Welcome to this guided meditation for sitting with our sadness.
Naturally,
When we feel sad,
We want to make it better,
To take away the uncomfortable emotion and feel happy instead.
This is not,
However,
What sadness needs from us.
Each of our core emotions have a purpose,
And often when we attend to them,
When we sit with them and let them speak to us,
We can move through that emotion.
Sadness means there's been an experience of loss.
Often all we need is to acknowledge that sadness so that we can process the loss.
Take a moment to prepare for your meditation.
I like this one seated in a chair or on a cushion,
But any comfortable position is fine,
Including lying down.
Close your eyes or soften your gaze and take a few deep breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth.
Allow these breaths to help you shift your attention from whatever's been going on in your day to your internal experience.
Acknowledge the space that you're in,
The temperature of the room,
The feel of your clothes on your body,
Your palms,
Perhaps on your lap or touching each other.
If your hands are not touching anything,
You could run your thumb across your other fingers to contact your hands as they are.
If things ever feel a little too intense in this meditation,
If you need to come back to the present and your body,
Just return to that sensation in your hands.
Return to rubbing your thumb over your fingers and remind yourself where you are,
That you're safe and that you're okay.
Settle your shoulders and your hips into the ground beneath you.
Notice the parts of your body that are in relationship to the earth.
Feel your heaviness,
Your weight,
Held and supported by the ground,
The sacred land beneath you.
Trust that this earth can help you hold whatever emotions may come up for you in this meditation.
Take another deep breath,
Allowing your body to relax into that support.
As you're ready,
Call up the emotion of sadness.
It's probably already present for you.
Notice where you feel it in your body.
Is it in your throat?
Behind your eyes?
Your shoulders?
Around your heart?
Without focusing too much on the reasons why you feel sad,
Simply allow yourself to feel sadness in your body.
Get curious about the sensations that come up for you as you do.
They're not good or bad,
They're simply sensations.
We're not trying to fix or change anything here.
We also don't need to judge or analyze.
Perhaps you don't even know why you feel sad,
It doesn't matter right now.
Simply allow your body to feel the emotion of sadness without needing to name it anything in particular.
Keep breathing.
Breathe with the emotion of sadness.
Notice if your body wants to move in some way.
Perhaps you're wanting to curl in towards yourself,
Fidget or cry.
Perhaps stillness feels right.
All of that is fine.
Allow your body to move in a way that is not too much of a burden.
You can also use the emotion of sadness to move your body around.
If tears are coming,
Please let them come.
Keep breathing.
Keep allowing the sadness to wash over you like a wave.
Often when we are trying not to feel something,
We hold our breath.
Keep breathing consciously.
Breathe with the waves of sadness.
It's okay to cry,
This won't last forever.
Don't worry too much about the thoughts that are coming up.
It doesn't matter why you're sad.
We don't have to fix it right now.
We don't have to figure it out.
We are simply holding ourselves in sadness with compassion.
Rather than thinking,
Judging,
Or analyzing around your sadness,
Consider instead how you might hold yourself in this moment.
How you might compassionately witness this sadness.
Perhaps it feels right to place your hands over the part of your body where you feel your sadness the most.
Feel the warmth and weight of your hands on that place.
Allow yourself to receive this care.
Sometimes we can imagine ourselves in our sadness.
It might be a specific self that feels sad.
A younger self,
Even a child.
Perhaps it's you in the present moment,
Exactly as you are.
What words might this self need to hear right now?
I'm going to give you some examples of how you might feel right now.
I'm going to give you some examples.
If it feels right,
Go ahead and repeat these phrases to your imagined self,
Silently in your mind,
Or out loud if you like.
It's okay to be sad.
I'm with you.
I love you.
You are safe.
I'm sorry for what happened to you.
Perhaps there's something else that this self needs to hear.
If you know it,
Go ahead and say it.
Now notice if there's anything this imagined self wants to say back to you.
Again,
We don't need to judge or analyze it.
We're not trying to discover some hidden secret.
We're simply allowing our sadness to speak.
What would it like to say?
Let's come back again to the physical sensations in the body.
Take another deep breath.
How do you feel?
I feel a little better.
I feel better.
I feel better.
I feel better.
I feel better.
How do you feel?
Do you feel any different than you did when we began our practice?
You may or may not.
Either is fine.
Feel free to stay here longer if you need to.
Before you close your meditation,
Let's take a moment to consider one thing you could do today to offer yourself some kindness,
To hold yourself in these tender feelings.
When you feel ready,
Bring your hands together to touch in front of your heart.
Gently bow to yourself,
Thanking your sadness for speaking to you and thanking yourself for taking the time to listen.
