Cultivating Resistance & Resilience

In this guided meditation, recorded on the day of the U.S. midterm elections in 2018, I invite a creative exploration of the shadow self and its integration. Courage isn't bravado, control, or domination. Rather, true courage is the ability to self-reflect, to admit to one's failings and to choose compassion over competition. This meditation is a practice of externalizing, then (re)internalizing our shadow selves so that we can work with them skillfully and make choices rooted in courge.

Transcript

Hello and welcome.

The following is a guided meditation by Renée Seals,

A somatic movement educator,

Energy worker,

And astrologer.

This meditation is intended to help support your embodied meditation practice.

If in the recording you are prompted to do something that doesn't feel good for your body,

Please adapt and modify to make it work for you.

Please also note that the content of this meditation sometimes explores deep and subtle states and memories,

And sometimes guided visualizations.

You are encouraged to work with discernment as you practice with them.

If any of the guidance Renée offers feels too activating or uncomfortable,

Please listen to your body's knowing and pause the recording until a later time if you wish to return to it.

These guided meditations range anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes and do not require any supplementary equipment to participate.

We hope you enjoy.

Hello and welcome.

Thanks so much for listening.

This is Renée and this is a somatic meditation.

Somatic meditation happens in your body.

It is a process of curiosity and imagination.

Throughout our time together,

I'll be guiding you to your felt sense and I'll be offering suggestions for awareness,

For movement,

For visualization.

There's no right way to do a somatic meditation.

You can sit up in a chair or on a cushion.

You can lie down.

You can move around.

You might even want to listen to this meditation while you're driving in your car or you're riding on the bus.

My hope is that somatic meditation becomes a tool for you to use throughout your life in all kinds of different situations.

It is body awareness and creative relationship with your felt sense and the world around you.

You can do this kind of meditation anytime,

Any place.

This is for you.

I'm guiding this meditation on Tuesday,

November 6th.

In the USA,

Which is where I live and where I am right now,

It is election day.

It's the midterm elections here in the United States.

This is an important day.

Races will be decided today that will have important implications for the future of our country.

Regardless of which way the election goes,

This is really an important moment and seemingly a pivotal moment in the world at large.

Right now in the world,

We're dealing with not one,

Not three,

But seemingly countless,

Incredibly terrifying and devastating situations.

Climate change,

A world that's basically at war,

A number of leaders who are tyrannical,

Fascist,

And extremely militant.

For many of us,

We're living in a digital reality and feeling quite disconnected.

It seems like the world is speeding up at an incredible pace,

But the level of consciousness isn't exactly going up.

We're depressed,

We're addicted,

And it can feel like some hard times.

That said,

The poignancy of this moment and the extremism that is coming forward,

I think,

Is bringing a lot of us to important recognition that we have become distracted,

That we have become numbed,

That we've become distanced from our actual priorities.

At least in my life,

I'm feeling that there's also quite a lot of good that's happening.

The good feels like awakening,

And it feels like deepening connection,

And it feels like people looking at each other and really wanting to see each other,

Wanting to be present,

And wanting to learn and remember how to love.

So the meditation today is called the opposite of fear is courage.

This is a meditation that I'm making for myself,

Knowing that a lot of you are with me in this moment,

And we're looking at a future that is going to require immense courage for all of us.

This is far beyond the US elections.

This is really the current state of the world right now.

It's imperative that we come into our empowerment and our power.

It is a total travesty and misperception that power is tyrannical and controlling,

Or that it feels like aggression or winning.

True power is the ability to sit in oneself,

To self-reflect,

To have compassion,

To admit when you're wrong,

And to grow better by recognizing it.

True power comes from a place of self-knowing,

And if we need anything today,

It is knowing ourselves and knowing what we stand for.

So this meditation is for you and for me on this day and during this time.

If you find it helpful,

Please share it and please modify it,

Adapt it,

Make it work for you,

Give it your own language,

And teach it to as many people as you possibly can.

So we'll begin in any position,

And the priority for the moment is comfort.

Let yourself be the one to be the one to be the one to let yourself soften,

Let yourself arrive.

And the process of arriving is a decision,

So you might deepen your breath,

And as you deepen your breath,

You can consciously let go of the past and of the future.

As you feel the touch of your breath entering your body,

Welcome it.

