Self-Compassion & Gratitude With The Pain Held As A Baby

Beginning with centering in the mindfulness of the breath and body sensations we move to gratitude for the pleasant. We then get in touch with unpleasant feelings and see if they're also there is a reason to be grateful. Then, we hold our pain as if it were a baby and take care of it with loving energy, treating it as fully innocent and not deserving of any judgment.

Transcript

Allowing your ourselves to come back from wherever our mind is come back to our bodies come back to how we feel in this moment allowing our attention to land on our feelings feelings in the body,

Body sensations and our emotions what feelings are present in the body-mind is our question adjusting the body if there is a feeling of discomfort that we notice allowing everything else that we notice to simply be there it can be helpful to be grounded in the sensations of our breath feeling and enjoying our breathing our breath or this general felt sense of our body-mind can be an anchor throughout our practice wherever our minds go,

Wherever the guidance takes us there can be this connection to our breath or to our whole body-mind how we feel in this moment there can be a connection in the background helping us remain grounded helping us remain centered inviting our attention to land above all on feelings in the body your mind that are pleasant looking out for where it feels good the simple feeling of aliveness in our hands and feet may be pleasant the free flow of our breath or an emotion we notice in our mind or the overall state of our mind perhaps it feels calm and that's pleasant not forcing what's unpleasant away nor manufacturing something pleasant tending our awareness simply leaning our feeling simply to feeling out for what's pleasant really enjoying what's pleasant sinking into it taking it in and inviting a feeling of gratitude that right now there are pleasant feelings in us there are things that are going well this is our home base throughout the practice whenever we want we can come back to this place where we are centered in how our body feels how our breath feels we can lean towards what we can enjoy we can lean towards what's pleasant you can come back anytime if you feel overwhelmed there's too much for instance we can come back here simply tune out the guidance now with an inner smile bringing to mind and meeting difficulty the situation the painful feeling we've chosen to be with to take care of making room for everything that arises in relation to this situation or this experience welcoming it all thoughts emotions body sensations maybe thoughts as to why this has happened or why we feel this way judgmental thoughts towards ourselves or others maybe there or planning or coming up with solutions it's important to notice the thought stream allow it to be there and not get into a pull and push not try to stop it or judge ourselves for judging or engage with the planning get caught up in the activities of the mind when this happens as it will coming back to our center our breath our body feelings that are present coming back to home base having made the room for our thoughts allowing them to proceed in the background and play the game make their noise as if it's a radio station in the background allowing them to be there while we gently invite our focus to come to the feelings associated with this situation or difficult experience meeting these feelings as much as we can with a smile welcoming them even though they're painful getting these feelings with a strong intention not to try to change them you're here simply to be here you're here to take care you're here not to fight as we invite our painful feelings to be there without rejecting them we can invite a feeling of gratitude even that oh here's an opportunity to heal something here's an opportunity to learn something to understand ourselves more deeply here's an opportunity to strengthen our muscle of love and compassion this pain may be a gift this pain may help us fully welcoming whatever pain there is fully feeling it allowing ourselves to feel it in touch with a wish to be present to take care to nurture giving our pain what it needs what we'll be nourishing for you may find it helpful to nourish this pain by embracing it as if it were a little baby we are embracing quality our compassion is like a mother unconditional in her love not judging this innocent baby for the crying our pain is ultimately innocent simply a feeling telling us something about what's going on what we need it's there to help us it's innocent we may hold in our mind our pain in our arms feeling an energy of embracing of holding of nurturing we may have a picture of us as a mother embracing our pain and we may find it helpful to say things in our mind to our pain soothing words soothing time it's okay baby it's okay it's okay baby it's okay i'm here baby it's okay i'm here baby it's okay We may find that this holding,

Embracing quality tends naturally to extend to ourselves.

This pain is ourselves.

We are holding,

We are embracing,

We are caring for ourselves for being in pain.

The pain ourselves,

The holding quality are one.

We are experiencing everything.

Soothing our pain,

Soothing ourselves for being in pain.

It's okay baby,

It's okay.

It's okay baby,

It's okay.

I'm here baby,

It's okay.

I'm here.

As we lovingly embrace and hold our pain,

As we lovingly embrace and hold ourselves for being in pain,

A sense of what's underneath the pain may arise.

Understanding and insight or a vague felt sense of what need for instance has been left unfulfilled,

That has led to our pain arise,

That had led to our feeling arise,

Telling us that there is a need unfulfilled.

We wish,

We long,

We have the need for respect for instance.

We feel hurt and that's not met,

We perceive it not to be met.

Or we may have a sense of wounds from our childhood,

From our past that have been touched.

That this part of our pain or part of its intensity,

We can sense has to do with the deeper things,

Older things,

Not with the situation so much.

If such insights arise or such a sense arises,

Coming back to our basic practice of enjoying and enjoying gratitude for the pleasant,

The need for respect in and of itself is pleasant,

Our fundamental needs in and of themselves are pleasant.

We can bask in the beauty of the need for respect,

The need for love,

The need for connection.

And if it's a wound that we find,

Then holding with gentleness,

With kindness,

Without trying to change anything,

Simply being there lovingly,

Providing a caring presence.

And looking for insights,

Getting into our head to ask what need or wound there may be,

Simply being there in caring presence with whatever is there with our pain,

With ourselves.

If a sense of understanding spontaneously arises and meeting that with joy and celebration,

If it's a sense of our need,

We're continuing our caring presence,

Our embracing when it's a wound that we meet.

Okay?

There is an aliveness there is a feeling alive and having feelings and having needs even in having words inviting if possible a sense of gratitude a feeling of gratitude for being a human for having feelings even if difficult and gratitude for ourselves for having it's up with them having brought a caring presence to our feelings and if you have not already done so coming back to our breath a felt sense of what it is like to be here back to our home base noticing what's positive as well without rejecting or ignoring anything that's been difficult or continues to be difficult breathing enjoying our breathing feeling enjoying our feeling simply being here together for a few more breaths before we close so maybe remember for the rest of our day to be in contact as best we can this energy of gratitude of savoring the pleasant and this caring energy this caring presence for ourselves and others thank you