Grief Practice & Poetry

This body and breath-based visualization and meditative writing practice invites gentle, compassionate presence into experiences of loss, hardship and disappointment. Through tending and inner listening we work to name and acknowledge the parts, places and people we may be holding in our heartbreak. After the experiences of grief are felt and processed, we linger in the space that remains, breathing into the commitments, discernments and invitations for what's to come. This meditation is made especially for the times we feel full with emotion or otherwise blocked/stuck in what's been too big to feel, and what isn't ours to feel alone.

Voice at intro and image by Gabz 404.

Transcript

Welcome.

This guided meditation and breathing practice was offered by Renée Seals for Somatic Space.

Somatic Space is a weekly embodied astrology class where we practice attuning through our bodies with current astrological influences.

For this meditation please find yourself in a comfortable position where you can breathe easily.

Let's stretch our bodies as we orient into the spaces where we are.

And orienting is a practice that can be really helpful for our nervous systems.

So as you turn your whole body,

Your neck,

Your shoulders,

Your spine,

To look and see your space you can let your eyes wander over your space and then also pause sometimes and take in some details.

And let's practice arriving together.

So wherever you are in your space as you're hearing these words,

Take a few deep breaths and invite your body-mind to arrive in the moment.

Just feeling,

Sensing,

And acknowledging where you are.

Then let's do a little bit of an energy body bath and we can start up at the head and here you can keep your hands off the surface of your skin and imagine that your energy body extends a couple of inches off your physical body and start to sweep off your energy body using your hands or using your breath,

Using your awareness.

If it helps to close your eyes and sense within,

Definitely do that.

And we're going to go down our bodies from head to toe and as you move down your body,

Pay attention to any places where it feels like energy has become accumulated.

Maybe there's some lingering charge or residue from the dinner you had last night or the conversation you had over the weekend or something like that.

So your hands are very effective,

Powerful,

Which is brooms and you get to sweep off,

Sweep out and if there are places you can't reach,

You can imagine that your hands are actually holding long brooms and you can sweep everywhere and as you sweep through your body let your breath also be an internal cleanse.

Sending your breath to the places where you're sweeping out and even if the touch of your breath doesn't feel like it reaches there,

The movement of breath through your blood can go everywhere.

And if you're seated or standing,

Make sure to sweep off the surfaces of your body that are in contact with the ground or with support.

And then when you've done your whole body,

Give yourself a little shimmy.

Shake off any lingering residue.

And then we'll use our fingertips to start to energize the scalp.

And so you might have different ways that you like to do this.

You could run your fingers through your hair.

If you have hair that feels good to pull a little bit,

You could rub your fingers through your hair,

Grab a handful of hair and give it a squeeze.

It could feel good for some folks to give a little bit of a massage to the suture joints in the cranium.

And your cranium actually has several bones and they come together in kind of like suture,

Stitch-like joints.

Right up at the top of your head,

There's a big one and it goes to the sides from the top to the sides down towards the tops of your ears and your temples.

Letting your fingertips look for places that feel tender or sore and maybe spending a bit more time in those places.

Giving a gentle massage,

Breathing into the tender spots.

There are muscles that cover your whole skull and those muscles also get tight.

And so when you find a tender spot in the musculature of your skull,

You can use the tip of your fingers to just press or to circle a little bit.

And you can invite your breath into your head.

And as you exhale,

Any amount of relaxation that wants to happen,

You could just create the possibility for it.

Okay,

And then we'll finish up with the top,

The skull with some tapping.

And you can use the tips of your fingers now to tap around your hairline,

Maybe over your forehead a little bit,

Over the temples,

Around your ears,

And up your temporal bones back to that suture joint.

And tap along the back of the skull.

And tap up underneath the base of the skull.

And tap down the back of the neck.

And then we'll give some taps to the torus placements and you can tap on the top of your shoulders a little bit.

Tap both sides.

Tap down the throat.

And let's lift the chin as we tap down the breastbone.

Take a deep breath in and let some sound out with your sigh.

Okay,

And then we'll sweep off again.

And this time you might want to touch the surface of your skin.

Sweep off from what we just did.

I want to invite you again to feel that your breath can be a little bit like a broom.

And as you breathe,

The way that your breath can move can help your body to clear out,

To release,

And to let go.

And this kind of clearing is as if your body is releasing its heat or gently perspiring.

And energy that might be inside of you can get pushed to the surface,

Can start to dissolve.

And as it dissolves and floats into space,

It is returned to space as potential.

As you breathe,

Noticing the wave-like quality of your breath.

The tidal quality.

And noticing how your breath moves the fluids in your body.

60-70% water body being moved by your breath.

For the next couple of minutes,

I want to invite us all to be with the losses and the grievances.

The places where we feel like maybe there's disappointment or there's true mourning.

And in the way that we can't hold on to water,

We might sense into the feelings that are too big to be totally contained.

I want to invite us all to really now start to hold those places.

And if this means that your body changes into a different shape,

You can use your hands to actually hold any parts of your body that resonate really strongly with these feelings.

If your body wants to change shape,

If there is a gesture of mourning or grief,

The feeling of needing to let go,

To put something down,

To have something end,

That your body wants to embody,

Allow that to happen.

And we're just going to try to breathe with the water of our bodies,

Allowing the feelings that are here to be here.

But as we breathe,

Also feeling into the parts of the feelings that are bigger than us,

Bigger than what we can hold alone.

