Settling into your seat,
You can close your eyes or lower your gaze and begin by taking a few deep breaths.
Bringing your attention to present moment awareness.
Letting the breath move gently in and out of your body.
Feeling a sense of release and relaxation on each out breath.
Feel your feet on the ground.
Feel the weight of your seat in the chair and a sense of being supported.
Now I'd like you to bring to mind an event or circumstance in your life that feels challenging right now.
Not something completely overwhelming or something traumatic.
Just a particular circumstance or situation that's creating a little bit of frustration,
Anxiety or distress.
And as you decide on circumstance,
Start to bring to mind the elements of this experience and people involved,
The concerns you have.
And as you do,
Notice that your mind starts to work really hard.
This is what the mind does.
When we give it a problem,
It tries to figure out the solution.
But sometimes,
The solution can't be found in the mind.
At least not right away.
So for now,
I'll invite you to just tell your mind,
Thank you mind for trying to figure this out,
For trying to help me.
But for right now,
I'd like you to step aside so I can simply feel the situation.
And then I invite you to drop down into your body.
Letting the story go.
Letting the processing go.
And just feeling this experience,
This circumstance.
Notice the sensations in your body right now.
See if you can name them to yourself.
I feel tension in my stomach.
I feel a gripping around my heart.
I feel like I want to explode or I want to collapse.
My head hurts.
Whatever it is,
Just naming it to yourself.
And then I invite you to place a hand gently on whatever part of your body feels the sensation the strongest.
And as if you could,
Offering yourself gentle acceptance of the sensation.
Not the story,
Just the sensation.
With your hand on this place,
Just imagining that you could soothe yourself the way you might soothe a young child with a fever by placing your hand on their forehead or their cheek and gently stroking them.
Giving yourself this same offering of kindness.
I'm sorry you're experiencing this right now.
I'm sorry this is hard.
I love you.
Giving yourself compassion,
Kindness,
And care.
If emotions are present for you,
Letting the emotions come.
In situations like this,
Allowing ourselves to feel our emotions is very cleansing.
So if tears are present,
Let them roll.
Continuing to just gently soothe yourself.
Breathing deeply.
Feeling whatever you feel in your body.
And if your mind wants to go back to the story,
Wants to figure things out,
Wants to analyze,
Just gently inviting it back to the present moment and the sensations that you're feeling in your body.
When we hold space for ourselves in this way,
We offer ourselves a gift.
The gift of being acknowledged,
Held.
In childhood,
We were always looking for someone to acknowledge and hold our emotions.
And a lot of us didn't receive that kind of loving container from our caregivers.
So we didn't learn how to fully process and be with our emotions.
We learned to reject or suppress them,
Cover them up or dismiss them.
We learned to numb out.
We learned to over-give or to withdraw.
So in adulthood,
We get to rewire this by being that loving,
Steady,
Gentle caregiver that we may not have had.
As we practice this,
Emotions are no longer something that we fear.
Even though they aren't always convenient,
Emotions hold so much information for us,
So much wisdom for our bodies.
And when we fully feel them,
When we walk straight through the tunnel of emotion,
When we reach the other side,
Things generally feel brighter.
Taking as long as you want with this,
Continuing to offer yourself this gentle,
Loving space for as long as you need.
And when you feel that the wave of the emotion has peaked and crested,
You can slowly begin to bring some movement to your body,
Perhaps giving yourself a stretch,
Taking a few more deep breaths.
And when you're ready,
Slowly and gently opening your eyes.
