Today we ask you to lay down your sword.

Many of you walk through the world with your defenses up, wary, always looking out for threats, predators, enemies, pitfalls, and traps.  You walk with your armor on, your sword in hand.  You believe that this is the only intelligent way to walk in this world.  You have been hurt too many times in the past to risk any further injury.  So you keep you sword well-honed, and sleep with it by your side.

No wonder you do not get very good sleep.

As the weekend draws close, we ask you to lay down your sword, and remove your armor.  Some of you may not remember what this feels like.  But there have been times in your life when you let yourself lie down and be unguarded.  Deep down all of you remember this state.

Imagine a world-weary knight, wearing heavy armor, wielding a heavy broadsword, putting his weapons down.  

His sword.  His shield.  His helmet.  His breastplate.  The guards upon his arms and legs.  The chain mail.  Imagine how good it feels to be free of this heavy burden, to fill one’s lungs with fresh air, unhampered by the weight upon one’s chest.  

This is what happens when we put down our swords, and remove our armor.  It just feels better.  Do you understand?

Today we ask that you take a few moments to relax one part of your body.

What does this mean?

Most of you carry an enormous amount of tension in your physical bodies.  It is so overwhelming and chronic that you often don’t know this is happening until there is some sort of physical breakdown or illness.

So today we would ask you to focus your attention on one part of your body.  Whatever comes to mind as something in need of your attention.

If nothing comes to mind, select your feet, or your hands.  It is best to keep things in balance symmetrically when doing this work.

Once you have made your selection, spend a few minutes of time focusing your attention on this part of your body.  Really feel the physical sensations.

Imagine a gentle loosening or unwinding.  A gentle release of pressure, like the slow unclenching of a fist into a loose, relaxed hand.

Even a little bit of time spent relaxing a small fragment of your body can do great good for the whole.

Today we ask that you let go of something.

We cannot tell you what that is.

But all of you hold on to things.  Regrets.  Mistakes.  Things you wish had not happened.  Things you feel you deserve, that you do not have.  Things you feel you did not deserve, that happened to you.  Grudges.  Unrequited loves.  Injustices.

Deep down, in your heart, you know what you are holding on to.  You know that it does no good.  You cannot change the past.  You cannot change the hearts and minds of other people.  You cannot change the hand of destiny.

So choose of one these things.  It does not have to be a big one.

Imagine this thing has a shape.  Imagine holding it in your hands.  Let your mind show you this thing as an object.  Give it form.

Once you have it in mind, take this object, and tie it to a string attached to a big, brightly colored balloon.

Release the balloon into the sky, carrying your burden with it.  Watch it dwindle, and disappear.  It vanishes into the light.

Release your regrets, your grudges, your injustices, your unrequited loves.  Release them.  

Each one is a heavy weight.  But once you release it, it is so light that it can easily fly away from you.  Let it go, so that you can be free.  

Today we ask that you take notice of your speech habits.

When you speak to others, on the whole what is coming out of your mouth? 

Particularly notice the tone of your voice underneath the actual words.  Is there a strained quality to your speech?  Is there a fearful tone?

Do you spend your speaking time discussing fearful or negative things?  Do you complain?  Do you gossip?  Do you put down other people?  Do you discuss the state of the world from a place of fear?

Just notice your speech, without judgment.  All we ask is that you observe.  

Sometimes it can be quite shocking to realize that a large proportion of one’s speech is negative.

We do not ask you to control your speech.  Just bring your attention to it.  That is sufficient for the day.

Today we ask you to appreciate the miracle that is the physical human body.  

To that end, we ask you to select one part of your body.  Preferably a small part — like a finger or toe, a joint, an eye or ear or nose, and so on.  

Look at this part of your body, in a mirror if need be.  Touch it.  Take it in.

Now: take a moment to marvel at this magnificent creation.  Just think of all it can do.  All that it does do, usually without you paying much attention to it. 

Generally it is only when the parts of your body have problems or function issues that you sit up and take notice — and then with frustration.

So today, take a few moments to appreciate a part of your body from a place of pure love and admiration.  Think of all that is happening inside it.  All the microscopic parts working in harmony, unseen, allowing this part to function as it does.

There is consciousness within even the hairs on your head.  Everything responds to love.  Take this time to love one small part of yourself — and your whole being will benefit.

