Hello,
Welcome to Grit.
Today we're going to explore fortitude in our meditation.
Fortitude is basically having courage in the face of pain and adversity.
It's something we grow over time,
And it only happens through the hard,
Through the dark,
Through the mud.
It's not something we're born with.
It grows with us.
So I invite you to find a comfortable position.
Please feel free to sit up or lay down,
Eyes open or closed,
Maybe laying on your back with your feet up against the wall.
Whatever feels right for you for now.
If you do choose to keep your eyes open,
I'd suggest maybe looking down with a soft gaze,
Just so we're not taking in new information.
And then let's just let the dust settle.
Take a few moments and just let all the fragments of thoughts inside you just settle.
Maybe it's like they're coming to us on the floor of the ocean.
They won't disappear,
But maybe just let them rest for a bit.
They can all rise to the surface when we're done here.
Now let's notice what our breath is doing.
How is our breath right now?
Is it shallow?
Is it deep?
Does it start in our belly or in our chest or up in our throat?
We don't need to attach any thoughts or judgment to it.
Let's just notice where it is for a sec.
And I wonder if it's possible over the next few moments to try to deepen our breath.
Maybe we focus on taking a beautiful long inhale.
Maybe we hold it at the top for a moment and we follow it with a long exhale.
Breathing in,
Holding it,
And breathing out.
And we continue like this as we ground ourselves and just watch as all the dust and fragments settle.
TMO And for the next few moments,
I invite you to soften your heart.
If it feels right for you,
Maybe we put a hand on our chest,
A flat palm,
And we just soften into the space underneath our hand,
And we just breathe into the silence,
And we notice the quiet of our soft heart.
In order to cultivate some fortitude,
Maybe we need to acknowledge that we need to feel the heart and the dark,
And that maybe it's by leaning into the heart and the dark that we find our way through it.
Maybe instead of pushing it down or ignoring it or just getting on with the logistics of the day,
We actually sit down with it and figure out what it's trying to show us.
We ask it what it needs.
Maybe does it need quiet,
No one around curled up in a ball?
Does it need loud headphones on walking around the block?
We sit with the heart until a new idea arises,
And it will.
It always does.
Sometimes it's just the spark of an idea,
But whatever it is,
We pay attention to it,
And sometimes it allows us to climb out of the pit.
It's like somebody holding a lifeline out to us or a stick to get us out of the quicksand,
Out of the mud.
We pull ourselves out,
And we dust ourselves off,
And we rinse and repeat.
We put one foot in front of the other,
Strong spine,
Soft heart,
Over and over again.
By doing this,
We cultivate fortitude and resilience and strength and softness.
We come back to our breath,
And we come back to our body.
We notice where we are in space,
And we notice how we feel.
Maybe we notice what keeps coming up for us,
Just noticing.
We can dive into it later.
Maybe we remind our stories that they're allowed to rest.
They don't need to continually rattle through our minds.
They're allowed to rest.
Coming back to our breath,
Our strong spine,
Our soft heart.
Whenever you feel ready,
There's no hurry at all.
Please feel free to stay where you are,
Or feel free to slowly come on back to the space that you're in.
Maybe we wiggle our fingers or our toes,
Or we do a great big stretch like we do in the morning,
Arms up to the sky,
Stretching side to side.
Slowly coming back to the space,
Feeling the air on your skin.
Maybe placing that palm on your heart,
Feeling the soft heart and your strong spine,
Fortitude.
Thank you for being here,
Friends.
