The following meditation is led by Tara Brock.

To access more of my meditations or join my email list, please visit TaraBrock.com.

Before starting today's guided heart meditation, I'd like to set a little context about how we offer these.

In a broad way, these heart practices are a totally integral part of waking up.

We often describe the bird with two wings that flies to freedom and the wings are the wings of understanding,

you know, through mindfulness and love, the heartfulness.

We really can't see clearly what's in the moment if our heart's not receptive and tender.

There will be some resisting.

There are many pathways for these heart practices.

It's really an inner exploration of what works.

What works to help this particular heart right here feel more soft, more tender, more open, more connected.

There are certain basic ways of paying attention that generally seem to help us wake up.

And one is paying attention to the reality of goodness, where the goodness is in ourselves and others.

The more that we attend to the beauty, the generosity, the deeriness, the creativity, the humor, the love within ourselves and others,

the more that wakes up a sense of loving.

Another pathway is to attend to this shared human vulnerability that's here.

And in the moments that we can see that others are struggling, our sense that we ourselves are having a hard time, we get more tender.

That's compassion.

So the different pathways.

So one is to reflect on, let's say, the goodness.

And then another piece is to, in some way, express it.

And if we're doing a meditation, it would be in the form of a wish or a prayer.

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