Fear and anxiety can be really overwhelming in our lives and actually take away our sense of joy and freedom.
There are many ways to transform how you live with these feelings,
But in this session I want to explore the sense of spaciousness and how this can be a really helpful tool for you when you're struggling.
When we feel fear or anxiety creeping up in our system and we're not sure how to stop it,
It can lead us to further compound it with worries like,
Oh no I don't want to feel anxious,
How do I stop it or how long will it last etc.
This just adds to the anxiety and eventually we can feel like we're almost in tunnel awareness,
Where everything is closing in around us and all we can see is what's terrifying.
Working with people closely over the years I found that connecting to the intrinsic sense of spaciousness within can be a helpful support in letting go and allowing everything to open out a bit.
So let's explore that together in a meditation.
Take a little time to get yourself comfortable if you haven't already.
Seated somewhere you feel awake and alert but your body is relaxed and natural.
Gently close your eyes if you feel drawn to and just breathe naturally.
Gradually and gently bringing awareness away from all the life stuff out there in the world and all the things you're thinking about in your head,
Bringing your awareness into your breath and how it feels in the body.
You could become aware of how your belly,
Ribs and lungs are feeling.
Expand and contract with each in-breath and each out-breath.
Letting yourself be curious of all the subtleties and nuances of the sensations and feelings of it in your body as you breathe.
Whatever you notice just let it be as it is.
No need to stop it,
Change it or get stuck in reflections on it.
Just allowing and noticing.
If you get distracted and pulled out of center by thoughts or worries just notice that,
Soften around it and gently bring your awareness back to the feelings and sensations of the breath in the body.
Try not to judge yourself or worry about doing anything with the distractions as this causes you to get entangled with them.
Whenever you notice you drifted,
Gently let it be.
Gently bring your awareness back.
Slightly shift your awareness to the out-breath and notice how with each out-breath there's a sense of releasing and relaxing.
Let your body follow that and allow it to relax each time.
At the bottom of each out-breath you could almost have the sense that your body slightly melts into the ground each time,
Just for a moment.
And then follow an out-breath all the way down further to the ground and begin to notice the quality of it below you.
It might be a chair or a cushion,
Whatever your connection is that's fine.
Notice the texture and the feeling of the ground below you and the sensations of where it meets your body.
Feel the weight of your body resting into the ground and notice how it really supports your body with a feeling of steadiness and safety.
Letting your whole body deeply relax into the ground as much as you can.
From the ground,
Move your awareness up into your body,
Feeling into your legs,
Whatever you notice there.
Feeling into your trunk,
Noticing any sensations,
Feelings or even emotions in your trunk.
Letting everything just be as it is,
With a sense of open-heartedness and allowing.
Expanding it out to feeling deep into your arms and up to your shoulders and neck and into your head.
Until you're aware of your whole body.
If you notice any tension or holding in the body,
With the quality of the out-breath,
Let it soften and relax and feel your body relax down into the ground again.
Gently bringing your awareness back to being in your body.
Relaxed,
Centered and present.
As you rest there,
You might notice like an inner vitality or a life force in the body.
Whatever you notice or however you feel,
See if you can let it be just like that.
Holding yourself with a sense of compassion and love.
As you breathe,
You could have the sense that your whole body is breathing,
Like your skin is permeable.
And let that breathing process soften the holding that you have to the solidity of your form.
So as you breathe,
Your whole body breathes and you gradually become more spacious and open.
Connecting you with the space around you.
Which ultimately connects you with the entire universe.
And just rest with that for a little while.
Quiet,
Present,
Spacious awareness.
You might really rest in this spaciousness,
Enjoying the freedom and openness.
Or you might only notice it for a tiny moment before you get distracted and pulled out.
If you do,
Whenever you notice that,
Take a deep breath in and a long slow exhale.
Let your body deeply relax,
Re-center,
Ground.
And gradually let yourself become more spacious and open again.
It can be almost like the tunnel walls around you are moving out and there's a greater sense of spaciousness.
In these moments,
If you think of what you're anxious about in your life,
You might notice a slightly different relationship with it.
And rest there for a little while and enjoy it.
So as we gradually bring this meditation towards a close,
Reflect on your experience and how it felt in the body.
If you enjoyed it and felt somehow it helped to ease the relationship with fear or anxiety,
Then you're welcome to come back to it again and again as a support.
If you feel you struggle to open up and connect to spaciousness,
You're welcome to try again or come back to it at another time and see how it feels then.
Living with fear and anxiety is hard,
But we don't want to repress it or struggle with it.
It's best to transform how we are able to be with it in a much healthier way and it's also helpful to have a few handy tools to support that.
If you would like to explore how to transform your relationship with these feelings or try different support tools,
Then you're welcome to have a look at my course Transforming Fear and Anxiety.
Thank you for meditating with me and hopefully see you there.
