This is part one of a two-part meditation series on navigating through resistance to change successfully.
As always,
I welcome you to invite in that healing havening touch to more fully access the opportunities inherent in neuroplasticity.
The havening touch includes four fundamental movements.
The first is palm on palm,
Rubbing your hands together as though you're washing your hands under warm water.
The second is what I lovingly call the havening hug,
Fingertips on your shoulders and moving down to your elbows and consistently repeating that motion as though you're giving yourself a nice,
Loving,
Moving hug.
Fingertips across the brow.
If you've ever had a tension headache,
This motion may be familiar to you.
Following along the eyebrow line and circling around your eyes along the cheekbones if you've ever wiped away a tear.
It's very similar to that motion.
These four different movements have been scientifically proven to downregulate the brain out of an experience of stress and also to increase the presence of all sorts of delightful good neurochemicals that our brain wants more of such as oxytocin,
Serotonin and GABA.
Now as we begin,
I'd like to invite you to start applying that gentle havening touch and notice if there's an experience in your life where resistance is present.
Resistance is a fundamental part of being human.
Our brain is resistant to change at an inherently neurobiological level.
Our brain loves to know what to expect,
Whether that works in service of our greater drives,
Goals and purposes or not.
So invite your mind to float across the course of your current existence and notice if there is something within which you are noticing resistance,
A pushback to creating change,
A difficulty in taking steps forward,
Whatever it may be.
Invite your mind to intentionally move into relationship with your unique experience of resistance.
And once you've found that experience,
Invite it to become front and center of your awareness,
Turning your full attention to whatever that experience is.
For some of us,
It may show up as a real roadblock,
An experience that we're navigating right here,
Right now.
For others,
Resistance might have a very tangible body experience,
A boulder inside our sense of self,
Even a tense rubber band that keeps pulling us back into an old way as we're attempting to move forward and create a new path.
Resistance has many different representations.
One might say there can be a case for resistance,
Has a cognitive sense,
An autonomic sense,
A somatosensory as well as an emotional representation.
And resistance will be unique to each of us,
Just as our fingerprints are unique to each of us.
As you're noticing your own unique version of resistance,
Take a quiet moment and thank your mind and body for sharing with you.
Thank yourself for choosing to take a moment and move into a space of relational engagement with this roadblock to change.
Resistance often walks hand in hand with shame.
We can struggle so desperately to create change,
To know what we need to do,
And yet still continue in the old ways.
That is the power of our brain,
Of our amygdala,
Endeavoring to keep us safe within the frameworks of what is known.
When our mind and our body create space to move into relationship rather than to push back against an experience,
It is a gift.
This is a gift you're gifting yourself right here,
Right now.
Even take a moment to thank yourself for engaging in this exercise and showing yourself this loving care.
You deserve it.
Let your mind and your body fight diligently to protect you and to care for you.
And that is at the heart of resistance.
As you notice your unique experience of resistance,
Whether it be a story that you could tell to another,
Or a somatic sense in your body,
Or a thought that runs rampant through your mind,
Move even more intentionally into the sensory experience of it.
As you're noticing it front and center,
What if your experience of resistance had a color?
What color would it be?
Deep brown,
Like the bark of a tree?
Expansive blue,
Like the ocean or the sky?
Black,
Like an unlit cave?
Or even dark gray,
Like the ashes after a fire have burned out?
What color is your experience of resistance?
And if it had a scent,
Or if you could reach over and pick it up,
What would it smell like or feel like in your hands?
Invite your mind to get curious about your unique version of resistance.
What does it look like or feel like?
Where does it live within your mind and body?
Lean in and invite your inner world to share with you.
Now on that scale of zero to ten,
With ten being the greatest level of resistance you've ever experienced,
And a zero being no resistance at all,
Where would you rank this current experience of resistance?
Make a note of that in your mind,
Inviting yourself to even more deeply connect within and attend and attune to this experience.
I'd like to invite you to welcome in a sequence of gentle breaths.
You can breathe along with me as I count or find your own natural rhythm.
Breathing in for a count of 4,
3,
2,
1.
Pause and release for a count of 6,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
Beautiful.
Breathing in for a count of 4,
3,
2,
1.
Pause and out for a count of 6,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
I'll invite you to look around your space or even look around my space and let's find any five objects or hues for the color blue.
And now let's identify any four right angles that are in your vicinity or that you can see.
And let's do three items that are the color white.
And two items that if you were to reach out and touch them they would be soft to the touch.
And one item if you were to touch it would be smooth to the touch.
Returning to our breath,
Breathing in to a count of 4,
3,
2,
1.
Hold and release to a count of 6,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
One more,
Breathing in to a count of 4,
3,
2,
1.
Hold and release 6,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
Beautiful.
And invite your breath to return to its normal soothing cadence.
And once again return your attention to that experience of resistance that you identified earlier.
And as you hold that experience in front of you let's connect again on that scale of 0 to 10.
And where would you rank it now?
And if it is now at a 5 or below then I'll invite you to transition into part 2 of this series.
And if it is below a 2 or even at a 2 then I'll invite you to transition to the next part of this meditation in the next video.
If it is still activating,
If you're noticing that on that scale of 0 to 10 you're a 3 or above,
I'll invite you to repeat this video or transition lovingly to our CPR for the amygdala exercise,
Inviting your brain to wrap a warm fuzzy blanket around your amygdala.
Remember that our brain's job is to keep us safe and alive.
And when our amygdala has some increased emotional activation or reaction that likely means that she is perceiving a threat.
And change can be quite threatening and it is important to move into deep loving relationship with our mind and our body.
Whenever there is a threat,
Whether our thinking brain agrees it is threatening or not,
Loving our amygdala and her deep desire to keep us safe must come first and foremost.
I look forward to seeing you soon.
