So welcome everyone.
And thank you.
Thank you for being here.
Thank you for joining me.
So let's begin today.
By just letting you arrive.
Arrive in the moment.
Arrive here.
Arrive in the now.
Nothing has to change.
Nothing has to be any different.
Just find a position first.
Where you can be comfortable and still.
And that can be sitting up,
That can be lying down.
Or however your body would like to be held right now.
End.
When you feel ready,
You can let your eyes close.
Soften your gaze.
And if there is any resistance to closing your eyes,
Please keep them open.
Just receive my words for the next few minutes.
Just for this little while.
Let the outside world fall away.
There's nothing out there you need to attend to right now.
Nothing.
Nothing to manage.
Nothing to hold.
And just for these few minutes.
.
.
You can disengage from all that.
Take a slow breath in.
And then let it out.
And again,
A slow breath in.
And let it out.
And let this be the moment you set things down.
Feel now.
The weight of your body wherever it's supported.
The chair the floor.
The bed beneath you,
Notice how completely it holds you.
How the ground takes your full weight.
Without effort.
Without asking anything of you.
And if your body allows.
You can let yourself be held.
You don't have to hold yourself up right now.
As you settle now at your own pace.
I want you to know something.
For the whole of this practice.
You are completely safe here.
And in complete control.
Nothing will be forced.
We are going to move gently.
At your pace.
You can pause.
Open your eyes if they are closed.
Or simply rest at any moment.
This is your practice.
This is just your time with your body.
And your body sets the pace.
So let your attention begin to travel down.
Out of your thinking mind.
And into your body.
Down from the busy place of thoughts.
Into the quieter,
Deeper place of sensation.
Down from the busy place of your thoughts.
To the quieter,
Deeper place.
Of sensation.
Because that's where we are going to spend our time.
In the body.
Or slowly begin to notice.
But your breath is moving on its own.
You don't have to control it.
Just notice it.
The gentle rise.
The gentle fall.
It's like the body is breathing itself,
Needing nothing from you.
Just watching.
.
.
Your bread moving on its own.
And let your attention soften and open.
So you can feel the whole inside of your body.
The space of your chest.
The space of your body.
Maybe there is the quiet hum of being alive underneath all the thinking.
Now,
Here is the first thing I'd like you to know,
Softly,
As you rest here.
So much of what we call anxiety.
And what we call fear.
Does not actually live in our thoughts.
It lives here,
In the body.
In the chest,
In the belly.
And in the bread.
We try so often.
To handle these feelings up in the mind.
To think our way into come.
And do reason without fear.
Rarely maybe it works.
Because the feeling was never in the thoughts.
It's always here in the body.
And that's why we've come down today,
Just to meet it.
Now as you rest into your body,
At your own pace.
Let me offer you just an understanding of what a feeling actually is.
Just let it settle into you while your hair soft and open.
So feeling is not a fixed thing.
It's not a stone that sits in you.
A feeling is energy in motion.
It's even there in the word e-motion.
Motion movement build right into it.
So feeling is meant to move.
To rise like a wave,
To be felt,
To reach its peak.
And then puss.
So feelings are meant to move through us,
The way weather moves across the sky.
The cloud comes.
The cloud passes.
The sky is clear again.
So that's what a feeling is designed to do.
To move through.
And to pass.
You knew this once.
When you were very small.
Before you learn to stop it.
A feeling would rise in you and move all the way through.
The tears would come and then pass.
And moments later you were clear again.
The feeling moved.
It completed.
And it left.
But somewhere along the way.
Most of us learn to stop feeling.
Most of us learn to stop feelings from moving also.
We were taught gently,
Sometimes not so gently.
Don't cry.
Don't be angry.
Calm down.
And you're fine.
This is a good emotion.
This is a bad emotion.
You're allowed to feel this.
You're not allowed to feel this.
To catch the wave as it started to rise and press it back down.
To swallow it.
And to brace against it.
And here is the quiet thing at the heart of all of this.
A feeling that you block does not disappear.
It can't.
Its energy.
And energy doesn't vanish.
Because you've decided not to feel it.
It simply gets held somatically in the body.
Frozen partway through the movement it was trying to make.
Very much there.
Still carrying its charge and still quietly maybe even trying to move and that stuck feeling.
That energy held still for too long.
Is often what we come to feel as anxiety.
The tight chest is holding something down.
The knotted stomach,
Wrapped around a feeling never let through.
The restless buzz of everything we didn't let ourselves feel at some point in our existence.
And anxiety so often.
Is simply feeling that got stuck.
Still looking for the way out.
So today.
.
.
We are not going to try to get rid of it.
We are not doing this so anything goes anywhere.
We are going to do the opposite of blocking.
We are going to let it gently and safely begin to move.
Staying soft,
Staying held by the ground beneath you.
Let's gently turn now towards WhatsApp.
Now bring your attention into your body.
And see if you can find where a feeling is live right now.
Perhaps there is a tightness somewhere.
Or heaviness.
And not of pressure.
A buzzing.
Perhaps the anxiety itself has a place it lives in you.
You are not looking for the biggest,
Hardest feeling.
And you don't have to find it.
Something that's there.
Something that's here.
Let your attention find it.
And if you don't find anything in particular,
That's completely fine.