Today we would ask that you drop a different kind of grievance.

Previously, we asked you to drop a grievance that you held against another person.  Today, we ask you to drop a grievance about yourself.

Most of you walk around weighted down by continual thoughts of self-attack.  “I am not good enough.”  “I do not do enough.”  “I weigh too much.”  “I’m not a good parent.”  “I’m a failure.”  “I’m not living up to my potential.”  “I don’t know what I’m doing.”  “I don’t make enough money.”  And so on.

Today, we would ask you to select one such thought.  Some self-attacking thought that echoes in the back of your mind.

As you hold this thought in your consciousness, imagine what it looks like.  See it as a shape, a color, a texture.  Maybe it moves around, or wriggles.  Maybe it is sticky, or heavy.  However it looks to you.  Whatever appears.

Now: imagine you are standing at the edge of a cliff, overlooking the sea.  Water washes against the rocks below.  The scene is very peaceful.

Cast your self-hating thought over the cliff.  Let it drop into the ocean, and be washed away.  It is gone.

Notice how you feel.  These thoughts of self-attack are such burdens.  They bite and sting, and do no good.  Drop them.  Let them go.

Today we ask that you release your grip on something.

What does this mean?

Many of you have various needs and goals that you are pursuing at any given moment.  Resolutions for 2012.  Desires and plans and schemes.  Things that you need to get done.  Things that you perhaps feel behind the eight ball on.

We ask you to select one of these.  One of your unfinished projects, or your short-term or long-term goals — especially one that you may feel some charge around.  Fear that it will not happen.  Fear that you will drop the ball unless you stay on top of yourself.

Whatever this thing is, imagine it as an object you are holding in your hands.  Give it a shape, a color, a weight, a texture. Is it hot, cold, or neutral.  Does it look like any particular thing.  Whatever comes to mind.

Imagine you are holding this object.  Notice how you are holding it.  How tight is your grasp?  Do you feel some anxiety as you grip it?  How does your body feel?

Now: imagine setting the “goal object” down on the ground.  Maybe down on a soft, fuzzy, warm carpet.  Maybe on green grass.  Maybe on a solid wooden floor.  Whatever feels like a proper place for your object.  A very solid place to put it, where it will not roll away.  It will sit there safely.

Set it down.  Take a few steps back from it.  Notice how you feel.  Are you uneasy?  Are you relieved?  How does your body feel?

It is okay to leave it there.  You can walk away from it.  It is perfectly safe.  You can return to it at any time.

Humans can only do one thing at a time very well.  There is no use carrying around all these goals and unfinished things. Set them down.  Return to them when it is time.  Just do not carry all this unnecessary weight.

Today we ask you to meditate on cultivating methods of discharging the anxious energies that you carry in your minds and bodies.

Many of you spend your days with chronic anxiety humming as a perpetual undercurrent in the background of your consciousness.  For some of you, this is so severe that you take medication to contain it.

It is akin to a radioactive leak at a nuclear facility.  There is a continual low-grade release of toxicity into the system that you must constantly clean up.  Sometimes these energies build up and you experience an explosion: rage, panic, or a sinking into crushing depression.

Radioactivity is a good metaphor for this condition.  For, like the clean-up workers in Japan, many of you are exposed on a daily basis to toxic thought forms.  You take them in when you watch or read the news, you take them in when you watch television, or look at a computer.  You take them in from your friends, family members and co-workers.  These are thought forms rooted in fear, that project a future in which terrible things will happen and you are doomed.  Absorb too much of this energy, and you are headed for an “explosion.”

Given the prevalence of toxic thought forms in your society, we would strongly encourage you to cultivate practices for discharging these energies in a healthy way.  Limit your exposure to these energies as much as is feasible for you.  Tried-and-true methods for discharging these energies include: meditation; time spent outdoors; physical exercise that feels nourishing and grounding for the body (as opposed to punitive or self-hating); taking part in healthy group spirituality; singing and dancing; listening to music; spending time in the company of individuals whose presence nourishes your soul; relaxing through massage; or bathing in a conscious, healing way.

Most of you know deep down what makes you feel better and helps you sleep at night.  Even a little time spent each day nourishing yourselves and discharging unhealthy energies can do a world of good.