Hello and thank you for joining me for this guided meditation entitled,
Whatever I am feeling is okay.
Many times we run from feeling our emotions because we are afraid of being consumed by them.
So how do we honor our emotions without being sucked into a negative mental state?
We do this by being in our bodies and staying aware of our thoughts.
So this will be our practice for our meditation today.
I invite you to begin by coming into a comfortable position in your body.
So that can be laying down,
Sitting down on a chair,
On a cushion.
Wherever you find yourself today,
Just bring some awareness that your legs are comfortable,
That your seat feels secure,
That your spine is nice and straight even if you're lying down.
And you can rest your hands palms upward,
Palms downward.
And you can choose to have your eyes either closed or just resting on a spot that's just right out in front of you.
So I invite you to begin just by speaking some words with me,
Either loud or in your head.
Just to give ourselves permission today to be here,
To be present.
So you can repeat after me.
I grant myself permission to just be.
I grant myself permission to be present.
Present in my body.
And present with my breath.
I grant myself compassion and gentleness.
I do not have to be tomorrow.
I do not have to be yesterday.
I can just be right here.
I can just be right now.
And now that we've granted ourselves permission to be present,
To be in our bodies,
Let's do that.
So I invite you to begin to notice the sensations on your skin in this moment.
Just begin to feel where there's coolness,
Where there's warmth,
Where the air is on your skin,
Where maybe there's fabric on your skin.
Begin to notice any tingling on your skin.
Just notice the sensations on your hands,
Your face,
Your belly,
Your feet.
Simply becoming aware of the sensations on your skin in this moment without judging,
Without seeking to change.
And begin to notice any sounds around you,
The faraway sounds,
Maybe cars passing by,
Planes flying over,
Birds singing,
And the nearby sounds.
Maybe an electronic that's humming.
Maybe the sound of my voice.
Just becoming aware of the sounds around us without seeking to change anything.
Just being present with what is.
And now I invite you to begin to notice how your breath is moving through your body in this moment.
Where do you feel your breath in your body?
Where and how do you feel your breath in your body in this moment?
Maybe you feel cool air hit the back of your throat as you inhale.
Make its way down into your lungs.
Perhaps you feel your belly expanding and falling,
Chest rising and falling.
Just feel the rhythm of your breath in this moment.
And I want to remind you that you are safe here.
You are safe in this moment.
You are safe in your body.
You are safe cradled in the rhythm of your own breathing.
You are safe.
And knowing that you are safe,
Just allow yourself to begin to feel any emotions present in your body,
In your spirit in this moment.
Just continuing to breathe.
Just become aware of any emotions that begin to rise,
Begin to surface.
Any emotions that want to be seen,
Want to be heard,
Want to be felt.
And just release any judgment you have of what those emotions should be or what they are.
And know that you are always safe in the rhythm of your breath.
You are always safe in this present moment.
Know that whatever you're feeling is okay.
It's been a tough year.
It's been a long year.
And even with the freshness,
The newness,
The opportunities that feel on the horizon,
Many of us are still possibly grieving,
Mourning,
Maybe feeling some anxiety.
And you also may be feeling joyful,
Hopeful,
And that is okay too.
Just know that whatever you're feeling is okay.
But know that you are not that feeling.
You are not that emotion.
The emotion is simply an energy passing through you.
So as you feel these emotions rise up in your body,
Just drop any attachment you have to it.
And know that you can feel this emotion without being this emotion.
Because you are simply the awareness of the emotion.
So continuing to breathe,
Feeling where emotions,
Feelings are in your body,
Where you feel them come up for you in your body.
Maybe your chest,
Your belly,
Your head.
Just become aware of any narrative that your mind tries to create around this emotion.
And just drop that narrative.
Just be aware not to allow your mind to be taken over by thought because your mind loves to think.
It loves to create a story around your feelings.
But you are not that story.
And to honor your emotions we do not have to feed them with narrative.
We simply have to feel them.
And so we stay with our breath.
We stay in this present.
We feel that emotion in our body.
We are aware of our mind.
But we do not follow it.
We do not feed it.
We are aware of that emotion in our body.
And we also know that we are okay.
That we are safe.
We may feel the rising up of a strong emotion in our chest,
In our head,
In our belly.
But we know that we are okay because we stay with our breath.
It's safe to feel your emotions.
It's safe to be aware of them.
And know that you will not be trapped by your emotions because you're not allowing your mind to take over.
You simply just be in this moment.
And continuing to breathe.
Breathe deeper if you need to.
Feel that breath.
Feel up your belly.
I invite you to speak these next few phrases with me either louder in your head.
In this moment,
This is what I feel.
Whatever I am feeling is okay.
I do not judge my feelings.
I do not feed my negative feelings.
I sit in deep awareness.
I am present with my emotions.
I am present in my body.
I give myself space to feel without judgment.
In this moment,
This is what I feel.
I am aware that my mind wants to pull me into the past,
But I am present.
I am aware that my mind wants to pull me into the future,
But I am present.
I honor my emotions by being present with them.
I honor my emotions by offering myself love and compassion.
I am gentle with myself.
Whatever I am feeling is okay.
Whatever I am feeling is okay because I am the awareness beneath the feeling.
I am the awareness beneath the thinking.
I am the awareness beneath the feeling.
I am the awareness beneath the feeling.
Bringing your awareness back to the sensations on your skin.
And if you like,
You can open your eyes and come out of your meditation.
Or if you prefer,
You can continue to sit in deep,
Present awareness.
Thank you.
