For the duration of this meditation,
Allow yourself the time and space to grieve fully.
Drop all resistance to emotion.
Do not avoid any emotion,
Instead allow all emotion in.
Allow yourself to feel.
As difficult as this may be,
It is the welcoming and allowing of painful emotions that will allow grief to be processed naturally and healthily by the body and mind.
So already,
Just a sense of grounding yourself and settling into this present moment.
You might find that deeper breathing helps.
Just bring your awareness fully into the present moment.
Just dealing with the reality of the here and now.
Whatever emotions are present for you,
Simply recognize them.
Begin to acknowledge the emotions that are present.
Without any resistance and without trying to get away from them.
Just breathe into this moment,
Allowing emotion to simply be as it already is.
There may be deep sadness,
Anger,
Sorrow,
Guilt,
Shame.
Whichever emotions that are present,
Just begin to accept the emotion itself.
So no more trying to push them away.
No more trying to bury them.
And the more you can drop this resistance,
The more you can welcome and accept even the most painful of emotions,
The less suffering there will be.
Although previously emotion may have felt unbearable,
We find that by bringing the emotion itself close,
There is a sense of integration.
So really open yourself up to this now.
Say yes to the emotion itself.
Allow your body to do whatever it needs to do.
If tears come and you need to cry,
Then cry.
This is a powerful release.
If the body needs to shake or move or stretch,
Then do so.
Be loving with yourself.
The body and mind has been through a lot of turmoil and stress.
Give it the warmth of compassion.
A sense of releasing.
There is no right or wrong way to grieve.
So there is no longer any need to tighten yourself up,
Constrain or constrict the body and mind.
Instead,
Just release,
Unbind the body and mind.
Develop this total and complete acceptance of the emotion that you are currently feeling.
How does it actually feel in the present moment?
As awful as the emotion may be,
Simply recognise that although emotion can be painful,
It is not inherently harmful.
So there is no danger.
Emotion does not damage the body.
So just feel it.
Bring it close.
Welcome and allow.
Extend love towards this emotion.
All is well.
Often in grief,
The emotions are constantly shifting.
There is a great deal of turmoil and chaos in the inner emotional world.
The sorrow may become rage.
The rage may become guilt.
The guilt may become fear.
Just notice this relentlessly shifting pattern of emotion in the inner world and realise this is totally normal.
There is nothing wrong with you and you have done nothing wrong.
Really feel it.
Give yourself permission to feel these emotions fully.
This is the time and space now to give all emotion the energy,
The conscious awareness that gives them space to come up into the light and therefore be released into consciousness.
Loving and accepting emotion in this way allows the process of grief to run unhindered through the body and mind.
A powerful and loving process.
Grieving itself is an act of love.
A deep recognition of loss.
The process of grief powerfully flows through the body and mind.
Deep transformation and insight occurs here.
So having a sense of just allowing the process of grief to rumble through the body and mind and simply do not get involved,
Do not get in the way.
If emotions are chaotic,
Let them be chaotic.
If the emotional world is heavy and dense,
You are under a deep depression,
Then allow this to be.
Bringing the light of your awareness to even the deepest,
Heaviest,
Most dense parts of your inner emotional world.
Begins to breathe some space into that area.
The opaque,
Heavy shadow will begin to dissipate.
But there is no hurry.
There is no rush.
No resistance.
No avoidance.
Stay with this.
Just for this time,
Do not try to accept the situation or the circumstance.
If you have found yourself grieving,
Then by definition,
The situation or circumstance will be unacceptable.
This is an unacceptable loss that you are processing.
Therefore do not try to accept the situation,
The circumstance or the loss,
Just for this time.
Instead,
Accept the emotions that are relating to the loss.
By accepting the emotion relating to the loss,
In time the loss will be accepted also.
But there is no rush.
To accept the sorrow and the sadness relating to the loss is an act of love.
It is a recognition,
A deep knowing that something you loved is no longer there.
So it's okay to feel this way.
It is healthy to grieve.
It is healthy to mourn.
We cannot cover these emotions up with positive thinking or rushing to move on.
It simply doesn't work like that.
Grief has its own timeline.
Grief does not have a clock or a calendar.
It moves according to its own natural rhythm,
Its own natural law.
Simply welcoming,
Acknowledging,
Knowing and loving these deep emotions within you ensures the process will simply wash through the body in its own time,
In its own natural rhythm.
And this is no threat.
So release yourself from the burden of trying to keep emotions away,
Trying to keep them at arm's length.
Instead,
Have the self-compassion to allow yourself to simply feel what is.
Emotion without resistance is not suffering.
We only suffer in the mind.
Memories are too painful.
Thinking about the situation is too painful.
We cannot fix this on the level of the mind.
Grief is something that happens in the heart.
So disengage the mind.
The mind is of no use here.
Instead,
Go to the heart and remain in the heart.
Allow the process of grief itself to be the teacher.
Let it guide you rather than trying to manage grief,
Contain it,
Constrict it.
Instead,
Hand the body and mind over to grief and allow grief to be the guide.
It will reveal many emotions to you.
Do not be frightened.
Do not tighten up and resist.
Whatever grief wishes to show you,
Simply have the courage and the love to welcome that emotion as unbearable as it will feel to begin with.
In time,
The more you are able to tolerate the emotion,
The less suffering there will be.
Pure emotion honors that we have lost.
The sorrow,
The sadness,
It is a dignified respect for that which we have lost.
So give yourself this time in solemn reflection.
It is okay.
It is natural.
It is healthy.
In this pure and total acceptance of grief,
You will find a deep sense of love is also present.
Unexplainable and profound.
So recognize,
It is possible to feel grief and love at the same time.
To feel peace and love whilst grieving is not a failure.
It's not doing something wrong.
It's actually a recognition and an understanding of what grief is trying to point you towards.
The love,
The love that cannot go anywhere,
That cannot change,
That cannot be lost.
That love is always present,
Eternal and shining.
Giving yourself permission to feel whichever emotions want to be felt,
Shines this eternal love inwards,
Develops a deep acceptance,
A profound gratitude and a release from your psychological suffering.
Don't let the body close up or condense.
Keep opening.
Breathe deep.
Keep your awareness open.
No flinching or clenching when an emotion wants to rise.
You might find there are waves of powerful emotion and then it subsides into a strange kind of numbness.
Just observe this process unfolding within you.
Do not analyze your emotions.
Do not try to store your emotions anywhere.
There won't be an exam or a test.
Instead,
Just observe.
Pure,
Natural,
Open observation.
Saying to your own inner emotional world,
You are welcome.
You are loved.
You are known.
You have the space.
You have attention.
You don't have to hide.
You don't have to change.
You are allowed to be exactly as you already are.
Marvelous,
Wonderful and profound.
The energy of all emotion is like a life in itself.
Even our taboo emotions like resentment or envy.
Just get to know them.
These are deep and personal feelings.
Simply observe and let the emotion know that it's allowed to be here.
It's okay.
It's alright.
It doesn't feel alright,
But just know that it is alright.
In a moment,
We will be leaving the formal aspects of this meditation.
You may wish to spend a while longer simply remaining in this more open,
More accepting,
More allowing space.
You might find it helpful to put some background music on or some other ambience.
You may find it useful to give some hours to this.
Even whole days to allow the natural,
Healthy process of grieving to have space,
To have energy,
To unfold and process naturally.
Thank you for doing this meditation with me today.
I hope you are well.
I hope you have ease of being and I hope some clarity shines through for you soon.
Take care,
Be well and stay present.
