Meditate as an act of deep warm friendship to yourself

I’d been a regular meditator for decades when I first heard these words. Something deep and fundamental shifted in me, and ultimately my meditation practice, as I took them in.

A feeling of striving dropped, a feeling that I needed to get something out of my meditation practice dropped and guess what I got? A taste of what I was longing for all along but didn’t know it – acceptance. Acceptance of myself in this moment just as I am and this moment and this moment… Of course the striving still arises in my meditation practice and when it does I give it a nod and offer these words to myself – “meditate as an act of love for yourself”.