This is a meditation about letting go.
What story are you believing right now in this moment?
And what is that bringing to your mind?
What is that causing for your thinking?
Maybe you started this meditation to let go and get rid of something.
Just take a deep breath in and think about that story right now.
And what it would feel like to let it go.
I think it was Joseph Campbell that said,
If it's all made up anyways,
Why not make up the most useful story to you?
I think in that sense right now we can do that.
What's a useful story to us?
How can we let go of the current story and breathe in and breathe out the old story and breathe in the new story?
So taking just a minute here,
Taking a deep breath in.
How can we reframe the story that we have going on in our mind right now and make it useful to us?
Make it important to us to move forward.
To not dwell on where we are in the moment but look forward to where we're headed to.
Not in a time traveling sort of sense but in a what can I do in this moment right now to continue to move forward.
Maybe that's a story of failure or pain or maybe even success and you're worried or scared about what the next thing is to come because you can't see it getting any better than this or going beyond this point.
Or you see that if you fail now it means even more because you succeeded to the point that you have.
Just keep breathing and looking for an opportunity to reframe this story in a positive light.
In a neutral light even.
Not positive or negative but just a story that works for you.
A story that doesn't bring you stress and anxiety and pain and discouragement.
If you're having trouble reframing that story just imagine looking at it from a different angle.
Can you see yourself above that story?
Floating over it.
Crawling under it.
Navigating around it in some way.
Is there a way to continue forward,
To continue going with that story no longer holding you back?
If you feel any tension in your body somewhere maybe just notice that.
See if you can let that go.
A lot of times we hold the stories and the things that are holding us back in our body somewhere and our pain in our body,
Tightness in our body.
So if you feel some pain in the chest,
Tightness in the neck,
Maybe some you can even feel your forehead is super tight,
Your eyes are very tight.
See if you can let those go,
Let them soften.
If you've been having trouble reframing your story then just think about this.
Can you just not hold onto it so tightly?
Can you just loosen the grip on the story?
And maybe there's another alternative way to look at this thing.
Sometimes uncertainty or just thinking maybe is actually worth it.
Maybe is actually taking you out of that space of like it must be this way,
It must be the way that I'm seeing it right now.
Maybe that person didn't do something to harm you specifically.
Sometimes we think that everybody's actions are all about us but maybe they didn't mean to do that.
Maybe something we think is failure is actually leading us to a new path that we'll enjoy even more and we didn't even realize that was an opportunity.
Or maybe we actually can succeed beyond where we are,
That we aren't at our limit,
We haven't reached the top,
There's no pedestal to knock us off of,
It's just a matter of continuing on the path that we're on.
And as we continue breathing,
Just breathe in maybe.
Breathing in,
It could be different than it is right now in my mind.
I always come back to the thought that the mind causes the suffering.
Two people can experience the exact same thing and have totally different impressions of it,
Totally different thoughts about it.
And the outcome for them will be totally different because of the way that they think about the situation.
Keep that in mind that a lot of times you have a choice,
You might not be able to choose what happens to you,
But you choose what you do with that.
So coming back to today,
To now,
To going on with the rest of your day,
Can you take that new feeling of maybe not quite optimism?
If you have optimism,
Even better,
Sure,
That's great.
But maybe just maybe,
Maybe things will be better,
Maybe things will change,
Maybe there's another alternative here.
And when you're ready,
You can open your eyes and go into the day just with a little slightly change,
Just a little bit slight change in the perspective.
It's all we need to change our trajectory sometimes,
It's just a slight change,
Coming back a little bit to neutral and not feeling negative.
Over time,
Over the day,
That neutral could gradually take us,
Or that little bit of change could gradually take us to a place where we're surprised that the day went.
So I hope you have a surprising day,
And if things happen that are sort of not what we were hoping for,
That we can look at those opportunities and see that we still have a choice on how we react,
How we take that thing,
And what we do with it.
Thank you for joining me this morning,
Today,
Whatever time it is,
Where you are.
