Hello and welcome to this Aching Arms Teddy Bear meditation.
My name is Lucy,
I'm a bereaved mother and mindfulness teacher.
And I am here today working with Aching Arms and representing Relax with Lucy and Co.
This is a meditation that you can use to help you develop a small mindfulness practice using the bear that you have been provided.
So inviting you to find somewhere comfortable to rest.
Choosing to have your bear in front of you.
Somewhere where you can see it.
Now before we pay closer attention to our bears,
I want to invite you just to check in with your body.
With how you are today.
So dropping your awareness now into your body.
How does the body feel?
Maybe scanning the body looking for any areas of tension or tightness.
Relaxing your shoulders down and releasing the jaw.
Relaxing your forehead.
Completely resting back upon the surface beneath you or behind you.
And really giving up permission to feel held and supported in this moment today.
This short time just for you to rest and to stop and to pause.
And while you are resting here,
I want to invite you to bring your attention to any sounds that you can hear.
Maybe sounds from passing traffic outside.
Sounds from your own immediate environment.
Maybe even sounds from your breath as you breathe.
Now it's very normal and natural for the mind to drift around and wander off.
So whenever this happens,
Just bring your attention back.
Back to the body and back to the sound of my voice or back to the sounds that you can hear in your environment.
And then gathering awareness around your breath.
How does it feel to breathe today?
Where do you feel your breath the most?
Is it at the nose or the chest?
Maybe the shoulders?
Notice any movements in the back of your body as you breathe.
Expansion in the upper back,
In the middle of your back and your lower back.
Movements in the side of your body as you breathe.
And again if the mind begins to wander around,
Just bring your attention back to your breath.
And I invite you to do this with kindness and compassion.
The aim is not to empty our mind of thoughts.
It's just to bring our attention into the present moment using the breath or the body or the sounds that we can hear as an anchor.
To notice these in this moment.
So we're going to be using now our bears to help anchor us even more into the present moment.
And I want to invite into your awareness now a sense of curiosity.
So what we are doing is noticing our experience as though it's the first time that we have noticed it.
So gently then if your eyes have been closed today,
Gently allow the eyes to open.
And I'm inviting you just to first of all notice your bear.
Just from a distance notice its shape and all the colours that you can see.
The textures,
Maybe areas of light and darkness as the light hits certain areas of the bear.
Notice lots of different shades of colour.
Any areas of small detail that you want to pay attention to.
Maybe around the face.
And we're really just being curious about what we can see.
We're not attaching any story to the object that we can see.
It's just more around noticing this bear in the present moment exactly as it is.
And so I want to invite you now to hold the bear in your hands.
And as you gently lift the bear into your hands notice how this feels.
Notice the weight and the size of your bear and the sensation of touch.
Is it soft?
Is it comforting?
Is it warm or cool?
What's the bear like?
You can maybe even bring the bear up towards your cheek and rest your cheek onto the bear.
Notice how this feels.
Maybe there's a soft sensation.
Maybe a pleasant sensation.
And then moving the bear now again into your line of sight so that you can see the bear but still holding the bear.
Checking in with your body and your breath.
Maybe checking in with any emotions or thoughts that are present.
And then inviting you to hold the bear now.
Close to your heart,
Wrapping your arms around your bear.
Embracing this bear in a loving hug.
Noticing how this feels.
Now there may be strong emotions coming up for you and that's okay.
It's okay to let them be there.
When we push our emotions down,
When we pretend that they are not happening,
This only makes our experience worse.
So really having this sense of kindness towards yourself.
Holding that bear in your embrace.
And seeing this as an act of kindness to yourself.
This loving embrace.
How does that feel?
How does it feel in your body?
Now for me as I am here holding my bear and wrapping my bear in my embrace,
I can feel comfort.
A sense of safety for me in this movement.
Wrapping my arms around the bear but also around myself.
And this for me is emotional to do.
But at the same time there's also comfort here.
Showing me that it's possible to hold both negative and positive experiences in one bigger container.
So whilst feeling joy and comfort,
I'm also able to feel sadness.
And it's okay to acknowledge both.
It's okay to allow these two things to coexist around each other.
So as you embrace your bear,
Inviting you now to connect with your breath again.
Noticing the bear move with your breath on your body.
Anchoring yourself into this moment with your breath.
And gently and kindly bringing your focus back to the breath.
When your mind drifts around away from this present moment,
Which it will.
But whenever you notice that this has happened,
This is a good thing.
It's a magic moment of mindfulness.
A moment of waking up to the present moment.
So while you rest here,
Before we bring this meditation to a close today.
I'm going to be reading a poem.
The poem is called Allow.
There is no controlling life.
Try corralling a lightning bolt or containing a tornado.
Damn a stream and it will create a new channel.
Resist and the tide will sweep you off your feet.
Allow and grace will carry you to higher ground.
The only safety lies in letting it all in the wild and the weak.
Fear,
Fantasies and success.
When loss rips off the doors of the heart or sadness fails your vision with despair.
Practice becomes simply bearing the truth.
In the choice to let go of your known way of being.
The whole world is revealed to your new eyes.
So bringing this meditation now to a close,
You can choose to rest here for some time longer with your bear.
Or you can choose to continue with your day,
With your evening.
Remember that mindfulness is awareness.
It's noticing what's happening.
And when we take our attention to the present moment,
It's often very relaxing just to notice the world through our senses.
Can be incredibly helpful when our mind feels scattered and dispersed.
So maybe even putting aside a small amount of time in your day to connect with your bear.
Maybe something you wish to take forward in helping you to develop your daily mindfulness practice.
Sending all my love to you,
Whoever you are,
Wherever you are in the world.
And you take care.
