Welcome to this guided meditation.
I'll teach you how you can deal with worrying and how you can be less worried and more calm.
Find a comfortable position and make sure that your spine is straight.
Relax the jaw and the shoulders.
I invite you to practice with open eyes.
Let's take a deep breath in through the nose and out through the mouth together.
Nice.
Look around you.
Notice how in the room,
You can see different objects and how everything has a shape and a color,
Texture,
Light and shadow.
And even your body has shapes and colors.
But notice how you can't see your head from your own point of view.
And this is just a description of your subjective experience.
Of course,
From the outside,
You do have a head.
But subjectively speaking,
See how you can't see your head.
And how instead of a head,
There is just this open space,
Formless and shapeless,
In which the room is appearing and the body is appearing,
Subjectively speaking.
So,
It is right to say that experientially,
From your own point of view,
You are space,
Open space,
In which all of this is appearing.
Now,
Let's work with worries,
With this new understanding of our subjective experience.
For example,
We usually tend to worry using thoughts.
We see mental pictures or we hear our inner voice saying things and then there is a reaction in the body.
And this is how we get worried.
But let's explore what's actually all of this meaning for us now that we know that we are just space.
So,
Remember the entrance of your house.
And notice how now there is this picture of the entrance that it's like overimposing itself in your field of view in the room.
Now,
Let go of this mental picture.
And this is how we think.
We think through mental pictures.
And when we are seeing pleasant pictures,
We feel nice.
When we see unpleasant pictures,
Worrisome pictures,
We feel worried and tense in the body.
But that's just a mental picture.
For example,
Where did the mental picture of the entrance of your house go?
Okay,
Maybe now it's back again,
But it was gone.
It simply comes and goes.
It's not here forever.
It's just a mental picture.
How could that,
That has shape and color and a duration,
Ever hurt this open space that you are and in which it appears?
It really can't.
And now try to repeat with the voice of your mind this phrase.
Repeat it sometimes.
I am practicing meditation.
And notice how it appears somewhere,
Like a real phrase that you can listen to,
Right where your head is supposed to be,
But instead there is this open boundless space of awareness.
And let it go.
And notice how that's just a phrase.
Yeah,
Sometimes you think about things that make you worry,
And they appear as phrases like,
Oh,
I wonder how that will go,
Oh,
Maybe this is not a good idea.
But those are just phrases.
They can't hurt you,
This open space in which they come and go.
And they truly come and go.
Where did that phrase that they made you repeat go?
It's gone.
So now you have seen how you,
Subjectively speaking,
Are truly this open boundless space in which mental pictures come and go and phrases come and go.
You are already inherently free.
So let's practice how to deal with thoughts that create a sensation of worrying in the body.
So I invite you to remember something that makes you a little bit worried,
Nothing too serious or too strong,
Just maybe something you have to do at work or at school.
And be curious,
How does that appear?
Is that a thought as a mental picture or as a phrase or maybe both?
And notice how there is also a rejection maybe from the body about this situation,
And even a reaction,
What are the sensations that are associated with these mental pictures and phrases?
Maybe there is tensing of the body,
Maybe sensations of warmth or coldness in the chest,
And you don't need to make them become super strong.
Simply notice,
Okay,
What's the reaction in the body?
Which sensations are here?
And realize that these are just sensations.
They can't hurt you,
Especially not you,
The space in which they are appearing,
This boundless and headless space.
You are free.
These are just objects,
These phrases and mental pictures and sensations.
They're just coming and going in you,
The open space.
And they really can't harm you.
It's like saying that a chair could harm the space that contains it.
It can't.
And now that you have seen that you're free from worrying,
It doesn't mean that you are not going to worry again in the future.
But please,
Next time that you notice this state of being worried,
Realize that you are this open headless space in which these mental pictures are coming and going,
And these sensations are coming and going.
And let them be.
Don't do anything.
Just see what happens to them if you just pay attention in a mindful,
Welcoming way.
See how they just come and go,
And they can't hurt you.
You are and will always be OK.