There's no need to make anything happen with your breath.

You can let it move where it moves,

Flow where it flows.

All of us experience restrictions in our breath,

And these restrictions change and they travel.

This might be the first time in a long time that you're checking in with your breath,

And if it is,

Say hello.

Whether or not it is,

Notice how things have changed since the last time you did.

Where is your body able to receive your inhale?

How does your exhale feel today?

Consider letting your eyes close if you can.

If it's uncomfortable or unavailable to close your eyes,

Then let your eyesight get wide and soft.

Feel that the roots of your eyes can go deep and back into your skull,

And your vision can recede so you're not really looking at anything,

But anything that you're seeing or sensing through your eyes is being delivered to you.

As you let your eyes relax,

Feel that the front of your brain can soften,

And the part of your brain that's just behind your forehead,

You can imagine that part,

And this is where we do a lot of our forward planning and logical thinking.

And since we're just sensing and breathing and imagining,

This part can rest for now.

Feel the front of your brain relax,

And imagine that the back of your brain is opening,

And the back of your skull is getting really wide and expanded.

And you might even imagine that just at the back of your skull,

There is a steady glow and that glow is going to increase a light like a halo,

And there is light just streaming out the back of your skull.

And as light streams out the back of your skull,

Imagine your shadow,

And though your shadow can be cast in any direction,

For now we're going to imagine that the shadow is behind,

But as the light streams through the back of your skull,

Your shadow shifts and it curves and arcs,

Or maybe it just shortens and then shifts into the space in front of you.

And imagine your shadow growing long in front of you as the light behind you gets warmer and brighter.

And let's just pause here for a moment with this imagining,

With this visualization.

Feel your body wherever it is now.

Feel the weight of your body in relationship to the earth.

Feel the whole back surface of your body.

And imagine that the back surface of your body is warm,

Like the sun is shining on you.

And imagine that there is warmth and light pouring out of the back of your head.

And feel that space behind you that's warm,

That's full of light.

And then imagine gazing forwards,

Whatever direction forwards happens to be right now.

And imagine your shadow stretching long in front of you.

In your shadow,

Invite all of the things that you can't see to start to show themselves.

So probably a lot of you are familiar with the concept of shadow from a Jungian perspective,

But this is the place where all of the stuff that we can't see gets stored,

Or the stuff that we refuse to see or are scared to see.

So as you gaze at your long shadow in front of you,

You can just allow and you can call for any memories that you have of your body,

Any memories that have been pushed away to start to surface.

You can call for your worst fears to represent themselves.

You can call for all that's unknown to manifest as potential,

To pour out of your shadow to show itself.

Invite your shame and any parts of yourself that you feel like you've had to hide,

Decisions you've made that you feel guilt for,

That you feel regret,

Ways of being,

Behaving,

Speaking,

Or thinking that you've known or that you know are not right.

And whatever is arising in your consciousness is the thing you need to see.

So let the back of your brain get wide and the front of your brain stay relaxed and feel the back of your body soft and warm.

And in front of you see this shadow growing long and pouring forth,

Everything that is hard to see,

That's been unseen,

That's been hidden,

That's feared.

And let all of your worst fears play out in front of you.

The things that you try not to think about,

Whether they're global,

Environmental,

Familial,

Personal.

Just let them play out in front of you.

And feel what you feel.

Don't try and resist,

Don't try and control,

Just imagine them playing out in front of you.

See the parts of yourself that you hate,

The parts of yourself that you've hidden.

Imagine them being seen,

Imagine them being recognized.

Imagine them being seen,

Imagine them being recognized.

Invite any secrets that you've kept or that you know have been kept from you to surface,

To show themselves.

And just feel what it is to admit it,

Feel what it is to share it,

To show it.

In this practice as we invite our shadow selves to emerge,

Our question or curiosity can just be in the sensation.

You know that this is a visualization and most of us spend a considerable amount of energy avoiding thinking about the things that we're really terrified about.

And some of us spend a considerable amount of energy obsessing about them.

Just let them play out and notice what happens in your body.

Notice which parts of your body get hot or warm,

Which parts of your body get cold.

Notice where your breath goes.

Notice where sensation increases and where you feel cut off.

And continue to invite whatever it is to show itself.

What are you the most afraid of,

The most ashamed of?

