Hi everyone.
I'd like to remind you that everyone can meditate.
Don't believe all the stories your mind tells you.
Many of us have experienced very intense,
Very tangible fear in our lives.
It could come from something that happened to us as children,
Or living through a betrayal from a spouse,
Or fear of financial ruin.
The fear around us can be overwhelming.
Will I get sick?
Will someone in my family get sick?
These are all real fears,
And they can put us into the fight-or-flight stress response.
I know I've experienced the fight-or-flight response.
I didn't know how to cope.
I wallowed in that fear for a long time.
Given everything that's happening right now,
It's likely that some of us,
Or people we love,
Are in that fight-or-flight response.
So how can we get out of it?
Meditation,
Or what Dr.
Herbert Benson named the relaxation response,
Is a tool that we can access anytime to help us in overcoming our fears.
This will help us to become more resilient,
And ultimately the feeling of hope returns.
And that's what I hope to leave you with today.
A little more hope than what we started with.
You see,
Fear is a tricky thing.
Not sure if you're anything like me,
But I don't like to sit in it very much.
Part of what makes us so glorious as humans is our ability to think.
We can create all these amazing stories in our heads.
Sometimes these stories are healthy and helpful.
But sometimes these stories instill in us so much fear,
They are debilitating.
And our reaction to this is often to shut down or to distract ourselves.
Or worse,
Porcopious amounts of wine down our throats.
Okay,
Maybe that's just me.
So what I want to do here is give you all permission to sit in your fears.
Instead of following the fuck everything and run mentality that we all have experienced with fear.
I want us to face everything and rise.
A dear friend of mine often says to me,
Lean into the love.
Well,
Here I want us to lean into the fear.
So once you have yourself in a comfy position,
I want you to lightly close your eyes.
I'll give you a minute to get comfortable.
Get that little half smile of the Buddha on your face.
I like to lie down,
But get into whatever position is comfortable for you.
Because if you're not comfortable,
You'll just be thinking about how you're not comfortable.
I invite you to come here as the most authentic version of yourself.
Leave all your preconceived notions of meditation aside.
Just be here,
Present in this moment with me.
First,
I want you to create your own grounding cord.
Think of whatever bright color feels right for you.
You don't have to see it.
You can feel it.
You can hear it.
The point is,
Is to imagine a cord of light.
Imagine it running from the base of your body into the center of the planet.
Literally imagine a cord of light running from you into the earth,
Miles and miles down.
Anchor it into the planet.
Acknowledge the gravity pulling on you and your body.
Set your grounding cord on release so that your energy is going into the center of the planet and getting neutralized.
This is also a time that you can let go of any energy that isn't yours.
You can picture dark colors leaving,
Stressful energies are being released.
Take a breath.
Any worries you have,
Let them go down through your grounding cord.
Now let's get into the center of your head.
This is your control tower.
You're safe here in the center of your head.
Let it be very easy for you to see yourself there.
It's behind your eyes,
Just a few inches back.
There's really no thinking that goes on in that part of your head.
I personally see a purple light in the center of my head,
But some people envision a chair where you can sit in the center of your head and be in control of your body and your life.
Just breathe into that space.
There's no right way to experience this,
But there is a sense of calmness there.
Now say hello to yourself there.
This is a neutral space that is calm and expansive.
Now remember,
The point isn't to completely clear your head of thought.
It's to focus on the center of your head.
Now what is fear?
Fear is an emotion,
Just like love is an emotion.
We often label fear as a negative emotion.
But what I want us to do right now is just look at it as an emotion.
Sit with that for a moment.
We give fear so much power over us,
But really it's just another emotion.
It actually serves an important role in keeping us safe as it mobilizes us to cope with potential danger.
And yet,
We do everything we can to push it away,
To tamp it down,
To keep it from pulling us down a rabbit hole.
Or we go to the opposite extreme and we let it consume us,
Let it consume our every thought.
And I'm not just talking about the tangible threat of COVID-19.
I'm talking about our fear of failure,
Our fear of being out of work,
Our fear of not being loved,
Our fear of getting divorced,
Or maybe never having a family.
These fears will consume us if we let them.
So here I want us to consider that maybe fear can be our friend.
And the story we want to give fear today is that it has a greater purpose than just keeping us safe.
Maybe if we name our fears,
We can help to ease them.
Maybe if we lean into our fears,
They will dissipate.
Maybe we are giving fear too much credit.
Take a moment here and ask your fear.
Really ask your fear.
What is it that you're trying to tell me?
What is it that I need to know?
I'm giving you permission to take a moment to lean into your fear.
Let it come in and fill you.
Fill your heart,
Your head.
Just let it in.
Lean into it.
When you're trying to help a scared child,
You don't just tell them what to do.
You listen.
You listen to what they need and you give them space to voice those needs.
That's what I want you to do with your fear.
Give it a voice.
As you face your fears,
You can see that fear is a lot like love.
It's trying to tell you something.
It's trying to tell you that you are resilient.
Your fear is saying,
You are safe,
But I'm reminding you that you have more to learn about yourself.
Your work is not done yet.
What you resist tends to persist.
So if you avoid me,
I'll just stay longer.
Once you've given fear the space it needs,
It will start to release its hold on you.
It wants to tell you something and by leaning into it,
You're showing it that you're paying attention.
But that hold on you,
That hold it has on you,
Is only because you're giving it more power than it even wants.
Like the sun needs the moon,
You can't have hope without fear.
They are both valuable and important to our well-being.
Sometimes the only way to the light is by sitting in the dark.
But once you give yourself permission to be in the dark,
You can find your way back to the light.
You can remember that you are loved,
That you are okay,
That you are safe,
That you choose yourself.
Try this mantra for the rest of the day.
I move forward fearlessly.
I am safe.
I am okay.
I am loved.
I choose me.
I move forward fearlessly.
I am safe.
I am okay.
I am loved.
I choose me.
And like everything in life,
This is a moment in time.
We are learning how incredibly resilient we all are.
We are learning that we get to be the light in the darkness for others.
We become more fully ourselves by looking at our own dark shadows.
Let yourself see the beauty in this moment.
Let yourself see how from fear we can find our way back to hope.
That one cannot exist without the other.
I want to call all of that glorious energy back to you that we sent down your grounding cord.
So imagine a golden sun or ball of light on the top of your head.
Let it grow bigger.
Let it call back your life force,
Your spirit.
Let it gather up your energy wherever you left it.
Watch that golden sun change and grow larger as you do this.
Notice where your attention has been.
Notice where your energy comes back from.
See your bright colors and energy returning to you into this golden sun.
See self-care and validation coming back to you.
When the golden sun is full,
Allow it to come into the top of your head and fill your entire body,
Your cells,
Everything with this beautiful neutral gold energy,
Like solid gold up in there.
Take your time.
This is for you.
Let some of the golden sun go into your aura and your grounding,
So you're in the center of a golden ball of your own light.
Take a really good breath and release and let yourself be replenished with all of this light.
Honor yourself for taking the time to be here with me today.
Human connection is something we're all craving right now,
And we are all one in this moment together.
Now you can bend your head over like you're going to touch your toes or sit up and dump off the excess energy,
And then stretch out and slowly open your eyes.
I just want to remind you that meditation is just another tool like exercise.
It's about your insides matching your outsides.
Thank you again for being here with me today.
My light will forever see your light,
And as I always like to say,
Don't forget to hydrate.
