Emotional Healing ExerciseM4C2 Worst Case Best Case Scenario

Enjoy a profound emotional healing exercise that will allow you to become more mindful of your inner world and its mechanisms. In this session we will find an aspect of life that scares us and dive into the underlying fears layer by layer. We will be come aware which deeper fear actually drives the daily anxieties we might have. Then, we ask ourselves what would be the best thing happening from here? We aim to experience directly the depth of fears and hopes and to bring mindfulness there.

Transcript

We'll come into the upright position.

Take a deep breath.

Relax deeply.

Take a moment.

Close your eyes.

Sink into your inner universe.

Notice the clothes on your skin,

The position that you have with your body right now.

Let your breathing go in and out.

Take care of yourself by observing yourself.

And I invite you to find one thing that you're currently scared of that gives you a bit of anxiety.

Maybe it's a life decision you have to take.

Maybe it's your career situation,

Job situation.

Maybe it's something about your living circumstances.

Maybe it's a relationship thing.

What gives you anxiety at the moment?

Just find that thing that might be scary right now and allow yourself to just be with it for a moment,

Holding space for yourself as you feel that situation.

And then just describe yourself,

That situation,

Just for for one moment,

One line,

One sentence.

What is it that you're dealing with?

For example,

Well,

I'm feeling some anxiety around my job situation.

If you want to write it down,

You can,

But you can also just hold space for it in your inner universe and then ask yourself,

Okay,

So from this situation,

What's the absolute worst thing that could happen?

And you could either say it out loud or write it down.

What's the worst thing that could happen from here?

For example,

Well,

I could lose my job and get really into financial troubles.

All right.

And then from that place where you are now,

Already one step worse than before.

What's the worst thing that could happen?

What's the most scary thing that could possibly happen from here?

So,

For example,

Well,

If I get into lots of financial troubles,

Maybe I would lose my apartment and then I have to couch surf.

Again,

You can write it down or just say it out loud.

And once it's clear,

What is the next scary thing,

Then,

Okay,

From that situation now that terrible thing happened.

What's the worst thing that can happen from there?

So that's it.

You're couch surfing in my scenario.

What's the next scary thing that can happen?

So that could be,

Well,

Then my friends might really get annoyed with me and I lose my social network and at one point I'll just have to move on the streets.

Again,

You can write it down or just say it out loud.

And then again,

All right,

Now this already happened in my scenario.

I'm on the street.

That's it.

What's the most scary,

Most terrible thing that could happen from here?

In my case,

It could be,

Well,

I would just be scared all the time because I wouldn't have a home.

I wouldn't have a place to stay.

I wouldn't have food and streets are dangerous.

Maybe people would mug me or do bad things to me.

See what it is for you.

Write down or say it out loud.

All right.

And from this terrible place,

What's just the worst and most scary thing that could possibly happen?

In my case could be,

Well,

Eventually I might just die on the streets without food,

Without friends,

Just completely lonely and without any hope.

Check out what it might be for you.

Say it out loud or write it down.

Now I want to give you some time.

I want to give you some time to go through a few more stages if it might be needed for you.

So just always ask yourself,

All right,

What's the most terrible,

Horrible,

Scariest thing that could happen from here?

And then from there,

What's the scariest thing and the scariest thing?

Until you come to this kind of existential place where either you end up completely alone and you die alone,

Or you are on the poverty line or nobody will love you ever again,

Or something essentially terrible until you kind of feel,

Yeah,

That's just the worst.

That's just as bad as it can get.

So just take a few moments and go layer by layer,

Asking yourself,

What's the worst thing that could happen from here until you come to a quite existential fear.

So take another few moments to finalize until you have that existential fear,

The thing you're actually afraid of.

And then hold that in your awareness.

What is the thing you're actually afraid of?

Dying alone,

Wasting your life,

Not having any friends or family or relationships,

Whatever it might be,

What's the existential thing you're afraid of?

And then hold that fully in your awareness.

How does it feel to be there in the snow dying or on the poverty line without any friends or on your deathbed feeling you wasted your life or whatever the thing might actually be?

Go there and really feel it.

This is the thing I'm actually afraid of and try to look at it with as much detail as possible.

So feel how it is in your body to have that particular worry,

That existential fear.

