Welcome to this stress relief meditation.
This meditation will help to ease the hold of challenging or difficult emotions during times of uncertainty.
Find yourself a comfortable position with your back straight and your shoulders relaxed.
Once you feel comfortable,
I invite you to close your eyes.
Just take a moment to remind yourself that for the next 15 minutes there is nowhere else you need to be.
This time is your investment in yourself and your well being.
To begin just bring your awareness to your breath.
Breathing in and out through your nose take a few slow,
Steady,
Deep breaths.
Breathing into your belly filling your lungs from the bottom to the top.
Releasing,
Breathing out slowly,
Smoothly,
Without forcing anything until your lungs are empty.
Just do a few rounds of slow,
Deep breathing.
Emptying from the bottom to the top,
Emptying from the top to the bottom.
Now just let your breath take its own natural rhythm.
Move from breath control to breath awareness.
Just notice the sensation of your chest rising and falling.
The sensation of air passing in and out through your nostrils.
The coolness of the air in your nostrils as you breathe in and the warmth of the air as you breathe out.
Now let's take this process of mindful awareness of sensation and expand it throughout the whole body.
If you've recently been experiencing challenging emotions like stress,
Worry or anxiety,
I want you to see if you can notice if you are holding the tension of those emotions anywhere in your body.
So just starting at the top of your head,
Scan down through your forehead,
Your face,
Your jaw,
Your neck,
Your shoulders,
Your chest,
Your stomach,
Your back,
Your arms,
Your hands,
Your pelvis,
Your buttocks,
Your legs,
Your legs,
Your legs,
And your feet.
Just see if you can notice anywhere that these challenging or unpleasant feelings are present in your body.
Without judging them or creating a narrative around them,
Just observe the qualities of the felt sensation.
If you can only feel numbness,
You can observe the qualities of the numbness.
Wherever you find tense or challenging feelings present in your body,
Just focus your awareness in on that area.
Notice its energy,
Its pulsation,
Its vibration.
Notice the layers within it,
Where it starts,
Where it stops.
Is it moving or still?
Light or heavy?
Hot or cold?
Is there pressure or aching?
And notice if you are holding any resistance or aversion towards the feeling.
Are you tensing around it?
As you notice these qualities,
Start to consciously breathe deeply into and around the feeling.
As you do this,
Imagine that the breath is creating space around the tension and sensation.
Everything just starts to expand.
This expansion just makes room for the feeling without actively trying to get rid of it.
Now imagine that this sense of space is expanding right throughout your whole body,
Making room for any resistance in your body or your mind.
With every in-breath,
You feel softer,
Looser,
Closer,
And cleaner.
And as we come towards the end of this meditation,
Just remember that all feelings and thoughts are transient,
Always in motion,
Always changing.
Passing through your body,
Sometimes they are stormy and challenging,
Sometimes calm and comforting.
But if you sit with the stormy feelings,
Give them space,
Then they will pass because they are transient by nature.
Taking one more slow deep breath in and out.
Bringing your awareness to your whole body.
And when you are ready,
You can open your eyes.
Just take a moment to observe your surroundings with a sense of stillness and presence.
Jai Guruji!
Jai Guruji!
