Tara Brach - Meditation: The Heart-Wisdom of Your Future Self (2021-09-29)

Episode Date: September 30, 2021

Meditation: The Heart-Wisdom of Your Future Self (2021-09-29) -  In this meditation, we relax and open our body and mind, and then explore an encounter with our Future Self - facing Fear in a Traumatized World is the expression of our most evolved and awakened heart.

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock. To access more of my meditations or join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com. I'd like to invite you to begin by finding yourself the posture, position that most will support you and take a few moments to adjust and balance yourself. You might close your eyes or let your gaze be downcast so your attention can really go inward.

and let yourself come into stillness. And you might begin by taking several long, deep breaths to collect your attention. So as you breathe in, really filling the chest and the lungs and see if the out breath can be slow. And as you release the breath to also release any tensions that have accumulated, breathing in and filling the chest and the lungs, full in breath and a slow out breath. And you can let go with the out breath, letting go of thoughts and ideas in the mind. And then again, with the next in-out breath, just letting go of tensions in the body, letting go of whatever's unnecessary that you don't need to keep caring with you.

nice full breaths breathing in deeply and that slow release letting go let and go and you might let the breath resume in its natural rhythm and gently scan through the body and just notice where there may be habitual holding tightness it's helpful to sense the region of the eyes and the brow and intentionally soften there, softening the eyes, letting the brow be smooth, and checking the jaw, unhinging the jaw, maybe a slight smile at the mouth, let the features of the face be relaxed and at ease. As you scan through the shoulders, feel from the inside out and sense that there might be a little letting go. possible there. A dissolving, a melting. It helps to let the out breath again be part of that

releasing and letting go. We carry so much in the shoulders. Let the hands rest in a very effortless way, easy way. And notice if you intentionally soften the hands, how much more you can feel from the inside out. Let there be an openness to the chest. You might feel right into the heart area. Again, sensing with that out breath, a letting go. Letting this next breath be received in a softening belly. This breath. And now this one.

And again, loosening, relaxing the whole abdominal area. In a similar way, relaxing through the pelvic region. Letting go, letting go. releasing any tightness or tension through the legs, feel the feet from the inside out, and sense if you widen the lens and feel this whole body simultaneously, you can sense a field of sensation and continuing to widen the attention. You can listen to the sounds that are here so that you're listening to and feeling the whole moment, resting in that open presence. And from this presence, you can begin to imagine in a creative way,

in a clear way, that you can journey into the future and begin to imagine your life, perhaps five years, 10 years, 20 years ahead, depending on your age right now. and that you can encounter your future self, an older, more awake, more evolved version of yourself, where self-preoccupation, insecurity has been released, where there's more freedom to love. You're able to love without holding back. Just imagining this future self. You can imagine your future self's home. Wherever you're living, it might be where you are somewhere else.

And just sense where your future self is right now and inside or outside the home, perhaps in a certain room, sitting in a certain place. You can imagine perhaps how your future self looks, clothing, hair, facial experience. expression. Imagine how they welcome you. Just the look in their eyes, the warmth. Notice what their presence is like, how it feels to be with them. This future self is really an expression of your most

awake heart, your wiser self, the manifestation of that. And you can let your future self know about how these current times of global crisis are for you. What might be challenging for you and the different changes that are happening? Perhaps it's fear or anxiety or uncertainty about finances or health or work. Maybe it's worries about others. It might be a challenge in an important reason. relationship, loneliness. Might be ways that you're putting yourself down,

feeling like you're falling short, are an addictive behavior, the way you're handling life. So just let your future self know in some way, identify and share something that's painful or challenging right now. what you might be believing about yourself, believing about your future, or believing about your feelings. Imagine your future self can communicate by filling you with their awareness,

allowing you to look with their eyes, see with their heart. So with the presence of your future self, of this evolved self-disc witnessing the way in which your small self may be stuck and sensing what your current or less evolved self needs to remember in order to grow and be more courageous, loving, and free. Just sense, what is your current self most need to remember right now in order to grow, to be more courageous, loving and free? in these next moments just sense this awareness of your future self offering their loving and care to wherever the vulnerability is right now.

You might put your hand on your heart and just listen and receive whatever love, whatever message, whatever reminder your awake heart is offering to your human heart. now breathing and feeling yourself right here aware of sounds sensations care of how the love and wisdom of your most evolved being lives in you here now and always trusting that with practice and time you can naturally access and live from this awakened heart with more and more ease that this loving awareness is here to guide and support you. Before closing, sense others in the same process of waking up our hearts and minds, each

calling on the love and awareness that's our source, sensing the timeless and shared heart space that's here as we listen and speak together. Meister Eckart writes this, when I was the stream, when I was the forest, when I was still the field, when I was every hoof foot fin and wing, when I was the sky itself, no one ever asked me, did I have a purpose? No one wondered if there was anything I might need, for there was nothing I could not love. It was when I left all we once were that the agony began, the few, the questions came and I wept and wept tears I'd never known before. So I returned to the river.

I returned to the mountains. I begged, I begged to wed every object and every creature. And when they accepted God was ever present in my arms and God did not say, where have you been? Or then I knew my soul, every soul has always held God. Thank you.