This guided meditation is to help you deal with strong emotions.
Now we feel emotions and feelings all the time and often then we create stories around those feelings.
Are they good?
Are they bad?
And it can happen so quickly that we're unaware of it.
Now I've been practicing working with this over many years and trying to get into the body to feel the sensations in the body associated with the emotion before my mind has a chance to add on the stories.
And when it does it's easier then to detach from it and realize that this is not the truth.
One of my meditation teachers told me many years ago that you don't have to believe what your mind is telling you.
That transformed my life and I sort of worked through this myself really from putting the things that I'd learned into practice,
Having you know challenges with my mental health,
Other life events,
When things don't go the way that you want and there can be strong reactions to that.
But it only becomes a problem when we act on those emotions rather than being able to stay present and with them rather than thinking oh I have to try and resolve this or sort this out because you don't always.
Sometimes you do but by being in the gap then you have that time,
That gap before your mind kicks in,
Your ego mind so to speak.
And then you're able to make more skillful choices and sometimes it might even mean that you don't need to do anything before and make sure also that you take time to just settle into your posture.
If you're on a chair like I am,
Feel the ground beneath you,
Legs uncrossed,
Feet on the floor and just connect with the breath and if you want then close your eyes.
Now during this guided meditation there is going to be no music,
There will be periods of silence for you to be with your own experience because you don't want to be listening to my voice all the time.
So now I'm going to ask you to close your eyes and I'm going to ask you to close your eyes and I'm going to ask you to close your eyes and I'm going to ask you to close your eyes and I'm going to ask you to close your eyes and I'm going to ask you to close your eyes and I'm going to ask you to close your eyes and I'm going to ask you to close your eyes and I'm going to ask you to close your eyes and I'm going to ask you to close your eyes and as you feel the breath going in and out,
The chest rising and falling,
Notice how you're feeling right now,
With no judgment,
It's not good,
It's not bad,
It is what it is.
Notice any thoughts associated with whatever you're feeling and just take some time to connect with it.
Maybe there's a strong reaction wanting to push it away but just see if you can stay present with it,
Unless it's too upsetting of course,
If it's too traumatic,
There's no need to keep going over that.
Come back to what feels safe,
Open the eyes,
Feel the breath.
Feel the breath,
But as long as you feel safe,
Safe enough.
Are you able to see where you feel that emotion in the body?
Or not see,
Feel that emotion in the body?
And can you feel its energy?
And if your mind wanders off,
Notice what took your attention away.
Is it stories connected to whatever you're feeling or is it something completely different that's trying to distract you from what you're feeling?
And just have faith,
If it feels hard now,
With practice,
It does get easier.
This is a chance to really connect with a sense of faith that whatever's going on will work out okay.
And you might notice that the sensations in the body become lighter,
Freer,
Because it's counterintuitive to feel into them.
But if we don't,
If we avoid them,
They only come back at another time.
So coming back as often as you need to,
Every time you get distracted by thoughts or feelings,
Anything that takes you away from the present moment,
That's a moment of awareness.
So feel the support of the earth and know that you're always supported.
So so so so be still,
Be present with whatever you're feeling right now.
So so now just become aware of the whole of your body,
The support of the chair and the earth,
The temperature of the air,
The sensations of your clothes,
Any sounds,
The space around your body and the room that you're in,
Even if your eyes are closed.
And if you wish you could open your eyes,
They're closed,
Just with a soft gaze in front of you,
Just take in your surroundings.
Take some deep breaths if you need to,
You can make some small movements.
If you want,
Feel free to sit on,
If you feel there's more processing going on,
There's more processing to do.
And of course any time a strong feeling or emotion comes up,
You can come back to this guided meditation as often as you want.
This is a regular practice of mine and it's really helped me to become less reactive and stop taking things personally as well,
Which is really important.
Well thank you again for meditating with me today.
I will see you again very soon.
In the meantime,
Take care,
Go well and lots of love.
