Welcome,
And thank you for joining me,
Jean Vitrano,
In practicing this guided meditation.
This particular meditation may be helpful when you're feeling anger,
Or really any unfavorable state of mind.
I bow to you for being resourceful and finding your way to listen to this meditation,
And for being willing to work with this place.
So allow yourself to get into a comfortable position,
Preferably in a position that allows you to be seated and upright so that you can be present,
But also at ease in your body.
You can close your eyes if you'd like,
Or if you prefer to have them open,
Just lower them slightly,
And with a soft gaze,
Relax your eyes on a fixed point in front of you.
When you come into stillness,
Take a moment to simply arrive in your body,
And invite yourself to move into a place of observing and of being just as you are.
Let your weight drop down into your seat,
Allowing the surface beneath you to really support your weight.
Right from the start,
Name the feeling that is present.
So it could be anger,
But it might be sadness or shame,
Guilt,
Resentment,
Aversion,
Frustration.
Whatever particular word captures it.
So take a moment and find what that word is,
And just name it.
Blank is present right now.
Go ahead and hear your own words.
You don't have to say it out loud,
But hear yourself say it.
Blank is present right now.
And it might be helpful to just say it a couple of times.
Saying it,
You get to get some distance from it.
Blank is present right now.
And now bring your attention to your breathing.
So without changing it,
Start to follow along with its rhythm.
Don't think about your breathing or judge it.
Simply experience it.
Sense the breath coming in and the breath going out.
At whatever pace it might be moving.
No need to do anything special.
If in this state you're having trouble really sensing your breathing,
You can place your hand on your belly or just sense the rise and fall of your belly or of your chest.
Sensing the movement.
Following its natural rhythm in this state that you're in.
Silently,
You might say,
Breathing in as you breathe in,
Breathing out as you breathe out,
Or just in,
Out.
Just for right now,
Let your mind rest there.
And we'll listen to the sound of the bell three times.
Just following your breath.
Hearing the sound of the bell as it arises and then passes away.
And that's all that's needed for just right now.
Just stay with your breath.
Hearing the sound of the bell come and go.
The sound of the bell.
And now,
See where you might be holding the tension of the anger or whatever the unfavorable feeling is that's there.
See where in your body you might be holding it.
What is it doing there?
Can you experience it as a sensation or an energy or both?
Really coming into sensing it.
What does it feel like?
Could be a pulsing,
A tightening.
Maybe it feels like a block somewhere or maybe it's red and fiery or demanding and pounding.
What's it like?
See if you can describe it with some distance between you and it.
Just observing.
Getting some space.
Still staying present to your inhale and your exhale.
Breathing,
Sensing,
Observing.
What's it like to not push it away,
Your experience,
But to experience it for what it is.
Give it room to be there.
You might even imagine giving it a room.
Knowing it will change as all things change.
Knowing it's a feeling and it's not all of you.
There's a part of you that feels this way.
It's temporary.
It's not who you are.
Even if it's loud at the moment,
It doesn't define you.
By giving it some room to be there,
By observing it,
Most likely you'll find that it has something you need to know and that will become clear at some point.
You don't need to know what it is right now.
Right now,
You can simply give it some room.
Kind of like letting a tiger have a pasture to roam in.
Can you breathe with the energy of the feeling that's present?
Let the spinning mind around it rest.
You don't need to judge what's there or fix it.
You don't need to blame or find a reason.
You don't need to talk yourself out of it.
We can still follow our inhale and our exhale and feel whatever it is.
You can breathe into the contraction or the tightness.
Sometimes saying,
It feels like this right now.
Feels like this right now.
Letting it be.
For a handful of breaths,
Just do that.
Let the feeling be there.
Breathe with it there.
Feeling the rise and fall of your belly,
Of your chest.
Feeling the feeling to have its space.
What if you don't resist it?
Behind most unfavorable feelings,
There's some fear.
So can you ask the anger or whatever is there,
What the specific fear is?
Take your time,
See what answer comes.
If you need to pause this,
You can pause this and come back.
What is the specific fear behind this feeling?
Take your time in naming it.
And once you name it,
Can you make room then for the fear?
Can you breathe with it?
Can you be on the fear's side and validate it?
Well,
Of course you're scared.
In this way,
Finding compassion for the fear,
Much like you would take care of a friend.
Can you take care of your fear?
And that doesn't mean trying to talk yourself out of the fear or play it down,
But just experience it.
Give it room.
Let the fear know that you're listening.
If you've lost sense of your breathing,
Just invite yourself back again.
Just by making space,
Listening and breathing with what's here,
We can soften to the pain.
It also gives us the space to start to see the complexity of life and to feel humbled by it.
You can remind yourself that many others out there are feeling this very same feeling.
That in fact,
You are not alone.
You are not separate.
Often uncomfortable feelings tend to make us feel separate,
But we are not separate.
Instead,
We can start to feel compassion for what we all go through.
But know that even if you can't feel compassion in this very moment,
You can accept yourself just as you are.
In this moment,
Letting yourself be just as you are.
Before we close this meditation,
You might take a moment and thank yourself for practicing,
For being willing to be present,
For looking deeply.
You might notice if anything in you has shifted from when you first sat down.
We'll close with one bell.
BI Thank you for joining me today.
