Deep Breathing With The Ocean: Relaxing Every Part Of You Parts Work IFS Internal Family Systems

This meditation guides you on an inner journey to meditate on the beach. It helps you connect to the parts of you that show up to distract you during meditation so you can develop a relationship with them, learn more about them, and reach a deeper state of calm. This meditation is inspired by Parts Work or IFS. IG: @innerworkgirl

Transcript

This meditation is designed to help you gain space between yourself and the different parts of you.

Let's get started.

Take a moment to get into a comfortable seated posture.

See if you can sit upright,

But without any unnecessary tension or rigidity in your muscles.

Try to find that nice balance between steadiness and ease in your posture.

Feel your body being supported by the surface underneath you.

Close your eyes and set the intention to really experience and embody your core true self.

Now I'll invite you to notice everything that's within your experience right now.

Noticing thoughts as they come and go throughout the mind.

That's normal.

It's okay.

It's part of the experience.

Noticing your emotional state as well.

Looking into your energy.

Noticing the temperature.

Any sensations that you're feeling in your body.

Any sounds you might be able to hear.

Let all of that be.

And then narrow your awareness just to your breath and see if you can anchor yourself there.

Letting everything else just fall to the periphery of your experience.

As you just focus your awareness on your breath.

Feeling the belly expand.

Feeling the belly contract.

Filling up and letting go.

Now in your internal world I will invite you to imagine yourself sitting on the beach.

It could be a beach you know or a beach you've seen in a picture or something that you make up in your mind.

Just settle on one beach.

And from this beach you are able to look out and see the ocean.

You can hear the sounds of the ocean.

And all of the other nature sounds.

You can see the waves crashing on the shore.

You can smell the ocean smells.

You can also feel yourself sitting on the sand in your meditation posture.

And see if you can match your breathing with the waves of the ocean.

Filling up the lungs and the wave crests.

Feeling seeing the waves fall and break.

Now this meditation is going to be a little different from a mindfulness meditation where you would normally redirect any thinking to your senses or to the breath and let any thinking kind of pass or fall away.

Instead what I'm going to invite you to do is if and when a part of you comes up to distract you instead of refocusing on the breath turn and greet it with friendly curiosity.

I'll give you just a few moments until something naturally arises and I'm sure that it will.

When that happens notice what it is.

Turning your attention towards it with a friendly curiosity.

Perhaps visualize it sitting on the beach in front of you.

So if it had a body what would it look like?

Just breathe and let it be as it is and observe it doing what it does.

Perhaps it looks distracted or fidgety perhaps it's planning something out just observe it.

Let it be.

Create a connection with it.

Ask it why it chose to be here right now and if it has anything that it needs you to know.

And ask this part of you if it would be willing to sit and to enjoy the beach with you meditating with you.

Ask it to sit beside you and breathe with you and maybe it does maybe it doesn't maybe it wants to move around maybe it's making a bit of a scene whatever is happening it's okay see if you can be present with yourself and it at the same time without getting wrapped up or identified with it.

So keep noticing your surroundings and keep breathing deep with the ocean.

Inhale the wave crests.

Exhale the wave breaks.

Inhale the wave crests.

Exhale the wave breaks.

Maybe another part of you is also going to come up or perhaps it's even the same part.

Do the same thing open yourself up to whatever this is with friendly curiosity.

Visualize it so if it had a body if it had a form what would it look like?

Just breathe and observe it doing whatever it is that it's doing.

And if you want you can ask it why is it choosing to be here right now?

And does it have anything it needs for you to know?

Let it know that you're there you see it.

Create a connection with it.

Welcome it.

And see if it would be willing to join your little meditation circle on the beach.

And continuing to breathe breathing with the ocean just being.

And eventually what you'll likely notice is that another part of you comes up trying to take control of your mind make you think about other things.

So if that happens just do the same exact thing open yourself up with friendly curiosity towards that.

Visualize that part of you sitting in front of you.

Just breathe and be with yourself.

You're there present with it but you're not fully identified with it and just notice what it's doing.

Create a connection with it.

Make sure it knows that you're there.

And you can ask it why did it choose to be here right now?

Does it have anything that it wants for you to know?

See if it would be willing to join your meditation circle and enjoy this guided relaxation with you.

So now you can see at least one likely three perhaps even more parts of you sitting with you on the beach.

Enjoying this moment together.

And you're there with them breathing with them.

And after a while of this go ahead and slowly get up in your visual field in your inner world.

Ask your parts if they would be willing to stay where they are meditating and enjoying the ocean.

And start to walk just a few paces away.

So the parts are behind you and come up right to the water's edge and look out over the ocean.

Just breathe with the ocean and be with yourself.

Just pure you.

And if any parts come up to distract you just gently notice that and ask those parts to go join the meditation circle with the others.

Just being.

And by now you will likely be feeling calm,

Present,

Spacious,

Confident.

This is what it's like to be embodying your core self,

Your truest self when everything else falls away.

So bring this energy back with you and go join the meditation circle of all these different parts of you again.

Look around at each part of you that showed up one by one looking each of them in the eye,

Making sure they see you and they know you as this calm,

Curious,

Friendly and welcoming core self.

This is what it's like to be present with different parts of you without feeling fully blended or identified with them,

This is possible.

And ask them if they need anything from you to feel more accepted by you or to be better friends with you.

You're welcome to pause this meditation if you need more time,

Otherwise go ahead and thank them for anything that they've shared with you.

And if this meditation sparked curiosity for you,

You can always come back and try further meditations to go deeper.

But for now,

Just allow that visual world to dissolve and expand your awareness into your entire body,

Feeling yourself sitting on the surface underneath you with the air around you,

Hearing the sounds in the room,

Perhaps taking a nice big stretch.

And whenever you're ready,

You can slowly start to open your eyes and come back to the room around you.

You're welcome to pause this and write down some notes about this experience.

This inner exploration is now complete.

Thank you.

Reviews

Pleasant and direct. A very enjoyable visualization and expression of how to achieve being “the observer”. Thank you!🙏🏼

Interesting and fulfilling! Thank-you…

Such a soothing voice. I was able to sit with curiosity and acceptance. I want to do more. Thank you.

Thank you

WOW. One of the most profound experiences I’ve had.

Wonderful visualisation! Thank you for sharing 👏✌️🙏

Love this different approach as I would call it. Learning to accept and separate the different parts of who
we are feels liberating. Thank you

I loved this. I will return to it often. Thank you! 🙏♥️

Beautiful - thank you so much

Excellent and soothing IFS/parts meditation-highly recommend! 🌻🌼🌸🌺🌹🌷💐

This is a wonderful addition to my own parts work with my therapist. It is well crafted and easy to follow.

Such a refreshing approach to parts work. Thank you!

I highly recommend this to anyone who is doing parts work. The ocean breathing, inviting parts ( 4 showed up) to sit with me, then going to the ocean alone and returning to them while noticing how it felt has left me feeling calm, steady, clear and tender. Two parts look like my 5 year-old self, one part looked Shiva the destroyer, and one part looked just like my young mom . Thank you, Emma . Grateful to you .

Lovely, soothing meditation to fall asleep to. Love the gentle guidance, and the background music.