Loving Yourself Each Step of the Way, is a guided meditation written and recorded by Sarah Dion Brooks-Shrive. It can be found on the Insight Timer app and YouTube.
Life is a beautiful thing. A journey towards a numberless amount of destinations of love, peace, light, and hope. As we reach each destination, there is yet another we look towards, and yet another and another.
Yet it is not the destination alone that we seek. It is each and every step along the way.
It is the laughter. It is the love. It is the excitement. It is the calm feeling that radiates from inside the heart. It is acceptance. It is the glow you see around others. It is the breath you take each morning. It is the time spent with friends. It is holding a newborn child. It is looking into the eyes of one you love. It is the connection of souls who share the same vibration as you. It is being understood. It is awakening to your higher purpose. It is learning how to live as your soulful self, your higher self, your true self. It is learning how to observe all things from a place of love.
It is all feelings of light, love, peace, clarity, calm, joy, and knowing.
The journey of life is full of these loving and beautiful steps along the way.
We step into them. We become them for that moment. And they are precious.
The journey of life is also full of other moments. Moments that may feel confusing, frustrating, complicated, and even painful. Moments that may make you question your soul and life purpose. Moments that are challenging. Moments of hurt, moments of loss, moments of jealousy, anger, contempt, or even anguish. Moments of anxiousness. Moments of depression. Moments when the world may seem very dark and you feel unsure how to find your light again.
The journey of life is full of emotions, and triggers. Wrapped in different colors and flavors and experiences. Each of them bringing a lesson to learn. Each of them bringing something that will help your journey expand and grow through wisdom, understanding, and compassion.
It is full of lessons and learning. Learning how to love others. Learning how to love yourself. Learning how to forgive others. Learning how to forgive yourself. Learning how to
Learning how to respond from a loving place rather than react from a place of fear.
Learning that you have the strength to get back up after a fall.
Learning that through it all, you are being given opportunity after opportunity for growth and the most beautiful expansion.
We expand and grow through life, as we learn and go through life.
And as we grow, we ponder this question -What if everything along the way is for our greatest good?
Take a deep breath in – and let it go.
Take another long deep breath in. Hold. Now let it go.
With this next breath, imagine a beautiful white light coming all the way down through the crown of your head, brain, behind the eyes, down into the throat and heart space, down into the belly, down through the root chakra, and exhale that beautiful breath out of the legs and into the ground below you.
Now take another breath, this time focusing on the breath as this beautiful light, coming back up from the ground, below where you sit. Imagine that breath coming up through your body and filling the space of every cell in your body, anchoring love into every space of your body. Up into the belly. Expanding, and loving.
Now exhale up and out of the crown chakra. And allow yourself to sit with the feeling of being grounded and surrounded in love. Grounded and surrounded in light, wrapping you in its warm embrace. Filling your entire being with this warm light of love.
Breathe it in. And breathe it out. Breathe it in. and breathe it out. Grounding and surrounding.
As you continue to feel anchored in love, imagine that your spirit is gently lifting up and out of your physical body- it is moving above ever so gently so that you are no longer sitting in your body. You are still a part of the being of your existence, but you are pulling up and out of your body so that you can see your life and this journey from a new perspective. A higher perspective. A purposeful perspective. Unattached from any of the emotions that came with each experience. Simply just being and observing and loving.
You see your body below you – this beautiful being of physical matter, physical energy, holding on to so many of these moments of life. Creating your story, creating a meaning behind each story, searching for purpose, for understanding, for clarity.
Now Take a deep breath and imagine yourself lifting even higher above your body so that now, you look down and from this perspective, you can see the energy flowing in your body- You see light coming from within you
As you look more closely, you notice all of these little tiny individual lights shining from within you. Some areas of your body seem to have more light than other areas.
Some of the lights are glowing brighter and some of the lights seem dim, they could almost blink off.
Some lights are colored with great intensity, while others are not.
And you sit with this for a moment. Pondering the meaning of these lights shining through and around you. Weaving around and around inside your physical body, weaving through your organs, through every cell of your body, every fiber, tissue, and bone.
