Healing From Trauma: Subtle Body Awareness

In this self-explorative talk & meditation, we look at how it may be for you to open your awareness into your Subtle Body and how this can be a support for you as you heal from trauma. There is a short talk & then I guide you gently into awareness of your subtle body

Transcript

Becoming aware of the vitality of my inner world and the energy processes within that has by far been the most impactful resource for me. It opens up deep self-exploration and allows for healing. It is continuously a really nourishing resource for me as I navigate the waters of life and has been the single most helpful awareness on my very hard journey of healing after trauma. Once we feel comfortable enough being grounded in our bodies we can let our awareness become more spacious and open. Softening the subtle holding to our sense of form and opening up into awareness of our subtle body we can notice an inner vitality like a life force or an inner vibrancy and we can spend some time getting to know all the subtleties and nuances of this inner vitality, All its vibrations and movements. It all starts and ends with letting go, With relaxing. In the meditation today I'll guide you gently into the experience of it step by step. So let's begin by finding a comfortable position where your body can feel awake but relaxed. And then once comfortable bring your awareness into your breath, To the breath within your body. Notice the feelings and sensations of the lungs, Ribs and abdomen rising and falling with each in-breath and each out-breath. When you get distracted that's okay, Just gently bring your awareness back to the breath within your body and feel your body let go and melt down as you do that. So keep doing that now, Continuously noticing when you've drifted and then gently bringing your awareness back to the breath within the body and note how it feels for you as you relax. Now make a subtle shift by putting your awareness on your out-breath as a resting and settling breath. And allow yourself to follow the out-breath down, Feeling your body relax deeper and deeper with each out-breath. If you notice any holding or contraction anywhere within your body, Just gently let it soften and relax and then gently come back to the out-breath and relax back into feelings and sensations within the body as you breathe. And now take your awareness to the ground of your being. Notice the sensations and feeling of the ground or the chair pushing up from below you, The feeling of it really supporting you. Notice the feelings and sensations of the weight of your legs or your body and where it meets that ground. Notice if you're allowing yourself to trust that ground and allowing your whole body to deeply relax and let go into that supportive sense of ground. And if at any time you get distracted, There's no need to judge yourself or push the thoughts away. Just see if you can allow them to be there, To do what they need to do and then gently again come back to your breath within your body and relax deeply down into the ground again. Move your awareness slowly up into feelings and sensations within the trunk of your body and notice anything that is there, Give it space to be as it is, Let go and relax and hold a sense of compassion for yourself and really let go of any judgments or pushing away or holding. Just give everything space to be as it is and relax down into the ground allowing everything to move as it needs to move. Allow your awareness now to expand to the rest of your body, Opening out to your arms, Your neck and your head and back down into your legs until you become aware of feelings and sensations within your whole body as you relax and breathe. And you could have the sense that your whole body is breathing, Like your skin is permeable. So as you breathe, Let your whole body breathe and let that breathing process gradually soften the holding that you have to your sense of form and gradually let yourself become more spacious and open. As you rest there within spacious awareness, You may get a sense of the aliveness within your body, Your inner vitality, Like a vibrancy within and you may get a sense that this vitality has different tones, Feelings and nuances to it. Until now we've had an awareness of something, An awareness of the breath, An awareness of the body and now we're opening gradually to a sense of really being spacious awareness itself. Noticing the processes moving within that holding space, Quiet, Present, Open awareness. If you notice yourself trying too hard or if you're distracted, You will probably notice a sense of holding or contraction in your body. So again, Gently let go and bring your awareness back to the breath. Allow yourself to relax into your body and allow yourself to open to spacious awareness again. To the vitality and the vibrancy within. Coming back to our bodies isn't necessarily easy for us. We're disembodied for a reason, Spending most of our time distracted in our heads, Busy with thought. So sometimes getting in touch with your body within isn't necessarily comfortable. If it feels too much, You can open your eyes and have a gentle look around or you can come back to the breath. Come back to something that resources you and makes you feel safe. At the same time, Our bodies can give us a real sense of groundedness, Of safety and joy. The key is to continuously relax into the feelings and sensations, The vitality and really allow the processes of thoughts, Emotions, Pain, Etc. To just arise and move through as they need to. Give everything space. So just rest here for a while within feelings and sensations and vitality of your body. Keep letting go, Relaxing down into the ground and really allow whatever is coming up and moving through, Space to move. Hold it with a sense of compassion and a sense of love. Coming back to the breath and back to the body if you need to. Opening our awareness into the quality of the body and opening to a sense of our energy body can for some of us be challenging to connect to. We're all different and we all move at different paces so just keep sitting, Try to enjoy it and try to hold a space with a sense of love without any judgment. If you need to stay with the breath or the body for a while before opening into spacious awareness that's also fine. You do what feels nourishing and fulfilling for you. If you struggle to connect to the energy within just stay with feelings and sensations within the physical body. You can just gently keep becoming aware of different parts of your body almost like you're inside a cave, Shining a torch light into different parts of the cave to see what's there. As we bring this meditation to a close I'd like you to bring a sense of love to your heart for what you are doing. Truly being in touch with ourselves with how we are doing on a deeper level will really start to allow us to feel grounded throughout our days while letting the energy of feelings and emotions or pain to move through us without it disturbing us. And this is a really good place to be, A place of calm where struggles can move through and the vibrancy of life can be enjoyed. This meditation is from my course Return to Joy Healing from Trauma where I take you through the steps that I found were truly beneficial and rewarding in my journey of healing. So please feel free to have a look. The courses are a great space for you to take the journey step by step and reflect back at me so that I can deeply support you and go with you on the journey. Thank you.