And take a moment and mark this fear within your consciousness,

Taking yourself really seriously with this fear.

Okay,

So to die without any friends in the streets,

I'm really scared of that.

I really don't want that to happen.

That would be absolutely not nice for me.

And if I wish to care for myself,

Then I would want to take care for that not to happen.

And even of course,

If it might happen,

Then that's what it is.

And I can deal with that too.

But out of self-care,

I would want to offer myself another kind of life.

That is really something that I don't wish to encounter if it's possible.

Frame it more like a wish,

Like a goal you have in your life.

To orient yourself,

To choose your actions so that your life can look different from this thing that you are scared of and that you actually would wish to avoid.

And notice how you have agency.

You play a role in whether or not your life will go in that direction or not.

All right.

Now,

Let's return to the original fear or anxiety or worry.

In my case,

The anxiety around the job.

Let's just return to that where you started.

Notice how you got to know this kind of downward spiral.

You understood,

Okay,

So I'm scared of this thing because I'm actually scared of this existential thing.

So I'm,

In my case,

Anxious about my job because I don't want to die all alone in the street without any friends and any hopes.

Okay,

Fair enough.

I really don't want that.

All right.

So now let's see from the same situation,

In my case,

The anxiety around the job.

What's the best case scenario from here?

What's the best thing that could happen from here?

In my case,

For example,

It could be,

Well,

I could look into my options in my workplace and given a little bit of extra work,

Maybe a few extra hours,

Which I would even enjoy and get myself some better prospects in the job.

So see what it could be for you.

What's the best thing from your current situation that could happen?

And then you could write it down or just say it out loud.

And then from this,

What's the best thing that could happen?

So in my case,

Well,

Now I'm having some better prospects in the job and I'm putting in some extra efforts and hours.

Well,

The best thing that could happen is I get a promotion and then I would actually earn a little extra.

That would be pretty nice.

So check what it is for you.

What would be the best thing that could happen from that next stage?

Write it down or say it out loud.

And what's the best thing that could happen from here?

So in my case could be,

Well,

If I get a promotion,

I have some extra money now.

Okay,

Maybe actually I could gradually work my way up in the company and get to a job that I actually really love and that is much more creative and I would feel much more fulfilled.

Check what it is for you.

What's the best thing to happen from here?

Write it down or say it out loud.

Okay,

And what's the best thing that could happen from here?

Well,

Actually I could have just a really good work life and a really good career.

Maybe I even change jobs to something that is even much more fulfilling.

What is it for you?

Write it down or say it out loud.

And then again,

What's the best thing that could happen from there?

Well,

Actually maybe I could live a really fulfilled life and feel that I'm doing something really meaningful and purposeful in my job and actually bring something good into the world by doing my job.

What is it for you?

Write it down or say it out loud.

And then let's just have a few more moments in case you need to go deeper and deeper until you come to a level where you feel,

Yeah,

That would be really fulfilling.

That would be really great.

That would be the thriving place from in this sequence of best case scenario steps.

So just take your own time just for a moment and write down or say out loud,

What's the best thing from there?

What's the best thing from there?

What's the best what's the best thing from there that could happen to you?

Let's take a few moments for that.

So so let's take another moment to conclude.

Try to arrive at some sort of really essentially good place,

Fulfilling place.

And then hold that in your awareness for a moment becoming aware that well from that scary place that I'm in I could get here.

I could actually propel to this wonderful place of fulfillment.

And then hold that in your awareness and notice how you have agency.

You can make choices that lead as much as possible to this best case scenario if you so choose.

Let this best case scenario really fill your being.

Let it have some beautiful colors and details so it really becomes yours,

It really takes over your inner world.

Notice how it feels in your body and your being.

And for a moment become aware of this full range from that place of uncertainty,

Anxiety,

Fear or worry that you initially started from.

You went all the way to understand the deepest underlying fears and worries and you went all the way up to see the highest fulfillment.

You can now see the full range of this potential experience in your life.

And for a moment I invite you to just let go of any inner efforts and movements.

Take a deep breath.

Ask yourself what's the best state you feel right now,

What's the best thing you feel in your inner universe?

Just with one word.

Me for example,

I feel peaceful.

And that is very good.

You can gradually return.

If you feel you can write down a few more elements if you want to.

And with this we conclude this exercise.