Hello beautiful human.
Welcome back.
You are so welcome and I am happy that you're here.
So this is the second recording for sorrow and longing as a practice.
Last week we spoke a little bit upon longing and sorrow and that perhaps we can start to incorporate these feelings into our experience of joy and the ways in which we belong to each other.
And there was an invitation to create an altar and I'm curious to know if that's something you decided to do and if it is and you can see your altar from where you are listening to this you might have a little look upon it.
And I wonder if you've had the opportunity to tend to your altar,
So to look at it mindfully,
To tidy it up,
To add or subtract objects that are meaningful to you and importantly if it's been helpful in holding these themes in your mind's eye over the course of the last week.
And our second practice is compassion as a practice.
And I think this is really important for us to touch upon because themes around songing,
Sorrow and longing and the images that they conjure of loss and grief and pain,
They're quite heavy,
Right?
And there can be a tendency when we're touching upon these subjects to be quite judgmental of ourselves and to be unkind to ourselves.
So often,
You know,
People will talk about empathy like it is the best thing in the world.
Oh,
I'm such an empath.
I really hold on to that like it's a badge of honor.
And empathy is where you feel the feelings of the other.
So you embody those feelings.
And compassion is different.
So compassion is an acknowledgement that things happen,
Uncomfortable things happen,
Heavy things happen.
And being able to be in a place where you can feel the depth of that emotion without taking it on.
And so there is quite,
They're quite big topics,
They're quite big topics.
And we're really going to have to muster some compassion,
Some self-compassion while we work through these themes with each other.
And self-compassion,
That loving meta energy that allows us to come back into this place of self-regulation and an acknowledgement that everybody is doing the best that they can with the resources that they have in any given moment.
And that goes for us too,
Right?
And so our practice today is going to be a practice around compassion,
Self-compassion.
And you're invited to do this practice in any place where you can be comfortable.
So if you want to get into bed or put your legs up on something,
Or just shut the door so you won't be disturbed,
These are all things that you might do now,
Or even pause the recording so you can really set yourself up.
And so the invitation is to think of something that has happened recently that was a little bit uncomfortable.
Perhaps there was a hint of sorrow or a hint of longing or a hint of grief or just unease.
And I would ask you to be mindful not to pick anything too big.
So if we think of our trauma and our disease,
As in dis-ease,
Not a disease that we have,
A little bit like soil,
We've got the top soil,
Which is the sorrow and longing that happens in everyday life,
Is all around us.
And then we've got the deeper rooted unease,
Sorrow,
Trauma with a capital T,
That is deeper down.
And I would advise you against selecting something that's really big and heavy.
So taking your time now to think of this situation,
Might be an interaction that you had with somebody that didn't go well.
So we're finding something that is moderately uncomfortable,
But isn't so uncomfortable or overwhelming that you're feeling it very strongly in your body.
Just visualising the situation,
What was said,
And starting to feel into that lack of ease in your body,
That uncomfortableness.
And now silently repeating to yourself,
This is a moment of suffering.
This is a moment of suffering.
Suffering is a part of life.
Suffering is a part of life.
And the invitation now,
Beautiful people,
Is just to let those words dissipate.
You can keep your eyes closed.
Bring your hands together and start to rub the hands,
Generating some heat in your hands.
And listen to the sounds that your hands are making.
And if it feels comfortable to you,
Bringing your hands onto your heart,
So to the left of your breastbone,
You could have one hand on top of the other.
And you might apply a little bit of pressure through the palms of the hand onto the heart.
So some gentle reassurance through the hands to yourself.
Noticing the warmth from your hands or the coolness from your hands.
And noticing that natural rhythm of your breath as you breathe in and out.
And now I'm going to read a series of words to you.
And with your focus on your heart space and this uncomfortable encounter in the back of your mind,
Just seeing how the words resonate or not.
May I be say.
May I forgive myself.
May I be happy and free from suffering.
May I safely endure this pain.
May I find peace in my heart.
May I be strong.
May I protect myself.
May I learn to live with ease and well-being.
May I accept the circumstances of my life in this moment.
May we learn to live together in peace.
And then again,
Just letting those words dissipate.
And it might be that some words resonated and you felt them in your body more than others,
And that's okay.
I'm taking a long slow breath into your beautiful body.
And a long slow breath out.
Just allowing the hands to fall back down and into your lap.
So this was a somatic practice for self-compassion.
And self-compassion is a very important ingredient in being able to feel with ease into our sorrow and our longing.
Because as we touched upon last week,
A lot of our sorrow and longing is around impermanence.
The fact that things constantly change and sometimes that change is difficult and hard to accept.
And we can start to find resilience within our physical body when we practice self-compassion.
All of these practices are just that.
They are practices.
So you might return to this practice.
And if you have any thoughts or feelings,
You might jot them down.
And I would like to thank you for your curiosity and for your courage as well in doing this work and these practices.
And I'm wishing you a beautiful day,
Beautiful people.
