Hi,
This is Meg Renaldi of Body Centered Inquiry and welcome to a session of practice for cultivating self-compassion.
I'm going to be guiding you as if you're seated.
If you need to lie down to do this practice,
Then feel free to do so and adapt as needed.
Please come to a comfortable seated position on a chair or cross-legged.
It's up to you.
Allow your eyes to gently close and begin to settle in.
Allow your awareness to come to your sit bones,
Your feet on the ground or legs crossed,
Your hands resting comfortably in your lap or on your thighs.
Rest your body so your mind is at ease.
Take the time you need to let yourself arrive and settle in.
Allow your in-breath and your out-breath to gradually become more even.
Allow your breaths to complete themselves without any force.
There's a natural pause at the top of the in-breath and a natural pause at the bottom of the out-breath.
Let those pauses be there.
Allow yourself a few more cycles of breathing in and breathing out and respecting the pauses.
At the center of each of us is compassion.
If that were not true,
We'd never be able to recognize it in ourselves or others.
Take time to explore where compassion dwells in your mind or body.
Where does kindness exist in you or tenderness?
And if it's not already present,
Bring to your awareness a mind state you struggle with.
It could be anger.
It could be a sense of a contracted heart.
It could be loneliness.
It could be sadness.
It could be fear.
And if you find yourself overwhelmed with a strong emotion right now,
Then ask that overwhelm to give you some space or simply be with the overwhelm itself in a small bite.
Go with what's easy for you and be tender.
When we ask strong emotional states to give us some room,
We might notice something else underneath them.
Go very gently.
And also know you can step away from this practice at any moment.
Perhaps what you've done for right now is enough.
If you wish to continue with this practice,
Inwardly,
Gently turn toward what you'd like to work with right now with curiosity and respect.
And see if from this place of compassion within yourself,
If you can begin to offer spaciousness to this part of yourself with which you struggle.
On your next inhale,
Breathe in whatever it is that you're struggling with.
And then slowly breathe out kindness,
Tenderness,
Light or spaciousness.
And then breathe in the struggle of that part.
Breathe in how you struggle with it.
So if it's anger,
Breathe in the intensity of the anger and perhaps breathe in the resistance to the anger that you have.
And breathe out respect or regard,
Care,
Space,
Kindness,
Whatever makes sense to you right now.
Go gently.
You can pause the audio at any time.
What we want to do is give room to these difficult parts of ourselves that can take us over and actually make us believe we are them.
This is a potent practice that builds over time.
And it helps to make the distinction between,
For example,
Again,
Fear or anger.
I have fear.
I am not fear.
I have anger.
I am not my anger.
Breathing in and breathing out,
Breathing out regard,
Care,
Respect,
Appreciation,
Whatever we can conjure up.
We create a lot of difficulties for ourselves when we're in the throes of something,
We're having a strong emotion or just one that we deal with on a daily basis.
And rather than just meeting it and touching it for what it is,
We develop opinions about what we should and shouldn't feel,
Which creates a whole other level of suffering.
It's enough to simply say,
I'm feeling sad right now,
Or I have sadness.
It's enough to feel sad without adding another layer over the top of it.
Continue to breathe in the struggle and breathe out the spaciousness.
And for right now,
Stick with one topic.
And notice there's a part of you that might want to undermine you right now and tell you you're not doing it right or this isn't for you or whatever it is.
That's just another part that loves to interfere and needs your care.
If that part is strong,
Then turn toward that part and give it some room.
We have an erroneous belief that if we give these parts of ourselves space and care and attention,
They'll take over.
The fact is they've already taken over.
They're running in the background and running the show because we're treating them with aversion.
When we take these parts of ourselves that seem unsavory,
Out of the shadow and into the light of awareness,
They will with time have far less power and we will be standing in a clearer relationship with those aspects of ourselves.
And when you're ready,
Let it all go.
Come back to your body sensation,
The ground beneath you and your breath,
The inhale,
The pause,
The exhale and the pause.
You can revisit any part of the practice that's interesting for you or simply rest.
And remember it's a practice like playing the violin or learning to paint or swim.
It takes practice.
It takes time and patience to undo our habits of body and mind.
It takes practice to learn how to fine tune our human instrument so that we can play our song of care,
Connection and compassion in the world.
Thank you,
That's the end of this session.
