Welcoming difficulty.
Take a moment to get comfortable in your posture and let it be a container for your practice.
Bring your focus of attention to the breath at the nostrils.
Let the felt sense of the breath moving in and out of your body teach the mind to be present.
Form your intention to cultivate and practice exploring the attitude of acceptance in a safe environment to welcome difficulty.
Then connect with your motivation.
Why would you want to do this?
What is the benefit to you and to others?
Connecting to the details of the breath again,
Noticing as best you can the subtle touch of the breath at the nostrils and following the breath down into the body to the back of the throat,
Chest,
To belly,
And then back out again.
As you settle the mind with the breath you can expand around this awareness to the body as a whole.
Towards the end of settling,
Focus a little more on the out breath,
Noticing how the body relaxes as you breathe out,
And seeing if the mind can learn from the body.
Body release breath and relaxes.
Mind releases involvement with thinking and begins to settle.
Bring your attention more fully into your body with your attention moving to the soles of your feet and noticing contact with the ground,
Feeling the weight of your body,
Noticing your posture like a container holding your practice.
Mind resting in body,
Body resting on ground beneath you.
You may want to check in with obvious sensations that you notice now.
No need to control or create anything,
Just slightly noticing what is already here.
You may want to invite in a quality of curiosity and gentleness to your experience.
See if you can get a felt sense of the whole body breathing with your awareness from breath to breath,
And moment to moment.
Reconnecting with your intention to welcome difficulty and cult,
Again,
Reconnecting with your intention to welcome difficulty and cultivate mindful acceptance.
If you are not presently dealing with some difficulty,
You may want to bring to mind something from the past,
Beginning with something moderate to start off with,
And then ensure you hold a mindful embodied posture as you invite thoughts,
Feelings,
Memories of the past difficulty.
The aim is to explore difficulty from a mindful posture,
Not get wrapped up in the storyline,
Judgments,
And preferences of the experience.
Anytime you find yourself swept up in the thoughts or feelings,
Return to grounding by checking in with your breath and bodily sensations whenever you need to.
Breathing in,
I'm aware I am breathing in.
Breathing out,
I'm aware I am breathing out.
Follow the breath and notice changing patterns of sensations.
Again,
Bring to mind any difficult past,
Present or expected in the future.
Bring to mind a difficult thought or situation you are dealing with.
Identify it.
Here is fill in the blank.
Become aware of what is happening in the body.
Acknowledge it.
Here is fill in the blank.
Now simply notice how you are feeling.
In particular,
Become aware of any areas of tension,
Tightness,
Or discomfort in the body.
Breathe in and out of or soften around the edges of any feelings or sensations.
Also notice if any emotions that arise as they arise.
There may be many layers of emotion and feeling present as you learn to observe the changing patterns of them.
Notice too if any distracting or unsettling thoughts are occurring.
Now notice if there's any resistance to how you are feeling,
To not wanting to feel what you are feeling,
Or not wanting to be present.
Give permission to allow it to be just as it is as best you can.
You can use a word,
It's okay,
Whatever it is,
It's already here.
Let me open to it.
You can use the word softening or opening with each in and out breath.
Noticing and allowing for each layer of your experience as it arises into your awareness.
Noticing changes from moment to moment,
Or if it stays the same.
Notice if there's a tendency to avoid either by suppressing your feelings or getting lost in fantasy or distraction.
See if it's possible to become aware of the sense of suffering that is tied up in the compulsion to resist.
Now notice any feelings of unworthiness or self attacking that might spring up from having had this difficulty.
That subtle feeling that something is wrong with me because I feel bad and I don't want to feel like this.
Also,
If you did notice any feelings of unworthiness or shame or self attacking thoughts,
Such as I am a failure,
Or there's something wrong with me.
Reflect on how that feels.
See if it's possible to make room for this too,
By gently and kindly opening to it.
Continue this practice with any further layers of difficulty in your memories,
Thoughts,
Feelings or sensations.
You may want to reflect that other people also experience the unavoidable pain of life,
Not just you.
You can reflect on the fact that other people are also caught up in aversion and resistance to pain,
Not just you.
You can reflect that other people experience this as well.
Now you can rest without any particular focus.
Now taking a deliberately deeper breath to release the practice,
And you can dedicate the quality of acceptance that you've cultivated here in this practice to your future moments.
