Sitting With Uncertainty: Turning Fear Into Faith

We're not always aware that we're living in the grip of fear and yet for so many of us, it's woefully easy to be led by it. Fear leads us to think small, doubt ourselves, expect the worst, and close ourselves off to the beauty of life. Because the key to living in a more open state is to teach the body how to do so, we'll use gentle breath work and physical cues to come into a state of embodiment, down-regulate the nervous system, and nourish a feeling of safety through meditation.

We'll then create a compassionate connection with whatever is creating fear in us and invite a sense of curiosity so we can develop openness, self-security, self-trust, and faith. This is a deep, nourishing, and expansive practice that is useful for anyone wanting to release from a feeling of mental, emotional, physical, or spiritual closure or contraction.

Music by Darren J Benjamin Music.

Transcript

Welcome to today's meditation,

Sitting with Uncertainty,

And learning how to turn fear into faith.

So,

I would suggest that you make yourself comfortable,

Whatever that means for you.

And you may like to lie down on your back,

And perhaps have a pillow or upholster under your knees,

Or to lay on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor.

If you're taking any of these options,

Take your time to support yourself,

Perhaps even with a blanket folded up under the head,

And a blanket over the body.

You might like to rest your hands on your heart and your belly.

For those of you who are seated instead,

It might be that you're sitting cross-legged on a bolster,

Or on a chair with an upright back with the feet flat on the floor.

And again,

I always really like making connection with my heart,

Particularly when I'm practicing something that requires softness towards myself,

And a connection to the tender parts.

And so,

You might like to have one hand over the other in the heart space area,

Or maybe the left hand over the heart and the right hand over the belly.

Really,

However,

You want to make connection with yourself in a way that feels tender and intimate and natural above all else.

And today's practice is going to be compassion-based,

And it's also going to invite curiosity for what could come out of the situation that we find ourselves in.

And that curiosity is hopefully going to lead to a sense of openness to different outcomes and possibilities,

And a stronger sense of self-security and self-trust.

You're welcome to close the eyes and just begin to soften the body into position.

For those who are seated,

There's always some uprightness in the upper body and the spine,

But without being rigid,

Without being stiff or stuck.

And instead,

Just allowing that uprightness to be soft,

Relaxed,

And comfortable.

For those who are lying on the back,

Allow the shoulders and the muscles of the back body to release into the floor.

And just spend a moment here with your eyes closed,

Feeling into a sense of the presence of the body.

So,

Noticing where your body makes contact with the surface beneath you.

Noticing the warmth or weight of the body against the surface.

Noticing how the body feels in this moment.

Tiredness,

Perhaps?

Heaviness?

Or is it tight and tightly coiled?

Or sore and aching?

And see if you can bring softness to the observation rather than judgment,

So that you're being a witness to the experience,

Noticing it with some kindness and curiosity rather than a harsh judgment.

And then gently begin to deepen your breath,

Inhaling through both nostrils,

And exhaling out either with a sigh through the mouth or through the nose.

With every breath,

Try to imagine the breath reaching to the edges of your skin,

Filling up your whole body,

Your whole interior.

And as you exhale,

Just allow the skin and the muscles and the bones to release and relax.

And with these breaths,

See if you can begin to create a bit of a loop between them,

So that the end of the in-breath just melts into the beginning of the out-breath,

And the end of the out-breath seamlessly melts and transitions into the next in-breath.

Like a continuous,

Full,

But easy loop of deepening breaths that you're taking your time with.

You're finding a rhythm that works for you,

That feels comfortable yet expansive.

And you're allowing the flow of the breath to be your mind's focus.

And of course,

If the mind wanders and you notice that you're lost in thought,

You just gently bring your awareness back to this looping,

Seamless,

Expansive and releasing breath.

Allow the jaw to be soft,

The cheeks,

The eyeballs in their sockets.

