This is a shadow work experience for accepting change.
I'm Katherine Liggett.
Begin by finding somewhere where you are very,
Very comfortable and feel safe.
Feeling or lying down.
And once you're there,
Start to very gently draw your attention inward.
Notice the quality of breath that's here.
Shallow,
Deep.
Notice where your body breathes you.
Chest,
Belly.
Simply noticing now,
Not changing.
Allowing the sensations of the breath to coax your mind deeper and deeper into more and more subtle changes in your body.
Noticing the subtlest movement of the breath that you can.
Allowing that exquisite subtlety and stillness to draw you even deeper into yourself.
With every exhale,
Allowing your body to become heavier and heavier into the surface that's supporting you.
Releasing and melting the events of your day.
Down,
Down even further.
Down to be received by the earth.
Melting now.
Bringing your attention again and again to your next breath.
Moving to the space between the inhale and exhale now.
Noticing this space to bring you more and more into stillness.
And sensing now that this stillness enfolds and surrounds you.
Feeling that this stillness has a kind of substance.
As water would surround a fish,
We are surrounded by beautiful stillness when we choose to notice it.
Breathing the substance of this stillness.
And allowing now the stillness to be love.
But if the stillness that enfolds you is love itself and you are breathing that in now.
Surrounded,
Permeated now by this love.
I invite you to bring to mind the changes happening in your life.
Now focusing on one particular change that feels very potent to you.
A change that's deeply challenging.
That might even challenge the concept of who you feel you are.
Or what you should be.
Or what you feel should be happening with your life.
Bringing this challenge,
This change now fully into your awareness.
Perhaps there's a particular situation in your memory that exemplifies it.
Or just allow it more generally to be very,
Very present for you.
Feeling now into how this feels to be so present with this challenge.
This change in your life.
And notice with exquisite attention what your body is doing right now.
That sensations in your body arise when you imagine this challenge in your life.
Breathing now into those sensations.
Perhaps attention somewhere in your chest,
Shoulders,
Jaw,
Belly.
Is it a nausea?
Something else.
Naming it and breathing into the body sensations now.
Naming an emotion or group of emotions that seem to be present here.
Do you notice fear?
Anxiety?
Sadness perhaps?
Simply name and breathe into whatever you notice.
Remembering that we are here in a field of love and so allowing a feeling of softness to unfold whatever you're noticing right now.
The fear for example,
Surrounded and unfolded in softness.
In this space of softness feel your body sensations opening and softening now.
Inviting them to be as big as they are and you can say this to these sensations and feelings.
Be as big as you need to be now.
Breathing and inviting.
What we're doing here is releasing resistance which is the heart of shadow work.
Continuing to breathe the softness into these challenging places.
Noticing now if there's anywhere in your body or in your mind that resists allowing these sensations or feelings to grow bigger.
Are there any thoughts that resist this?
And if so,
Can you put words to them?
Is there anywhere in your body where you feel a resistance,
A holding,
A tension that refuses to soften?
If not,
Simply continue to breathe,
Release and soften.
But if you do notice resistance,
I'd like you to move your attention now to these specific places,
Feelings or thoughts that you notice.
And breathe softness now into those.
Feeling along the way how these feelings and sensations might seem to change as your awareness holds them.
The light of awareness is the most potent medicine there is.
Whatever we give our full attention to can't help but shift.
It's our resistance that keeps us stuck.
The more we are present to and allow what's here,
The more we are able to change and flow allowing life to live through us,
To move through us.
And allowing change to happen in our lives without causing a breakdown.
I invite you now to shift into a different kind of experiencing.
Noticing the sensations and feelings that this change in your life brings up,
I'd like you to ask these places in your body,
How old are you?
When was the first time I felt sensations and feelings like this?
And go now with whatever the first impression was that came up for you.
Were you five?
Were you two?
Were you thirteen?
Were you fourteen?
Knowing that your imagination is the portal to your inner knowing,
Allow your imagination now to bring you back to a memory at that time where you felt a similar constellation of feeling and sensation to how you're reacting now to this change in your life.
Again not thinking about what the right or most logical memory would be,
But what your intuition,
Your imagination brought you to as a first impression.
