Now we're going to do an anchoring and pendulum meditation for discomfort or pain in your body.
Start by taking a nice deep breath in through your nose,
Hold at the top in your own time,
Open your mouth and let it out slow,
Steady and controlled,
Pushing out all the air.
Another big deep breath in,
Hold in your own time,
Open your mouth,
Push your lips and let it all the way out.
Another big deep breath in,
Take an extra breath at the top,
Hold for an extra moment,
Feel the air,
Feel your lungs and on your slow exhale,
Feel your body melt into your seat.
Now allow your breathing to return to its natural rhythm.
Bring your attention down to your feet.
Without judgment,
Just notice any sensations you feel in your feet.
Move up into your calves and your shins,
Through your knees,
Into your thighs,
Your hip bones and your sit bones,
Your low belly,
Your low back,
Your chest and your shoulder blades.
Your shoulders,
Your upper arms,
Your forearms,
Your hands.
Walk your attention back up your arms,
Across your shoulders,
Across your collarbone,
Into your neck and your throat and into your face,
Back of your head,
The top of your head.
And take a moment now and notice where in your body you feel the most grounded,
Maybe the most calm,
Safe.
You may notice there's more than one spot,
So choose the spot that is easiest for you to focus on.
Begin to hold your attention there.
Notice how you feel at that spot.
What sensations do you notice?
What emotions do you feel?
There might be more than one.
Notice what happens to your mind as you hold your attention there.
And it's normal if your mind begins to wander into other thoughts,
Distracted by other sounds or sensations.
When something happens,
Gently escort your attention back to your anchor spot over and over again.
Notice what happens the longer you hold your attention on this spot.
Bring a kind,
Open curiosity to your noticing.
Now choose one word that best describes the feeling that you get when you bring your attention to this anchor spot in your body.
And for the next few moments,
Silently repeat that word to yourself over and over again as you hold your attention on your anchor spot.
Notice how it feels.
Now bring your attention to the spot in your body that's causing you pain or discomfort.
And notice how it feels,
Again bringing a kind,
Open curiosity to your noticing of this unpleasant sensation.
Notice what happens in your mind.
What emotions it brings up.
And now let go of that spot and return to your anchor.
Use your word to help you refocus back to this grounding place in your body where you can take refuge.
At first you may find it difficult to let go of the discomfort and the un-huzzled thoughts and emotions associated with focusing on the place where you feel pain and discomfort.
That's normal too.
Just keep saying your word to yourself over and over again as you bring your attention back to your anchor spot again and again and again.
Once you feel grounded again in this spot,
Swing your attention like a pendulum back to the place in your body of discomfort.
Stay there for as long as you can tolerate.
And then when you feel like you have had enough,
Swing your attention back to your anchor spot.
Allow yourself to ground.
Now keep allowing your attention to pendulum back and forth between your anchor spot and the point of discomfort.
And each time you swing your attention out to the spot of discomfort,
See if you can allow yourself to stay there a little bit longer each time.
Increasing your tolerance for accepting this discomfort and then swing back to your anchor spot,
Taking as much time as you need to ground in between each swing out to the spot where there's pain or discomfort.
Again,
It's normal for our mind to wander or get distracted,
Especially when we're confronting pain or discomfort.
Our mind will get us distracted and do whatever it can to keep our focus off of the pain.
But for this meditation,
The goal is to learn how to sit with the pain or discomfort and allow it to be there and to soften our judgments about it and our reactions to it.
Notice what happens the more you swing your attention back and forth.
On your next swing out to the pain or discomfort,
Make it your last.
And when you return to your anchor spot,
Hold your attention there.
Once you're there,
Bring your word back to your mind that describes how you feel in this space and silently repeat it to yourself as you hold your attention on your anchor spot.
Bringing your mind back to your spot every time it wanders.
We'll bring this to an end with three more deep cleansing breaths.
Take a big deep breath in through your nose.
Hold at the top in your own time.
Open your mouth,
Push your lips and let it all the way out.
Another big deep breath in.
Hold.
Open.
Let it out slow,
Steady and controlled,
Pushing out all the air.
Last one.
Take a big deep breath in.
Take an extra breath at the top.
Hold for an extra moment.
Open.
And let it all the way out.
When you're ready,
With your eyes still closed,
You can bring your hands together,
Rub them to generate some heat,
Cup them over your eyes and return to the room.
