Welcome and thank you for joining me today for this guided meditation.
Intrusive thoughts are something that we all face or even struggle with at various intervals in our lives.
Some more than others,
This I know.
If you're currently finding it difficult to cope with ongoing,
Ruminating or intrusive thoughts,
This meditation will be a comforting support for you.
Our instinct is always to ignore our thoughts,
To classify some as good or bad and to try and root out the ones we don't like,
To try and push them away,
Pretend they don't exist.
But it's not the pushing away that will keep them at bay,
It's the acceptance that they're there and the understanding of why they're there that will help you to live a full life regardless of where your thoughts might try to take you.
The brain is a prediction machine.
It uses your past experience to try and predict what will happen next in your life so that it can pre-empt these things and protect you.
It always wants to protect you,
But most often the past experiences it uses for its predictive modelling are the ones that are emotionally charged.
Things that might have happened to you where you were hurt,
Shamed,
Disregarded or made to feel less than your whole magnificent self.
These emotional events become the basis for what your brain wants to protect you from and they are entirely unconscious.
So you are not creating them,
Your brain is playing them like a movie for you to remember what made you feel the hurt or the shame or the feeling of being disregarded.
It is your brain's beautiful attempt to prevent you from feeling that way again.
These protective unconscious patterns were created to help you survive experiences where your brain perceived you were under threat.
They are patterns,
They are not you.
They are adaptations of things that have happened in your life.
By bringing awareness to these patterns and creating safe new experiences,
You can help your beautiful brain rewire itself and reduce its reliance on those old protective models.
You are this incredible being that is capable of so many wonderful things,
Far beyond what any thought could ever tell you.
So together we are going to gently explore these protective patterns and we will bring compassion to the parts of you that once had to learn to protect you.
I invite you to find a comfortable position,
Seated or lying down.
Allow your eyes to gently close or you can lower or soften the gaze if that feels more comfortable for you.
Take a gentle breath in through the nose and a slow and gentle breath out through the nose or the mouth.
Again breathing it in and gently letting it go.
We want to be breathing from the belly that is expanding on the inhale and when we exhale we want to try and extend that exhale a little longer than the inhale.
Feel the ground beneath you,
Feel your body rooted into the earth.
You are supported,
You are held,
You are not broken,
You are not malfunctioning,
You are in fact human.
You are adaptive and you can change.
It is okay to surrender in this moment,
Letting that breath guide you with those beautiful expansive inhales,
Letting the body soften on the exhale and really allowing yourself to feel what is true in your body right now.
And maybe that truth is a feeling of discomfort and that's okay.
Sit with the discomfort as if it's an old friend.
Be in each other's company without trying to change one another.
Spend time together just being as you are.
And if the intrusive or ruminating thoughts are still there,
That's okay too.
Let them be there,
Let them continue to play.
We are going to continue our practice whether they're there or not and let this be the metaphor for your life.
Thoughts will always continue to play but you can live alongside them.
They don't need to stop you or control your life,
You can continue.
And over time you will find that the noise gets softer and softer until you can barely hear it at all.
Notice with a curious mind what is happening in your body as your thoughts continue to play.
Without judgment,
Just curiosity,
Observing any sensations that arise.
Maybe there is still that sense of discomfort or tension or maybe there is even a feeling of not being safe.
Breathing into those sensations,
Letting them be there and repeating silently or out loud to yourself.
What I am thinking is a protective pattern,
It is not who I am.
What I am feeling is a protective pattern,
It is not who I am.
This way of protecting myself was learned,
It is not who I am.
These thoughts arise unconsciously,
They are not who I am.
Now placing a hand on your heart and one on your belly and letting that breath continue to flow with those expansive inhales and soft gentle exhales.
And repeating these words silently or out loud to yourself.
Thank you beautiful body for trying to protect me.
I see you and I honour your effort.
I am ready to create new patterns that serve my highest good.
I notice my thoughts and I know they are not me.
I notice my thoughts and I don't need to believe them.
I am ready to create new patterns that serve my highest good.
Continue breathing from the belly,
Expanding on that inhale and extending that exhale ever so slightly.
And with every inhale imagine sending warmth and compassion to the part of you that holds this patterning.
Even if you don't know where it is,
The intention alone is powerful.
Sending love and compassion to the parts of you that felt hurt or disregarded.
Even if you don't know where they are,
The intention alone is healing.
Sending love and compassion to the moments in time where you did what you needed to do to survive.
And sending love and compassion to your younger self who was doing the best you could with what you had at the time.
And continue breathing from the belly,
Expanding on the inhale,
Softening and surrendering on the exhale.
With this practice you are reframing your entire experience into something that serves you,
Something that you choose.
You are adaptable and you are resilient.
You are not bound by old survival responses.
You can grow and you can change and that process takes time.
But with practice you can move beyond being captive to your thoughts because they do not define you.
Your thoughts are not you.
And even if it is only a gentle awareness or a soft knowing that is true for you right now,
That is enough.
Every time you return to this practice your awareness will grow.
Every time you return your capacity to change will expand.
So rest here in that awareness,
Be in it and know that you have done the best that you can for today.
When you are ready you can open your eyes and return to your day with a sense of that possibility budding within you.
My name is Kat Stott.
It has been my absolute honour to guide you through this meditation today.
I hope you have a wonderful day further.
Go gently.
