Welcome to this talk and practice on feeling safe to soften so that you can let go of struggle and experience more ease in your life.
We will begin with a short introduction before moving into a somatic meditative practice designed to support you to let go of any holding,
Tension or struggle and experience more softness and ease in your body,
Even if it's just for a little while,
So that ease can become a more familiar feeling in your body and one that you can access again and again.
Often without realizing it,
Many of us are operating from struggle,
Either literal struggle where things feel really hard all the time,
Or even just the absence of ease where you feel calm and everything just flows.
Maybe you can relate to always doing,
Always thinking about the next task,
The next responsibility,
The next problem to solve,
Always carrying something,
Believing that you must earn the right to slow down,
Feeling guilty when you do rest and being unable to fully switch off.
But the truth is that you don't need to fight so hard,
It's just that we spend so much time in doing mode,
Clinging on and forcing that struggle and resistance and efforting become normal and to soften feels impossible,
Ease feels uncomfortable and letting go feels terrifying.
But these patterns formed for a reason.
Maybe staying alert once kept you safe,
Or maybe striving once helped you to survive,
Or maybe you started holding everything together because you were the only one who could.
Today in this practice we honor that and those parts of us for helping us through when we needed them,
But now we're experimenting with leaning into a softer and more gentle way to see how we can live our lives and meet our responsibilities with more ease and less struggle,
A way that feels better in our bodies,
Our minds and our life,
Where you don't need to give up your fantasies of rest,
Where you don't need to stop caring in order to let go,
And you're not weak or failing for wanting to try a different way.
There is no trophy or reward for how much we struggle,
You're allowed to ask for support,
You're allowed to pause,
And you're allowed to be here without doing anything more.
No performing,
No fixing,
No earning,
No proving,
Just being.
So let's begin by taking a slow breath in,
And a slow breath out.
Just continuing to breathe nice and deeply,
Nice and slowly,
Slowly,
Noticing how this very important process just happens all on its own with so little effort required that we never even really have to think about it.
And in fact if you just take a moment to focus solely on the exhales,
Notice how they happen completely on their own as a consequence of our inhale.
Just tuning in and focusing on this effortlessness,
This release,
This softening.
And then bringing your awareness to your face,
Unclenching your jaw,
Softening your forehead and your eyebrows,
Letting your shoulders drop,
Your stomach soften,
Letting go of any bracing or holding,
And now allowing your body to think a little bit deeper into where you're being held right now,
The floor or the chair or the bed beneath you,
The earth and life holding you in this moment.
Right here and right now there's nothing for you to carry,
Nothing for you to solve,
Nothing for you to hold together,
You've got nothing to do,
Nowhere to be,
Just staying present in this moment as you breathe,
Letting go of any urgency,
Letting go of any pressure,
Letting go of any need to keep pushing,
Letting go of anything that feels effortful,
Letting go of anything that's going on in your life that's creating resistance,
Just letting go,
Staying with your body and with your breath,
Inhaling presence,
Inhaling spaciousness,
Inhaling trust in yourself,
And inhaling trust in the process that everything is exactly how it needs to be,
And now notice what it feels like to simply exist for a moment,
And if this softening and letting go feels unfamiliar,
That's okay,
Trying something new often feels strange before it feels natural,
And the unfamiliarity of softness can feel unsafe,
But that doesn't mean that something is wrong,
Simply means that we are learning a new way,
So now notice if there's any part of you that is still resisting or gripping,
Maybe in the body,
Maybe in the mind,
Maybe it's a belief that if you let go then everything will fall apart,
And without judging it we're just simply noticing,
Noticing what you feel in your body,
Any sensations,
Whatever is arising for you is perfectly fine,
Notice where you feel it,
What it feels like,
And whether this feeling is something that you want to feel and experience more of or less of,
Whichever one it is,
Is perfectly fine,
You are just simply tuning into your body's preferences,
And as we close just feel into the truth that everything doesn't always need to be hard,
And that you don't have to carry everything alone,
That you don't have to earn rest,
That whatever flows doesn't need to be forced,
That it's safe to soften,
It's safe to pause,
Safe to let go,
It's safe to trust in yourself and in things working out,
And it's safe to allow yourself to be present in the moment,
To experience softness in the present moment,
Because most of the things that we cling and hold on to exist somewhere else,
In the future,
In the past,
Not right here,
Right now,
And taking one final slow breath in,
And exhaling completely,
And seeing how long you can carry this softness with you,
And to return to it whenever you need.
