Difficulty Practice

A more advanced mindfulness practice, dealing with difficulty. A way to work with sensations/ emotions/ pain in a way that provides more spaciousness. I would recommend doing this practice once you are familiar with the body scan.

Transcript

This is the dealing with difficulty practice.

It's going to take around 15 minutes so making sure you're somewhere that you won't be disturbed for this amount of time.

Somewhere warm and comfortable and you can do this practice either sitting down or laying down.

I'm going to give the instructions as if you are seated but it's fine to do this laid down.

So I want you to call to mind a situation that's caused you a moderate level of difficulty,

Perhaps recently or perhaps in the past.

And we're going to use the feelings and sensations that are generated by this situation throughout this practice.

I will give full instructions for this whilst we are working through this practice.

So if you want to take your comfortable posture with both feet on the floor,

Allowing the eyes to softly close,

Noticing the posture,

The angle of the legs,

The feet connecting with the floor,

The seat bones on the chair,

The arms rising up to the shoulders,

The spine,

The neck and head.

Bringing awareness inwards to the breath,

To this breath,

Feeling the breath moving in and moving out.

And we don't have to do anything in particular right now,

We don't need to be anywhere else or attend to anything,

Just giving ourselves this time to be alongside this breath.

Feeling the flow of air at the nostrils,

The air moving along the back of the throat and down the neck.

Noticing where the chest begins to expand,

The ribcage moving up and out.

Allowing all the sensations from the breath to enter awareness.

Being curious as to if this is felt in the front of the body or the back of the body.

Breathing in and breathing out.

Moving awareness along to the body of the lungs where they expand and fill on the in-breath,

Empty,

Full away on the out-breath.

Noticing if we can pick up any movement down towards the belly,

The movement of the diaphragm.

Tensing and flattening on an in-breath,

Relaxing back up to its umbrella shape on an out-breath.

Breathing in and breathing out.

Allowing the breath to move back out over the whole length of breath from nostrils to diaphragm.

Breathing in and breathing out.

Noticing where for you has the strongest pull along this length of breath today.

Perhaps by the nostrils,

Centre of the chest or down towards belly and diaphragm.

Allowing awareness to move inwards to narrow down in focus to this point along the length of breath.

Observing each in-breath and out-breath as it passes this point.

And we're going to drop an anchor here,

A breathing anchor.

Leaving a little marker that tells us we can come back to this point at any time throughout this practice to refocus and reconnect.

Breathing in and breathing back along the whole length of the breath.

Feeling that flow of air moving inwards,

Turning and then moving outwards.

Observing your rhythm,

The rhythm you're experiencing right now of your breath moving in and moving out.

With the next in-breath,

Bringing our awareness out to the space of the body.

Feeling the body,

The space it inhabits from the crown of the head to the soles of the feet.

Just holding our awareness lightly over this space of the body.

And we're going to breathe down into the soles of the feet now for a few moments.

Just dropping awareness down into the feet.

Feeling that connection with the floor,

With the socks or the shoes.

Noticing where we feel this connection most strongly.

The balls of the feet,

The heels or perhaps even the centre of each foot.

Dropping two small anchors here.

Knowing we can come back to the feet at any point during this practice to ground,

To gather.

Breathing in and breathing awareness back out to the whole space of the body.

Slightly holding that awareness over all the physical sensations,

Posture,

Limbs.

Now we're going to call to mind the situation or perhaps even there's some physical pain that you may want to use for this practice.

Just allowing any images or thoughts.

We're calling people involved in the situation.

Just allowing that to be around,

Be in our thoughts.

Noticing how we feel in response to this situation.

And lightly scanning the body,

Starting from the feet.

So moving through feet,

Calves,

Knees,

Thighs and hips,

Torso,

Shoulders,

Arms and hands,

Neck and head.

And noticing anywhere within the space of the body that we can feel sensations in response to this difficulty.

If we find there are a number of areas,

Then we choose one that feels okay for us today.

Noticing how that selection is.

This doesn't have to be a challenge,

We don't have to go for the area where the sensations are the strongest.

Just going for where feels appropriate and okay for you today,

Using a kind and gentle approach in this practice.

Bringing our awareness in towards the sensations,

Using the breath.

Breathing in and up to these sensations.

