Let's begin.
Standing,
Seated,
Or lying down.
Eyes,
Hope you're ready.
Coming into a space of quiet that isn't silent.
A stillness,
Gentle noises,
Subtle vibrations.
Commending yourself for taking this time.
Feeling gratitude that you do these things to care for yourself.
Mid a life that is busy,
Chaotic,
Slowing down,
Gently,
And here you are.
Notice the weight of your body.
It's volume,
The space you take up.
Feel gratitude and a generous awareness as you scan the entirety of yourself.
Your belly and intestines that process food and waste.
Nourishing you.
You might notice your heart rate.
You may be able to perceive it without touching,
Or you may need to just imagine it in your mind's eye,
But your heart is pulsing.
Delivering oxygen and other energy throughout your body.
Circulating the necessary elements.
As you settle in,
You're breathing.
Drawing in and down,
Fully,
Out,
Slowly.
Oh,
So gently,
Filling your body.
Using breath,
A conscious connection between active mind,
Automatic bodily functions.
You can draw yourself from the cognitive into sensory experience to the immediacy of your body.
Giving yourself compassion that at no point in this meditation does your brain turn off.
That would be deadly.
You can't stop thoughts.
It's a part of neurons circulating.
You don't have to think about anything in particular.
You can focus your attention on your experience right now.
As you breathe and understand your circulation,
Notice one spot of tension or even pain.
Breathe towards that.
Maybe a shoulder or a neck,
A wrist or a knee,
Your ankle,
Your stomach.
For each of us,
And each time you might do this meditation,
You may find the pain in a different place.
We're not investing in the pain.
We're just noticing it for now.
If the pain is too intense beyond the threshold of comfort,
Just breathe into it,
Slow down.
You don't need to panic to help that pain.
Once you've identified a junction in your body where you feel pain,
Scan for a place where you don't feel pain.
Maybe your calf,
Forearm,
Your face,
Your lungs.
As you breathe,
Express gratitude to yourself for the easy places.
Now we're gonna do something that might be a little scary.
From one of those easy places,
Imagine being a friendly and kind neighbor,
The place that holds tension,
Pain.
Invite it to share its pain.
Take part of the pain,
The pained place,
And carry it in the gentle and easy place.
Literally compassion,
A sharing of pain.
Once you've redistributed the discomfort or pain,
Try it again.
Find another place in your body that doesn't have any pain right now.
Invite it over like a good neighbor to ask to share some of the pain from the two places now that are carrying the pain.
Distribute the pain there.
Breathe into all three places to give them the support of your breath.
Is there a fourth junction in your body that doesn't carry any pain?
Maybe it's willing to share in the burden.
Invite it to distribute some of the pain there and breathe into all of those spaces with a generous awareness to support them as they are partners in pain,
Passion,
Settling,
Staying present.
Maybe you find a fifth place that is pain-free and you can redistribute again and breathe into all those places.
You share and contribute to the ways in which they are supporting each other and integrating the pain evenly.
And just continue on your own as you distribute what was once intense and perhaps debilitating pain across the entirety of your volume and mass.
May resolve into just a tingling and not unpleasant heat.
See if you can't continue to share the pain with compassion across all of your body part,
Lessening the severity of any one holding place that it just feels like a gentle energy,
Almost an excitement.
Continuing to breathe,
Continuing to let it in and spread out and be gentle with yourself.
Maybe you notice new places that have pain that needs to be shared.
And maybe you notice that the original place that the pain started is diminished in its burden.
Whatever you find is okay as long as you're being kind to yourself and continuing to breathe in support.
