We have lived these many years and we must value all that they have brought.

We have trodden so many roads and still could feel the buzz of starting here.

We have met so many others who have shaped the one we are and all should have a place because of who we are, and because we must respect the one we are, prizing our story for all its many parts.

We cannot love others unless we love ourselves and we cannot love ourselves unless we love this person here and now… with all their many parts, and for everything they are.

Here is a meditation to help to integrate a true sense of the person you are.

Start with three long breaths and allow your out-breaths to smoothe the tensions in your muscles so that you can feel your whole body ease and relax...

Let your breathing subside into a gentle even rhythm as you move into your clear space...

When you are at ease in your clear space, turn your attention onto yourself, but don’t look inward, rather feel your whole self, sitting as your are...

Allow a sense to develop of being both the observer and the observed, seeing and being seen almost in the same instant...

Notice without judgment the different parts of you, both what is visible on the outside and what only you know on the inside, and treat everything that comes into your mind equally, nothing is good and nothing is bad, but here everything is simply a part...

As you notice more and more parts of you, aspects of your life, people you know past and present, each with a place in your story, be aware of the sense of you and these parts and let them all form into a thread which comes through your life to this moment now...

Let your sense of the thread, your life, you as the observer and the observed, and where you are now, all merge into one...

Look for a feeling of ease within yourself and turn your focus to it...

When you are ready, after your usual time of sitting, lengthen your breathing into three long breaths to bring yourself back.