Text Meditation Guide:
As you sit on the ground during the early morning hours of Tisha B’Av, consider the following steps to make it a healing experience:
- Find a comfortable place to sit and ground yourself on the Earth.
- Close your eyes or soften your gaze.
- Find a position on the ground so your body feels fully supported.
- Once you’re comfortable, brush your hands across the ground, be it grass, sand, dirt, carpet or flooring, and press your palms down on the ground.
- Breathe in and out slowly five times. In through your nose, hold for five seconds and exhale through your mouth for five seconds.
- As you breathe, meditate on everything in the natural world you need to sustain you, and how everything that is sustaining you is simultaneously sustaining everybody in your life.
- Everyone is breathing the same air, feeling the same sunlight, walking on the same planet. While they may not all have the exact same experiences, at the end of the day we are all in this together, connected by our shared caretaker.
- Ponder this point for a few minutes, really internalizing the existence of the other people in your lives.
- Recite out loud “I am not alone” three times.
- Breathe in and out five times. In through your nose, hold for five seconds and exhale through your mouth for five seconds. Slowly open your eyes and refocus your gaze with each breath.
- As you stand up, think about someone you love who you can connect with, whether by phone, text or in person.
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