Namaste,
I'm Lama Yeshe and this is a guided meditation practice called Acknowledging Your Sadness.
So make sure that you're sitting comfortably on the floor or on a chair with both feet flat on the floor,
About shoulders width apart,
Rest your hands on top of your legs and lightly close your eyes or look down at the floor.
Begin to focus on your breathing,
Allow the air of each breath to come down into your diaphragm and feel your stomach move in and out as you breathe.
Play with the speed of your breath until you find a comfortable,
Soothing rhythm.
You'll likely find that your soothing rhythm is about three seconds in breath,
A slight pause and three seconds out breath.
Continue focusing on your breathing through your nose and in your peaceful rhythm.
Now turn your attention to your body,
Sensing the weight of your body resting on the chair or the floor underneath you.
Let yourself feel held by the chair or supported by the floor.
Remember,
It's okay if your mind wanders,
Just notice where it wanders to and gently guide it back to awareness of your body.
Now focus on your breath again and feel the air flowing in and out of your nostrils and simply allow yourself to be.
Meditating on sadness is a way to notice what you're feeling as it happens.
If you're feeling sad,
You might notice the urge to cry or a sick feeling in your stomach.
By practicing a guided meditation for sadness,
You'll notice certain thoughts are what is causing that sadness.
That way,
You can face the sadness and learn to cope with the situation you're dealing with in a healthier way.
Keep focusing on the breath.
Let each breath be easy and full.
Let it bring you into the stillness of the present moment.
We all experience sadness from time to time and that's completely normal.
It doesn't mean there's anything wrong with you and it doesn't mean there's anything wrong with feeling sad.
Continue watching your breath but now start to mentally prepare yourself to embrace your sadness.
Give yourself permission to go deep into the experience of your sadness so you can learn,
Grow and move forward.
I want you to trust that by feeling and experiencing your sadness,
It's not going to harm you in any way.
It will simply be a guide for your personal development.
Now,
Allow yourself to think about whatever it is that's causing you to feel sadness in your life.
Truly embrace the sadness.
Allow the emotional reaction to naturally appear.
You may feel like crying or feel that sick feeling in the stomach.
Whatever you're feeling,
Simply let it be.
Don't try to change it,
Judge it or bring any form of criticism to it.
Just allow it to be.
As you allow yourself to think about what's making you sad and you acknowledge your feelings,
Let yourself become curious about what this sadness is teaching you about what you truly desire.
For example,
If you feel sad because you didn't get a job you wanted,
The sadness teaches you that having a job that feels rewarding and fulfilling is deeply important to you.
Or if you feel sad about something not working out,
That means whatever didn't work out was important to you.
Maybe you're sad because you've lost someone and this sadness shows you that that person was important to you and you cared about them.
Allow yourself to be curious and explore that curiosity by learning about what you want through your sadness.
How do you want things to be instead?
Really lean in to that desire.
Let yourself see it fully until you generate feelings of joy.
And whatever you were sad about,
Allow yourself to become enthusiastic about its opposite,
Seeing it in full detail as if it's happening right now,
Right in front of you.
The more you do this,
You begin to feel gratitude towards your sadness,
Appreciating it for what it's taught you about your desires and appreciating it for offering you a course correction,
A chance to use the feelings to be productive,
To grow from it and to learn from it.
Take the desire with you and more importantly,
Take the enthusiasm for that desire with you and now slowly begin to bring your awareness back to your breath again and just find that soothing rhythm.
Now slowly open your eyes and sit there quietly for a moment.
When you're ready,
You can now carry on with your day.
Namaste.
