Bell Angelic Choir bell This mindfulness practice is called working with difficulty.
Taking a few moments,
Allowing yourself to feel settled and comfortable.
Feeling that the body is supported and having both feet flat on the floor.
Allowing the hands to rest on the knees or in the lap.
If possible,
Sitting away from the back of the chair to allow the back to be self-supporting and upright.
But also allowing the back to be relaxed.
Allowing the shoulders to drop down and relax.
Having the chin gently lowered toward the chest.
And if you find it comfortable,
Allowing the eyes to close or lowering the gaze.
Now becoming aware of sensations in your body.
Bringing a sense of playful curiosity to your awareness as you explore these sensations.
Perhaps the most dominant ones first.
The contact of the body on the chair.
Noticing its shape.
Is it possible to trace its outline with your awareness?
Noticing the intensity of sensations.
Whether they fade or soften.
Perhaps noticing the contact of the feet on the floor.
And maybe exploring these sensations.
Perhaps becoming aware of more subtle sensations.
Sensations that are always there but may go unnoticed.
The sensation of touch.
Whether clothing,
Jewelry or watch touches the skin.
See if it's possible to notice the gentle sensations of the beat of the heart in the chest.
Narrowing the spotlight of your awareness to notice the sensations of the breath in your body.
Becoming aware of how your breath feels on its journey in and out of the body.
Not trying to change the breath.
Just following it.
Observing it.
Taking a few moments now to become aware of where you feel your breath most strongly.
Is it at the nostrils,
The chest or the abdomen?
No one place is better than another.
So choosing which is best for you and anchoring your present moment awareness there.
And if you notice your mind has wandered.
Then gently making a note of where the mind has gone.
And without giving yourself a hard time.
Gently guiding your awareness back to the sensations of the breath.
And now I'd like to invite you to think about a situation that's difficult for you right now.
It may be something you're feeling about yourself.
Something you don't like or a mistake you've made.
It could be a situation that's difficult to deal with.
Or if nothing comes to mind.
Or if your mind's gone blank.
Which does happen from time to time.
Then perhaps bringing to mind something from the past.
Something that's possibly still unresolved.
Something that will cause some difficulty but will not be overwhelming.
Trying as best you can not to get too lost in the story.
But becoming aware of how it makes you feel.
Noticing the emotions stirred up by it.
Noticing the sensations of those emotions.
And it may be that you're experiencing a mix of emotions.
Perhaps anger or frustration.
Sadness,
Anxiety,
Disappointment,
Grief or fear.
Seeing if it's possible to choose the most dominant emotion.
Seeing if it's possible to notice where you feel that emotion most strongly in your body.
Perhaps it's a tensing in the neck or shoulders.
Maybe a heaviness.
A tightness in the throat,
Chest or belly.
Noticing what these sensations feel like.
Perhaps tight,
Hot,
Tingling,
Numb,
Maybe cold.
Observing these sensations as they come and go as best you can.
The sensations experienced around the situation that's difficult for you.
Often when things feel difficult or unpleasant we will naturally want to push it away.
Resist it.
Tighten up against it to try and make it go away.
Unfortunately this struggle usually makes things worse.
More unpleasant and more difficult to cope with.
And so what we are going to be doing in this practice is working with these emotions and sensations stirred up in the body by this difficulty.
And as best we can allowing them space in the body.
Not trying to change them but to just let them be.
Holding them in our awareness as best we can.
Working with them.
So I'd like to invite you to breathe into any sensations on the in-breath and breathe out from these sensations on the out-breath.
Breathing into sensations,
Exploring them with a sense of curiosity and kindness.
Cradling the sensation in awareness as you explore it.
Noticing if the sensation has a shape.
Can you trace its outline with your awareness?
Does its intensity soften around the edges?
Does it have a colour?
And then breathing out,
Accepting and opening to the sensations.
Seeing if we can soften the way we view them.
Softening rather than bracing and tightening.
Softening and letting them be.
And as we work with our difficulty,
Recognizing and acknowledging just how hard this practice is.
And remembering that we don't have to like the sensations or the reasons for it but as best we can just allowing it to be there.
Accepting it.
Giving it space in the body.
And it's okay and natural not to want these difficult and unpleasant sensations.
But as best you can,
Working without judgement or criticism.
Allowing yourself on an inbreath to breathe into these sensations.
And on the outbreath,
Softening,
Letting be.
Allowing the sensations space.
Learning to ride the waves of the emotions and sensations breath by breath.
Moment by moment.
Not trying to make it go away.
Gently allowing the sensations of the emotion to be there.
Breathing with them.
Letting them be.
And as you cradle the sensations in awareness.
Noticing any change from moment to moment.
Noticing if the intensity eases of its own accord.
Does the shape of the sensation change as you just let it be?
Noticing how you feel or any changes in how you feel.
And holding this too in spacious and compassionate awareness.
And if your mind gets pulled away into thinking about the story behind this situation or circumstances around this difficulty,
That's okay.
It's only natural for the mind to do this.
But each time this happens,
Try with a sense of gentleness and kindness to bring your awareness back to the sensations of the emotions in your body.
Breathing into sensations.
Exploring them.
Breathing out from sensations.
Softening.
And as we move towards the end of this meditation,
Allowing the focus of awareness to expand.
To take in the whole body.
Perhaps allowing your awareness to filter slowly down the body from the top of your head down to your feet.
And now bringing your awareness back to the breath.
The sensations of the breath.
Anchoring your present moment awareness with the breath.
Until the bell sounds at the end of this practice.
Bell.