Around the edges.

Noticing if there is a distinct edge.

Around the edges.

Noticing if there is a distinct edge to these sensations.

Or perhaps it feels more diffuse,

Even misty or foggy or sticky.

So moving around using the breath to help shift our awareness.

Looking at these sensations from each angle.

Are there any spaces in the midst of these sensations?

Or does it feel quite solid,

Quite fixed?

Breathing in and breathing up to as close as feels comfortable for you today.

Just trusting that you know what's best for you.

If we wish we can stay from a further away viewpoint,

Using more of the space of the body within which to view this difficulty.

If it feels okay for us now,

Then breathing in and breathing up to these sensations.

Noticing the sensations.

Around the edges.

Noticing any colour.

Noticing texture.

Breathing in and breathing all the way around the set of sensations that we're focusing on for this difficulty practice.

Being aware of any response to these feelings and sensations.

Perhaps pushing and bracing against a little aversion.

That's okay,

It's quite normal and natural for us not to want difficult feelings around.

But just for today,

For this practice.

We're being quite playful with this idea of allowing those feelings to be there.

Being curious and interested in what we notice.

Breathing in and around.

Backing off,

Moving away with an out breath at any point if that feels what's right for you today.

We can come away to the breath anchor or to the anchors in the feet to reconnect.

To ground,

To have a little time out and time away.

And in your own time when you're ready.

Using the in breath to come back to the sensations associated with the difficulty.

Breathing in to move our awareness closer to what we notice.

Perhaps there's a shift and a change.

Or maybe for you today these sensations are quite solid and fixed.

Breathing around in three dimensions.

Noticing our responses as well as the texture,

The color,

Any pattern within these sensations.

It's allowing our natural curiosity to be present.

To stay with this difficulty.

Using the breath to approach to get as close as feels okay for us today.

There's no right or wrong way to do this practice.

Breathing in.

Being around these feelings.

Tracing the edges of the sensations.

Coming back into the body any time we perhaps get pulled away with the thoughts and images associated with this difficulty.

Reconnecting with the body and with the realm of sensation.

Using the breath to breathe into the body.

Breathing around,

Underneath and above these sensations.

We don't have to respond to them in any particular way.

There's no right or wrong way to do this practice.

Just simply being in the body and being aware of the sensations.

There's no right or wrong way to do this practice.

Just simply being in the body,

Being alongside this difficulty.

Using the breath to move focus inwards or perhaps to zoom outwards if that's what feels okay for us today.

At any point we can come away to the breath anchor or to the anchors in the feet.

To have a few moments to regroup,

Connect,

Refocus.

Just to stay simply observing the breath.

Feeling the connection with the floor.

And in your own time,

On an in-breath,

Return into the sensations,

To the area of difficulty.

Being curious about what we notice.

Being curious about what we notice.

Have the sensations change and shifted in any way.

Retracing the edge.

Noticing tone and colour.

Texture and form.

Moving all the way around these sensations.

Breathing in and breathing out.

Doing so with an attitude of kindness.

And being in the body,

And being alongside these sensations.

Breathing in and breathing out.

Allowing all those sensations,

All that information around this difficulty to bubble up and register in awareness.

We don't have to analyse or make sense of what we notice.

Simply bringing our awareness into the body.

Being alongside what's here for us today.

Breathing in and breathing out.

Allowing the breath to once again fill awareness.

Feeling the air at the nostrils.

The movement of the ribs and the glutes.

The nostrils.

The movement of the ribs and the front of the body.

And at the back of the body.

The belly.

Moving in and moving out.

Just allowing this flow of breath.

To move in.

To move out.

To fill our awareness.

Noticing the turns at each end of the breath.

Where in-breath turns and becomes out-breath.

Where out-breath turns and becomes in-breath.

Staying with the breathing for a few more moments.

Becoming aware of the space of the body once again.

The feeling of the feet on the floor and the connection with the surface that's supporting you.

Very gently bringing a little bit of movement back into the body.

Starting with the wrists and the feet.

And if you've had your eyes closed,

Starting to open your eyes.

And taking forward this idea of being kind and trusting that we know what's best for ourselves.

Responding to the body in any way that you wish after the breath.

Responding to the body in any way that you wish after this practice.