Welcome,
My name is Epiphany Mason and I'm the founder of From Epiphany.
I create courses and meditations.
This meditation is called Listen to Your Body.
Our bodies are keeping score when we work longer hours than we need to,
When we overwork our bodies and deny ourselves rest.
When our resilience is put to work by emotional challenges such as anxiety,
Pain or grief,
Our bodies pay the price of our labour.
Our bodies are our coach.
They are keeping track of our output so that when we need them to,
They can call a time out to give our athletic heart a break so that we may return to the field centred and at ease.
Our bodies are intelligent.
They are giving us constant feedback,
Sometimes softly,
Sometimes loudly.
They speak to us.
They let us know what we need to do.
How does your body speak to you?
Where is your body hurting now?
Do you have a headache?
A sore neck?
Has your back gone out,
Your jaw sore?
Is your digestion moving too fast or not at all?
How is your body speaking to you?
When you're anxious,
Do your muscles constrict like a serpent taking its hold?
When you've been hurt,
Are depressed or grieving,
Do you struggle with fatigue,
As if you have been walking for days?
When you're consumed with worry or overwhelmed by uncertainty,
Do you rattle with excess adrenaline,
An evolutionary chemical reaction that allows you to synthesise the drug needed for you to fight your foes?
But adrenaline,
Like any drug,
Can have a come down and this can leave you run down,
Jittery and sensitive.
Whatever ailment you have,
Consider it a hitchhiker waving to you from the side of the road.
Your body is trying to flag you down.
What could it be trying to tell you?
Is it time to pause,
To breathe,
Slowly,
Deeply?
Time to feel,
So that you may act not from your head but from your heart?
What is your body trying to tell you?
Are you trying to do too much?
That rest is what will give you the answers and the energy you seek.
That you are expecting too much from your human self.
That you need to say no,
Even if it is to something you want to do.
Is your body trying to tell you you are hurting,
That your soul is wounded and needs your attention?
What happened before your back went out or you got sick?
Did someone disappoint you?
Did you lose someone?
Was there too much pressure on you?
Were you working late into the night?
Were you in a lot of fear?
How were you hurting?
Did you have any time to feel this hurt?
To experience the pain so that it could filter through you?
Or is your pain still stuck within you?
Is it waiting in a queue to be seen and assisted by you so that it can then be on its way?
If you have come here to stop physically hurting,
Then see to the hurt you have inside.
I know you don't want to.
I know you are afraid that the hurt will come tumbling out as if it will bulldoze your life,
But it's actually already flattening you,
For aren't you suffering now?
Let me hold your hand and let's walk through your hurt together.
Are you grieving?
Are you struggling to hold onto your worth?
Are you afraid?
Are things uncertain?
Did something not turn out how you wanted it to?
If you are scared,
Confused,
Angry,
Hopeless or all of the aforementioned,
It is okay.
Let us sit in your hurt together.
This is hard,
I know.
This is hard,
I know.
I am here.
Not long ago,
I was grieving.
I had lost something I never had,
An idea,
A plan that made me feel safe.
I had lost that.
I was angry,
I felt lied to.
I was embarrassed,
I felt over-controlling.
I felt stupid,
Blind to the truth.
I felt hopeless.
When will this uncertainty end?
I was full of doubt.
How can I trust?
I felt empty,
Like something had slipped through my fingers.
I felt like I had been in this place before and that I would be again.
This place of heartbreak felt both familiar and inevitable.
What was the point?
This is a lot to feel.
Let your feelings be.
Let them be.
Let them exist.
Give yourself time.
Try not to deny yourself the right to feel,
Like everyone else did.
Be the parent or friend you wish you had,
The one that you deserved.
Listen to the part of you that has brought you humbly to your knees in pain.
This highest part of you is trying to get your attention.
She wants you to know the safest thing you can do to protect your heart is to let it feel.
