Welcome to this guided practice on building your capacity to be with symptoms.
Many clients tell me the pain or the fatigue or the sensation isn't the hardest part.
It's the mental space that the sensation takes up.
It's the story that it creates.
It becomes all I can think about.
When that happens,
The symptom stops being a part of the experience and starts feeling like the entire experience.
The practice we're going to do today will help you shift that.
The goal isn't to eliminate every challenging sensation we feel.
We'll probably always have fear when we do something important,
Something meaningful to us,
For example.
The goal instead is to not be overwhelmed by these sensations.
Today,
We're going to build the capacity to feel something uncomfortable without losing ourselves inside of it.
We'll practice expanding our awareness of our whole body so our symptoms become one voice in the room,
Not the narrator of the entire story.
By the end of this practice,
You'll have a new way of relating to your symptoms with more space,
More perspective,
And more trust in your ability to meet whatever arises.
Let's begin.
Begin by finding a comfortable position.
I invite you to close your eyes if that feels appropriate.
If not,
You can just shift your focus downward.
Start to deepen your breathing.
Feeling the lungs fill with air on the inhalation.
Noticing the softening of the body on the exhale.
Just allow yourself to feel the support of the structure beneath you.
Whether that's a chair,
A couch,
A bed,
Or a floor.
Notice what it feels like to feel that support.
Allowing your body to simply soften around that support.
Now,
I invite you to bring your focus to a part of the body that feels good,
Or at least feels neutral.
It might be tingling in your hands or your feet.
Maybe it's a warmth in your belly.
Soft shoulders.
Whatever feels right for you.
Just allow your focus to dwell there.
Really take in that pleasant or that neutral sensation.
Noticing how you don't have to do anything to make that sensation happen.
It's just here.
And what I'd like you to do is from that part of your body that feels good or pleasant,
Slowly begin to expand your awareness.
If it's your feet that feel good,
Moving your awareness into your ankles,
Your calves,
And your knees.
If it's your belly,
Allowing that to expand out to your chest,
Your ribcage.
Just slowly allowing your awareness of your body to emanate from that spot.
Letting that awareness of your body continue to spread through your legs,
Your torso,
Your arms,
All the way through your spine,
Up into your neck,
Into your head.
Until you have a sense,
Even if it's slight,
Of your entire body in your awareness.
From head to toe.
And just take that in for a moment,
What the entire body feels like.
Noticing how you don't have to make anything happen.
You don't have to do.
You just get to be with this awareness of your body.
Now,
Maintaining this awareness of your whole body as the backdrop,
Start to invite in awareness of your symptoms.
And notice how you can hold both the symptoms in your body and an awareness of your entire body at the same time.
If you have a headache or pressure,
Notice how you can feel your legs at the same time as you feel your head.
If you have back pain,
Notice how you can feel your arms at the same time you feel your back.
Noticing how you can feel the pleasant sensation that you started with and these symptoms at the same time.
Just allow yourself to get acquainted with this feeling,
With this perspective.
Once again,
We're not trying to make anything happen.
We're just being with what's happening in our entire body,
Not just one part of it.
And if there are thoughts or stories that arise,
You can acknowledge those and just gently bring yourself back to that.
To the felt sense of your entire body.
Now,
What I invite you to do is actually invite in the symptoms that you're experiencing.
Invite them to take up whatever space they want in your body dropping any resistance to them.
Inviting as best you can these symptoms in almost like an old friend.
And notice how they can take up space and you can soften toward them.
Notice that they don't need to pull you away.
They don't need to dominate.
They can simply coexist.
Because you can do this.
You can have an awareness of your entire body.
The pleasant,
The unpleasant,
And the neutral.
So often we spend precious energy fighting our symptoms,
Resisting them,
Pushing them away.
And what you're doing right now in this moment is proving that you have the capacity to be with whatever is happening in your body.
To breathe with it.
And to not let it dominate you.
So just take a moment to familiarize yourself with this new perspective,
This new feeling of coexisting with these symptoms.
Now I invite you to put your hand over your heart and feel the warmth of your hand over your heart.
And just giving yourself some credit for building your capacity,
For building your resilience.
Acknowledging the efforts that you've made in this practice.
And taking a big,
Deep breath in through the nose.
Let it go with a sigh.
Slowly wiggling your fingers and toes,
Coming back into the space around you.
And when you're ready in your own time,
You can open your eyes.
Excellent work.
This practice might not have been easy.
And as we close,
Remember this.
Accepting what you feel right now doesn't mean accepting that it will always be this way.
It simply means you're meeting this moment,
What's happening in your body right now,
Without bracing,
Without fighting,
And without assuming the future.
Because when we stop resisting our sensations,
Even briefly,
Our nervous system can soften.
And that softening is what counts.
So as you return to your day or your evening,
Remember this.
You don't need to love what you feel,
You just don't need to fear it.
Acceptance isn't resignation.
It's creating space.
I wish you a wonderful rest of your day or evening.