And inviting through our felt sense and through our imagination that the parts of those feelings that are too big to hold alone can be moved out through the boundaries and containers of our skin,

Into the ether and into the atmosphere,

And as they exit our personal space,

They continue to be water,

Like water molecules find each other and begin to huddle and pool as they bond.

And as you breathe with your personal sense of loss,

Of grief,

Of heartbreak,

And as you breathe with what is too big to hold alone,

Imagine that your breath can move this grief out into the atmosphere and your grief finds the grief of others.

The losses that are shared loss can become pools and just like all rivers find the sea,

Going to feel that sense of river to sea,

Breathing with the collective and communal and in your breath making space to hold these relationships.

And you might not personally know who these beings,

These people,

These places are,

How they are.

And even if you don't have a personal knowing,

Your sentiment,

Your energy body can extend to hold with.

And as we hold with every exhale also feeling relationship to earth,

Trusting that feeling grief,

Feeling loss,

Feeling disappointment,

And allowing for mourning is necessary nourishment,

Bringing hydration and fluids.

We have to let ourselves feel.

We'll spend another minute or so here and as you breathe,

Remember that you can rock yourself with these feelings.

You can find a sway.

You can touch your body.

You can allow your body to make shapes.

And if any sounds are present,

Wailing,

Moaning,

Humming,

Singing,

Toning,

Allow the sounds to also hold the feelings.

To be their expression.

And if you want to stay here,

Stay with the feeling tone,

The sounding,

The breathing,

The touching,

Stay here and just contemplate or be with.

And if you'd like to write a little bit,

Then find your pen and paper.

And I want to invite you to give name to the losses,

The disappointments,

The needs to let go,

What has been taken,

That you are holding right now.

What are you holding in your heart?

And to name what you are mourning.

Taking some time to name,

To give voice to.

So staying with any part as long as you need.

And as you feel what you are mourning,

As you give name to the loss,

To the disappointment,

To what no longer is or has had to be let go.

I'm curious,

What can you feel in yourself?

Also needs to be given back to creation.

So what is this loss or this hurt telling you about yourself and what you personally want to let go of?

There may be ways that the losses taught you lessons about how you want to be present.

And maybe you are letting go now of distraction.

There may be ways that the disappointments and the grief have taught you about values that are misaligned.

And you are now letting go of investment in those values.

So taking a moment now to be with either through felt sense,

Contemplation,

Movement,

Sounding and breath or through writing or drawing.

What are you sacrificing,

Making sacred,

Giving back to creation,

Not holding any more.

Okay,

And then the final prompt may have words that come or it may just be a feeling.

But I want to invite us now to feel into the space where this letting go has happened or is happening.

And let's just see if we can feel the space that's there.

And the space might not be full of emptiness per se.

But can you feel what's there after the letting go?

Just noticing that sense of space.

And then as you're ready,

The transition and we'll transition again through orienting.

And you can stretch your body in any way.

Okay,

Look around,

See where you are.

Notice a detail where you are,

Let your eyes find something and really try to notice the tiniest details of what you're seeing.

And then let your eyes begin to wander again.

And as you take in your space,

I invite you to see your space with the question of what's changing right now.

And this question wants to penetrate into the form of what you're seeing.

And if you see a piece of wooden furniture,

You might have the question of what's changing right now and see a tree that became planks of wood.

That became furniture.

You might imagine the way that the particles of the wood are already giving way,

Already disintegrating.

You might imagine the future you want for the furniture.

Maybe the wood returning to soil,

Becoming part of the fertile earth.

So wherever your eyes might look or land,

Allow your imagination to accompany your gaze with a curiosity around what's changing.

Where is something coming from?

Where is it going?

And then allow your eyes to take in your own body.

Same question.

And then we'll do a hold for our bodies.

So we're going to take one hand,

Take your right hand underneath your left arm and grab the back of your shoulder.

And then take your left arm over your right and take the top of your shoulder and let your right cheek come down on your right hand.

And if that feels uncomfortable,

Change it up.

Hold yourself tight.

Feel your own embrace.

In any way that's meaningful for you,

Commit to the relationship you have with yourself.

As you breathe,

Breathing in with earth energy,

Letting it fill your whole body.

And as you exhale,

Then feel your own energy,

Feel your own life,

Your presence.

And can you sense how your life energy,

Your presence,

The warmth of your body extends beyond your body?

Life energy and presence moves through all the tissues of your body.

And begin to imagine that this life energy and presence,

Your own spirit,

Your own soul,

Can see or watch and observe the life of your body as your body is living.

Noticing what you notice,

Temperatures,

Sensations,

The shape of your body,

The feeling of the practice we just did.

And then noticing who's noticing.

The sensation that you're aware of,

The consciousness that you can feel.

Who is that?

And in our last few moments,

Remembering what you were writing and coming back to the sensation of space,

The space after the letting go,

The space that has been created through release.

I want to invite you to take a few breaths into this space that are like planting seeds or nourishing soil.

And with these breaths,

Breathe in the life that you are cultivating.

Breathe in the energy that you are tending.

Breathe in what you now want to grow.

And let your breath deliver this feeling through your whole body,

The internal and the external,

The energy of your body that is beyond your body.

And one more time,

We're going to inhale from the earth,

Filling our bodies with fresh,

Nourishing energy and letting it settle in the belly,

Planting the seed here.

And bowing to our space,

Bowing to one another with gratitude for the day and the opportunity to practice here together.

May all that you are planting be nourished,

May it thrive,

And may any benefits that came through with our practice today be a benefit for creation.