Hello and welcome to this self-compassion practice today.
Life can be particularly challenging at times and it is a fact of our human experience that we will all experience a large amount of pain at different points in our lives.
When faced with painful thoughts,
Feelings and emotions it may feel natural to try and avoid the pain by resisting it,
Fighting with it or blaming it on others.
What doesn't come naturally to most of us is to respond to the pain with self-compassion by gently acknowledging it and offering ourselves kindness and care.
So let's start this practice today by doing just that.
Taking your time to make yourself comfortable,
Asking yourself what you need right now.
Is it a more comfortable position to get into?
Do you need a blanket,
A pillow?
Offering yourself compassion and when you're ready bringing to mind a problem that you are currently struggling with,
A big emotion that you're currently experiencing.
Whether it be something that has recently happened or something that happened long ago that keeps showing up for you in some way.
Just taking a few minutes to lean in to this problem,
To lean in to this pain.
What images arise for you?
Is there a specific location,
A specific scene that comes to mind?
Where are you?
Who are you with?
What is taking place?
And as you reflect on this,
What thoughts are present?
What is your mind telling you?
Are your thoughts casting blame on another person or are they directed towards you?
And as you have these thoughts,
What emotions are arising?
Can you name the emotion,
I feel anger or I feel sadness or I feel despair?
And can you locate the area in your body where this emotion feels most prominent,
Most present for you?
The pain might be sharp and obvious or it may even be a feeling of numbness.
Can you locate the pain?
And where is it located in your body?
And now holding out one of your hands,
A hand that has been used in the past to rub a friend's back,
To hug a loved one,
To hold a baby tenderly.
Fill this hand with the same sense of caring,
Support and kindness.
Fill this hand right up with warmth and love.
And now place this loving tender hand on whichever part of your body you feel the most pain.
Allowing your hand to rest there,
Feeling the warmth that it creates.
You might choose to keep it still or you might choose to gently rub your hand on this area of your body.
Imagine warmth and love pouring into the pain now.
Hold the pain with kindness,
Letting the kindness flow from your loving hand straight into your body.
Breathing into this area of the body,
Imagine your body slowly softening around the discomfort.
Breathing right into the pain.
Can you create some room,
Some openness around it?
And as you rest in this space of warmth and kindness,
Can you offer yourself compassion?
For the pain you are experiencing is a result of the fact that you are a caring human being.
It's a sign that you are fully living what it is to be human.
Pain is something that we all experience.
It's a part of being human.
And in taking your time here,
Continue to breathe into this space and send warmth through your hand until it feels right for you to finish this practice.
And as you go on throughout your day,
How can you proceed by offering yourself compassion?