And allow the changing pattern of your breath,

This deepening,

This expanding,

This releasing,

To do its work on the physiology of your body.

Knowing that as you continue in this way,

You're changing the output of the nervous system.

You're changing the output of the cardiovascular system.

And you're influencing the nervous system into a state of parasympathetic engagement.

In other words,

Rest and digest.

So,

Just taking a few more rounds of this wave-like breath,

Inhaling up to your capacity,

To the edges of your skin,

And allowing that to tip over into a slow exhalation that softens and releases your body.

Before riding the wave from the bottom of that exhale up to the top of the next inhale.

And down and out through the exhale.

Good,

Really nice.

And just slowly,

When you're ready,

Allow that breathwork practice to drop away.

And keeping your awareness on the nose and on the breath,

Just notice any effects that might have had on your body and on your breath,

And your state of being.

Allowing the natural breath to return,

Hopefully with a sense of something having softened within you.

And you can keep your hands connected to the heart space if you wish.

And begin to bring attention to the heart.

It might be as well useful for some people to hold in awareness at the same time the belly space,

The abdomen,

The guts.

And to notice if there is any tension or tightness,

Discomfort,

Naughtiness.

Anything at all that is residing in either the heart or the belly that feels like a clenching,

A resistance,

A fear.

For some of us,

This is a very visceral experience.

And of course,

The body will send signals when we're in a heightened state of panic,

Anxiety,

Fear.

And so,

There can be this physical closing up,

Right?

This physical tightening,

A battening down of the hatches.

And of course,

That physicality makes its way to the mind.

The mind which says,

It's all doomed,

Or the future looks bleak,

Or I'm not going to survive this.

And so,

What we're going to be practicing throughout this guided practice and session is just noticing those signals first from the body and their partner signals in the mind,

The voices that come up with those kinds of comments,

And the images of what the fear shows us.

And you may just be resting in that,

Aware of that in this moment,

And that's great.

Notice if there's any imagery.

Notice if there's a particular person's voice that comes up.

Notice if there's a particular scenario that you're envisaging.

Is it one that you bring up time and time again?

Is it an actual scenario from the past?

Or is it part of the imagination?

And notice too,

While you're in these images,

Voices,

And associations,

Again,

If the body has clenched or tightened or seized up in some way in response.

And if that's the case,

I invite you to just begin that process of a seamless breath once again.

Bring your awareness to the nose as you breathe in,

Riding this upward wave,

Expanding the breath all the way to the edges of the body,

To the skin.

And as you exhale out through the nose or through gently parted lips,

You're riding the down of the wave and allowing the skin,

The muscles,

The bones,

The guts,

The viscera to contract and soften and relax.

That's really nice.

Focus on expanding with that inhalation,

Feeling the fullness of your potential,

Feeling where the outside of you meets the outside space.

And of course,

With the exhalation,

You're just letting that all go,

Just gently,

Smoothly,

Relaxing and softening.

Making sure to bring space between your teeth and to soften the jaw and the muscles all around the face.

So,

You're literally teaching your body and your breath how to switch on that parasympathetic nervous system function,

The rest and digest that sends the relaxation hormones around the system,

That signals that it's safe to rest.

That allows you to feel an embodied sense of safety and security.

And the more we practice this kind of breath and so many others beside it,

The more we retrain our nervous system to get out of fear mode and into safety mode.

And just while you rest in that flowing of breath,

And of course,

If you're seated and you'd rather transition to laying on your back,

You're more than welcome to do that.

I want you to continue to travel that wave of inhaling and exhaling for an equal length of time,

Expanding to your capacity,

To the top end of your inhale and to the full finish of your exhale.

Finding that steady rhythm,

Staying with it.

And just to use this time as a reminder that when life threatens to overwhelm us,

Let's say something gets taken away from us,

Whether it's a job opportunity,

Money,

A relationship,

Something we thought was going to happen and now isn't,

And that threatens our sense of future self-security,

It's so easy to get caught in that short-term survival thinking.

