This is a meditation leaning into the difficult.
Leaning into what is not pleasant.
And we start with settling into a place where we will not be disturbed for the next ten minutes.
Tuning into the body.
Sensing what's alive in the body.
Support of the chair.
Gravity grounding us.
Contact.
Life,
Aliveness.
Holding the body up.
Breathing.
Hearing and seeing and tasting.
Acknowledging without needing to look.
This breadth of experience that is happening right now.
And tuning into some place that is steady.
It could be the breath,
It could be the hands,
It could be the feet.
Just marking it as a reference point.
An anchor.
When the mind wanders off or we find ourselves drawn into something that may be a bit too much.
There's always the possibility to bring the attention back to the anchor point.
And now we'll draw our attention to something difficult.
Something maybe unpleasant,
Unwanted.
Something that we wish would not be there.
And this can be a feeling,
It can be a thought,
A situation.
Or it can be part of an experience,
Part of a situation.
And let's start with something perhaps on a scale of one to ten or something like a three.
Something that's manageable in the overtime.
Once we get used to this exercise,
Stretching to something more difficult.
We're drawing the attention to this difficulty.
Bringing that a little bit more in the foreground.
With the intention of observing.
Experiencing with no agenda.
As for this exercise,
With no agenda to change or to fix.
There's plenty of time for that later.
So what's here is a feeling,
A sensation.
Is it busy?
Or is it bare,
Steady?
What exactly is so difficult at this very moment?
No need to analyze or to look for something.
Just having this inquiry.
Like a pebble dropping into a pond and rippling.
And if there's resistance,
What is this resistance made out of?
Making the resistance the theme.
Does it change?
Is there an edge to it?
And the mind wanders away.
Always we can bring it back.
It gets too intense and we want to sit back as well.
We can draw the attention back to the anchor point.
So finding a place where one can be with this difficulty and experience it and notice it.
Experience it and notice it.
Sometimes it can be interesting to bring a flavor of curiosity.
Maybe even a flavor of compassion.
We're staying with this now for a little bit more.
And in your own time,
Feel free to explore it longer than this meditation.
And if you're following this meditation as we're nearing the end.
Opening up,
Letting go of any particular efforts.
And allowing attention to go where it wants to go.
Gently opening the eyes if they're closed.
Acknowledging the bell as the end of the meditation.
And then moving on.
Perhaps with a flavor of curiosity,
Compassion to what comes next.
