Hi.
Welcome.
Settle in and make yourself comfortable wherever you are.
That can be sitting or laying down.
This meditation is about tolerating uncertainty,
Which is difficult for most of us.
You don't need certainty to begin this.
This is a practice.
You just need to be here for these next few minutes.
So,
Let's settle in.
Let's take a long slow deep breath in through the nose.
And let's breathe out through the mouth.
Just letting go.
Tension,
All that.
Might be weighing on your shoulders.
Let's do that another time.
Slow deep breath in through the nose.
Sigh it out.
Feeling your shoulders drop.
Feeling your body.
Find more ease.
And again,
Long slow deep breath in through the nose.
You know.
.
.
Last one,
Long slow deep breath in through the nose,
Filling up your belly.
And out,
Releasing everything you don't need to hold right now.
Let your breathing settle into whatever rhythm feels natural to you.
There is a question.
The mind asks over and over.
Especially at night.
It's already in the mornings.
Question what's going to happen?
Is everything going to be okay?
Am I going to be okay?
How is this ever going to change?
Underneath those questions is usually a hope.
But if you could just know the answer,
You could finally relax.
That certainty is the thing standing between you and peace.
Between you and joy.
But here's something worth sitting with.
Certainty was never actually available.
Not right in this moment.
Not at night.
Not any night.
Even the things that feel solid.
Like a job.
Our relationship,
Your health.
They were never guaranteed.
We just don't usually feel uncertainty until something shakes it in its core.
To the discomfort.
You're feeling right now.
Isn't a sign that something's wrong with your life or with you.
It might just be that you're feeling honestly.
What's always been true.
That's not meant to be bleak.
It's meant to loosen the grip of a question that was never going to be answered anyway.
So let's try something new.
Think of the thing you're most uncertain about right now.
You don't have to name it out loud,
You don't have to name it in a word,
Just see if you can think of that thing.
You're most uncertain about in this moment in time.
And just let it come to mind And now instead of asking,
How will this turn out?
Ask a different question.
How can I be here?
I stay here in the not knowing for one more breath.
Just one breath,
Not the whole future.
And just this next inhale.
And this next exhale without the answer.
Inhale… You just did it.
I just tolerated uncertainty for one cycle of breath.
Actually it was two,
If you practiced with me.
That's the whole skill,
Actually.
Not solving uncertainty,
Trying to not feel it push it away.
But building your capacity to stay present inside it,
One breath at a time.
Bean by bean,
The bag gets full.
That's the practice.
Let's keep on breathing in.
Imagine uncertainty as an ocean.
And you used to think you had to search the other shore before you could rest.
But you're not trying to shlim across anymore.
Just learning to float.
The water is still moving.
It's still unpredictable but you're not fighting it.
You're just floating,
Breath by breath.
Trusting that you don't have to see the shore to stay afloat.
Breathing in.
I'm breathing out.
Floating.
This beautiful ocean,
Drifting.
One breath.
At a time.
Whatever you're facing right now,
That has no clear answer.
It's just allowed to stay like that,
Unclear,
In this moment,
In this practice we're doing You don't owe it a resolution before you're allowed to rest.
You don't have to force anything before you are allowed to relax your body,
Your mind.
Your only job right now is to breathe.
Float.
And after one breath comes another.
And then the next one.
And every time you notice,
You come back to that gripping and that uncertainty.
Let's begin again.
Don't scold yourself,
Don't.
.
.
Being kind to yourself.
Just gently come back to the breath.
Floating.
No water.
Breathing in.
And out.
That's the practice.
You feel your body now.
Is it more relaxed,
Resting,
More at ease than when we begin this practice?
The not knowing is still there.
And so are you.
So are you.
Steady enough,
For now.
Let that be enough for this practice,
For today,
For this moment.
You can come back to this practice anytime you like.
This works best if you consistently practice these breathing techniques,
These floating techniques.
Consistently every day just for a few moments with this meditation or on your own.
Before we end this,
Let's take one more slow deep breath in through the nose.
On out through the nose.
And when you're ready,
Open your eyes.
If you did this at night,
Let yourself drift into sleep.
Thank you for meditating with me.
Come back anytime you might need it.
My name is Helen.
Namaste.
