Creating Space with Mindful Prompts
“The way that I think of love most often, these days, is that love is space...It is developing our own capacity for spaciousness within ourselves to allow others to be as they are."
angel Kyoto williams
This summer, some of our members participated in online retreats with Zen priest and activist angel Kyodo williams. She represents one of the emerging voices in Buddhism in the United States that advocates for inclusivity, LGBTQIA and BIPOC communities. Our retreats embody a practice of social awareness.
When we meditate as a group, we move towards human wholeness. We’re interconnected through our mindfulness practice, which supports many of us in developing a quiet mind. There can be freshness and openness through meditation.
At the end of our retreats with Kyodo williams, she asked us to write down on the zoom chat what we are taking away and what we are leaving behind. I’m always amazed by the power of what’s written at this point. People will come up with poetic and heart opening messages that will emerge on significant numbers on the screen while Kyodo will read some of them out loud:
Leaving behind self-doubt, taking away trust. Leaving behind that I’m not enough, choosing to live outside the story of “woman” and the narrative of self blame. Leaving behind my race bias and taking away love for diversity… and the list continues. There is a very long list of answers. All of that quite eye opening.
But what does this writing prompt mean for most of us and why do we keep doing it? Perhaps we want to transform past experiences into a new ripening that feels more hopeful. It’s also the wish of letting go of what no longer serves us and being mindful of what we decide to bring in with us along the way.
As it happened to many people, 2020 has been a time of absolute uncertainty for most of us. During those agonizing days waiting for the biopsy to happen and the results, all that I had at that time was the cushion besides me to meditate while waiting for answers that were not under my control. I looked for support in every Buddhist and women support group I could find. I gained strength through their communities.
Meditation is how we learn to come to better terms with uncertainty. It’s a place to find refuge in the midst of chaos and despair. In meditation we experience love and hope, not because things will go the way we want them to be, but because we trust that there is always something more to explore. As Maria Rilke wrote, “No feeling is final.''
Kyodo williams calls for meditation as a place to return to and not a place to chase after. She also said: “The way that I think of love most often, these days, is that love is space...It is developing our own capacity for spaciousness within ourselves to allow others to be as they are." This space is similar to that space where we sit and become still.
While we approach the end of this season or the beginning of a new cycle, we can use Kyodo williams prompt: What am I leaving behind and what am I taking away?
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Good Morning, I Love You: A Mindful Practice of Self Compassion
December, 2020
I found this mindfulness practice to connect with ourselves and our bodies during the morning The author and professor Shauna Shapiro recently published Good Morning, I Love You: Mindfulness & Self-Compassion Practices to Rewire the Brain for Calm Clarity and Joy.
As the holidays approach, many of us each for practices to cultivate love in our hearts. That is the goal of most mindfulness practices. They have helped me tremendously over the years, so I want to share here Shapiro's full practice. If you already have a meditation daily routine, you can always add this at the end or the beginning of it.
Good Morning, I Love You: The Full Practice
As the author explains, I always do the Good Morning, I Love You practice first thing when I wake up. While lying in bed, I place my hand on my heart and take a moment to simply feel the connection; to receive this tender gesture of self-care. Please continue with me:
Place your hand on your heart. Focus on your palm. Feel your heart pulsing through your chest.
Feel how your heart is taking care of you, sending oxygen and nutrients to the trillions of cells in your body. The heart knows exactly how to care for you—you don’t have to control it or even think about it. Simply receive the nourishment.
When you’re ready, take a breath, and say, “Good morning, [your name].” or “Good morning, I love you, [your name].
”Notice how this makes you feel. See if you can bring kindness and curiosity to however you are feeling. There is no right or wrong way to feel.
Trust that you are planting the seeds of presence and compassion for yourself and that these seeds will grow and strengthen the neural substrates of self-love.
Send these seeds of blessing out into the world, offering the phrase “Good Morning, I Love You” to anyone who comes to mind.
Recognize that we are never just practicing for ourselves. Everything we do has echoes in the Universe.