Feeling now to the time and place where you were reacting to life similarly to how your body reacts to this current change.
And now you are here in this time and place.
Notice from the perspective now of your younger self where you are,
Who else might be there with you or perhaps no one else.
Feeling now this memory to be more and more vivid,
Noticing what your small body is feeling,
Sensation,
Emotion and naming it.
Ask your awareness if there's anything else you need to notice about how your small self is feeling in this time and place.
And now I'd like you to switch perspectives and bring the strongest version of your adult self,
Your higher self,
Into the room or place at a respectful distance across from your younger self.
Looking now through the eyes of this version of your adult self.
Feeling your heart open and tenderness to your younger self now as you look at him or her.
Look very deeply into his or her eyes and notice what you notice about what's there.
Notice in those eyes.
Notice how it is for you as an adult self to encounter your younger self.
Does it feel foreign,
Uncomfortable,
Wonderful,
Detached?
Do you want to get over involved by running to hug them or comfort them without really seeing them?
Just notice how you're reacting and keep a respectful distance from them because everything here in order to create healing needs to be on their terms.
Allow you to really see into those eyes and name what's there.
And now allow from the depths of your tender heart a question to arise for your younger self.
What do you really need?
Notice if they answer.
What do you really need?
If they don't have an answer,
It's completely fine.
Simply mirror back to them,
It's okay to not know what you need.
If they do have an answer,
Sense,
Feel,
And see yourself meeting that need.
Perhaps it's a companion.
Perhaps it's holding their hand or giving them a hug.
Perhaps it's to leave and go somewhere that might be safer or somewhere where they feel joyful and like themselves.
Perhaps it's a favorite toy or an animal friend.
Simply feel,
Sense,
See yourself meeting this need and notice how your younger self is reacting.
If it feels called for,
Ask the question again.
What else do you really need?
And repeat this process with them with so much love.
And that's it.
Whenever this feels complete enough for now,
Really look again at your younger self and notice how he or she looks now.
Is there anything else that's needed for them?
And now tuning into your own heart,
Really diving deep into tenderness as you look at your younger self.
Can you accept them into your heart just as they are without changing them?
Do you have a place in the tenderness of your heart for this young person?
Diving now into the love in the center of your chest just for them.
And if this feels like merely going through the motions,
That's okay.
Most of us have to spend many years cultivating and healing the relationship with our child or younger self.
So that's okay.
However it feels,
Breathing into your heart so much love for this younger version of you and all that he or she had to go through.
Feeling the depths of your chest melting and softening with compassion.
As you truly witness and see your younger self as nobody else did,
You see you now as no one else could see you.
It's said that one definition of trauma is pain without an empathic witness.
So now you are that empathic witness.
Feeling your younger self healing in doing so the current present moment resistance to whatever change is happening in your life as you integrate this younger experience now through this deep loving witnessing.
Continuing to breathe into the love within you for you.
As you now bring a sense of deep gratitude to your younger self for showing up for us.
For showing up so that you may heal.
Thank you.
And whenever that feels complete in this spirit of loving beautiful gratitude,
Begin now to slowly deliberately retract your consciousness from that time and place long ago.
And begin now to imagine the room that you're in,
The walls,
The surface that is supporting you,
Noticing where your body contacts it,
Noticing your breath,
Breathing yourself breath by breath into this time and place now.
Bringing all aspects of you back right here.
And whenever you're ready,
If your eyes were closed,
You can open them and scan the eyes just allowing your head and eyes to look at what's around you in the room to orient yourself back right here.
And I invite you for a final reflection to feel now into the change that's happening for you in your life and notice if your body and your mind are responding to it any differently from when you started today.
Does this change feel more manageable now?
Do you feel just a little bit more empowered perhaps?
Just a little bit less overwhelmed or helpless?
What is my hope for you?
I wish you great peace navigating these changes in your life.
And I hope that you know that they're happening for you and not to you,
Even though I know from my own personal experience that that can be very,
Very difficult to accept sometimes.
So it's okay if that's hard to believe right now,
You don't have to.
But I simply hope that you know that you have everything that you need within you to navigate what is happening in your life right now.
And I wish you all the best on your journey.
Thank you so much for spending this time with yourself.
