Welcome.
Welcome to this practice on sitting with difficult feelings.
So I invite you now to sit in a chair or maybe you would like to stand.
It's your choice,
Whatever makes you feel comfortable.
If you're sitting then just as we've done before,
I invite you to notice how you are in contact with whatever is supporting you,
Notice your body being supported by a chair or a floor.
If you are standing,
Perhaps you notice your feet and how the floor or the ground is holding up your body.
Just become aware of any of the points of contact between your body and what's supporting you.
And perhaps you notice the weight of you going down to this point of contact but also notice the height of you going up.
Perhaps you just get a good sense of a full stretch of your body,
The full length of your body as you sit or as you stand tall and dignified and bringing your attention to your breath and how it flows in this dignified body.
And perhaps you begin to follow your breath wherever you can find it most vividly in your body,
Maybe in your torso,
Wherever you can notice the sensations of your breath moving.
And if you're ready then perhaps you bring to mind some problem or some worry you have,
Maybe not the most difficult or challenging one but just something that gives you concern,
Perhaps something about being a parent or something going on with your children or at work.
Maybe it's something that you just feel stuck with.
And so perhaps when you're ready and you've brought this concern to mind,
Perhaps you just allow your thoughts and your feelings about it just to be there.
Not trying to change it or fix it but just allowing yourself to be open to it and noticing it how it is for right now.
And perhaps you bring your attention and awareness of your body to that concern.
Notice wherever that concern resonates deeply and speaks through your body where you may have a felt sense in your body of the situation and you begin to notice whatever feelings that are coming up towards you about it and you begin to move towards those feelings and you notice where in your body you're moving towards.
Perhaps if you become overwhelmed you return to your grounding,
To your feet,
To your body,
To your breath and allowing yourself to return to the concern and return to noticing the felt sense in your body and beginning to allow yourself to move toward that felt sense in your body.
Perhaps if you're feeling creative you allow yourself to just let your breath breathe on that spot in your body,
To breathe onto that felt sense in your body.
Not trying to get rid of it or push it away but just perhaps trying to relate to it through through your breath and just allowing yourself to clarify noticing it.
And if you're ready perhaps you you explore your relationship to this sensation,
To this felt sense.
Maybe you notice if you're wanting it to go away that you're wanting it to go away that's okay not judging that just noticing it.
Perhaps you notice you can allow yourself to just let your breath to breathe on it to simply let it be there.
Let it be there and as we have done before perhaps you just allow yourself to say to yourself it's okay whatever it is let me feel it and with each breath you're just allowing yourself to open to the possibility of just feeling whatever is there and maybe your your mind wanders off and and leaves the space that's okay perhaps you just allow yourself to gently come back to the sensation and your breath and your feeling and exploring the sensation and allowing yourself to say it's okay and letting it be there.
And perhaps if you're more comfortable perhaps you you put both of your hands on your on your heart and your chest where your heart is perhaps you put one hand upon the other and you just feel the warmth of your hand and you notice the rising and the falling of your chest and your breath and you just kind of hear something here.
And as we begin to close this practice perhaps you just return to notice in a sense of your body sitting in the chair your full awareness perhaps of your body standing in a space where you are and you come back to just noticing how things are how the whole of things are for you in this moment.
