The Warmth in Your Chest Is Always Available

kindness? What is unconditional self-love? It's basically you feel how you feel when you're in the presence of someone you love or an animal that you love or when you haven't seen someone for a long time and you give them a hug that you love them. you feel this warmth and openness in your chest.

You can feel that anytime without anyone else. without anything happening in your world. if you practice this. you see.

Okay. so when we do loving-kindness practice. what you want to do is you want to become aware of the space in your chest. However.

you need to do that. do that. That's usually what I'm doing when I'm doing a guided. I'm guiding people to be aware of the space in their chest.

if that makes sense. Right? And then we want to be in that space. inhabit that space.

or at least be referencing or connecting with that space in our chest. And then once we are aware of that space. then we want to say the loving-kindness phrases. And the loving-kindness phrases are not really that important.

All that's important is if the loving-kindness phrase resonates and causes a feeling in your chest of this openness. warmth. and expansiveness. then they work.

If they don't do that. it doesn't work. right? It doesn't mean there's something wrong with you.

It doesn't mean you're doing it wrong. It doesn't mean you're stupid. It doesn't mean anything like that. It just means it didn't work.

Why is that important? Because of discernment. right? Everybody on the spiritual path is like.

oh. I don't want to judge. Judgment's bad. I shouldn't judge.

Well. that's absurd. We all judge. I judge.

Everybody judges. I'm a therapist. Everyone's like. oh.

I don't be judged. Like. you know. like.

that's ridiculous. It matters if you believe your judgment. That's how that matters. It matters if you believe it.

But judgment is a thing. It's always a thing. All the mind does is it judges. Mind is a judging machine.

But discernment. right? Discernment is the key. Meaning.

you have to know what you're looking for. Why are you doing something? How do you know if it's successful? And then what do you reinforce when it is successful.

right? That's all learning. That's how you learn. If you do loving-kindness practice.

but you don't know if it works. then how do you know if you did it right? Right? How do you know to reinforce it?

How do you know to do it again? For me. when I when I do a practice. when I do something.

and then I see that it works. I'm like. oh. this works.

This is great. Look at I feel lighter. I took. you know.

what that person said to me less personally. My kids didn't upset me as much today. I wasn't as self critical in my head. right?

Those are all really important things to recognize and then see so that you then use that as self-motivation to do the practice again. right? So many people on the spiritual path are like. oh.

I don't judge. Judgment's bad. It's like. no.

that's absurd. right? Like. judgment isn't bad.

Judgment is just a thing. Everything is just a thing. Discernment is super helpful. And if we're not using discernment.

then we are. you know. quite literally going. you know.

walking through the dark without a flashlight. There's How would you even know if you got to the destination? You wouldn't know. Okay.

so like I said. with loving-kindness practice. you want to focus on the chest. right?

You can tap it. put your hands on it. whatever. just to feel.

okay. that's my body. right? Okay.

that's the limits of my body. the skin. inside. the whole thing.

And then you're going to just basically say positive affirmations in hopes that it produces a sense of openness or warmth or love in your chest. The goal. right? What is.

I was talking to someone the other day. what is loving kindness? What is unconditional self-love? It's basically you feel how you feel when you're in the presence of someone you love or an animal that you love or when you haven't seen someone for a long time and you give them a hug that you love them.

you feel this warmth and openness in your chest. You can feel that anytime without anyone else. without anything happening in your world. if you practice this.

you see. When you get good at loving-kindness practice. that feeling of openness. warmth.

love. expansiveness. and a certain kind of joy. it's not quite joy.

but it's pleasant. it's positive. it's kind of happy. is always available.

you see. And it becomes a tool that you can use to heal the broken pieces of yourself. to heal the sharp edges. to heal the repressed emotions.

You know. it's all very malleable. And Dankong tea. good Dan Kong tea.

I'm drinking right now. I feel this warmth in my chest. warmth in my face. and this warmth across the chest.

deep in the chest. in the middle of the chest. and then out and then to the front and then out to the side. and it's just warm.

Shimmery. A little bit of a rainbow wave almost. right? It's a very good tea.

I highly recommend the hidden cave. Okay. here we go. Let's do the practice.

I'll ring the bell three times. and that will begin. Allow your awareness to settle out of your head like a leaf floating through the air. falling from the branch of the tree.

floating back and forth. down through the head. down through the neck. down into the chest.

right beneath the heart. and then landing kind of at the bottom of your diaphragm as if it's the floor of the forest. And now. let's say the loving-kindness phrases.

I will say them and then say them out loud after me. May I feel happy? May I feel free? May I feel loved?

May I feel connected? May I feel supported? May I feel included? May I feel whole May I feel alive and just noticing any sense of openness.

warmth. or lightness in your chest. paying attention to it. valuing it.

giving it your attention. saying yes to it. Okay. let's do it again.

May I feel happy? May I feel free? May I feel loved? May I feel connected?

May I feel supported? May I feel at home? May I feel alive. Once again.

noticing any sense of openness. warmth. or lightness in your chest. Saying yes to that feeling.

encouraging it. connecting with it. All right. one more time.

May I feel happy? May I feel free? May I feel loved? May I feel connected?

May I feel whole. May I feel in tune? May I feel at home? May I feel at ease?

May I feel alive? Noticing any sense of openness. warmth. or lightness in your chest.

Connecting with it. encouraging it. saying yes to it.