Positive Psychology, Mindfulness, and the Science of Well-Being
  • About Me
  • Book Reviews & Recommended Reading
  • Consultation/Fees/Contact Information
  • Blog
  • Positive Psychology & Mindfulness

Toward a More Embodied Heart

2/16/2019

0 Comments

 
In my last post, I touched on how leaders of social change were able to hold both their own particular identities/philosophical positions and relate to others from different backgrounds based on a universal understanding of human beings as another self, which transcends all notions of the particular.

Mindfulness-based practices are extremely helpful in moving us toward a more compassionate heart.  As we learn to feel compassion and love in our bodies, we gain greater acceptance of the more challenging parts of ourselves and our lives and extend it outward more naturally.  We do this through witnessing and partaking in experiences of loving-kindness (our relational spaces that support the felt-sense experience) and practices, ideally daily, of centered awareness and nonjudgmental, compassionate attunement.

Here’s a simple “loving-kindness” meditation, which has been used in many traditions and practices, with slight variations.  This simple exercise/practice supports an embodied experience of heartfulness to oneself and others. 
Instruction practice (This is what I do.  There are other ways to do it, see what works for you):  It could be useful to use the Insight Meditation app or any other and set your phone for however long you want to meditate.  Thirty minutes is doable and allows for sufficient time to both center the mind and bring forth people and groups for intentional compassionate awareness blessings.  It is helpful to set two interval bells at the 10 minute mark and 20 minute mark.  When the start bell rings, for the first 10 minutes, focus on some object of awareness: the breath, notice the breath going in and out, or one can focus on sound, bodily sensations, or thought.  Once the first interval bell rings at the 10 minute mark, the practice is to send blessings/good wishes to oneself (the loving-kindness meditation narrative).  It can vary based on what one is feeling and needing that day, but the most traditional is a variation of: “May I be blessed with loving kindness, may I be blessed with compassion, may I be blessed with happiness, may I be blessed with peace.”  Feel these qualities deep within.  At the second interval bell, the last ten minutes, are utilized to send blessings and wishes to people and groups.  For example, “May X be blessed with loving-kindness” and see and feel that person being blessed with the quality.  May Democrats and Republicans be blessed with understanding and gentleness.”  One can fill in any group, organization or person he or she chooses, and it’s important to see and feel the good wishes upon the person or group of people; this is the embodied practice. 

The practice of blessing oneself invites and expands our own hearts; and, in blessing/wishing well for others (those whom we love and those whom we find harder to love in the micro and macro), the terrain of both our emotional and geographical borders are easier to cross. Those fleeing war, poverty, addiction, governmental or societal oppression…those whom we see as “different” have already been touched (in our meditation practice), which puts in motion thoughts, feelings and acts of loving-kindness, which further reinforce one another.  
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Nadia Brewart, Ph.D., is a student of life with an insatiable curiosity about what it means to be human, amidst encounters with the human condition. 

    Picture

    Archives

    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    August 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    September 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.