I invite you to join me for a meditation on emotions that include some hurt,
Some sadness
or some other vulnerable feelings that you would like to spend some healing time with.
In order to create a container to feel like you're being held while you're holding your
emotions,
I invite you to ground your feet on the ground,
On the earth.
Feel how you're not floating,
But being held in being.
If you wanted to lay down,
Then feel your feet and your legs also grounded on the cushion
on your bed and also feel the gravity or feel the gravity from the chair as you're sitting
or from the cushion as you're sitting on the ground.
Wherever you are,
Laying down or sitting up,
There's no right or wrong posture as long
as you feel that you're ready to do some self-love and self-care.
As you're comfortably laying down or sitting somewhere,
I pray that you will feel the air
going through your body,
The oxygen coming through your breath into every cell of your body.
I invite you to take a few deep breaths,
Breathe in and breathe out.
Maybe you can slow down your breath,
Especially your out-breath.
Make it a little bit longer than your in-breath.
That signals your body that you're resting,
That you're safe and that you're getting ready
to hold yourself and be held.
Breathe in and breathe out.
If you're able,
You can move your diaphragm when you breathe in and when you breathe out.
It has an extra way of telling your body that you're relaxed.
Just continue to breathe for a few more breaths.
If you feel comfortable,
You can close your eyes or lower your gaze.
Just make sure before you do that,
That everything around you is peaceful and safe so that your
body can fully relax.
Now as your body is calming down,
I would like for you to think of an encounter or a
situation where your feelings got stirred up.
Maybe you got hurt,
Maybe someone offended you,
Maybe you feel walked away from a situation
sad or irritated or wounded in some kind of way.
As you remember that situation,
See where in your body do you still feel that emotion.
Sometimes those emotions settle down in our chest area,
Maybe in our heart or our belly
area.
Feel where that upset,
That emotion still lives in you.
Sometimes we are holding anger in our shoulders.
Sometimes we have fear or anxiety or sadness that settles in our belly area.
Maybe your jaw is still tight from feeling tension.
Wherever your emotions have settled,
Just send some breath into that area.
So I invite you to breathe in again and imagine you sending a stream of light and oxygen and
breath into that area where that injured part,
That injured emotion has settled.
Maybe you do it three times.
Breathe in and send some love and light to the area where the pain lives.
One more time and send energy to that pain,
To that emotion.
Breathe in oxygen and warmth and love and send some healing light into that area.
Now I invite you to maybe put a hand,
If you will,
Onto the space in your body where that
emotion still hangs and lives.
It might be your heart space,
Your shoulders,
Your jaw,
Your belly,
Or maybe another area
in your body that you notice tension.
Just hold one or both hands on top of that area as a sign of self-compassion.
Breathe in and let it go.
I want you to compassionately imagine that you're talking to that feeling that you have
as if that was a little child.
Imagine you are the mother or the father of this little emotion,
Upset,
Sad,
Scared,
Hurt,
Frustrated,
Irritated,
Whatever that little part in you feels,
I want you to listen and
then compassionately respond into that place underneath your hands.
Symbolically,
That's where that wounded part lives and you can compassionately parent that
part of yours and talk to it.
Just listen,
Listen.
What is that part telling you?
If there are some tears that are coming,
It's a beautiful release for that part to be heard.
Then to release some tension,
So we can release tension just by relaxing,
We can breathe tension
by breathing out really intensely.
When you breathe in,
Breathe in compassion and send it to that area.
As you breathe out,
Breathe out a deep,
Deep sigh and let go of that hurt,
That emotion
and allow it to leave your body or you can let that emotion well up in the form of tears
and then the tears just begin to stream.
That's a beautiful expression as well.
Keep holding,
Feel the warmth of your hands,
Feel the touch that gently comforts that area
in you that feels hurt.
Speak tenderly and comforting to yourself and release and release and release.
Let go,
Let go,
Let go.
Be a witness,
A comforting presence and as you allow the emotion to surface and speak,
You also are able to surrender and let it go.
As you let go,
You feel the healing energy go through your body,
Warm up the area where
the pain has lived before and instead create a warm space,
A safe space.
Then let go of the intensity of the feeling and see it leave your body in peace.
Maybe you can end this exercise by giving yourself a big hug.
I like to just wrap my arms around my body sometimes to feel held,
Comforted.
In some ways,
Parent myself,
Parent my body in a way that maybe you have never been parented
before or you were parented with hugs and with holding and now your body is craving
to experience that and you can give that to yourself.
And as we're ending this exercise,
I want you to come back to feel your whole body as
it is continued to be relaxed,
Send three more breaths into the area where we did some
healing work.
There might still be some leftover,
Some softer emotion remaining and that's totally fine.
You can always come back tomorrow and do some more healing work.
For right now,
I want you to breathe deeply in and out.
One more time in and out and just bathe in your self-compassion and appreciate yourself
for doing this time of self-love and self-care,
For attending to the hurt,
To the pain in
you,
To taking small steps towards healing and releasing.
Take your time to transition from our exercise,
From our practice back to normal life.
You might want to take it slow,
Maybe you take a nap if you can or maybe you want to
go for a walk,
Just take it slow and inhale more oxygen,
Breathe deeply,
Continue to breathe.
Or you can get up and maybe make yourself a cup of tea,
Maybe a little snack,
Whatever
nurtures you right now,
Continue the self-care,
The self-love,
The self-compassion.
If you're able,
Just stay on a slow pace for at least another hour or so because you're
integrating the healing work that you just have done into the rest of your life.
Thank you for spending time with me and I will practice with you soon.