What are you the most afraid of,

The most ashamed of?

Imagine that shadow and all the ways that it's manifesting like an oil spill.

Thick and tarry,

Sticky glistening.

Imagine it flowing out and spreading.

And let it all pour out of you.

Just let it pour out,

Let it pour out,

Let it pour out.

Let it pour out,

Let it pour out.

And notice how deep it goes.

Notice if there's an end.

And then notice what it feels like to be empty.

And if anyone or anything still exists.

And come back to your breath.

And invite your breath in and invite whatever feelings are there to be breathed.

And let your mind soften as you recall the length of human history.

All that you know or do not know.

All of the suffering and the war.

All of the joy.

All of the connection.

The magic and the wisdom that we've known and lost and known and lost and known and lost again.

Imagine the weight and the texture and the sensation of humanity across the earth.

Imagine the energy and the energy that we've lost and lost and known and lost again.

Imagine the weight and the texture and the sensation of humanity across the earth.

The way our kind has traveled spreading across the globe.

Creating our industries and technologies.

Reproducing.

Using fossil fuels.

Moving into space.

Feel all of that in your body.

Notice what happens to your breath.

Notice what you feel in your sensations.

Where do you breathe?

Where do you stop breathing?

Where do you latch on?

Where do you turn away?

Feel the ways that you as an individual participate with humanity.

Your weight.

Your consumption.

Your production.

Feel the love that you've been a part of that you've spread.

Feel the pain that you've been a part of and that you've spread.

Feel the complexity and the interweavings of all of your relationships.

The confusion of choice making.

And the simplicity of your breath.

Just coming back to your inhale and your exhale.

In whatever form you imagine yourself now,

Whether it's as a body or as an entity or just as space.

Imagine again all of this content.

All of your shadow.

All of your fears.

The impact that you are part of.

That you perpetuate and sustain.

Imagine its weight.

And let the front of your brain soften.

Let your eyes relax.

Let the back of your brain open.

Invite a sense of warmth and glow from the space behind you.

So now we'll do a little bit of reverse imagination.

And I'm going to tell you what we're doing next and then we'll do it.

So in the next few minutes,

We're going to invite all of this back in.

Because there's no way that we can separate.

As long as we're alive and participating in the ways that we participate in our economies and our societies,

We are creating suffering for ourselves and for other people.

And we're also creating joy.

Each of us are recipients of our genetic inheritances,

Our cultural inheritances,

The inheritances of our class and gender and racial identities.

Each of us are recipients of trauma.

And each of us are also agents of transformation and change.

And so as we invite all of this imagery and sensation back into ourselves,

We're inviting awareness to come with it.

We won't be free of our shame or fear just from a 30 minute meditation.

And it's ignorant to think that we would be.

What we can hope for is a little bit more awareness and a little bit more choice.

So to begin,

Imagine yourself in whatever shape you are.

And in the relationship that you have in this moment to the earth.

And feel the front of your brain,

The front of your face relaxed.

And the back of your brain,

Wide and open.

And from the space behind you,

Whether you might think of this as the ancestral realm or the past,

Or the future,

And the place that you come from,

And where you'll return to.

Feel a glow.

Feel a steady,

Streaming warmth and glow.

Feel that it emits from your body,

From the back of your body.

And that it spreads all the way down the back of your head and your neck,

Your shoulders,

Your torso,

Your legs.

Let the back of your body soften.

Imagine this pool of the shame and fear and insecurity and your impact.

The shadow side of all of your productivity,

Of all of your intention,

Of all of your ignorance.

You might imagine it,

Like I suggested,

As oil.

A thick,

Tarry,

Sticky substance that holds a lot of weight.

You might imagine it as another kind of stuff.

Imagine it somehow.

And then start to inhale and just call it back in.

Call it back into your body and imagine it coming in like rivulets and streams.

Imagine it pouring in and permeating.

And at the same time,

Feel the glow and the warmth at the back of your body wrap around you and spread into all of your tissues.

Feel this warmth and glow accept and receive all of the stuff.

And feel them mix and swirl and inter-permeate with each other.

And as all of the shame and the fears and the weight of your choices and all the wrong decisions you've made,

As they all come back in,

Welcome them in.

Greet the shadow.

And feel this warmth and this light illuminating all of it so it can be seen.

