Hola.
Today I would like to talk about one way to deal with overwhelm or a sense of lack.
This week in particular the word overwhelm has been coming out of everyone's mouths,
Including mine.
Now it certainly could be our political climate in the US,
Especially this week,
But it's also each person's life circumstances and how they're working with these circumstances.
It's also about their internal life and if they've made space for some settling,
Noticing of their own filter.
Hearing difficult news might be taken in differently if you're well rested or have eaten lunch,
If you've recently had a great conversation with a friend.
It might land much harder if you've accumulated reason after reason that life is hard,
That people don't care,
That you are somehow lacking or you should have known better by now.
Your filter,
What you think and how you feel,
Matters.
You are not your thoughts and you are not your feelings,
But they are how you piece together this sense of self.
So it is a worthwhile practice to slow down and see what's there.
It's like sitting with the shaken up snow globe and then quietly watching all the snow settle to the bottom.
It's all still there,
All your concerns,
All the problems,
All the things that need to be done they're still there,
But it's now more calm and you're more calm and you can now clearly see the beautiful bird in the snow globe or the couple holding hands in the clear globe.
So something about us can just settle.
Settle the dirt and see through the clear glass.
It's now less muddy.
After settling our nervous systems with a few intentional breaths,
It's then helpful to put some deposits into our positive bank account.
You can also just call this grounding.
You're grounding yourself.
Naming all the ways that you are grounded and that you have what you need.
Do we take the time to do that?
This could also just be called gratitude.
Not being a cheerleader in the face of pain,
But an authentic gratitude for your life.
So in a way it is honoring the things that you're going through that are difficult,
But for this practice we're not perseverating on the things that are difficult.
We are actually intentionally noticing what's going well.
What you have,
Who you have in your life,
Your ability to think and rethink,
Your ability to change,
Your ability to try a new behavior,
To grow.
Making deposits in your emotional bank account might be viewed as selfish or self-serving.
Damn straight it's self-serving,
But it's in the service of filling up the cup.
The only one that you truly have any control over at all,
Which is you.
So no one's probably gonna do this for you,
Unless you have really loving people around you who can reflect that back to you,
Which I hope you do.
In the meantime,
What we have most control over is ourselves,
Our own thoughts,
Our own feelings,
And how we use our time,
How we use those thoughts.
So we're taking a moment here to fill up our own cup with what we're grateful for about ourselves.
So now I'll move into a very brief meditation to make some deposits in our emotional bank account.
So I'm going to hit the gong and just offer a very brief meditation.
So allow that gong to be an invitation to just settle for a second.
We're settling with our snow globes here.
And I always start with posture.
So just notice your posture.
Notice how your body is set up right now.
You might want to have your shoulders back and your spine straight,
But flexible.
Notice how your body's feeling.
Areas of tension and tightness.
Maybe notice any places of pain.
Allowing it to be there.
But we're also inviting a sense of relaxation in our system.
And not only relaxation,
But kind of a feeling of royalty,
If you will.
That you are the king or the queen of your castle.
This is your throne,
Your body.
This is the place where you are.
This is the place on the earth that you take up space.
And you're allowed to be here.
So fill up that space.
No more and no less.
Just the amount of space that you take up.
You're allowed to be here.
And then just allowing for a full range of breath.
The inhale and the little pause at the top.
Exhale and that little pause before you naturally inhale again.
Just allowing yourself to be with that full cycle of breathing fully.
And then a moment of just noticing our minds as they're probably always talking to us.
Just getting a sense of what that mind is doing.
Is it more in the past?
Is it more in the future?
And then inviting it to be more in the present.
With what is happening right now.
That's why the breath is such a good anchor.
Because you can only breathe the breath that you're breathing right this minute.
And now it's gone.
And here's the next one.
I now imagine I'm sitting in a calm,
Clear,
Beautiful space.
And I can easily see or feel my blessings all around me.
The things you're grateful for.
I'm gonna land on each one and just take it in.
Like it's a field of flowers.
In my field they're all sunflowers.
But each one is unique.
And I look at each one separately.
And I give it its due.
So for me today I am noticing my own willingness to try something new.
Like being a teacher on Insight Timer.
I appreciate my own shakiness and awkwardness with the whole thing.
And also my own tenacity and sticking with it until it begins to make sense.
I notice that I'm grateful for the couple book clubs that I belong to.
Again my own tenacity in reading these books and showing up for the meetings even though I sometimes haven't read the books.
I receive so much from like-minded individuals who are just willing to participate in whatever activity I show up for.
There's usually somebody there who's just willing to participate.
And so am I.
I like that about myself.
I'm grateful that I wake up each day and I choose to meditate.
After making coffee of course.
It had not always been that way.
I'd for years gone to a meditation center and only meditated with the people in that room.
Which I'm also very grateful for.
But somewhere along the line I realized this would be helpful to do on my own.
That they couldn't hold my hand forever.
Although I still connect with them weekly because it's such a wonderful thing to do.
But I'm grateful that I choose every day to sit down and be with my thoughts and watch the snow globe settle.
Or sometimes it gets more stirred up and I just see how stirred up it is.
That's okay too.
This daily practice has changed my life one seated practice at a time.
I am beyond grateful for my children with their take on the world.
How hysterically funny they are.
Their insights and their lack of insight.
And then that triggers me.
So I get to meditate again and then have my own insights.
I am grateful for each new morning and the attitude or the mindset with which I begin each day.
I forced that positive mindset at the beginning years ago.
But now it almost seems second nature.
I love the way that my body and brain seem to pick up lessons along the way.
Very slowly at times but there is a definite difference in how I used to be.
And as silly as it sounds I'm grateful for my gratitude.
The ability to even see my positive and negative bank accounts and which one I'm depositing to at any given moment.
I notice transaction by transaction.
I care about the balance in my positive bank account.
Because if it gets too low I know I have a full negative bank account that my mind will draw from every time.
It doesn't feel good.
I would not wish for others to not feel good.
So I don't wish for myself not to feel good if I can help it.
And I usually can help it.
So just appreciating my own willingness to find things to be grateful for.
To feel good in my system and know how that means I will operate in the world because of that.
Just another couple deep breaths.
Allowing this imagery to just settle.
Knowing the balances in your positive and negative emotional bank accounts are always there.
They're always yours.
Whether you're looking at them or not.
However knowing that you'll be periodically checking your accounts.
Maybe your antenna will be up noticing.
Looking for more and more ways that you are enough.
That you have what you need.
That you are abundant in all things.
And good things are available both inside and outside of you in any given moment.
Your positive bank account is overflowing.
You are rich.
So just allowing that to settle for a moment.
See what that feels like in your body.
Noticing how you feel now after these moments of slowing down.
Settling.
Seeing what's there and then allowing for the goodness to to bubble up.
The ways that you are grounded.
The ways that you are blessed.
The ways that you are grateful.
The ways that you are rich.
Thank you for taking this time.
I'll ring the gong again to end our session.