And to paint the picture of the future as one in which we have lost everything,

We are friendless,

Loveless,

Homeless,

Moneyless,

Foodless,

You name it.

And when we enter that scenario,

That future visioning of absolute loss and destitution,

We're totally caught in the grip of fear.

And fear will have us held pinned in that small tight space for as long as it can.

Fear is helpful in many ways.

It helps to protect us against things that might be perceived as threatening.

And yet,

As we know,

For those of us who circle around and around fear,

Most of our daily lives,

Perhaps without even recognizing that we are,

That smallness can become so cramped,

So painful,

And so limiting.

And so just continuing with this wave of breath,

Knowing that you are doing your nervous system such good,

And in turn,

You are doing your body and your mind such good,

And hopefully beginning to melt away any of those future panic scenarios.

And I want to invite you now to begin to just get curious about what this threat that has generated the fear,

What this threat might be shielding,

As in what if we move that to the side,

This threat that has generated fear?

What might we just spend some energy imagining could be there instead,

A positive outcome,

Something beautiful,

Generative,

Creative,

Better than we might have imagined?

And if that feels too much,

Too far for today,

That's fine.

You can continue focusing on the present moment through your breathwork practice and the softening and the releasing of your body,

And know that you can come back to this further practice when you're ready on another day.

But for those of you able to step into this next portion now,

What might be in that image that is what you want,

That brings a smile to your face and warms your heart?

What can you add to this image,

This outcome,

That makes you feel curious and interested and perhaps excited about what could come out of this,

This situation?

And just notice if the fear,

The voice of fear,

Or the image of fearful outcomes comes creeping back in,

That's okay,

That's normal.

Remember you're also able to create from your imagination positive scenarios.

And you can keep going with that expanding and releasing breathwork.

Keep that connection to your belly,

Your heart,

With your hands.

This is such a practice of loving ourselves,

Staying connected to the love that we have for ourselves and our lives.

A determination to look beyond what fear wants to show us and to reconnect with the image of what we want,

What we hope to arrive at up ahead.

And at the same time,

And this piece is so important,

Surrender to what is.

And just allow that to absorb for a while.

Still connected to your wave of seamless breaths,

Which may have become softer and gentler,

But still connected to the present moment experience of your body rising and falling.

And at the same time,

Conjuring those images and scenarios that give you hope and possibility and freedom beyond fear.

Connecting to your body and your heart,

Knowing that you may not be in control because none of us ultimately is.

But that that future that you fear and dread,

And which is causing anxiety and pain and suffering in the present moment,

Doesn't have to exist.

And so,

My support for you,

My guidance for you,

Is to come to this place of presence,

Where you soften into your current experience.

And you open to what is now,

And what could be.

In a way that dissolves the grip of fear and panic.

And you can do this every day that you need to.

You can do this when uncertainty looms and threatens to wash over you and wash you away.

Knowing that the future is unwritten for all of us,

And out of our hands.

And yet,

The idea of it is something that we can shape and have influence over.

If it helps you to repeat,

I am safe in the here and now.

And you might like to use that affirmation a few times now,

Either in your mind or out loud.

Either in your mind or out loud.

And you might like to just envision yourself reaching your arms out towards this future,

And drawing it in towards your heart,

Embracing yourself in the process.

Take as long as you need here.

For those of you laying on your back,

You might like to roll over to your left hand side and rest there for a while.

Take your time to emerge from this practice,

And know that you can come to it any time.

Fear has overridden faith.

And know that feeling safe in your body in the here and now is such a vitally important way of gaining control over fear.

I wish you really well with your day and your journey.

Namaste.

Reviews

Thank you for a very soothing presence in my very fearful state. I will come back to your excellent and rational explanation of my current situation. Many blessings!

Wonderful helpful practice. Have saved to my favourites. Thank you so much for this.