Thanks for joining me.
As someone who's incurred a concussion and gone through a challenging recovery,
I understand the difficulties that a TBI can present.
We'll use this time to come into deeper contact with their physical experiences and to get acquainted with their reactions to them.
Mindfulness can help us find ease in the face of our experiences.
So allow yourself to get into a comfortable position.
If you're seated,
Keeping your spine straight,
Your chin slightly tucked,
You can close your eyes if it's comfortable for you.
And start by releasing any obvious tension in your body.
Relax your eyes,
Your jaw,
Your forehead,
Your shoulders and arms,
Your legs,
And your feet.
And just allow yourself to settle.
Take a moment to notice where your feet come into contact with the ground,
Where your seat comes into contact with the chair or the cushion.
And take a couple deep breaths in through your nose,
Pulling the air deep into your belly and letting it go.
In and feeling your belly expand and out.
And let your breath come to a natural rhythm,
Letting go of any control and allowing it to flow as it will in this moment,
Whether it's deep or shallow,
Long or short.
Simply let it be.
And bring your attention to the tip of your nostrils.
Start to focus on the sensation of air as you breathe in and as you breathe out,
Noticing how the air feels around the rim of your nostrils as you inhale and as you exhale.
A little bit of cooler air as you inhale,
A little bit of warmer air as you exhale.
And if you find that your mind is wandering,
Gently acknowledge the thoughts as they come up and allow them to drift away as you bring your attention back to the rim of your nostrils and the sensation of the breath.
Notice the start of the breath cycle,
The brief pause at the bottom,
The inhale,
The brief pause at the top,
The exhale,
The brief pause at the bottom.
Continue a cycle,
Always arising,
Always passing.
When those thoughts come up,
Just allow them to be without judging them,
Without judging yourself for having a wandering mind.
Treat them like friendly visitors,
Arising and passing,
Just like the breath.
Notice that no thought is good nor bad.
They're all equally just there.
And you can just as equally allow them all to pass.
Inhale and exhale,
Inhale and exhale.
And allow yourself to feel the sensation,
The sensation to any sensations in your body,
Perhaps sensations in your head,
To feel the pure physical sensation.
Bring your attention to them deeply,
Allowing any judgment that arises to float away.
Just wave goodbye to your criticisms of them,
To any stories arising about what the sensations mean,
Or why they happened,
What they represent about the future.
Simply allow yourself to feel them without judging them as bad or as good.
Instead,
Begin to describe the sensations.
Perhaps there's tension or tightness,
Throbbing or pulsing,
Warmth or sharpness.
Just begin to name them softly.
Tension,
Tension,
Or pulsing,
Pulsing,
Whatever's coming up.
Notice if you're resisting any of the sensations or wishing they'd be gone.
And see if you can take a breath and relax deeper into them,
Feeling them not as symptoms of an injury or signs that something is wrong with your body,
But simply experiences in your field of sensation.
Notice if the sensations change at all.
Maybe they intensify.
Maybe they dull.
Maybe they disappear completely and flash back into existence.
Maybe their boundaries blur.
You can't place exactly where they are.
Just tune into their flow and their ebbs,
Recognizing that sensations change,
Symptoms change,
Pain changes.
None of it's permanent.
Being mindful of your mind's reaction to these sensations again.
If they start to judge,
Softly notice that and let it go.
As many times as it comes up,
Every opportunity is a chance to renew your attention and begin again.
As you tune into all of these sensations in your body,
Sensations that might be uncomfortable,
Things that may be obstacles now in your daily life,
Start to recognize that you're not alone with them.
Our pain and our injuries can make us feel alone and disconnected in our experiences as we look around and see that everyone functions without the same obstacles as us.
But recall that others do share this pain.
TBIs may not be universal,
But they're not uncommon.
Know that there are others who endure the same struggle as you.
That you're not alone.
And that pain itself is universal.
Not everyone may experience the same pain or have the same difficulties.
But we all experience pain nonetheless.
And in that connection,
We can take some shelter.
And as you bring some compassion to yourself for the experiences that you've endured and that you endure in this moment,
Recite these words to yourself.
May I be happy.
May I be healthy.
May I be free.
May all others who endure similar experiences be happy.
May all others who endure similar experiences be free.
May all living beings who all experience pain be happy.
May all living beings who all experience pain be healthy.
May all living beings who all experience pain be free.
And take a deep breath down into your belly,
Allowing the air to fill every cell of your body.
And let it go.
Another breath deep into your belly and release.
Thanking yourself for taking the time to get acquainted with your experience on a deeper level.
Start to wiggle your fingers and your toes.
And return to the room.