And as you look even closer, you see that each light has a memory playing over and over inside of it. A memory that came with a strong emotion attached to it.
You notice that some of these lights within you, shine brighter have happiness, joy, peace and love attached to them. Some lights that have dimmed have sadness, loneliness, pain, fear, guilt and shame.
Take a deep breath in. And let it go.
With the next breath in, I want you to imagine you are still sitting above your body still, and you are sitting within a higher vibration of energy. The highest vibration. The vibration of love. It surrounds you, the most beautiful light and energy – This vibration, is love. You are in this light of love. You are this love.
You breathe into that and as you exhale that breath, you breathe this loving light into your physical body. Breathe it into your body, allowing that light to bring more connection and energy of love into your body. With each breath from this place of love, it fills your entire physical being with this light of love and you begin to notice something magical happening.
You realize that the small lights radiating from within your body are not sitting there alone, by themselves. They are all connected to one. Almost like a string of lights- everyone connecting to the next – feeding more energy into the next. Stringing together your energy. Stringing together and connected by this energy that is connected above even where you sit, as well as below where your body sits. You are surrounded. You are this light of love. And with each breath of love, you notice each light within your body, glowing brighter and brighter.
This light of love is stringing together every moment and emotion of your life. The moments that you feel have defined you. The moments that have stayed with you. The moments that have felt the most beautiful and the moments that have felt the most painful. They are all connected.
Now breathe this love into the lights within. Focus on the areas in your body where there is dimness or tension. Breathe love into these areas. Surround them with this love, understanding, and compassion. Allow them space to breathe in the love. Allow them to be filled with love and light. For they are seen. They are understood. They have such value.
Breathe love into them, and allow them to shine more brightly now.
Each moment is connected.
Each moment is what connects you to the next. Each moment, each step.
Sit from this loving place and just breathe love into each moment. Every step of this journey of your life, fill it with a breath of love and light.
From this position, looking down on your physical body, with the most beautiful feeling of love, there is a knowing that comes. A knowing that it is all for your greatest good. Every moment is for your greatest good. It is all for you to find that beautiful connection with love. To rise above that chaos and find the light of love, time and time and time again. To connect with your higher self. To see yourself from the vibration of love. To live from the vibration of love as often as you possibly can. And when you get off balance and fall, you have the opportunity to love yourself enough to get back up and keep going.
Every step of the journey of life plays an important part. Remember the view - looking down into your physical body from above. Remember seeing the light within you. Remember seeing the dimmer lights. Remember how it feels to breathe love into those areas of your body. Areas of tension and pain. Breathing love into them. And allow yourself the grace to be. The grace to learn. The grace to grow. Although growth may look messy at times, remember that what growth needs more than anything is to be loved, to be seen, to be understood.
Allow yourself to forgive. Allow yourself to live in peace. Allow yourself to breathe in love and show up from that vibration of love.
Every step of the way.
Love into yourself when you feel off balance. Love into yourself when you feel the weight pulling you down. Love into yourself when you feel the ache in your heart. Love into yourself when you feel alone. Love into yourself when you feel sadness starting to take over.
Each of these emotions are here to teach you. Use them to practice loving into each moment. Use them to learn and grow. And realize that these moments are connected to your greatness. The light that shines so brightly out of you. Your light- others will see. Your light – will help others know that they too can breathe in love and grow through each step of their own journey.
Take another deep breath in. Allow the light to come into your body and fill every space of it. Fill your core and allow the light to ground you and surround you. And let out that breath slowly as you step forward to take the next step in your journey of life.
It is all a part of the journey. An intrinsic weaving of energy that is continuously being guided into the direction of your emotions and understanding. You have so much power and control over the creation of your life. For you are the creator of your life's experiences. You are the creator of your reactions and responses to everything that happens in the journey of life.
It is a beautiful superpower that you may not have fully grasped yet. One that will expand as you continue to focus on it.
So as you sit at the crossroad in your journey of life, or you sit in a moment that feels heavy, remember the light above and the light below and draw strength from it. Love into your body, love into the experience, love into the moment.
Love yourself. Every step of the way. For it isn't about the final destination. It is about each step of the way. Each step, grounded and surrounded in love.