A ~30-minute guided mindfulness and gratitude session (YouTube video) led by Sister True Pearl of the Plum Village monastic community. The session opens with posture and breathing instructions, a guided body-and-breath meditation emphasizing relaxation, gratitude for the body and life, and practical tips for mindful living during social distancing (e.g., put the phone away, eat mindfully, use a reminder bell). The facilitator models self-compassion and invites participants to smile at thoughts and fears and to embrace them with tenderness.
Chapters
I am very honored to welcome back to Salesforce one of our very good friends, Sister Boy Niem. And that actually translates to Sister True Pearl and that is not Sister Trooper. Just because. Clear. Sister True Pearl. I had to get that right. Sister Pearl is coming to us from the Plum Village monastic community. She's in Mississippi right now. And for those of you who have not ever had the opportunity or the pleasure to attend a mindfulness and meditation session with her, you are in for a huge, huge treat. For the next 30 minutes, she is going to share some wisdom with us and lead us through a guided meditation to just Boy, just help us relax and recenter and find some peace. So I hope you enjoy the next 30 minutes. And with that, Sister, I'm going to turn it over to you.
Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. I hope your day has been filled with many moments of peace and happiness. Thank you so much for allowing me to be here with you today. This is a happy moment and I hope that you can feel the happiness in your heart, in your lungs, in your eyes, and of course, on your lips so we can smile with one another and feel that joy in the present moment. If you are sitting on a chair, I would like to invite you to sit comfortably with your two feet placed on the floor, your back upright, your shoulders are relaxed. We can place our two hands on our laps or put them one on top of the other. If you are sitting down, also relax your back. You can sit in a full lotus position or a half lotus, or any position that you feel most comfortable. That is the important aspect of meditation, that you feel comfortable at ease. And please turn off your phone, allow your phone to rest. We can gently close our eyes. And come back to our in breath and out breath. Any thoughts that come up, all we have to do is to smile at them and within one second they will be gone. Our anchor for the next 30 minutes will be breathing. We can place our hand on our abdomen to help us feel the rising and the falling of our breathing. For a few moments, There's no need to think. I will guide you through. So all you have to do is to relax, to enjoy being with yourself. And to let go. Breathing in, I am aware of my in breath. Breathing out, I am aware of my out breath. Aware of my in breath, aware of my out breath. There's only you and your breathing at this moment. All we have to do now is to be aware that we are breathing in and we are breathing out. We can have a gentle smile. We smile to ourselves. We smile slow breathing. As I breathe in, I am aware that my abdomen is rising. As I breathe out, I am aware that my abdomen is falling. Abdomen is rising. Abdomen is falling. Feel the rising. Feel the falling. Invite a mind to focus on the falling of the abdomen. From the beginning to the end. Invite our mind to focus on the abdomen. From the beginning to the end. Abdomen rising in. Abdomen falling out. Breathing in, I follow my in breath from the beginning to the end. Breathing out, I follow my out breath from the beginning to the end. Following my in breath from beginning to the end. Following my out breath from the beginning to the end. How wonderful it is to be able to breathe. Aware of the struggling that some people are having as they breathe in and as they breathe out, I feel grateful to be able to breathe in and breathe out without much difficulty. Make sure our hands are relaxed, The muscles on our face are relaxed. My in breath, I am here for you. My out breath, I'm so happy you are here with me. In breath out. Breath. Breathing in, I am aware of my whole body Breathing out, I relax my whole body. Aware of my body. Relaxing my body. I invite my body to breathe with me. To rest with me. I invite my body to smile with me. To be here with me. I thank my body for being with me since the day I was in my mother's womb. I cherish this body. Because this is a precious gift that my parents had given me. Grateful to my body. Precious gift. Breathing in, I am aware of the tension in my body. Breathing out, I release all the tensions in my body. Aware of the tension. Releasing the tension. I relax my shoulders, My neck, my back. Identify the tension that is there in the body. Sending a love of peace. To that place. Being there for