Welcome to today's meditation.
In today's guided practice,
We're going to be exploring how to hold our difficult emotions.
A practice which many of us will want to run away from or avoid.
Naturally,
The instinct is to avoid,
Deny or escape from feelings of pain and suffering.
Through the realization that pain and suffering is however inevitable and a part of life,
The other choice apart from resisting it is to accept it and to hold it and to make it not so scary.
Go ahead and find your meditation seat,
Ensuring your sit bones are comfortable and heavy,
That your spine is tall and that your eyes are closed down if it feels safe to do so.
Let your hands rest heavy in your lap.
And just bring your attention initially to the inhale and exhale of your breath.
Using the breath as a compass or a guide for how you're feeling today,
Simply noticing without judgment how the breath travels in and out of your lungs.
Does it enter and leave with ease?
Is it slow and steady with every inhale and exhale,
Becoming expansive and equally releasing?
Or does the breath feel constricted?
Does it feel short and sharp?
Perhaps blocked in some way?
Take a deep inhale together through the nose,
Opening the mouth and exhaling together.
Do that one more time.
In.
.
.
And out.
Just give yourself a couple of moments of silence to settle before the practice begins.
And to begin today's practice,
I invite you to think of an emotion which is coming up for you.
Something which perhaps makes you feel slightly uneasy or uncomfortable.
It might be a thought or an emotion you have towards yourself.
Or it could be an emotion you're carrying from the day or the week has passed or perhaps towards someone else.
Difficult emotions can be anything from anxiety to fear,
Sadness,
Frustration,
Anger,
Grief and sorrow,
Even jealousy.
So bring whichever emotion is coming up for you into your mind's eye and name it to yourself.
Say this is.
.
.
And whatever the emotion is.
Just notice it as an observer.
Breathe into it.
Look at it.
Become curious about it.
I want you to notice how this emotion presents in your body and mind.
Noticing what thoughts come up for you when you feel this emotion.
Allow the thoughts to come up.
Observe them.
As if you're a third party.
Just watching the thoughts like bubbles rising and falling,
Coming and going.
Maybe sometimes bursting.
As you become curious about these thoughts associated with your emotion,
Just start to ask,
Are they all true?
Are they all real?
Are they all relevant to the present moment?
Are they factual?
And if not,
Where do they come from?
I now want you to bring your attention back to the emotion.
And this time I want you to observe how it feels in your body.
Emotions are energy in motion.
With that said,
They manifest in the body in many different ways.
So really be with your emotion and notice what happens in the body.
What happens to your posture,
If anything?
Where does the body hold the emotion?
And what does the holding of it feel like?
Is there a tightness or constriction anywhere?
A heaviness,
A fogginess?
Are there any blocks in the body which tend to appear whenever this emotion is present?
Whatever comes up for you,
Bring your attention there.
And just be with it.
Even if it's painful,
Even if it's uncomfortable,
Be with it.
Send the breath to it.
A deep inhale to expand it.
And an exhale to release it and to bring it a sense of safety.
Keep sitting with the discomfort.
Allow it to be there without judging it or trying to push it away.
Normalize it.
Neutralize it.
Do not resist it.
Do not become scared of it.
Keep breathing into it.
Keep holding it.
And holding it.
Allowing it to have its full expression.
Whatever that may look like.
Keep breathing.
Keep holding.
If your body asks for it,
Perhaps placing a hand onto this space.
A gentle gesture indicating to the body that I'm here.
I've got you.
We can get through this.
Keep breathing.
Deep inhales through the nose.
Long exhales through the mouth.
Check in with the intensity of the emotion once more.
Is it just as intense as when you first brought your attention to it?
Or by allowing it to be there,
Has it somewhat settled?
Have the thoughts somewhat settled?
What has happened to the body in the allowing of the discomfort to be normal?
Spend as long as you wish in observation and in honor of this emotion.
And know that what you are doing is holding space for the parts of you that you so often ignore.
Allow there to be relief here.
Allow there to be space.
Allow the body to take its own version of an exhale.
The meditation practice is now complete.
Take your time to come back to present.
Opening the eyes.
Perhaps journaling anything which came up for you in this time.
