Today's meditation is about cultivating a better understanding of emotions and how they act as a natural guidance system although we've been trained to ignore and avoid them a lot of the time.
My name is Jay and we will be doing a 10-minute practice today grounding ourselves in the present moment while exploring how the sensation of emotions shows up in our bodies.
So taking a seat now on a chair or on a cushion or laying down on your back if that suits you better.
Taking a moment to really feel where you are,
Letting go of all that's happened before this moment and all that will happen after it and just tuning in to right here,
Right now.
Feeling gravity acting upon your body,
Pulling you down to the surface below.
Finding a confident but relaxed posture.
Closing your eyes,
Lowering your gaze.
Now enjoying some deep breaths.
Breathing in through the nose and releasing,
Breathing out through the mouth.
Breathing in and breathing out.
Feeling the breath traveling in and traveling out.
Now letting your breath settle into its natural state.
Not trying to change it or to control it in any way.
It's happening perfectly as it should and just observing it.
Noticing the start of the inhalation,
The pause at the top of the inhalation,
The gentle release as you breathe out and the pause at the end of the exhalation.
When you notice your mind wandering,
That's perfectly natural.
Just noting the mental event of a thought or a physical sensation and bringing your attention back to feeling your breath and your body.
The mind can be thought of as a clear blue sky that's always there and clouds come and go distracting the clarity of the mind.
And when you notice those clouds or those thoughts,
They seem to just dissolve.
And you can return to the clear blue sky once again.
Some days are more cloudy than others.
But what always remains true is the blue sky is always there behind the clouds.
Emotions live in our bodies.
They're there for a reason.
They are a gift for us.
It's life telling us what direction we are meant to flow toward.
So many of us have been conditioned to avoid embracing the fullness of our emotions.
And in doing that,
We can miss out on the learnings that they contain.
Returning our attention now from our breath to emotions in the body.
Where can you feel what is here for you?
So tension,
Vibration,
Temperature,
Tuning in to feeling the emotion that is here for you.
The mind will creep in and want to think and label and talk to you deciphering what emotions are here.
Just tuning down that voice and guiding the attention to feeling rather than thinking.
Feel the emotion that's here.
And as your mind wanders,
Repeating to yourself,
What is here for me?
And letting that feeling arise on its own.
No force,
No pressure.
Just being exactly as you are.
Becoming curious about what is here for you.
And how it feels.
Breathing in to the emotion and breathing out.
Notice are you judging the emotion?
Are you wishing it were different?
Just noticing that and turning your attention back to feeling.
Breathing in to the sensation of emotion.
Breathing out,
Accepting what is here for you.
It is an important teacher.
There is no reason to judge.
Just simply observe and accept.
Breathing in and breathing out.
Turning your attention back to your breath.
And now to your body,
On your seat.
Slowly coming back to the room now.
And opening your eyes.
Taking a moment to observe how you feel now.
Thank you for joining me today.
