Welcome my friend.
If you find yourself suffering from chronic overwhelm,
Chronic fatigue,
Or even a chronic illness,
This meditation is for you.
It's for the ones who are deeply caring.
Who show up for all those around them.
The selfless ones who tend to put others' needs in front of their own.
The ones who never complain.
They just keep pushing.
Pushing through the pain.
Ignoring their discomfort.
Until the body finally says enough.
Dr.
Gabor Maté spent 30 years of his life asking.
Why deeply caring people keep getting sick.
He found the same pattern in every single case.
The answer will change how you see every illness you have ever had.
So take some time to settle in.
Allowing yourself to feel really comfortable,
Whatever that means to you.
Please really take time in the placement of your body.
Perhaps even using more pillows than you are used to.
Think extra support and love for your body.
While we explore together.
And once you feel fully supported and at ease,
We can invite our awareness within.
Getting curious.
Without judgment.
About what is happening within our inner landscape.
So begin by simply exploring the space around you right now.
Observing sounds.
Without needing to label anything as good or bad.
All sound is simply vibration.
Can you feel your ears hearing?
Next,
Notice the temperature of the air around you.
Is there a gentle breeze or stillness?
Notice the weight of your clothes and blanket.
Accepting their weight.
Like a warm embracing hug.
And feel all points of contact.
Where your body is held and supported.
Just for today.
Can you really accept that support?
Affirming that during our time together,
There is no need for you to be the tower of strength holding up all those around you.
This is your time to be held.
Your time to recharge your empty battery.
To refill after giving so much.
Notice how your breath begins to assist you.
In letting go of all you've been carrying.
As you breathe out,
You release the to-do list.
You release the weight of responsibility.
You surrender the self-judgment.
Of never feeling like you have done enough.
You have done enough for today.
Please allow it to be enough.
Take some time here to set your personal intention for practicing.
What do you need?
You are off the clock.
Everyone else will be fine.
Ask your body what does it need right now?
It could be as simple as a good night's sleep.
Or a break from helping others.
It could be to find some peace and calm within.
Try not to force anything.
If you are drawing a blank,
That's okay.
You're not used to asking yourself what you need.
Your strength has been in answering what others need.
All new skills feel challenging at first.
It's like a muscle we need to strengthen with practice and patience.
Or what do you need tonight?
Next,
We will prepare our body for deep rest.
Restorative rest.
Where even if your time is short,
We will drop in so deep.
That you will awaken feeling refreshed.
And ready for a whole new day.
Together,
We will take a journey of sensation throughout the body.
Noticing what is happening below the surface.
We have become very good at hiding our pain.
I'm very good at suffering in silence.
While we take care of everyone else.
And this is your time to be honest.
To explore with childlike wonder.
What are you holding on to?
Where does your body hide its stress and tension?
Please remember that this is not a way to judge yourself.
Simple awareness.
Without needing to label anything we uncover as good or bad.
We are simply collecting data.
Let's imagine our body as darkness now.
Years of neglect.
While we helped all those around us.
Your body has learned to operate in the background.
Its needs were never prioritized.
Somehow since a very young age.
You received the message.
That everyone else's comfort mattered more than your own.
You learned to always say yes.
Even when your body was crying out,
No.
You continued to help others,
While you quietly fell apart.
It's okay.
What's done is done.
But when we know better we can do better.
You deserve better.
Now allow the spotlight of your awareness to shine onto your hands.
See or feel both hands illuminated with your attention and love.
Invite that light to spread.
Like a warm wave.
From your palms and the backs of your hands.
To your thumbs.
Your first fingers.
Second fingers.
Third fingers,
And fourth fingers.
See a beautiful radiant light emanating from the tips of all 10 fingers.
Rest here for a moment.
Simply savoring the sensations of light.
In your hands and fingers.
Invite that beautiful light to spread over your wrists.
Forearms.
Elbows.
Feel it casting out the darkness from the upper arms and shoulders.
Begin to breathe out the weight of responsibility.
As you observe both arms growing light and buoyant.
Releasing all darkness.
All heaviness.
Allow your awareness to be like a dome of amber light.
Pushing against the darkness.
Turning the solid black into dancing elongated shadows along the edges.
As we explore the chest and upper back.
The front and back of the ribs.
Notice the belly and low back.
Use the light to expose anything hidden.
Shining your awareness into the caves.
The hidden abyss of old fears.
And allow the light to bring a wave of relief.
Like rays of the sun Illuminating the void within.
And feel the warmth of the sun softening all internal organs.
Now as we approach the basement of our body.
And the hips.
See a thin beam of yellow cutting through the thick gray dust.
