In today's meditation we will explore risk and fear and how meditation can support us in these sometimes scary life choices that we have to make to keep us moving forwards in our lives.
We will begin with a spoken section exploring how we can cultivate courage and we will finish up with a guided period of meditation,
Tending to our own hearts as we navigate taking our next steps forward.
Fear will arise within us,
That little voice,
That feeling in the body that tells us to stay small and safe.
And we know that we have to find a good way through these feelings and into action.
In order to move towards what matters most in our lives we have to hold our fears in heart,
To let them have their say,
Listen,
Reflect,
Respond and maybe move onwards anyway,
Diverting our attention back towards the actions that take us in the directions of our dreams and our desires.
Dreaming is one thing and daring to do is quite another and action is actually where it's at.
Moving past,
Being afraid and into action brings some of the most life-affirming and life-expanding experiences and I know that risk brings real rewards.
As author Anais Nin writes,
Life shrinks or expands in proportion to our courage.
The risks that we take in life do not have to be big or blatant or reckless.
Sometimes the biggest bravery we can do is to stay present with what is arising within us,
The sadness,
The strong sensations,
The feeling of emptiness,
The mumbling of our minds.
To choose to not numb out on drugs or sex or food or social media and to stay present is a brave choice.
Choosing to stay still,
Sitting,
Regarding what arises and not reacting is a warrior's path.
Fear will arise,
It is part of life and we are robust and we can build resilience at being with these feelings,
At holding our own fears.
It is okay to be scared.
We can learn to hold our own hearts carefully,
To reach out to someone we trust and talk it through.
We can learn to be more kind and compassionate with ourselves as we take these next steps forwards.
We get to keep learning throughout our lives.
At one point in babyhood we couldn't even crawl or walk and now look how far we have come and how much we have already mastered.
We can keep gently and graciously challenging ourselves to do that one next thing.
Step after step our lives will change.
Often change comes by day to day drift and it will sweetly serve us to be mindful of what matters most to us in our lives and to keep heading towards those things every day with diligence and directness.
Sometimes as I make daring choices I can literally feel my inner critics in my mind queuing up to chip in,
You can't,
You won't.
For me it hasn't just been a case of faintly feeling the fear and doing it anyway.
It's been about getting clear and still within my meditation practice to see some of those voices in my own mind that challenge me into staying small and to build up my resilience at being with those feelings.
I'm learning to turn up the volume on the voices that simultaneously support me in daring.
Our minds may mess with us,
Picking our thoughts back and forth to and fro,
Proing and conning us out of our vital life energy as we attempt to make a decision.
We have to learn to doubt our own doubts.
We need to find faith in our intuition and how it informs our way forwards.
We can choose to take chances,
Sometimes it will work out and sometimes it won't.
We can develop the internal resources to reassure ourselves through these uncomfortable periods of uncertainty.
Sometimes we do indeed have to tenderly hold our own hearts when things don't go as planned.
But very often we bounce learning something new that is valuable along the way.
As Robert Kennedy said,
Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.
So I want to tell your dear heart that it is okay to make a mistake,
To stumble,
To seek guidance and support when we need it.
It's more than okay.
There is a beauty in being with our vulnerability,
A blessing that comes with being in touch with our softness,
With learning to support ourselves and to support others.
There is no failure in failing.
There is however a deathly defeat if we deny our own wishes and wants.
Even if we play it safe,
Life will still happen to us anyway.
There is no refuge from reality.
Old age,
Sickness and death are inevitable for all of us.
Realistically it's riskier to not risk anything at all and to remove much of the richness from life.
Risking allows for the possibility of real rewards.
Steve Jobs wrote,
Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking that you have something to lose.
You are already naked and there is no reason not to follow your heart.
There is no reason not to follow your heart.
Let me be clear,
I'm not advocating for recklessness just for using this meditation to reappraise reality as a place of possibility,
Not as a curve towards catastrophe.
Our inner guidance will inform us which choice to make if we let ourselves listen to it.
We can let life in,
Let the feelings of fear as we make these big decisions in and breathe through it all.
Sometimes life breaks us down,
Allows us to be open to being with the beauty of it all.
It can call us to be more compassionate to self,
To others,
To reflect on what is working well and what isn't.
We can't take anything with us when we go,
Only what we have learned here and the love that we have lived.
Luckily by now I trust in this truth,
That fear will follow us when we are on a path of good growth.
We do have only one wild and precious life and time is ticking and this moment does matter.
So go out and gently risk something that scares you and excites you and inspires you to take a chance towards your dreams.
Let yourself be alive and feel the fear and move through it and find out if you can let the great adventure of it all bring you what you most long for.
Let yourself live a little more,
Keep moving towards what matters most.
So now as you sit or lay,
Feel your body on the ground,
Whatever part of you is touching the earth or the chair or the bed.
Feel the sensations of being here,
Might be clothing,
The temperature of the air in the room.
Soften your forehead and relax your jaw.
Soften your belly and the midline of the body.
Let your shoulder blades drop and take some deep breaths.
Watching the breath coming in and out to the belly.
We have heard a lot of words and there will be space for feeling into the body now.
See if you can sense the aliveness within you.
Maybe as you breathe,
It might be your feeling body,
An emotional undercurrent,
A fear or sorrow or excitement or any other emotion that will likely leave physical imprints in the body.
Maybe you might feel fluttering or an ache or just that sense of,
Oh,
Here I am sitting feeling.
We can use our meditation practice as a place of refuge,
A place where we can work out and grow our muscles at being with our own feelings,
At working with them skillfully.
And as you feel the feelings inside,
Notice that you can also feel your body touching the surface you're sitting on and the breath.
But there are many things happening at once.
See if you can keep your attention with the container of your body,
With a sensation of hands and arms.
Coming back to the physical sensations of the body and not letting the mind make up stories about these feelings that maybe arise.
Coming back to our physical experience,
Noticing that our attention can contain what's arising within us.
If the feelings feel strong or overwhelming,
You can keep your eyes open.
Notice where you are sitting or laying in space.
Here I am meditating with feelings arising,
Daring to stay still with them.
Noticing that I can hold them.
And place one hand on your belly and one hand on your heart,
Reassuring yourself.
Sending yourself compassion.
Here I am meditating,
Feeling,
Being brave enough to turn towards my own experience.
Investigating how to live my life well.
How to make choices that will sustain me and take me forwards.
Wishing yourself well.
Acknowledging the courage it can take to stay here with our own heart in these times of risk taking and decision making.
And send yourself some thanks for being willing to practice in this way.
So thanking yourself for your courage in staying with your sitting practice,
In exploring risk and fear.
Seeing how it may show up in the body and how there is something within us that can sit with it for a moment and hold it.
That will let us feel the fear and find our next steps forward.
If your eyes have been closed,
Gently open them.
Have a stretch,
A yawn.
Come back to your day.
I thank you for your practice and I wish you wellness and wonder with whatever is happening in your life.
