Hi,
I'm Victoria,
A UCLA trained mindfulness meditation teacher and founder of Head Into Heart Space.
Let's get started.
In today's practice,
We'll be going deeper into how to live a happier life through beginning a habit of providing yourself with real relief from feeling afraid of your pain.
So how do you get real relief when you're afraid of your pain?
You recognize,
Experience,
Allow it,
And let it go.
That's the acronym we'll be working with during this guided meditation.
Let's practice real relief now.
To begin,
Sit comfortably with a tall back,
Straight,
Unalert,
Yet easeful.
If it helps,
Imagine a thread tied to the top of your head pulling you up toward the ceiling,
Letting your feet be flat on the floor or sitting cross-legged.
If so,
Allow your hips to be above your knees.
Gently allow your eyes to close or just have a soft gaze at the floor about four feet in front of you.
We'll begin by finding an anchor that feels most comfortable in the body.
Breathing first,
The expansion of the belly on the in-breath and the contraction on the out-breath.
Breathing in,
Expanding.
Breathing out,
Contracting.
Breathing in,
Expanding.
Breathing out,
Contracting.
Then bringing your awareness up to your chest and noticing the rise of the chest on the inhale and the fall on the exhale.
Feeling the rise.
Exhale,
Feeling the fall.
Then directing your awareness up to your nostrils.
Breathing in,
Feeling cool air come in.
Breathing out,
Feeling warm air flow out.
Cool air in,
Warm air out.
Cool air in,
Warm air out.
Checking in in this moment,
Seeing which of those anchors,
The abdomen,
Chest,
Or nostrils feels the easiest for you to let your attention come to.
Bringing your awareness there and taking a few more breaths.
Feeling yourself as you inhale and exhale.
Inhaling deeply.
Breathing slowly,
Using whichever anchor feels most comfortable right now.
You may notice as you focus on your breath that your mind begins to wander.
Don't worry,
That's totally normal.
You don't have to be perfect for this practice.
Simply allow yourself to do your best at being comfortable and still.
Let's begin the real relief technique with the R,
Recognize.
Notice what you're feeling and look into what story you're telling yourself about your feelings.
Maybe it's,
I'm afraid this will never get better.
You can even say to yourself,
I am afraid right now.
I feel really scared.
Notice what you tell yourself about the fear,
Trying to hear yourself without getting lost in the story.
Come back to your breath now.
Finding your anchor in your abdomen,
Chest or nostrils and take a few long,
Slow breaths.
Our tendency when we feel something we don't like is to make it go away or avoid it.
Notice if you are resisting or trying to force life to be what it is not.
If you're afraid,
Let yourself be afraid.
The faster you recognize the emotion,
In this case,
Fear,
The faster it will begin to shift and transform in your body.
This leads to the E of real relief,
Experiencing fear.
Get curious and see what sensations are showing up throughout your body.
Notice the story you're telling yourself and see if you can let go of it to only focus on what's happening experientially inside of you in this moment.
How do you feeling physically,
Emotionally?
You might notice numbness,
Feeling cold,
Knots in your stomach or tightness in your chest.
As you experience them,
Remember that there's nothing wrong with you for feeling fear.
It's a natural human emotion.
What we're practicing here is relating to it differently,
Seeing what's actually happening inside instead of getting caught up in the stories.
As we experience the fear,
We begin to shift into the A of real relief,
To allow it to be there.
Allow the sensations to come and watch to see that as quickly as they come,
They go.
You can experience the sensations arise and pass away without holding onto them.
Try to allow whatever's there to be there as the fear or the sensation rather than my fear or sensation.
You can even say to yourself,
I have fear instead of I am afraid.
Take a few slow deep breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth.
Notice that what you feel in this moment isn't the same as the sensations you had just a moment ago.
You don't have to like the fear or how it shows up in your body.
When you let it consume you or you try to pretend like nothing is wrong,
The fear only gets worse.
When you allow yourself to feel it,
Even if you don't like it,
Something interesting always happens.
Let's practice that now.
Notice a place in your body where you still feel the fear.
Allow your attention to stay on whatever the sensation is,
Perhaps burning,
Clenching,
Or throbbing.
As you slow your breath,
Breathing in and out through the nostrils slowly,
We use a rhythmic breathing technique where we breathe in for six and out for six without any pauses,
Just allowing the breath to flow naturally and easily.
Breathing in,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six.
Out,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six.
Breathing in,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six.
Out,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six.
Breathing in,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six.
Out,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six.
And as you breathe,
Focus your awareness where you feel the fear.
Allow it to be there and give it permission to soften,
To change,
Or to leave.
This leads into the L of real relief,
Letting go.
Learning to be as kind as possible to yourself in the midst of a struggle can really help you become more mindful and compassionate.
To finish the real pain relief for fear acronym,
We let go as we shift awareness from focusing on the fear to focusing instead on gratitude.
Fear comes and goes,
Just like all emotions.
You get to choose to let go of the fear and create a more positive thought.
Right now,
Think of three things that you're grateful for.
They can be related to what caused the fear or totally different.
Notice how your body feels as you begin to think about what you're grateful for.
Take three slow,
Deep breaths and notice how you feel now physically and emotionally.
When you're ready,
Wiggle your fingers and wiggle your toes and slowly blink your eyes open.
We just practiced getting real relief when you're afraid.
First,
Recognize that fear is what's happening right now.
Then you experience it for what it is in this moment without judgment or stories.
After you've started to experience it,
You can shift into a mode of allowance.
What you resist persists,
So the more you allow whatever is going on in your thoughts,
Emotions,
Or body to be,
The more you'll see them shift and transform easily.
From this place of allowance,
You can begin to let go of your fear and shift into a more positive state of gratitude.
You can practice real relief anytime you need it.