So instead of resisting these feelings,
Like smashing your rigid body against an incoming set of waves,
Try diving into them.
Plunge into the undersea of your feelings.
Watch them barrel,
Belly and bank.
Feel them swell and release.
With them you dip,
Spin and somersault.
Rather than being afraid of this movement,
You stay loose,
For you are dancing with the water,
Led by trusted arms.
Eventually,
Drifting atop the water's crest,
You are carried by the current to a calm ocean pool where it is now time to rest.
And float in the bed nature has provided you,
The warmth of the salty soak and mellow sun on your skin is the universe tucking you in.
Ignoring your body when she speaks to you will leave you on the shore,
Consistently being ravaged by the wave break.
Listening to her will begin your healing journey,
Allowing your heart to open again,
Your spirit to restore.
You will be delivered to your most effortless and easeful self,
Buoyantly supported by the ocean of love that ferries you through life.
I know your body is sore right now,
After so much liquid tango,
Feeling takes energy and can wipe you out,
But once you let your body feel it,
Your body will heal with rest.
So rest now,
You can rest now,
And let the universe's gentle hands tend to you.
What does rest look like to you?
Sleeping,
Napping,
Eating,
Watching,
Reading,
Bathing,
Lying in the sun,
Listening to music,
Gentle stretching,
Being wrapped in a blanket.
Silence,
Not thinking but feeling,
Not doing,
Just being,
Not carrying but being carried.
What does rest look like to you?
Being human is hard.
I am proud of you for resting,
For listening to your inner wisdom.
I admire you for saying no,
For asking for space,
For eating the chocolate,
Yes.
Rest in your way,
Free from shame or guilt.
There is no need for them here,
For they do not heal anything.
They are valets of unhealed pain.
It is compassion,
Gentleness and kindness who free us of our possessions of pain and they are advocating for rest.
Rest feels like being soothed,
There is no effort required to rest,
Only ease.
Where there is pressure,
There is release,
Where there is control,
There is surrender.
Rest as if you are on holidays,
Pop your feet up,
Lie back,
Take a load off,
Breathe.
Rest as if you have all the time in the world,
Nowhere to go,
No person to please,
Nothing to do.
Find the bliss in this,
For nothingness will not leave you empty,
It will fill you up.
Rest as if your homework is to rest.
As if a doctor has prescribed you rest.
As if all the people you respect are not only endorsing rest,
They are modelling it for you.
They are lying down,
Snoozing,
Mid nap,
Join them.
Rest as if it is an overcast,
Down pouring day where the only thing left to do is to stay warm and cosy inside,
Resting.
Rest as if you have a choir of support humming you into rest.
Rest as if your health and quality of life depend on it,
For it does.
There is no right way to rest,
You cannot make a mistake,
Nothing about you is wrong.
Even if you are rolling around unable to soften,
Giving yourself a hard time,
That is okay.
Feel that tension and still choose to rest.
Your mind will catch up to your body,
Because by resting your body speaks again,
It whispers to your mind,
It is safe here.
Rest like a snug egg in its nest,
A slumbering dog in the sun,
A hot lion cooling in the breeze.
You have permission to rest,
To breathe deeply,
To love yourself as I do.
You have permission.
Rest for as long as you need,
Listen to your body,
See how she is breathing slow,
Can you hear her breathing in,
Breathing out,
Her gentle rhythm rocking you to sleep.
Your hurt may come and go,
It might appear in your mood,
Your energy,
Your anger,
Your ailment.
When it shows itself,
Respect it,
Give it the attention it deserves,
Be understanding about why it is here and that it is okay,
It is reasonable,
There is nothing wrong with you,
In fact this hurt proves you are human and like all us mere humans,
You need rest in order to be able to wake.
Beautiful,
Slowly take some more conscious breaths,
Flutter open your eyes and come back to me.
My name is Epiphany and I'm the founder of From Epiphany,
Thank you so much for joining me today,
Please remember we're in this together.
