A meditation for dissolving and holding fear with love.
Hi,
My name is Andrew.
Today I want to share a meditation with you that is one that works for me personally when I recognize I'm human.
I find myself in my humanness and I find myself in my tenderness and the parts of me that feel afraid and uncertain.
I realize I need to give them more space,
I need to hear them.
Sometimes I recognize these aspects of my mind,
These pathways that try and keep me safe.
These aspects of a younger me,
The inner child,
Little me,
Wants to feel held and wants to feel secure,
Wants to feel safe within my tribe,
Wants to feel grounded,
Wants to know that my voice matters.
We all have this.
We all have this inside of us.
We all have the ability to feel grounded,
To feel worthy,
To feel loved,
To feel held,
To feel that we are meant to be here,
To feel that here is enough.
So right now,
Identify in your body what do you notice as we sit here and talk about fear?
Are your eye muscles a little tense?
Is there some clenching in your jaw?
Do you feel any heaviness or tightness around your chest,
Your heart and shoulders,
Your upper back,
Your neck?
Are you aware of the feeling of your breath in your chest,
Where it goes?
How deep in your chest and your belly does it go?
What about any feeling of clenching,
Tightening,
Gripping,
Holding on,
Happening around the base of your ribs,
Around your belly?
Space where your ribs give way to the tender,
Open,
Vulnerable space of your organs.
Do you feel the numbness or retreating around your pelvic bowl,
Is there a tightening in the pelvis?
Do you feel connected to your legs,
Your hip sockets,
Your thighs,
Your knees,
Your shins,
Your calves,
The tops of your feet,
Tips of your big toe,
The other toes,
The littlest toe,
The soles of your feet?
Notice that you can feel through your body.
Take a big deep breath and sigh it out in your belly to exhale.
You maybe notice somewhere in your body some tension or some numbness,
Some feeling that could associate back to fear.
Take a big deep breath and sigh it out.
Sometimes it feels like we're being tugged underwater.
We're in a riptide,
Being pulled into the sea of fear and doubt and uncertainty.
Parts of us start fighting that current,
Fighting to stay alive.
We tighten or we go numb.
Everything gets shallower and faster.
Sometimes we need to let that part of ourselves breathe and loosen up.
Practice this with me.
Really do it.
If you're practicing deep inhale followed by a sigh of relief that actually right here in this space you're okay.
This present moment is pretty darn good.
So I encourage you really practice this with me.
Take a deep breath in,
Sigh of relief out.
Deep breath in,
Sigh of relief out.
Deep breath in.
Take a sigh of relief and let it go.
Big inhale in,
Sigh of relief let it go.
Keep going like that until I say stop.
Let yourself breathe this way.
Big inhale in,
Sigh of relief.
Move in the rhythm with my breathing,
Let my breathing guide you and hold you.
Feel your thinking mind to get in on this.
To get really curious,
Pay attention to what happens as you do this with me.
Deep breathing.
Nothing.
A few more times.
Keep going.
If it feels right to you,
You can now release that pattern of breathing and just go back to the natural.
Now your body wants to breathe.
There's no right or wrong way.
Don't need to overthink it.
Don't need to be worried about doing it right.
There's no quiz at the end.
There's no prize.
There's no reward,
There's no punishment.
So however you're breathing right now is actually perfect.
You're fine the way you are.
You're fine the way you are right now.
Sometimes our fears and our worries come from a deep longing for belonging.
Belonging of belonging in our families,
Families of origin,
Growing up as a young one.
Sometimes there was a reward,
There was a prize,
Doing something a certain way.
Sometimes there was a punishment for doing something a certain way.
And so this starts to make very deep grooves into our psyche,
Into our soul,
Into our mind,
How we look at the world,
How we think,
How we think of ourselves.
And I encourage you to sit with the radical notion that what you're doing is enough.
Right now just being here practicing this meditation is enough.
You are safe,
But you are okay.
That you do belong just the way you are right now.
You belong in this family.
You belong in this human species.
You belong in this moment in your life.
You belong in the place you are on the planet right now,
In the lands that nourish you and hold you,
You belong.
Continue to sit with that notion that you belong here,
That you're enough,
Your mind doesn't need to be more quiet right now,
Doesn't need to be more calm,
You don't need to be more relaxed,
You don't need to be more struggling to be in any sort of meditative position.
You actually get to just be.
You nourish yourself,
Your whole being,
Just letting yourself be as you are right now.
Your mind is silent and still.
Whether it needs to run off some steam,
Let it do that as you listen to this flute to accompany.
You are safe,
But you belong in this family.
You belong in this moment in your life.
You belong in this moment in your life.
You belong in this family.
You belong in this family.
You belong in this family.
You belong in this family.
You belong in this family.
You belong in this family.
Dear,
Dear listener,
Dear fellow human,
Dear fellow person on the other end,
Listen.
Thank you for sitting with yourself today.
Thank you for sitting with whatever you bring to the table.
Because when we can all bring ourselves fully to the table,
We will all always have in common.
Thank you for practicing,
Solving your fear of love.
Encourage you to feel right now where you can expand your breath.
Expand your breath in your belly.
Expand your breath into your ribs.
Expand your breath into your heart.
Encourage you to continue to hold this expansiveness in the face of whatever fears make up,
Whatever uncertainties.
It is okay to feel small,
To feel compact,
But know that you can feel big again.
Much,
Much love.
Until next time.
