Self-love cannot flourish in isolation ~bell hooks
I love this quote so very much (and the book whence it comes, All About Love, New Visions), and I find that my understanding of togetherness has been so enriched and expanded through contemplating this quote in the time of corona. In part, what has come through for me is a more clarified and felt sense of my heart, and that when I can abide there I become more inclusive. My insecurities, my worries, fears, and anxieties don’t disappear as much as they take on a more approachable shape. I myself become more malleable as I discern that the self I sense as being my own is the self that is in relationship with the world.
Here is a simple meditation that you can practice, all you need is a timer set to 5-10 minutes, and a comfortable place to sit or lay down.
Place one or both of your hands over the center of your chest and follow the touch of your hand into your body. Feel the way your lungs swell as you breathe in, forming an embrace around the center of your heart; feel how your heart center senses itself as your lungs condense and relax their embrace. In time, can you consider your heart center to be your primary breathing body, wrapped in the folds of your lungs on one side of the breath, easing into their soft release on the other. As your timer goes off, release your hand/s and take note of how you feel. If you are lying down, slowly roll to one side before coming up to sit. Look around the room you currently inhabit and follow what you are seeing back into your heart center. Bow into your own self, bowing to the world.
Please join us for simple, contemplative practice 5 days a week. You can find the schedule here
