Meet Aging with Kindness

Your body has carried you through everything. Every year, every experience, every high, and every low. It's been with you through late nights and early mornings, through celebrations and heartbreak, through all the ordinary and special moments that make up a life. And in your own way, you've cared for your body as best as you can. Still, over time, the body naturally changes. It's not a failure, that's just part of being human, but sometimes those changes can bring stress, worry about what's different, resistance to what you see in the mirror, that stress lives in your body, and it can make aging feel much harder than it needs to be. This practice is about meeting change with kindness instead of resistance. Because when you can soften around what's happening, your body gets to relax too. And there's so much freedom that can be found in that. So take a moment to find a comfortable position and just allowing yourself to settle in. You can close the eyes if you'd like, and just taking a few deep breaths here, in through the nose and out through the mouth, settling the mind and body with each breath. On the next exhale, returning the breath back to its natural rhythm, and just bringing a kind and gentle awareness to your body just as it is right now. Not trying to change anything, but just noticing, this body that's been your companion through every season of life. Now I'm gonna offer you some phrases, and these aren't affirmations that you have to believe right away. They're more like seeds that we're planting. So see if you can let them settle in your body as you hear them. You can also repeat them silently to yourself or just listen and let them land however they want to. So, may I learn to be kind to myself as I change. May I learn to embrace myself exactly as I am, and may I learn to meet my body with compassion and care. And now let's move through these together, taking our time. And if you'd like, you can try resting a hand on your heart as you repeat these phrases after me. May I learn to be kind to myself as I change. Pausing, taking a deep breath, allowing these words to fill the mind and body, offering kindness towards all the ways that you're different now than you were before. May I learn to embrace myself exactly as I am. Taking another deep breath here, remembering there's so much peace in acceptance, not giving up, but just letting go of the fight against what's happening. May I learn to meet my body with compassion? One more deep breath, extending the same compassion you'd offer to a dear friend to yourself. And let's move through these phrases once more. May I learn to be kind to myself as I change. May I learn to embrace myself exactly as I am. May I learn to...