Hey friends,
Welcome to your meditation.
Alright,
Just get comfortable.
So,
You can sit for this meditation,
You can lie down if that is more comfortable.
Basically,
You just want to get your body at ease so we can work with the mind.
So maybe that means sitting up tall,
Maybe you can drop those shoulders away from the ears a little bit and relax through the jaw.
And then maybe bring your attention to the breath.
Oftentimes,
Just by noticing the breath,
We tend to slow our breathing down,
We tend to deepen our inhales and our exhales.
So don't feel like you need to make any big dramatic changes here.
Just potentially see if you can lengthen this next exhale just a little bit.
Good.
Now your mind is going to wander because you have a human mind and that is what we do.
So anytime that mind wanders,
Recognize that your mind is just being your mind.
Have compassion for yourself.
Don't get mad.
And just bring the attention back to this present moment,
This next breath,
The sound of my voice,
Maybe the sensation of your heart beating in your body.
And even if your mind wanders four seconds after that,
It's okay.
Once again,
Just bring that attention back.
Focus on the breath,
The body,
The present moment.
Maybe taking a moment here to notice if you're holding tension anywhere in the body.
When we have stress,
Anxiety,
Trauma,
We tend to hold that in our muscles,
In our tissues.
So it's really important when we are in these quiet moments that we are able to observe where we hold that stress with the understanding that we may have been holding that in our bodies for days,
Weeks,
Months,
Years,
Decades.
And when we bring our attention to that,
Just like when we bring our attention to the breath,
We can find some ease there.
It's not going to fix everything right away,
But those places where we have been holding our stress,
Maybe we can let that melt just a little bit.
Whether that's the jaw,
The neck,
Shoulders,
Belly.
See if you can find just a little bit of softness.
So one of the many ways that I find meditation to be really beneficial in my own life is that it gives me a little break from worrying.
I have been a worrier since I was a kid.
I worry about the past.
I worry about things that have already happened that I can no longer do anything about.
I worry about the future and all the ways that my life could go terribly wrong.
We tend to time travel,
Bouncing back and forth from past to future.
So focusing on this present moment awareness can give us a much needed break and can help us train our brains to be there for what is right in front of us.
So the other night it was about three o'clock in the morning and I could not sleep because I was very busy worrying about something that I could do absolutely nothing about at three o'clock in the morning.
But I was obsessing.
I was going over it in my mind again and again and again.
I was thinking of all the ways that this could just blow up and I realized that I was operating under two assumptions.
One,
I thought it would help.
I thought I could solve this if I just obsessed about it enough.
And two,
I thought there was no way that I could control my thoughts anyway.
So I might as well just lean into it.
I was wrong on both of those assumptions.
So it probably took me about an hour of this obsessing,
Of this ruminating to remember that I have two questions I like to ask myself when I am stuck in worry.
The first question is,
Do I have enough information to freak out about this?
The answer is almost always no.
The second question is,
Will worrying about this be helpful?
The answer to that question is always no.
So when I can access my rational mind,
I try to remember to come back to these two questions.
Do I have enough information to freak out?
And will this worrying be a benefit?
When I ask those questions,
I can feel my body relaxing a little bit.
I can feel my mind releasing its grip on this doom spiral.
I can feel my breath get a little bit deeper,
A little bit smoother,
As I release this illusion of control over every aspect of my life.
So when I reminded myself I could let go a little bit,
When I reminded myself that there was absolutely nothing I could do about any of it in the middle of the night,
I was able to rest.
I was able to breathe.
I was able to sleep.
So if there is something that has been worrying you,
See if you can release it just a little bit in this moment,
With the understanding that all worry does is use up your energy,
Energy you could eventually be using to deal with the thing you've been worrying about.
I am not going to sit here and say that difficult things are never going to happen to you.
But what I will say is that I think you are strong enough to handle them.
And practices like this will help make you stronger,
So that you can deal with whatever life is going to throw at you.
Meditation is known to make us more resilient,
So we can be more capable in crisis,
So that we can bounce back from the inevitable challenges of life.
So remember that you don't need to let those wild thoughts run your life.
Ask yourself if you have enough information to freak out,
And if worrying about this will be helpful.
And then take a deep breath in,
And sigh it out,
Let it go.
Excellent job.
Let those eyes open,
Maybe take a big stretch.
Well done.
I'll see you next time.
