Self-Compassion Meditation

Welcome to this morning mindful self-compassion guided meditation. 

When you wake up in the morning, you might be flooded with thoughts about your to-do list or challenges ahead or still ruminating about the difficulties of yesterday. Maybe you did not sleep well. Mindfulness invites us to become aware of what is actually happening in the present moment with a non-judgmental and kind awareness.  

Taking a mindfulness self-compassion break early in your day will support you in several ways. First, it loosens the grip of being constantly stuck in our heads and feeling like we have to get right on the treadmill of life—going and going.

Second, inviting self-compassion into the practice opens the door to the realization that you are not alone in your pain and suffering. Everyone suffers, makes mistakes, faces daily challenges. You are human being and doing the best you can and so is everyone else. There is nothing wrong with you. We all have sleepless nights, face challenges, make mistakes, overreact. This is just how it is. And you are not alone and isolated in feeling this way. You have a connected place in humanity.

And for many of us, this third support in this meditation is perhaps the greatest and often the most challenging. Offering yourself kindness. Speaking to yourself the way you would a good friend who is going through challenges or suffering in some way. There is a beautiful quote attributed to many people, “You, yourself, as much as everyone in the Universe, deserve your love and understanding.” Of course, this kind of self-talk takes practice and it’s worth it.

Let’s begin now with the meditation. For the first 3 minutes I review the 3 supports in this practice and then the meditation begins. It is about 12 minutes. I did my best to keep it short. Smile. And will record another very short one soon, but I feel the 15 minutes are worthwhile. How often do we pause and take care of ourselves in this way? When you think about it, 15 minutes is not very much at all.

With kindness and care,

Mary

PS My wonderful niece Bernadette Mary created the image for this meditation after I shared what this meditation is about. I just love it. It really does capture each of us and our common humanity in the essence of kindness and compassion. Thank you, Bernie