Hello and welcome.
It's so good to have you here.
I invite you to settle in right where you are.
Allow yourself to feel completely supported and held.
Let's begin by taking a few deep breaths together.
Inhale slowly and deeply and exhale,
Letting go of any tension.
Inhale and feel your belly expand.
Exhale and feel your body soften.
Now bring your awareness to your feet.
Feel the contact between your feet and whatever the surface is that they are on.
Notice any pressure or warm or coolness.
Imagine that with every exhale any tension you are holding in your legs and feet can simply dissolve away.
Now bring your attention up to your hands.
Feel the weight of them,
The sensation of your fingers.
Allow your hands to soften,
Releasing any clenching or tightness.
Notice your shoulders,
A place where we often hold so much unnecessary pressure.
With your next exhale,
Gently drop your shoulders away from your ears.
Feel your neck and jaw soften.
Now just allow your breath to return to its natural rhythm.
So often in our lives it feels like we're on a hamster wheel.
We're so busy,
So focused on getting to the next thing or fixing the next problem.
This feeling of busyness and overthinking often comes from our expectations.
We believe that we have to go faster,
That we have to do more or be more.
But what if that is just a story we are telling ourselves?
The mental load doesn't come from the thing itself.
It comes from our thinking about it.
Maybe you can see how you layer thoughts upon thoughts,
Building a mental load that feels so heavy.
It can feel like you're carrying a huge weight on your shoulders.
You can feel it in your body.
Maybe it's a sense of pressure or tension.
Your body is so wise.
It's always letting you know the state of your mind.
When you feel this weight,
This heaviness,
It's a signal from your system that your thinking is unhelpful.
Just focus again for a moment on your breath,
Allowing it to gently move in and out of your body.
Notice that that's an allowing rather than a forcing.
For so many of us,
Life can feel like an exhausting,
Endless pursuit,
Pushing our way through life.
We're so often trying to control our circumstances,
Our relationships and even our own minds.
We do this because innocently we believe that if we just got everything into place,
It would finally feel good.
We are so used to trying to get all the outcomes to be just right.
Maybe you have a partner whose behavior you wish you could control or a colleague who simply just doesn't see things your way.
There's a feeling of futility,
Isn't there?
A feeling that if only they would just behave differently,
We could feel better.
But what if that is a misunderstanding?
Let's explore this with kindness and curiosity.
But first,
Let's just breathe.
Breathe deeply into your belly,
Noticing the rise and fall.
Allow your body to settle again,
To rest in this place.
So often,
Our suffering is rooted in expectations and our innocent belief in them.
Expectation is an idea,
A thought we have about the future.
It feels so certain,
So real,
But it's thought masquerading as certainty.
We project this thought into the future and then we try to control everything to make that thought come true.
Perhaps you've had an expectation for a social event you're attending.
You imagined it will be a night of laughter,
Joy and deep connection.
But then,
The event unfolds very differently.
A key friend cancels at the last minute.
The conversation isn't what you wanted.
The atmosphere feels a bit flat.
In that moment,
There is friction.
A frustration between your thought of how it should be and how it actually is.
As you imagine a situation like this,
Can you feel the weight of the disappointment?
A sense that something has gone wrong.
But the event itself is just an event.
It doesn't inherently have any feeling in it.
It's our resistive thinking,
The thoughts that say this should be different that causes those uncomfortable feelings,
That stress in our body.
This is the core of the three principles understanding.
Our feelings are created from the inside out.
Life is just lifing.
And our experience of it comes from our thoughts in this moment.
So trying to control the world around you to get a better feeling is like playing a strange game of whack-a-mole.
Impossible.
Exhausting.
But something different becomes possible when we see this.
We can begin to relax.
Can you relax right now?
We can begin to trust.
Can you trust right now?
Can you relax into the knowing that your well-being is not dependent on your circumstances or outcomes?
Can you align with a wisdom that's not trying to control what happens next?
Take a moment now to gently set down that heavy weight.
Notice any expectations you're holding on to of yourself,
Of someone else,
Of how this meditation should be going.
Just notice it,
And then imagine gently setting it down.
You are the awareness in which these thoughts arise.
You are not the thoughts themselves.
You are not the stories you tell yourself.
And so you don't have to believe them.
This doesn't mean you don't care.
It simply means you've discovered a more peaceful way to be.
The need to control is a habit.
And like any habit,
It loses its power when we begin to see it.
All of your thinking about the future,
All of your expectations,
All of your shoulds,
Are just words in your head.
They are not truth.
Beneath all of that noise,
That constant chatter of thoughts,
Is a space of deep stillness.
That space is where insight,
Clarity,
And fresh action arise.
Not from pressuring ourselves,
But from presence.
The stillness is your true nature.
It is peace,
Love,
And wisdom.
And it is always here.
Just take a few more deep breaths,
Resting in that quiet knowing.
Thank you so much for being here today.
Thank you for taking this time to come back to you.
This space is always available to you whenever you need a reminder.
Thank you.
