Welcome to your meditation class today.
My name is Shannon Moyer-Semonier.
I'm a meditation instructor and mental health counselor here at Insight Timer,
And one of the things that I want to do is bring you into a new awareness of your emotional self.
Today we're going to be going into a space of meditation,
But also leaving some quiet room,
Some silence,
Where you can dedicate pages in your journal to this thought,
Instead of guilt I feel.
I'll be asking that question repetitively throughout your session today,
And I want you to consider all of the other emotions,
All of the other feelings that may be there layered,
But felt as guilt.
Guilt is one of the big emotions.
It's an easy one for us to feel,
Just like anger or sadness or joy.
It's easy to name,
But all of the ones that are hiding underneath it,
That's where the story is,
And that's where we're going to be going today.
So if you have a journal available to you,
Please pause the recording,
Go get it,
Get something to write with,
And set yourself up in a comfortable space.
There's no particular way to sit,
To breathe,
To be or to arrive in this space of meditation today.
Just whatever feels natural,
Organic,
And comfortable for you and your body.
The feeling of guilt also has a way of settling into different areas in the body,
So we'll spend some time exploring the heart,
The hips,
The shoulders,
And the feet to see where guilt is for you and what story it has to tell.
Once you have your journal,
Something to write with,
And a comfortable seat,
I invite you to close the windows of your eyes and just start to breathe down into your belly,
Getting nice and grounded,
Arriving into your body with your breath.
And if at any time you grow distracted by thoughts,
By sound,
By sensation in the body,
I invite you to draw your awareness back into your breath.
Notice the coolness of the inhalation on the edges of your nostrils as you breathe in.
Notice the warmth as you let that breath go,
Bringing your body and your mind back into regulation,
And starting to consider the notion of guilt.
It's a big,
Heavy topic today,
But guilt has so many beautiful,
Chaotic layers to it that can really teach us who we are in the midst of chaos,
How we react to situations that maybe don't feel so great,
And the emotional attachment to people,
Places,
And things that are placed there as teachers along our path.
Now,
In the beginning,
I mentioned that we would go into four different areas of the body to look,
To explore,
To lead with open awareness and curiosity,
And we're going to start with the feet,
Breathing down into your feet,
Feeling with our breath,
With our intention,
And considering for a moment instead of guilt,
I feel.
If guilt was here in your feet,
Those two things that carry you through life and propel you forward,
Each step a meaningful one.
If guilt was here,
Can you name all of the other emotions that come along with it?
Instead of guilt,
I feel.
Take the next few moments of silence.
Get lost in that feeling.
Listen to what your body and your breath are saying to you.
Take your journal and write the story.
Instead of guilt here in my feet,
I feel.
When it feels you have spent enough time down there at the feet,
Considering the emotion of guilt and all of the other things that come along with it,
I invite you to start to breathe into your hips.
We know that there in the space of our hips,
In all of those nooks and crannies,
We hold so much emotion.
Oftentimes in a yoga class,
A heavy workout,
Or simply just breathing and doing somatic work,
We can break down into tears once we sit with and sift through what it is that our hips are holding.
They hold the big,
Heavy,
Heartbreaking emotions.
So it would be understandable if guilt was here too.
Breathing into the space of your hips and considering instead of guilt,
I feel.
You might find some of the more tender emotions start to pop up to the surface.
Be gentle here.
Breathe into this space and when you feel called to,
Taking your journal and writing down instead of guilt here in my hips,
I feel.
Now when it feels that you have told the story of guilt residing there in the hips and you can't possibly pour out any more,
I invite you to start to draw your breath and your intention up into the space of your heart.
Things might feel heavy.
There might be a really big story here.
Maybe it's something that you've been longing to say but you haven't been able to find the words.
Maybe the guilt that's hiding there in your heart has been masked by some other big emotion for a really long time.
As you breathe into the space of your heart gently and tenderly with so much love and compassion,
Starting to consider instead of guilt,
I feel.
If you could be honest,
Open,
And true with yourself and your feelings right here in this moment.
Instead of guilt here in the space of my beautiful heart,
I feel.
The heart is a space that holds a lot of different conflicting and confusing emotions.
So if you're feeling that you need more time here,
That's okay.
You can come back to this recording any time you need it and work your way through the different parts of your body that might be holding this big emotion of guilt.
For now,
I invite you to draw your awareness and your intention up to the space of your shoulders.
This is where guilt might start to feel like tension and stress.
Breathing gently,
Allowing those shoulders to pull down from the space of your ears,
And starting to consider instead of guilt,
I feel.
What are the ways in which guilt impacts your responses,
Your actions,
And your reactions?
Here in this space,
Instead of guilt here in my shoulders,
I feel.
Breathing gently,
Breathing softly,
Once more pulling your awareness down to your feet,
Sweeping it up into your hips,
Letting it linger there at your heart,
Pulling it through your shoulders,
And finally out the crown of your head.
Guilt is a teacher.
It hides other emotions.
It buries stories and sometimes even twists the truth.
But if we take our time to listen,
To look into these spaces and consider instead of guilt,
I feel,
We can find the answers.
We can lean into the lessons and we can tell the stories that guilt wants to tell.
Taking a couple more gentle breaths here before starting to pull your awareness back into your physical space,
And when it feels right to you,
Allowing the windows of your eyes to come back open instead of guilt,
I feel.
I encourage you to return to this,
To sink into the words and the stories that you have written today,
And to trust yourself.
Guilt is here to teach,
Not to judge.
Instead of guilt,
I feel.
