Welcome to the end of another year.
If you're like me,
This year may have been filled with significant loss.
And so as we reflect on what we have achieved,
What we've learned,
We also want to take a moment to connect with what we have lost,
Whether that's personal,
Professional.
Whatever grief you might be carrying,
I want to give you a moment to just let it be here.
So I want to invite you to get into a comfortable seated position or lying down.
And I'm going to start with this quote by Francis Weller.
He wrote the book,
The Wild Edge of Sorrow,
Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief.
I'm not sure how or when I began my apprenticeship with sorrow.
I do know that it was my gateway back into the breathing and animate world.
It was through the dark waters of grief that I came to touch my unlived life.
There is some strange intimacy between grief and aliveness.
Some sacred exchange between what seems unbearable and what is most exquisitely alive.
Through this,
I have come to have a lasting faith in grief.
And so I won't leave you here,
There are more steps to this retreat,
But I want to give us a moment to empty out,
To honor any of the sadness,
Any of the grief that has come into our lives as a result of our deep and profound love.
Let's go ahead and take three slow,
Deep breaths in through the nose and out through the nose.
And as you breathe,
Just take a moment to remember anything in this last year that has inspired a sense of grief or loss.
It could be the loss of a friendship,
Of a loved one,
Of a place,
Of a job,
Of a team.
And as you remember,
I want you to notice where in your body do you sense that this energy might live as you reflect on what you've lost.
Just notice anywhere in your body that gently or not so gently draws your awareness.
So whether that's your gut,
Your chest,
Your throat,
Whatever part of your body is asking for your attention,
Just go ahead and place all of your attention in that space.
And without thinking,
I just want you to breathe into this place where sadness,
Where grief,
Anger,
Even rage might live.
Just focusing your breath into this space,
Noticing how this energy feels.
Is it hard,
Cold,
Soft,
Warm?
And as you continue to breathe into this place,
I want you to notice what's here.
Heaviness,
Sadness,
A brick,
Whatever you experience,
Just let it be exactly as it is.
Just breathing into it,
Giving it permission to be here.
Now I want you to imagine this energy in your gut,
Your chest,
Your throat,
Wherever you feel it.
I want you to imagine that it starts to expand.
With each breath,
I want you to let this grief grow.
Imagining it to be as big as your torso,
Letting it expand out to be as big as your body,
Letting this energy expand with each breath to be as big as the room,
As big as your house.
Imagining it expanding out to be as big as the country,
Expanding out to be as big as the planet.
And again,
Letting go of any agenda to fix or release,
Just letting yourself be.
I'm just taking another few full body breaths,
Noticing what's here now,
And sending some gratitude to the support of the earth underneath us,
Some gratitude to ourselves for just being with what we're feeling,
Being with our breath,
And asking spirit,
Asking the universe just to help clear,
Fill,
Surround,
And protect each one of us,
Helping us to remember the love that we are.
And then slowly,
Slowly bringing your eyes back open,
Stretching.
And I invite you to pick up your pen and your journal and just spend a few minutes expressing whatever is on your heart.
