A guided meditation that anchors you in your breath and current feelings, then asks repeatedly: how can I support a sense of well being? The practice suggests concrete moves like deep breaths, a hand on your heart, and asking for support when you need it.
So just allow your attention to gather to a single point where you're putting that awareness into your body and just sensing how your breathing is flowing. And just notice whether your breathing is in a rhythm, whether it's superficial, whether you're allowing yourself to really breathe into your belly and don't feel any need to change it, but just be an awareness, noticing this is how I'm breathing, this is what's happening. And the idea isn't to perform the idea. And the reality of importance is you're just an observer noticing this is how the breathing is happening right now. And as you settle into your body, allow yourself to move in whatever way is going to allow you to be comfortable. Just ask yourself, what feeling states am I starting from at this moment? And just enter into the body with your breathing, with your awareness, and just gently ask that question and hear the word gently and more importantly, hear the tone gently if possible. What feeling state am I starting from? And if as you're asking this question you're not able to ask it, gently, notice that too, that the one that's asking the question isn't able to be gentle. So just take your time and notice. Are you more anxious? Are you more relaxed? Are you more up? Are you more down? Are you more agitated? Are you more peaceful, Are you more numb? Are you more vibrant than, are you confused? Do you have no idea what you feel? And whatever you come up with, just let your awareness have a sense of constancy where you are the inquirer, you are the one who's really interested in how you're doing. And again, sense the quality of interest and see if you can even feel the hunger to have the interest, have a quality of caring. And as you're identifying what your primary feeling state is, is right now, just let yourself also be this inquiring intelligence, this inquiring awareness that's asking you, how can I support a sense of well being? How can I support a sense of well being as it relates to to my attitude? And how can I support a sense of well being as it relates to my actions? So let's presume for a moment that you're starting in a state of anxiety. You might say to yourself, take a few deep breaths. You might suggest to yourself, you know, I really want to put my hand to my heart and really wish myself to relax as much as possible without pressure. You might let the person that you're with know that you're anxious and ask them to just hold your hand or to give you a hug, or if you're anxious, you might choose to lie down and recognize that this asking yourself the question is just the beginning of the inquiry. And as you get more and more developed in asking yourself this question of how can I support a sense of well being? The very quality and tone of the one that's asking starts to become more tender, more heartfelt. It starts to really be like your best friend. It starts to be like the very part of you that can love your best friend. And so hear the quality. Right now, as you're asking how can I support a sense of well being with where I am right now and recognize it's kind of fun, it can be light, it can be sweet, it can be compassion. And the one that's asking this question that has a lot of intelligence, a lot of emotional intelligence, because it recognizes that the point of life is to support well being. And it's a lot wiser than your feelings because it knows that well being is why you're alive. And it also knows at the same time that it needs to care for your feelings. Because we can't ignore whatever state we're in and have a sense of well being. And also recognize that the inquirer recognizes that the unconscious believes we are our feeling states. It recognizes that in order for this sense of interest in our well being to become more of our primary sense of identification, then it's going to require deep practice. Because for our whole life we've been supported to believe that how we feel is more important than our well being. We've seen it modeled in our movies, in our families. And this question and this questioner of how do we support a sense of well being? Is a revolutionary way of being. And just pause for a moment and see, does this make sense to you? Do you want to support a sense of well being? Because there's no loss when you intuitively recognize the real meaning of well being. So just pause and plant the seed that no matter what I'm feeling, I want to activate this question and this questioner of how do I support a sense of well being? And listen to the feeling state I want to support. And I also want to listen to the actions that are needed to take to support a sense of peace and harmony and fulfillment in my life and those lives and the people around me.
