Making yourself really comfy then getting all the support you need for the body It's okay,
Take your time,
Get that extra cushion,
Put it right where it's needed and as we play around with the physicality and get the body as supported as it can be at this time in this place please know that there is a virtual or a spiritual really,
A mental,
A non-physical support as well even if you're listening to this meditation after this group has met it is my experience that we can still reach out into the unseen world and find support so please do that now in whatever way you know how to do to reach out into the unseen world and request support and sometimes even the doing of that,
The mental request for support can cause an emotion to come because it's hard sometimes to ask for help and if that's where you are then please let that flow don't take back the request just because you know some emotion arises so sending out that oh I need some help here maybe and if you're in a rare position where you don't need help right now then perhaps you can offer it I'm alright just now I'm gonna reach out and offer some help and we might find ourselves in a position where we can do both and we can feel the flow of giving and receiving support all at once so let that come to you in whatever way it comes in a physical sensation,
An emotional feeling,
An image,
A memory however it arrives let your imagination play with it giving and receiving support and help in life and maybe we can feel the back of the body in particular perhaps there's a little bit of adjustment or some spreading that can happen simply an awareness of the back body and whatever is supporting the back body really allow that to happen let the back rest and that might be a sense of leaning against or leaning into resting into cushions or bed sofa and it might be a sense of leaning back into our ancestors or our friends,
Our spiritual friends,
Our community I've got that image of you know those games they play those trust games where we let the body go floppy and we fall because we trust that we will be caught cultivating that kind of trust that we are held we are safe and as the body and the body mind sinks into that knowing just noticing perhaps an unwinding or an undoing that could happen as the alarm systems lower and the body is able to perhaps drop a little bit of that sense of being on guard on defense on high alert some of that readiness can just give up give up being ready and as I say that something else in my mind argues and says oh you know you don't have to be tense to be ready you know can we be ready from a relaxed place and is that something more like open receptive is that a different kind of ready maybe knowing that we're not in control of everything so there might be an ungripping that can happen we might feel this in the body in a really physical way we might look down or feel down and find the hands really curled into a fist or shoulders kind of hanging out round the ears the belly inside feels tight knotted a very physical sense of holding on readiness and what happens if we start to undo that slightly the level under the skin and at some point we will breath breathing is happening life is happening when I'm not looking when I'm not controlling I'm not doing it life is happening unfolding and feeling very strange image or story arrived together of the anecdote of if we fall say from a height and the body is tense we're more likely to be injured than if we can fall in a relaxed way this story is about babies who fall from great heights and kind of bounce and are alright because they don't know fear so it's not that we can return to that state of not knowing fear when we do know fear can we meet it meet and see it and feel it know it for what it is and what it does and how it manifests in the body in the mind breathing and a lot of fear is either fear of the worst happening that's the death is the worst for us in our culture or fear of the unknown fear of not knowing what's going to happen or not being able to manage or cope with what happens and what else or other fear arise for you to walk around fear a little bit walk around that and if there's a rush,
Ask it to slow down to show you slowly get to grips with higher that's what fear feels like in the being this tension this tightness this emotion ah yeah that's fear and it comes to me that a lot of fear is fear of pain so what if right now we were to practice pain practice being with the pain that is present whether that be a physical or emotional pain discomfort it's natural we want ease sometimes the way we go about getting it is counterproductive so how about if we go through pain to be ease to be easeful with pain in spite of pain so what is here life ease the pain both at once toggle is showing up and i think in the world of trauma therapy toggling is how we can move between pain and pain and ease in a way that is supportive that helps us to meet a pain that might be overwhelming in a gradual manageable way and so locating both pain and ease in our being at the same time even if the ease is simply you know my left hand feels quite relaxed or my little toe on the right side is super comfy you know locating a place in the body where we can be easy where we might feel could be home for a while we could rest there and letting the mind go there we could try this now going to the place that feels most easeful letting the heart travel with the mind the attention the awareness going to that place where rest might be found you might you might find it slow in the body if it's in the body for it might be a super nice place in the imagination and memory a friendship a feeling of love when we were cared for you know a place we can go that feels like a refuge my teacher this evening chai ashmore she was talking about her inner beloved could that be a place we could rest with the inner beloved and when we know that the inner beloved is present and the outer beloved in this circle of being we know that the beloved is with us maybe the pain can be more bearable that we might toggle back to be with the pain for a while the difficult space the I don't know space the overwhelmed space and know that the beloved is also there and we might toggle in for a while and be with the pain and then go actually that's enough and going back to the beloved and going back to the refuge to the little toe on the right foot and I'm going to hang out there and seal a while and the word bittersweet comes which is how human life is there's always pain and there's always the potential for the beloved for refuge for safety and care and ease so for the last few minutes I invite you to fall all the way to speed let yourself fall and fall and fall into the beloved into this circle of friendship into refuge and care and let yourself feel supported and loved because you are you are you are