Not so it disappears,

But so it can be seen.

Imagine it all coming back in,

Every last drop.

And as it does,

This warmth and this light fills your entire being and it wraps around all these threads and strands.

Imagine the warmth and the light moving from the back of your body around your entire body.

Imagine your inner body and the way you contain within your body the weight of your history,

Your inheritances,

All of your fears,

All the places where you turn away.

And see them,

Just see them.

If you can feel the places in your body where you hold these things,

Where they lodge,

Where they get stuck,

Bring your attention and warmth and light and illuminate them.

Just see them.

Don't try and change them,

Just know that they're there.

Feel your own weight.

Feel your own warmth.

Feel your inhale and your exhale.

So throughout our lives,

Every day if not every minute,

We're given the choice to respond with courage or with fear.

When we respond with courage,

To really be courageous is to feel that we know ourselves.

It's to feel unshakable.

It's to have faith.

And faith might be different than hope in the sense that it is steadiness and quietness.

There are different kinds of courage,

Of course,

And I'll invite you to imagine or to sense the kind of courage that comes from self-knowing,

That comes from acceptance and from admitting and from sharing and from showing.

It's the kind of courage that comes when there is nothing left to lose,

When there's nothing to prove.

The weight of our decisions is mighty.

Each one of us as individuals,

The choices we make affect countless,

Countless others,

Animals,

Plants,

The environment,

As well as people.

And the more privilege you have,

The more weight your decisions carry.

The more money you have,

The more social standing you have,

The more weight your decisions carry.

How can we make choices that come from a place of self-knowing,

That come from a place of courage?

And the courage might be to step back,

To let someone else take the lead.

The courage might be to let go,

To give up power,

To give away what we have.

The courage might be to step forward,

To use our voices.

The courage might be to protect.

The courage might be to release.

So feel in your body the sense of the glow,

The warmth.

And feel in your body the weight of your shadow.

And feel the places where your shadow gets lodged and stuck and sticky.

Where it accumulates en masse.

And feel the quality of light and the openness at the back of your skull.

And just ask yourself,

How do you want to feel when you make your choices?

From the simplest choices of what to eat,

To more complex choices of what to do with your children,

How to invest your money,

What to stand up for,

Stand up against.

What is really important?

As you make your choices,

Can you remember what it feels like to look at your own shadow,

To accept,

To see it,

Not to turn away?

As you make your choices,

Can you remember what it feels like to rest,

To feel supported,

To lean back,

And to warmth?

So the title of this meditation,

The opposite of fear is courage.

These are complex times and we're making complex decisions,

All of us.

My hope for myself and for everyone is that we can become more and more aware of when we make choices from fear.

And that we can begin to make more or most or maybe even all of our choices from courage.

And may we know courage,

True courage,

Self-knowing,

Not turning away from the parts of ourselves that are scared,

That are sticky,

That are shameful.

May we know courage.

If it feels right for you,

Bring one or both hands to your body somewhere,

Maybe to your chest or your face or your belly.

And take some deep breaths into that place and let your body fill.

Extend a message of gratitude and love to yourself for doing this work.

It's not easy to be alive right now all the time.

It's not easy to do this kind of meditation all the time.

And open your eyes and see what's around you.

Or let your vision sharpen and look and see shapes,

Colors,

Textures,

Light.

And remember that we live in a world that is constantly changing,

Constantly in a state of flux.

And as humans,

We have such amazing creative potential.

What could we create if we made our choices from a place of courage?

Thank you so much for practicing with me today.

No matter what happens in the United States or anywhere else,

Today,

Tomorrow,

Next week,

Next year,

We are all on a journey.

And we're on this journey together and I hope we can remember and care for each other in it.

If this meditation serves you,

Please share it.

Thank you so much for practicing.

Until the next time,

Much love.

Reviews

This was the most moving session. It was my first exposure to shadow work and this was truly transformative. I am go grateful to find this now…a few days after our election in 2024. The days ahead will bring untold suffering…we must make decisions based on courage, not fear as we try to help the most vulnerable…including ourselves

Wow that was extremely powerful Renee. Today, over 3 years later it still feels exactly fitting to the current state of the world, so thank you! Will share this 🙏🏻💜

Thank you, all of your guided meditations are incredible! ❤😌🙏