Hi,
Friends.
Thank you for joining me.
This is a guided meditation to help us sit with sadness.
Maybe you have been drawn to this meditation because you're presently sitting with sadness.
Simply close your eyes,
Sit comfortably,
And let us sit with it together.
Sometimes the sadness comes.
It may be deep and rooted,
Building its home in your belly,
Your heart,
Your throat,
Your crown.
It may come from all of the things that we see that are unjust and unkind in the world.
It may be that your heart sometimes is filled with a sadness that is beyond your comprehension,
And it ebbs and it flows like a tide linked to a moon that we don't quite understand.
Wherever sadness comes from for you,
We try to push it back there.
We try to make it retreat and go away.
If we ignore it,
We hope it will dissipate.
But sometimes we need to sit with sadness.
We need to acknowledge it,
Recognize it,
And say,
Hello,
Old friend.
Thank you for joining me.
Thank you for the lessons that you have taught me.
Thank you for the ways in which you have opened my eyes and broken open the dam of my heart.
Thank you for the ways in which you have forced me to see,
To empathize,
To care.
Sometimes we need to sit with sadness,
To let it wash over us,
To ask it where it came from,
To ask it where it wants to go.
Sometimes we need to sit with sadness,
Look at it head on,
Recognize how familiar it is,
Acknowledge it,
And ask for its retreat.
Just like the tide,
We have to ask it to ebb and flow,
To greet the sadness,
And then to release it.
Let the sadness go into the night.
For when it visits us again,
We can't fear it.
Neither can we hold onto it.
We can't hold on tightly to sadness and let it become the reason.
Let it become a focus of our lives that explain anger,
Mistrust,
And fear.
So today we are sitting with the sadness,
Letting it greet us,
Staying with it for a while,
And then releasing it into the night.
Night may come again,
For it has been with you for a long time and knows intimately the shape of your heart.
But greet it as a friend when you see it again,
A friend that can come and visit and can also say goodbye.
As we sit here with our sadness together,
I'd like you to greet it as a friend,
Ask it where it came from,
And ask it where it was going,
Telling it kindly that it does not live here.
Hello friend,
Thank you for visiting.
Where have you come from?
Allow your heart to answer back.
Hello sadness,
Where are you going?
Again,
Let your heart answer back.
Thank you for the lessons you have taught me,
The ways in which you've hurt,
The ways in which you've pulled me to the depths of myself.
I compassionately release you as you cannot stay here.
You can repeat this for the sadnesses that you feel.
Hello friend,
Thank you for visiting.
Where have you come from?
Where are you going?
Thank you for the lessons that you have taught me,
The ways in which you've hurt,
The ways in which you've pulled me to the depths of myself.
I compassionately release you as you cannot stay here.
Take some time now to release the sadnesses you are feeling.
I compassionately release you as you cannot stay here.
If you're sitting with more sadness that you haven't had time to release yet,
Feel free to pause this meditation.
Work through all of the sadnesses you have to release and then resume.
Imagine that you are cutting ties with your sadness,
Pulling away the cords that have bound you two together,
Severing the ties and wrapping yourself in a warm and loving light.
When you are ready,
Open your eyes and rejoin the world,
Feeling lighter and more at ease with your sadnesses.
Thank you for sitting with me today.