the tension, for the stress. For the fear. Embracing the tension, the stress and the fear. As if a mother is embracing her child who is crying. With tenderness we embrace a stress, a fear, a worry. With tenderness, with love, with care. In breath out. Breath. Breathing in I am grateful to be alive. Breathing out, I smile to life. Grateful to be alive. Smiling to life. Life is only available in the here and the now. I thank my gratitude to myself for staying at home. For taking care of myself in the present moment. Life is still beautiful. The sky is blue. There's water to drink. My heart is beating. My eyes can still see. My feet can still walk. My ears can still hear. My hands can still type. And my loved ones are still with me. Breathing in, I'm grateful to be alive. Breathing out, I smile to life. Enjoy my in breath. Enjoy my out Breath. We can open our eyes slowly and bring our two hands to our eyes. Gently massage them. Gently massage your face. And as we do these movements, feel the sensation of your two hands touching your head. And send gratitude to all the neurons, to other cells in your eyes and your cheeks. Thank. Gratitude to the bones, to the blood flowing to your ears. Yes, Thank you so much. I hope you are as relaxed as I am. As I did the guided meditation, I am aware that you are breathing with me. And I also do this not only for your benefit, but also for my benefit. And this is how I often show love to myself. I would like to take just five to seven minutes to share the happiness of being grateful to ourselves and being happy when we are by ourselves. With the social distancing, it's possible to be happy. There's no need to be lonely when you are alone. And that is the art when we know meditation. Because we know that in us there is this mindfulness, there is this breathing. And we carry with us our grandparents, our parents, the trees, the bird singing. And so know that you are never by yourself. Even if we stay in a small space with not so much outer space outside. But if in our heart we have space, then. We know that there's this vastness inside. Just take few moments during the day to come back to ourselves and close our eyes. Even just 10 seconds to remind yourself, I am here for you. I know you are there, and I'm very happy. We say these words to ourselves to express love, to express gratitude, Visible and easily felt these days than ever before. And how we live our life in the present moment is important so that whatever comes next, we are not fearful. And that is the fruit of meditation. That is the fruit of loving oneself. That is the fruit of being grateful. Every time we wash our hands, like CDC and many videos show us how to wash our hands, do it with joy, do it with gratefulness. That yes, I still have 10 fingers. To be able to show love and be grateful to ourselves. I want to encourage you to do some concrete things during the day. And that is now that you are at home and some of you are by yourself. Put the phone away. When we eat, really sit there and enjoy the food. Put the phone away, turn off the television, eat and follow our breathing. Eat with gratitude. Oh my goodness, I have food to eat and I don't need to rush to finish my meal. Another thing that we can do is you can download an app. It can be a Plum Village app inside Dharma app that the bell is invited every 15 or 30 minutes. To remind yourself to breathe and don't cheat. It's very easy to say, oh this I don't like the sound of the bell. It's bothering to tell the truth. I also cheat sometime when I hear the bell, I say, oh, it's just a bell. Okay, I'm just gonna continue to type. But no, really just smile when you know that you're tricking yourself. But then say, okay, the next one I really going to breathe. And it's a moment I remind myself to be alive. So I just want to encourage you to do these two things to show love to yourself. And every time fear comes up, just smile to your fear. Aware. Recognize that, okay, I'm having fear. And we ask ourselves, why should I be having fear? And dismount to the fear and say, but you know, I have fear, but at the same time I have mindfulness. I have peace. So invite the mindfulness and the peace to embrace the fear just like a mother is embracing the crying baby. And sit and breathe with the fear and let go of the fear and say, mindfulness, please come up. Please enjoy a cup of tea with me, fear. So just three things. Turn off your phone or put your phone aside, turn off the television when we eat. And then every time fear comes up, smile to the fear and invite mindfulness and peace to be present. That's all you have to do. Hopefully we continue to relax with one another and to enjoy the present moment. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you so very, very much. Goodbye and thank you for joining.