The cobwebs of the past melting under the fresh,
Clean light of awareness.
A quiet spark of hope begins to blossom.
Acknowledging that the past is a graveyard of old emotions.
Once we have given our emotions a voice,
Once we have sat with them and explored them fully.
Allowing them to really be heard.
There is no longer any reason to carry the past with us.
Turning the darkness into light.
The heavy becomes buoyant.
Allowing the light of truth to penetrate down your legs.
Over the knees to the lower legs.
Ankles and toes.
The entire body now radiant.
Clarity shining forth.
The veil of maya has been lifted.
Fully able to now see reality as it is.
The darkness was not evil.
It was a necessary unformed space of potential.
In the darkness,
We break down all that we think we know.
We allow ourselves to shatter.
Welcoming a profound transformation.
Then putting the pieces back together.
Stronger than before.
Imagine an earthbound caterpillar.
Shackled to the world of leaves and stems.
Surrendering its old form.
Into a suspension of time and silence.
Total surrender of its past self.
Then hidden magic rebuilds the form from the inside out.
When complete,
It breaks free into the night,
Reborn.
Overcoming that difficult stage of life.
Embracing a fresh new start.
Damp wings unfurling.
As the sun catches the velvet dust on their scales.
A tentative twitch.
As confidence builds.
A sudden defiance that challenges the dark.
Unafraid,
It flaps its wings and rises.
A beautiful dance upon the breeze.
You are now unshackled from your past.
Your body has kept the score.
Of every time you ignored your own needs.
Your loving heart meant well.
Your selflessness and caring were well intentioned.
You truly had no idea.
That below the surface.
Your own body was crying out for your attention.
It sent you signal after signal.
But you didn't understand the language of your body.
Now you can see that the fatigue you pushed through was a message.
The pain you explained away,
Just wanted to be heard.
The illness that arrived.
After you gave everything you had to others.
Was simply a cry for help.
A signal that the body needed rest.
Decades of performing.
Of being a version of you that was built for everyone else's comfort rather than your own.
Your body was not failing.
Your body is not the problem.
And the performance is.
That fake face you show the world.
Never complaining.
Always showing up.
Always helping out.
Always saying you're fine.
While your body finally said enough.
When we refuse to listen.
When we keep pushing.
The body has no choice but to break.
Not as a way to punish.
But instead as a way to force rest.
All choice taken away.
This illness may be the first time your body really held your attention.
The first honest thing your body has been allowed to say in years.
And this is where the spiritual work begins.
The illness is never the problem.
The illness is the solution the body found.
When every other signal had been ignored.
Remember the headache?
Remember the fatigue.
On the autoimmune response.
The body was not breaking down.
It was finally breaking through to someone who had stopped listening to everything else.
The question is never why the illness.
The question is always,
Why the pain?
And the pain is always the same.
Person who learned somewhere along the way.
And that who they actually are.
Was not safe to bring into the world.
Today.
Before asking your body to keep going.
Ask it one honest question.
What have I been suppressing that needs to be heard right now?
Sit with whatever arrives before explaining it away.
Ancient masters said that we were given two ears and one mouth.
So that we could listen twice as much as we speak.
But how many of us actually practice that?
So if you have been abandoning yourself quietly for years,
This is your opportunity.
When you listen deeply to what your body has been trying to tell you.
Healing becomes possible.
Stop explaining it away.
Stop pushing through.
Instead be deeply present.
And just listen.
Genuine healing happens when we listen deeply.
Listening with our heart.
Listening with our whole body.
Before the mind overrides.
You don't have to think your way out.
Your job is simply to listen to your body.
Your body will tell you how to get out of your own way of healing.
The body is always seeking balance.
It is always seeking ease.
Through our thoughts,
Our worries.
And our negative words.
We hinder our own body's ability to heal.
Finally,
Cultivate gratitude towards this amazing body.
Years of being ignored.
Years of being pushed beyond its limits.
And still it loves you.
Still it reaches out for your help.
Your understanding.
Asking you for grace.
Asking you for peace.
Asking for healing,
Rest and stillness.
So it can do what it was designed to do.
Heal itself.
Give yourself this time to be in deep communion with your body.
My voice will fade now.
Allowing you the privacy to open up this powerful line of communication.
The music will continue.
Please really listen.
Your job is not to change or fix anything.
You don't need to know the next step to take.
Simply listen.
And as you repeat this process over and over again.
Night after night,
Consciously giving yourself your attention.
You will discover that you are led during your waking hours.
Opportunities arise.
You begin to follow your intuition.
You begin to trust your inner guidance.
And your body will give you even more feedback on what it needs in order to heal.
And it all begins with simply listening.
