Relaxation allows a balancing of your parasympathetic and sympathetic systems,
Which is essential for your overall inner harmony.
Inner tension,
Either physical or mental emotional,
Causes us to tense more around the pain and seems to intensify the pain.
There is an intimate connection between relaxation and suffering,
And what I did notice through years of living in pain.
Is that when my body was really relaxed,
My pain would seem slightly less.
For example,
You may have noticed that when you're on a relaxed holiday,
Maybe chilling out and bathing in the sun somewhere,
Even though you may still feel pain,
It's like it bothers you slightly less.
And in the same way,
At times when you feel very anxious or stressed,
It might feel like the pain heightens.
So relaxation in the body and mind is critical.
Relaxing connects you to a sense of groundedness,
Both in your meditation and in your life.
So everything in your system can begin to really feel safe enough to really let go,
Settle and rest in the body.
So in this session,
We're going to do a meditation where we'll allow ourselves to really relax and feel grounded.
This can encourage a deep sense of steadiness within.
And feeling grounded also gives you a solid foundation to gradually build your meditation practice on.
Before we start,
Find yourself somewhere comfortable to sit.
It could be on a meditation cushion or a chair or even lying down if you need to.
It doesn't really matter as long as you feel supported and your body can relax.
It's good to have your back straight and tall if you can,
But you don't need to hold yourself rigidly.
You can allow your body to be soft and natural.
In this meditation,
I'll give you some guidance and then I'll leave spaces of silence for you to really be with your own experience and feel what is happening for you.
If I continuously talk into your ears,
It slightly takes your awareness into your head and we're looking to drop down into the body more.
To guide you gently into the meditation,
Let's start off by becoming aware of your breath within your body.
Notice the feelings and sensations of the air coming in and out of your nostrils and throat.
Notice the feelings and sensations of your lungs,
Ribs and abdomen,
Expanding and contracting with each in-breath and each out-breath.
Really allow yourself time to be curious of all the feelings and sensations within your body as you breathe,
Gradually resting and settling.
If you get distracted,
There's no need to judge yourself or try stop the thoughts or there's no need to get caught in the stories around you.
Let the thoughts arise and move through as they need to.
You can let go of it kind of like you're letting go of a helium balloon.
Just let it fly off to wherever it wants to go and gently bring your awareness back to the feelings and sensations within your body with each in-breath and each out-breath again.
Shift your awareness slightly by becoming aware of your out-breath as a relaxing and settling breath.
You can lengthen the out-breath out a little if you want and follow the whole length of the out-breath all the way down as you relax into your body.
With each out-breath,
Really feel your body relaxing deeper and deeper and it's important not to just visualize it but rather see if you can feel this relaxation in your body.
Now start to become aware of your sense of ground.
The feelings and sensations of the ground or the chair or the bed pushing up from below you.
The feeling of that ground really supporting you as you relax into it and notice how safe it is.
Notice the weight of your legs or your body on the ground.
Notice the weight of your feet on that ground and the feelings and sensations of where your body meets the support of the ground.
Notice if you're allowing yourself to fully trust that sense of ground and really let your whole body relax into it.
Give yourself the time to gradually let go and deepen into that ground.
With each out-breath,
Feel yourself relaxing more and more into that ground.
When you find you're distracted again,
You'll probably feel a sense of holding or contraction in your body or like a lifting up feeling.
Gently allow that tension to soften and relax and then again with the quality of the out-breath,
Allow your whole body to deeply relax down into the ground again.
You can keep doing that time after time.
Whenever you're distracted,
Notice what you feel in your body and then allow any holding or contraction to gently soften and relax and then gently bring your awareness back to your breath and back into feelings and sensations within your body and then allow yourself to deeply relax down into the safety and the support of your sense of ground again.
Relaxing,
Letting go,
Enjoying the safety and the quiet.
As we bring this meditation to a close,
Notice when you allow yourself to let go and relax into your sense of ground,
What happens to the thoughts?
Do they seem to dissolve away on their own?
As you allow the tension in your body to relax,
Can you feel yourself deepening into your sense of ground?
Can you feel that when you're relaxed and grounded,
It brings feelings of steadiness and safety?
There is a very intimate connection between relaxation and suffering.
So the more you can allow yourself to deeply relax into your sense of ground,
The more steady and secure you can feel.
Feeling grounded and steady is really helpful in times where we have pain.
It gives us that sense of having a deep foundation or deep roots.
So that we feel less unbalanced by what's going on.
And it begins to give us a confident feeling of strength to be able to allow the energy of pain to move through without disturbing us as much.
So your ground in your body can start to become a true resource for you.
If you're someone who lives with pain and you found this talk in meditation helpful,
You can have a look at my course,
Finding Peace While Living in Pain,
Where I guide you gradually through the journey that has really helped me to live peacefully amongst my pain.
I know it's not easy,
So hopefully it can give you a new perspective and understanding.
And somehow make a difference for you too.
