Motivation From Love And Fear

Tuning in to a difficult situation and exploring our motivation from a place of fear, then turning to see what our motivation is from a place of love. Drawing on our innate wisdom and compassion to offer insight and guidance.

Transcript

So taking a moment to make yourself comfortable.

You can choose to close your eyes fully or partially,

Or to keep your eyes open.

Whatever feels supportive,

Whatever feels like it will help you to not be distracted by either internal stimuli or external stimuli.

And then if you like,

Taking a few deep breaths.

Bringing into your awareness.

The current situation and experience,

Something in your field at the moment or coming up that is causing you some anxiety.

There are some difficult emotions around this particular part of your experience.

Not notice how you feel this particular situation in your body.

Where does it show up?

How does it show up?

And if it's feeling particularly strong or even starting to feel a little overwhelming,

You might experiment with choosing to move your body just a little.

Making a conscious decision to move your body,

Bringing some movement to your experience.

Maybe even a rhythmic movement,

A rocking,

Moving from side to side.

Something gentle.

Also at the same time as you're tuning into the difficult feeling,

Also being aware of the gentle movement of your body.

Also remembering to breathe,

Tuning in,

Has your breathing changed at all?

Can you bring some more ease to your breathing?

Can you even sit up a little bit straighter to allow for more ease in your breathing?

If you choose moving and breathing,

Keeping yourself company as you're aware of this challenging sensation,

Experience,

Thing in your future.

And then considering this stressful thing in your experience and tuning in what might be a response that you offer that's coming from a place of fear or discomfort or resistance or hardness or disconnection.

Just considering what are the responses that come from a frightened place in your experience.

Just looking at them.

We're not entertaining them.

We're not acting them out.

We're just considering what are my fear type responses in this situation?

How do I sometimes respond from fear?

And if as you're considering these,

You feel stronger difficult emotions,

Remembering you can move,

You can rock,

Remembering to breathe.

There's nothing wrong with any of our fear responses.

They're very natural.

We learned them.

In many ways,

They protected us.

Kept us safe from harm.

And also noticing are your fear responses somewhere in your body?

Do you notice them in a particular place in your body?

Do they have a particular quality?

And then shifting perspective a little or a lot.

Tuning into this stressful situation and tapping into your innate capacity for love,

For kindness,

For responsiveness,

For connection.

How might love inform your response to this difficult emotion or situation?

How might tending or spaciousness or relaxing or allowing or offering a kind word?

How does that response feel in your body?

If you're having any trouble finding that in your own experience,

Then feeling free to draw on a resource you have,

Another person or an animal,

A being,

A deity,

What kind of love might they offer in response to this difficulty that you're feeling?

Having yourself to feel that in your body.

Whatever works to access my response from love.

Maybe noticing where that shows up in your body.

How it feels.

The quality of responding from love.

The words,

The imagery,

The color.

And still,

If you need to,

Remembering you can move your body,

You can rock your body.

Breathing and breathing.

And then taking a moment to acknowledge,

Even offer some gratitude to any love response.

Once you're able to tap into acknowledging that this is a part of you,

Even if you borrowed that feeling from somebody else,

It's still an internalization of their love.

So acknowledging your own capacity to bring love into your experience,

If you are able to do that.

And also,

If it feels okay,

Taking a moment to acknowledge the motivation from fear.

Often a protective motivation,

A learned motivation,

Often a habit.

That we developed an innocent desire to protect ourselves.

Recognizing that response as well.

If you need to,

Allowing all of that energy that you collected in your body to move down through your body and down into the earth.

You're feeling confusion or tightness or just a lot.

Inviting all of that down.

Dropping with gravity.

Moving into the earth.

The earth knows what to do with it.

The earth can take it.

The earth has this wonderful capacity to mulch,

To compost,

To create.

And then bringing your awareness to a couple of deeper than usual breaths,

If you would like to help yourself to transition out of this practice.

Starting to expand your awareness to your body as a whole.

Starting to become aware of your body in this physical space that you're in right now.

When you feel ready,

Opening your eyes if your eyes were closed and connecting visually with this space that you're in.

The space that your body is in.

You might even take a look at your body to see it in this space.

Having a stretch if you like.

The soup of your drink.

The soup of your drink.

Reviews

Thank you!

Wonderful experience, as an Enneagram 6 I feel a lot of fear daily so this was very helpful. Nice and soothing voice. Will check out others. Thank you!

Very happy to find this meditation. Not your usual approach to motivation. Going towards the discomfort and the fear around what is challenging. Then the contrast of then going into how you would respond with love was refreshing. Great prompts to self-soothe. Thank you for a lovely shift in perspective. 🙏🏻💗

This meditation took me completely by surprise - it helped me immediately identify a deep rooted source of fear surrounding work and progress, and encouraged me to explore a way that developmental time could have been formed with love and care instead. Plenty of prompts and space in between them for reflection.

A good way to start a day I want to bring change.

So appreciated, Kristi. I was waiting for an important phone call and so afraid the conversation would be painful and without love and that I would not be able to muster the skills to guide it with love. This helped me prepare.

beautiful, this came just when I needed it! After years of looking to love another person, I finally have met someone with a potential for love. However, an age difference, me being the elder by 9 years. Fear came in!,,, Yesterday, I awoke with an eye infection. After your meditation, I realize, my mind's fear is giving me the infection. Thank you for opening my eyes ( no pun) this morning!
Rebecca