And welcome to this practice on finding safety and freedom in difficult times.
Just taking a couple deep breaths in through the nose,
Out through the mouth.
When you do it out through the mouth,
Just this opportunity of releasing,
Releasing any tension,
Any holding.
Any stress here,
Any busyness of mind.
Giving yourself permission to feel into this body.
Just do it at your own pace from your feet to your legs and hips.
Move all the way up your torso and arms and hands and face and just checking in.
Is there any areas that are contracting right now?
Feeling a sense of holding.
And see if you can just allow those areas to soften.
Checking in with the area around your heart too.
Notice if there's any holding there.
Any contracting there and see if you can allow that to soften too.
Breathing in,
It's almost as if your breath comes in and caresses your heart,
Almost warms it up.
Creates space around it.
The very least connects to it.
Feeling the ground beneath your body,
Being aware of that connection.
Notice how your body is just naturally breathing.
So just this great sense of allowing,
Of letting be right now.
Seeing our bodies here,
Naturally breathing,
Settling into playing with presence.
And just letting be.
Let your breath out to your other side.
Maybe.
Knowing that at any point during this practice,
If your mind drifts into a thought,
A worry,
Or a memory,
Or maybe a dreamy place,
And the moment you take note of that,
You can just be aware of that.
Maybe even investigate for a moment where your mind went to.
It might be a place you want to remember.
Soften your body,
Release it with the exhale,
And very gently coming back to this practice.
You can do that again and again.
And so considering for a moment what's been difficult for you about this time,
What's been challenging.
Maybe it's a sense of disconnection or loneliness.
Maybe it's an inability to live your life as it was.
So there's grief around that.
Maybe it's the frustration,
Irritation.
Maybe it's arisen during this time,
Or maybe it's the pull of the news,
And the negativity that it spirals.
Maybe it's difficulty in relationships or loss of loved ones.
What's been difficult for you during this time?
Knowing that whatever's been difficult for you,
No doubt,
Has been difficult for many,
Not in this alone at all.
So as you're envisioning that,
Or as you're aware of that,
See if you can connect again with your body.
And again,
Scanning your body for any contraction or holding any heaviness that's there,
Maybe.
See if you can allow for an awareness of the challenge,
Of the difficulty that's there.
Also,
Just softening your body around the areas that are feeling tense or contracting.
Our bodies store our emotional states,
The energy that's there.
And so in difficult times,
It's important to contact our bodies,
Stay connected with them,
Care about them,
Love them,
Soften them,
Soften around the contractions,
Around the holding.
All those angelic So on the one hand,
We're softening around the physical experience here.
At the other time,
We're just allowing it to be here.
So we're not negating the challenge.
We're not negating what's difficult.
We're not trying to put on rose-colored glasses and just be Pollyanna about it.
At the same time,
We're aware of it,
Allowing it,
And softening around it.
At any point,
You want to put your hands on any area of your body where you're feeling the difficulty.
Sometimes that's a way of supporting the softening,
The soothing.
Just allowing it to be here together,
Soothing and allowing and letting be.
Yeah?
While we're here in a sense of presence and soothing,
Drop in the question,
What is it that I'm really needing right now during this time?
I'm feeling into this a little deeper in your body.
Where is this feeling?
It's the texture of it.
What am I needing?
Maybe it is to feel safe and secure,
Maybe it is to feel assured that I'm going to be okay,
That people I love are going to be okay.
Maybe it's to feel healthy or feel more peace and calm and ease.
Maybe it's to feel loved,
Maybe it's to feel joy,
Happiness,
Confidence,
Success,
Strength.
Whatever it is,
Saying if you can turn towards yourself for a moment,
Connecting with your heart,
Turn towards yourself and breathing in.
As if you're breathing in whatever that need is,
Or you may say the phrase that connects with it,
May I feel safe?
May I find more ease?
May I feel strong or happy?
May I learn to love myself as I am?
Whatever it might be,
Breathing in,
It's as if that's flowing into you,
Touching your heart and then coming into being taken in by all the cells of your body.
Breathing out,
Just letting be.
And that's for being aware that just like you,
Whatever challenge you're having,
You have to be aware of it.
Whatever difficulty through this time you found,
Whatever triumphs or joys or ways of understanding and holding the whole picture,
Perspective,
Others have experienced those same challenges as well and currently are.
So allowing yourself to expand out and imagine all the other people in this world,
The head of the 8 billion people that are here,
Who are also experiencing something similar.
Whatever it is that you were needing or that you are needing,
That other people are needing the same thing and so imagining them,
If you can imagine,
Maybe even just a globe and the lights of people that are needing that too,
Breathing in one for me,
Breathing out one for you.
And you can see it flowing in and out as you breathe in,
You sense the light of that intention,
That light of that loving kindness coming into your body,
The cells of your body drinking it in.
Breathing out,
You can see it flowing out,
Expanding out to touch all the lives of all the people,
All the animals that also need that.
Moving into this interconnection that's here,
This flowing in and flowing out of these loving intentions.
So this is just beginning of that process.
Now for a moment scaling back and just coming back to yourself.
Just noticing how you're feeling,
What's present,
How your body's feeling right now,
The quality of your attention,
What's present emotionally.
Knowing that this time that you've taken is an act of self-love,
An opportunity of really caring about yourself in difficult times.
As you're sitting here with a sense of presence and caring,
I want to read this poem to you and just taking it in by Dana Fowlds.
There is no controlling life.
Try corralling a lightning bolt containing a tornado.
Damn a stream and it will create a new channel.
Resist and the tide will sweep you off your feet.
Allow and grace will carry you to higher ground.
Only safety lies in letting it all in,
The wild and the weak,
Fear,
Fantasies,
Failures and success.
When loss rips off the doors of the heart or sadness veils your vision with despair,
Practice becomes simply bearing the truth.
In the choice to let go of your known way of being,
The whole world is revealed to your new eyes.
The whole world is revealed to your new eyes.
The whole world is revealed to your new eyes.
