"Calling On True Refuge From Pain" Meditation

Dr. Michael McGee's "Calling on True Refuge from Pain" meditation. With more than 30 years of experience in psychiatry, Dr. McGee specializes in integrating psychiatric treatment with spiritually informed interventions and practices. He is the creator of Awakening Therapy, a contemplative-relational approach to psychiatric treatment, and The WellMind Method, a practice that teaches people how to use love to heal wounds caused by trauma and neglect.

Transcript

This meditation is called calling on true refuge from pain.

This is a great meditation for when you're in emotional pain.

With time,

It helps you to ground yourself in the crucible of loving awareness that allows us to hold and bear our pain with loving compassion for ourselves and others.

Okay,

To begin,

Get still.

Get comfortable.

Get present.

Anchor in your body or breath.

Let thoughts come.

Note them and let them go and return over and over to your anchor,

Either your breath or your body.

If you wish,

Close your eyes.

Now,

Feel the life inside you.

Feel it in your hands,

In your legs,

In your feet,

In your head,

And the rest of your body.

Sense your aliveness.

Sense life flowing through you.

Now,

Let yourself be transported to a sacred space.

It can be a real place you've been or it can be an imagined place.

Note what you see,

Hear,

Smell,

And feel.

Take some time with this to get really as best in visualization as you can.

Now,

Sense the presence of a loving being.

Visualize them.

See them beaming lovingly at you.

It can be anyone,

Real or imagined.

Experience a sense of belonging and connection with them.

Now,

Imagine your sacred space being filled with the warmth,

Acceptance,

And kindness of this loving being.

Imagine the loving being inviting you to bring your troubles and pain into the space of love between you.

Now,

Feel within and sense what is most asking for a healing attention in your life.

Sense deeply into your pain.

Ask yourself,

What are you believing about yourself that is causing suffering?

Let yourself feel the fullness of what this is like.

What are you most needing in this moment?

Is it to feel safe or to feel loved or to be seen or to be reassured or to be accepted,

Perhaps to be forgiven?

Let what you need be a prayer to the loving presence.

Express and communicate your longing.

Imagine what you most long for being offered by this compassionate,

Loving being.

Put your hand on your heart to receive.

Let it flow into the most wounded places of your being.

Let your hurt,

Your fear,

Your pain,

Your anger,

Or your sorrow dissolve into this merciful presence.

Let body,

Heart,

And mind release into and merge into loving awareness.

Merge with the loving being.

Be the loving awareness that you visualize in your mind's eye.

Let yourself be both the holder and the help.

Now,

Imagine there is an ocean of awareness that is holding the waves of thoughts and emotions on the surface.

Feel the currents.

Feel their belonging to the ocean.

Feel the still ground of being within you and its oneness with your sense experience.

Feel the sense of divine oneness and wholeness.

From this place of awareness,

Sense that your pain is real but not true.