Sit in a comfortable position, preferably with a straight spine. You want to remain upright so you do not fall asleep, but you also should be comfortable. Find a balance, both soft and alert. Imagine your sit bones rooted in the earth. A small invisible thread pulls from the top of your head and leads straight up through the atmosphere into the unknown.
Begin by imagining yourself as a newly born infant. All earthly sensations are brand new: lights are overwhelming, sounds are tremendous, smells are foreign, tastes are shocking. Even your own limbs flailing about are startling. From this very first moment, each of us begins a very different path. What was your path? Were you welcomed into your mother’s arms? Did another care for you? How did your years unfold?
As you follow the path of your story, hold great loving-kindness and compassion for yourself. In many ways, even as an adult, you are a child on the earth. Using your imagination, hold yourself, the newborn, in your cupped palm. Place your other cupped palm over the top so you are holding the image of your infant self safely in a loving nest, in your wise and gentle hands.
Hold yourself in this same loving nest through childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Hold yourself in soft kindness through all your life’s challenges, understanding that your life is a story. Your entire life is a story for which you can hold great compassionate love – even through your mistakes, even through unkindnesses that you have inflicted. Know that you are basically good. You have challenges just like everyone else on the earth. You have sadnesses, fears, heartbreaks, and traumas (seen and unseen) just like everyone else.
Hold yourself gently, kindly; offer this same generosity to those around you. Eventually, you may be able to do this practice for your community, your country, and the planet.
— Anne-Marie Keppel in Death Nesting