Welcome,
Friends.
Thank you so much for joining me.
Our meditation today is a mindful investigation of the body.
Set your posture.
Sit tall with your spine long.
Relax your shoulders and your belly.
Relax your hips and also release through the face,
Through the jaw and the eyes.
Slow and steady your breath to help you bring your attention inward.
And spend a few moments with an anchor of your choice.
It could be tuning into the breath and feeling the breath move through a certain area of the body.
You could focus your attention on pleasant or neutral sensations,
Perhaps in the hands and the feet,
Where you might open your attention to include sounds,
Listening to sounds close in and listening to sounds further away.
Feel how this anchor,
Whether it be breath or sensations or sounds,
Helps to calm the nervous system and invites you fully into the present moment,
Into the here and the now.
We'll begin our mindful investigation by asking the body to show us what most needs our attention in this moment.
Ask your body what most needs support right now.
There may be a sensation that you're noticing or an emotion.
Maybe you're feeling discomfort or pain,
Some dis-ease in the physical body.
Or maybe you're feeling anxious,
Joy,
Anger,
Sadness.
Maybe you're feeling pleasure or ease.
Some awareness into the area of the body where these sensations or the emotions are living.
And meet whatever you notice with a kind attention,
No judgment,
Just noticing.
And whatever you're finding,
Let it be okay that it's here.
Now continue exploring by asking yourself how you know you're feeling what you're feeling.
What are the qualities of the sensations or the emotions that you're noticing?
Does it feel hot or cold?
Is there a tingling sensation?
Is it heavy or dense?
Does it feel contracted or spacious?
Maybe you sense squeezing or clenching.
Stay with the sensations and breathe with what you're feeling.
There's no need to fix or change what you notice.
Let things be just as they are.
You may already notice a shift just from practicing allowing life to be just as it is without resistance.
The practice of staying and letting things be is the foundation of healing and transformation.
And the foundation for living with an open heart.
If you'd like to continue with your exploration,
You can ask your body some or all of the following questions.
Note that not every question will be in alignment for you.
So just sense which ones are right for your experience.
The first question is,
What's the purpose of this sensation or emotion?
In other words,
How is it helping you?
Is it serving as protection?
And if so,
What's it protecting you from?
Or perhaps it's a messenger.
What's its message for you?
Is it asking you to pay attention?
The next question you might ask is,
Is there a belief tied to the sensation or emotion?
Am I believing that I'm unlovable or misunderstood or undervalued?
Am I believing that it's too much to handle the pain or the stress?
Are you believing that you're failing in some way or that things are spiraling out of control?
Just recognize if there's a painful or limiting belief associated with the sensation or this emotion living in your body.
The next question is,
How does this part of you,
This sensation or emotion,
Or if you investigated and found a painful belief,
How does that painful belief or that part of you that's believing in it want you to be with it?
What would most support this part of you?
Does it want to be allowed or accepted?
Does it want to be honored?
Perhaps it needs love or kindness.
Does it need a hug?
Some tenderness and care?
Does it want to be cared for like a friend or a loved one?
This is especially helpful to ask this question when we're noticing and getting in touch with our vulnerability.
How does our vulnerability want us to be with it?
Now after gathering all this information,
All this wisdom,
Call upon your wisest and most compassionate self and have that inner wisdom,
That wise,
Compassionate part extend whatever energies,
The sensations or the emotions,
Whatever you discovered,
Have that part,
Send it the energies that it asked for.
If you're tuning into pain,
If you're tuning into the feeling of unworthiness or vulnerability or fear,
Bring it kindness,
Bring it care.
Accept that it's there,
Allow it to be present.
Perhaps it also this wise part,
Perhaps it has a message that it would like to give the vulnerability and the sensations or the emotions.
You belong.
I see you and I love you.
You're relating differently to what doesn't feel good.
Notice now how you're not so identified or in the grip of the sensations or emotions or the vulnerability.
There's more space,
There's more freedom around it and there's more space and freedom within you.
You allow yourself to become the part that's extending the love and the care and presence.
You become the peaceful space that's holding your experience.
Feel free to continue on.
Music will continue for a few more minutes.
Just rest in the power of befriending yourself,
Of befriending whatever's going on within you.
Namaste and blessings.
Namaste.
Namaste.
Namaste.
Namaste.
Namaste.
