Hello and welcome to our final meditation in this 4 part series of meditations on self love.
My name is Alice Alexander and today we'll be looking at or exploring loving our emotions.
Which I think is the most difficult aspect of self love to explore.
So please be gentle and kind to yourself over the next 15-20 minutes.
So we'll get started as we always do in a comfortable position,
Lying down or in a seat,
Making sure that you're fully supported and that you don't feel the need to move or readjust yourself while you're meditating.
Of course if you do,
Please do that.
Once you've found your position,
Take a moment to notice the space that you're in.
Looking around,
Noticing colours and shapes and objects.
Returning your gaze to centre and either closing the eyes or just focusing straight ahead.
Realising the sounds inside the space that you're in and the sounds beyond it.
Moving your awareness to your own breath.
To the sounds of your inhales and your exhales.
Knowing that a slow deep breath is really calming for the body.
Take a deep breath in,
Slow it down and expand the belly.
And slow down the breath out and allow the belly to rest back down.
Two more like that,
Slow down your breath.
And every time you exhale there's a feeling of softening around the eyes.
A feeling of letting go in the jaw and at the back of the throat.
Either side of the neck and in the shoulders and the hips.
Keep your awareness on the way that you breathe when you're not controlling the breath now.
So just letting go of controlling the breath.
And coming to notice your inhales and your exhales.
When we choose to notice something we can fully commit to it by not entering into judgement.
There is no right or wrong way to breathe as long as it's effective.
We're receiving oxygen from the breath in that is energising for the body and we're releasing carbon dioxide which is a waste product from the body.
So our inhale has an energising effect and our exhale is an opportunity to let go,
To soften into the moment.
Notice your inhales and notice your exhales.
And you're doing really well.
We'll move our awareness now to sensations in the body.
As soon as I said that perhaps your awareness moved or drifted easily to one point in the body and perhaps it didn't and that's okay.
If there's nothing that's calling out for you in the body you might like to scan from the tips of the toes to the tips of the fingers and the tip of the tongue.
Realising awareness in any point which feels like it's calling to you and it could be just that there is tension,
Discomfort,
Contraction,
A feeling of holding on.
Taking this time to notice what is there.
Knowing that there is no right or wrong way to feel.
Paying attention to sensations in the body because they are often connected to a feeling,
To an emotion.
Feelings of contraction around the heart or the throat,
Around the eyes or in the jaw or in the shoulders.
Whatever it is that arises for you now,
Whether you find it to be something that gives you comfort or discomfort,
Notice your capacity just in this single moment to allow it to be here.
Is it possible that it's not only acceptable for all of your feelings to be here just as they are but they are welcomed,
They are embraced and they are loved because they are a part of you,
They are a part of your experience.
Is it possible that all the thoughts,
All the feelings and sensations that you experience are lovable,
Are a part of you,
They are welcome,
They are accepted and they are allowed.
Right now in this moment is it possible to welcome in and embrace rather than picking and choosing and rejecting,
Shoulding and shouldn'ting.
Is it possible to exist,
To be,
To embrace and to sit with?
And if the answer to that is no,
That's okay as well.
Can we sit with that no?
Remembering that this is just a practice,
You're taking some time out to explore your capacity for self-acceptance,
Self-love through embracing all that is,
All of your experiences.
And it may be that this is a very new idea and it will take practice and that is beautiful and perfectly acceptable as well.
Use the breath.
Notice what arises.
Slow down the breath.
Imagine you can breathe into that.
And notice the softening as you breathe out.
Keep slowing down the breath,
Staying with what is.
Remembering that nothing stays the same forever.
Everything is transitory,
Everything changes.
And it's possible that the act of rejecting something,
Of efforting for something different only allows your emotions or your feelings to hang around a little longer.
Some of our emotions and thoughts and feelings have deeper messages that we need to sit with.
So that we can receive them.
We use the breath to calm and to soften into that acceptance.
Inhale,
Provide energy for the processes of the body and the mind.
And exhale to soften into them,
To allow space for them.
You're doing so well just by coming here and choosing to practice this.
Just a few more moments to sit with what is and use the breath to make space for that as you notice this experience.
And receive and embrace and love all that there is about you in this moment.
There may be words that arise in connection with your emotions.
All of these words are okay.
Words that come to mind may be related to feeling messy or chaotic,
Anxious,
Nervous,
Hopeless,
Helpless or maybe the opposite.
You may feel joy,
Empowerment,
Happiness,
Gratitude.
Maybe you feel both or two or three or more of these emotions.
Everything is okay in this moment.
Use the breath.
Inhale,
Belly expands.
Inhale we release.
When you feel ready,
Returning attention to the breath only.
The breath without control,
Inhaling and exhaling.
And thinking yourself before practicing this meditation today.
When you feel ready,
Wriggling the fingers and the toes.
Noticing sensations against the skin and noticing sounds and smells and tastes.
And very gradually blinking the eyes open.
And coming back into your day or your night or your evening with a sense of acceptance and perhaps gratitude and a feeling of warmth and love for everything that you are.
I thank you for joining me in these series of meditations and I hope you move forward from this place with a deeper understanding or capacity to notice more of who you are and gratitude for that.
