Welcome to your meditation.
In this meditation we're going to be working with sadness.
Sadness is a quality of an awakened heart,
Of a sensitive and polished heart.
In today's world it is much more common and acceptable to talk about depression.
It's okay to say I am depressed.
There are many medicines and a whole industry that caters to that.
And yet sadness tends to be something that is expressed in private and not really shared.
Sadness is part of the human journey.
It is an emotion that exists within our awakened hearts.
So for today if you are here with me let me just say without any belittling or disrespect to whatever it is,
The experience that is bringing you the sense of sadness into your heart,
You're going to be okay.
It is all okay.
So to begin the practice just allow yourself to be comfortable in whichever position you wish to receive this in.
Allow the face to relax.
Allow your shoulders to relax.
Allow your belly and your hips and thighs and legs to relax.
Just make yourself as comfortable as you can physically.
And if there are tears in their eyes just allow things to be as they need to without resistance,
Without judgment,
Without the need to change.
Just accept,
Acknowledge where you are and simply breathe through it.
Allow your attention to slowly start to become more focused towards your breath.
Take your time and be patient with this.
Just find your inhale and follow the inhale in and out of the body as an exhale.
Round by round following your inhale into your body.
Feel where does it reach and then exhale it out.
A few rounds like this until you feel you have connected with your breath.
You have become aware of your breath and its rhythm.
The sadness in your body is an energetic contraction in your energy body.
So very slowly honoring your experience that is making this emotion live within your body.
Try to detach from the story.
Allow the story to guide you to where in your body do you feel this contraction?
Where in your body do you feel any pain of sadness?
Take your time.
Once you locate this contraction in the energy it feels like a soreness,
Like a density.
Even with some degree of pain.
You can use the story,
You can use the memories to lead you into that point.
But once you locate it let go of the story and stay with the sensations.
Just stay with the emotion itself.
Stay with how does this sadness feel in your body?
Where does the sadness live in your body?
Images might come,
Thoughts might come,
Memories,
Words.
No matter,
Let them pass and you stay in your body,
In your emotion,
In your wound.
How does it feel and where does it live in your body?
And once you've located it in your body just allow your breath like a gentle caress to start to caress around this contraction,
This place that you feel,
This wound that you feel,
This sadness,
This pain.
Every inhale is like a loving touch creating space,
Breaking that density slowly,
Gently with so much compassion,
So much love,
So much patience.
Feel every inhale like a gentle caress and every exhale allowing a little bit more space around and maybe through.
Continue with your loving breath.
Every breath caresses,
Creates space around your sadness for it to dissipate,
For this energy to start to shift,
Start to move round by round using your loving breath like a gentle caress.
You heal your sadness.
Continue to breathe.
You can visualize your inhale,
A gentle breeze lovingly caressing your wound and your exhale carrying out,
Releasing,
Shifting,
Allowing this energy to move and shift in your body,
Allowing this energy to transform and flow.
Sadness is also from love.
It is from the same heart.
Inhaling loving breath,
Exhaling feeling the space grow.
Exhaling your loving breath,
Exhaling creating more space within,
Feeling more spacious as you create the space around your sadness so that it may open,
May shift,
May transform.
Round by round,
Continue to breathe.
If this is too intense sadness that you are experiencing,
Just know that the time you are spending to acknowledge,
To honor and let go is profoundly healing.
You can come back to this meditation again and again as often as you need.
If it's numbness you are experiencing,
This is also a form of sadness.
Continue to breathe,
Allowing your breath to flow as it needs to and where it wants.
Allow it to be free.
Just stay with the breath and let it guide you into your body and with every exhale just sigh out your breath.
Let this process complete for now.
Bring your awareness into the middle of the chest,
Right at the heart center,
The mystic heart.
Bring your hands,
Allow your left palm to cradle this heart center with the right on top of left.
Feel your heart beat and stay with that for a few moments,
Allowing your breath to reach and feel the exchange from the heart center to your palms and back into the heart.
Few more rounds breathing in and out of your heart.
And with the next exhale bow towards your heart and for all that you give and all that you receive bow with love and gratitude.
Namaste.