You can simply rest with breath and that's enough.
You are safe.
You're in control.
If anything ever feels like too much.
You can just open your eyes if they were closed.
And feel your feet come back to the room.
Stopping is allowed.
Knowing when to rest is part of the practice.
Know whatever you've found today.
The feeling.
Or the sensation.
I am going to ask you to do something.
That goes against everything most of us usually do.
I am not going to ask you to fix it or release it or make it go away.
I am going to ask you to simply be with it.
To turn towards it gently.
And offer your soft and friendly attention.
The way you might sit down quietly beside someone you love.
Who's been waiting a long time.
Just be with it.
And let it be felt.
This turning towards instead of away.
Is the very thing the feeling has been waiting for.
The blocking was what kept it stuck.
And your gentle attention.
Resting on it without fear.
Is what allows the wave at last to begin to move.
Just stay with the sensation now,
Softly,
Safely,
Held by the ground.
And simply allow whatever wants to happen to happen.
The feeling may begin to shift.
It may rise a little for some of you or intensify.
And if it does,
That's not the feeling getting worse.
That's moving.
After being held still for so long.
It's finally begin to move through.
Just let it.
For some of you,
There might be a wave of emotion.
Tears,
Even trembling,
A warmth,
A sigh,
A colour,
A symbol,
A shape,
A memory,
Anything,
If any of that arises,
Just let it,
Let it move.
This is the weather finally passing through the sky.
You are safe.
And the ground is holding you.
Nothing here can harm you.
Just let it move.
This is the weather.
Finally passing through.
You are safe.
The ground is holding you.
Nothing here can harm you.
Just let it move.
And if nothing dramatic comes.
If the feeling just softens a little.
Or simply stays today.
That's completely alright.
You have done your part.
You have stopped holding it down and you've just let it be felt.
Some feelings move through all at once when they are finally welcomed.
And others just need to be met.
A few times.
Before they trust that it's safe to move.
You've opened the door that was always closed.
Just stay there now for a little longer,
Feeling what you feel.
Keep sensing what you sense.
Allowing what you can allow.
And letting it move through you.
Now just keep breathing softly.
Let each out breath now be a little longer.
A little slower.
If you can.
The breath that tells the body.
It's safe to let go.
It's safe to let go.
It's very safe to let go.
And with each one now.
Let a little more of what's held.
Move gently through.
And out.
Gently through.
And out.
Now as things settle now.
And settling doesn't mean anything has changed.
Whatever settling is happening for you today.
Maybe something is moving,
Something has softened,
Something has eased.
Maybe things are exactly the same today.
Let me just leave you with one more understanding with you in this space.
Feelings are weather.
Every one of them.
They are just meant to move through you.
To arrive.
To be felt.
And to pass.
Not one of them is permanent,
Unless it's held.
The sadness can be fully felt.
The grief can be fully felt.
The storm allowed to move passes and the sky clears.
In its zone time.
And you are not the weather,
You are the sky.
So the feelings move through you as clouds move to the sky.
And however dark the weather.
It was never bigger than the sky it moves through.
So the anxiety was never you.
It was only weather you'd been holding still for too long.
You are and will be the sky.
Vast and clear.
Unharmed by any weather that passes through.
You always were.
So you don't have to defend against your own feelings anymore.
You don't have to hold them still.
You can just let them be weather,
Let them come,
Let them stay as long as they need to.
Feel them,
Let them move through.
And trust that the sky which is you remains.
And trust that the sky which is you remains.
Now for those of you that want to stay here for a little bit longer.
And let some of this weather pass through you for longer.
You're very,
Very welcome to pause this recording and take as long as you need.
Whatever moved has moved.
Whatever is still held is welcome and it'll move another day.
When it's ready,
If it's ready.
You don't have to do anymore.
There's nothing to achieve.
You've already done the deepest thing.
You turn towards the feeling.
You did not label it?
You did not ask where it's coming from.
You let it be felt.
And you let it begin to move.
And just rest now as the sky would rest.
Let your breath be easy.
Let your body be held.
And let yourself be in this clear and open moment exactly as you are.
Slowly now in your own time.
Let's begin to come back.
Can you feel the ground beneath you again?
Can you feel the weight of your body again?
Can you feel the support that's been holding you this whole time?
Let a little more bread come in now.
If your body allows that your fingers move,
Let a sense of the room return around you.
Safe,
Ordinary,
Present.
You are in the safe,
Ordinary,
Present moment now.
And know that you can come back to this at any time.
You carry this with you now from today.
Feelings are meant to move.
You don't have to hold them stead.
You are the sky and they are the weather.
So whenever anxiety arises,
You can come home to your body.
You can create conditions of safety and just let it move if it wants to.
That it moved through you.
When you're ready now No rush at all.
If your eyes were closed,
You can open them.
Welcome back.
Be very gentle with yourself for a little while.
Something moved today which had been held for a long time.
And you may feel tender,
Lighter,
Tired maybe.
That's the feeling of weather having passed.
And that's the sky clearing.
So you did something beautiful here today.
You let it move through you and guess what you're still here and you're unharmed and you're safe and you're clear and you're washed Thank you.
Thank you for joining me.
Thank you for letting me be your guide.
And until next time.
.
.
Namaste.
