the mountains, hills
And you know that soon you'll be walking around a bend.
You're not there yet, but soon you'll be walking around a bend
and what you'll see or hear or feel will in some way express the current state of your heart.
So again, feel the area of your heart breathing present
Now imagine going around that bend and just see if there's an image that reflects the
state of your heart right now, at this juncture of your life.
It might be a particular landscape, or an animal, or a tree.
It might be certain weather might be certain colors,, certain forms.
Or maybe it's sound. Perhaps you hear certain music, or are listening to certain words.
What's the feeling tone of your heart?
Deepening attention to anything your heart wants to tell you.
Let your heart communicate how it's experiencing life
now. As you deepen an intimate attention with the
current state of your heart, continuing to listen inwardly, sense what your heart most longs for.
What's your deepest aspiration or intention at this part of your life?
What is it you most want to be experiencing? or trusting? or expressing?
Sensing what most matters if you were at the end of your life looking back?
What would most matter about how you lived this juncture of your life?
In some energetic way, bowing to or honoring whatever you're noticing.
Trusting that you can continue to listen and be informed by your heart and depending
on your circumstances, you might take some time to journal to write down whatever you
discovered about the state of your heart, and the aspiration, the intention, that most resonates.
And if you have the opportunity to explore with someone else who's doing this meditation,
you might share what did you learn as you listened to your heart?
As a way of closing, I want to thank you for your attention, for your presence,
for your caring heart. And take a moment to feel our shared aspiration,
our shared prayer that all beings everywhere might realize their very essence as loving awareness.
That all beings might live from this loving awareness.
That there be a growing expression of peace, justice, and compassion in our world.
That all beings everywhere awaken, and be free. Thank you, my friends. All blessings.