Mindfulness Meditation (For Everyday Life)

your own heart? You would have to do so over and
over again, you know, just as you would bring your
mind back to the breath over and over again in the
sitting meditation. The mind won't take easily to it,
because the wounds we carry run deep. But you
might try, just as an experiment, to hold yourself in
awareness and acceptance for a time in your
practice, as a mother would hold a hurt or frightened
child, with a completely available and unconditional
love. Can you cultivate forgiveness of yourself, if not
of others? Is it even possible to invite yourself to be
happy in this moment? Is it okay for you to feel okay?
Is the basis of happiness present in this moment at
all?
Loving kindness practice is done in the following way,
but please don't mistake the words for the practice.
As usual, they are just signposts pointing the way:
Start by centering yourself in your posture and in your
breathing. Then, from your heart or from your belly,
invite feelings or images of kindness and love to
radiate until they fill your whole being. Allow yourself
to be cradled by your own awareness as if you were
as deserving of loving kindness as any child. Let your
awareness embody both benevolent mother energy
and benevolent father energy, making available for
you in this moment a recognition and an honoring of